North Korea Sends A Message Via Another Missile Test

Donald Trump criticized President Obama every time N. Korea test fired one of its missiles and declared it would not happen in a Trump Administration.  But it is not only taken place on Trump's watch, it is happening with more frequency.  And yesterday N. Korea test fired what it called an ICBM capable of reaching the United States.  The U.S. South Korea and other governments confirmed the test was a success.

N.Korea is sending a message it is a player who has to be dealt with in the nuclear age.  Russia and China responded immediately calling for talks between the U.S, North and South Korea and themselves to solve the problem.  N. Korea's leader is looking for attention and knows better than to attack the U.S. or South Korea which would bring about a devastating response to N. Korea's people, economy and country.

The only long term solution is for a united Korea, one nation, under one rule and one people.  Divided countries will always be a problem, that is why the U.S. still has 20,000 troops stationed in S. Korea 64 years after the Korean war ended and why N. Korea is showing off its military might.  A political solution is needed to resolve the immediate problem of a miscalculation on either side.  China will not allow N. Korea to start a war with the U.S. or S. Korea.

North Korea became a nuclear power during the George W. Bush administration while Bush was trying to talk tough.  Now Trump's tough talk has not worked and because he is so unstable the Korean situation becomes more dangerous.  The present time would be a good time to start the talk of re-uniting both North and South Korea.  It can be done with the proper negotiation and with the U.S., China, Russia stepping back from their current positions with North and South Korea.

The desire of countries to obtain nuclear weapons will not cease until the present nuclear powers attitude of "we can keep our nuclear weapons but you can't have any" and uses that to intimidate.  Pakistan, India, Israel, N. Korea have a nuclear capacity.  Iran was on the road to a nuclear capacity before the recent agreement.  It is a never ending situation that could easily erupt into a nuclear war by design or miscalculation.  The civilized world should not have to live under that cloud.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Carl Bernstein Said It Best Concerning President Donald Trump

Carl Bernstein, a respected journalist for many years and contributor to many media outlets concerning politics and political matters, recently remarked on CNN that Donald Trump was a "malignant" President.  Bernstein, as a political journalist knows more about politics and political figures than most because he put a considerable amount of time into investigative journalism.  He, along with Bob Woodward broke the "watergate"  story wide open as reporters for the Washington Post.

This writer believes Bernstein's description of Trump as a "malignant" President is accurate.  Websters new world dictionary describes the meaning of "malignant" as follows:  Having an evil influence;  malign;  wishing evil;  very malevolent or malicious;  very harmful;  very dangerous or virulent;  malcontent.  Those descriptions fit both Donald Trump the man and Donald Trump the President.  The problem in being President is that being "malignant" affects the moral fabric of what America is all about, what it stands for and sends the wrong message to our young people and the world.

Bernstein has come up with the easiest definition to understand and describe Trump because it can easily be seen in Trump's every day actions.  Too bad the news media has so few journalists with Bernstein's experience and credibility.  Trump will not be able to "tweet" himself out of Bernstein's assessment of Trump the "malignant" President.  And that really says it all.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Trump's Presidential Merry-Go-Round: Where It Stops, No One Knows

This past week the cry baby President lashed out at the news media again in personal attacks and in general comments in keeping up with his fake news that he originated during the campaign.  It is his merry-go-round to divide the people and attempt to hide his failure as a President and as a man.  His tweets re-confirm he is an unstable President with corrupt values.

Trump's latest merry-go-round position on health care, namely, repeal now and replace later, is a dizzy attempt to cover up his and the republicans big lie concerning the ACA and their lack of a real health plan.  Trumps own health plan that he spoke about for over a year and said he would introduce before the end of this past March has not seen the light of day because he lied about having one in the first place. And now since the republican controlled senate had to delay their vote on their health plan because a lack of support from their own party, Trump now wants to repeal now and replace later leaving millions without insurance.

According to the latest poll, less than 20% of those polled support the senate's health plan.  Health care is an issue that can be defined as a visible link between  the republican party, Trump, their out right lies and their inability to govern.  Their ideology is a block on making decisions based on what is best for America.  In the mean time, nothing else is being accomplished by Trump and the republican controlled congress.

The merry-go-round in the White House is the work of a tainted President and cry baby business man who is still unfit to be President and Commander in Chief.  And after more than 5 months in office, there is no end in sight where or when it will come to an end.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

LSU and Florida At The College World Series Championship

LSU and Florida, co-champions of the SEC met in Omaha for the final show down and the Gators swept the Tigers in two games to win their first ever national championship in baseball.  The number 3 ranked Gators allowed the number 4 ranked Tigers only four runs in the two games and Florida's pitcher Singer struck out a record 12 Tigers in the first game.  Florida was a team that was well coached with a talented pitching staff and deserving of the win.

LSU finished its season with improvement over the last few years and advanced in the CWS to the highest place since 2009 when they won the championship.  But this writer believes the season ended on a sad note because of the coaches and some players failure to execute the basics of the game.  And the fact that LSU did not even use one of their top pitchers, Lange in the championship series make no sense.

Three of the eight teams that reached the CWS were from the SEC, LSU, Florida and Texas A&M.  And the SEC continues to be one of the top conference in the nation.  And yes, this CWS displayed the fact that Baseball IS still a game of inches.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

The U.S. Senate Delays Vote On Health Care Bill

Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell cancelled Thursday's vote on the Senate health care plan until after the July recess.  McConnell did not have the votes to pass the plan from his own party who did not know the plans contents or its effect on health care until the CBO released its devastating report.  Only a hand full of republican senators knew what the plan contained because it was done in secret with out any debate or outreach.

The CBO report said the plan would leave 22 million Americans with out insurance, one million less than the recently passed House plan and 15 million fewer people would be covered in the next year alone.  The plan would also cut $772 billion from medicaid and premiums would increase.  CBO also reported the plan would help insurance companies, business and the wealthy the most with major tax breaks.

The $772 billion cut to medicaid would go beyond the medicaid expansion of the ACA and would be devastating.  Medicaid also covers adults with disabilities, residents in nursery homes, children with disabilities, births, only to name a few.  It touches all walks of life in need.  The states would have to pick up the difference in any medicaid cuts and they will not do that because they would have to raise taxes and governors promised not to raise taxes.  That is the reason many governors, including republicans accepted and are enjoying the benefits to their people and state of the medicaid expansion under the ACA.  Republican governor John Kasich said it best when he said his state does not have the financial resources to pick up any cuts in medicaid to his state.  In fact he used the word LAUGHABLE that republicans in congress thinks the states have the financial means to pick up those cuts.

The CBO report confirms what President Obama said earlier that the republicans have no health plan, only a plan to reward insurance companies and the wealthy.  What is happening with the Senate plan is more evidence of the republican BIG LIE for the past seven years that they had a workable plan to repeal and replace the ACA.  And of course the greatest LIE was Trump's support for the House passed health care plan that he and house members celebrated after it was passed which Trump now says was mean.  Yeah, after the fact and only after it was in trouble.

The senate will probably pass their bill after adjustments to satisfy their various factions because they want to destroy any thing connected to President Obama.  They know the ACA is working and will not crash and burn or implode like the bill  of goods Trump is trying to sell.  They also know their plan is a fraud and a scheme and the party has no interest in health care reform.  Seven years of republican LIES have identified what the republican party is all about.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Politically Correct or Incorrect

Those words mean different things to different people and were tossed around during the 2016 Presidential election especially by Trump, his supporters and the news media.  Trump did not speak correct politically and his supporters loved it and the news media accepted it.  The trio tried to sell political correctness as out of style and out of touch with the people.

The problem being out right lies and fake news was substituted for speaking politically correct by Trump and carried over to his administration which now corrupts the political system and the Presidency itself.  Trump would like nothing better than to convince America and its elected officials that politicians should not speak correctly.  That would validate his lies and fake news which he would love.  His actions as President after more than five months in office shows he has no intentions of speaking politically correct.

Conservative opinion writers have joined Trump in his "fake news and politically incorrect talk" with their commentary and even use many of Trump's same words, especially when it comes to the ACA, the Russia-Trump link and the James Comey matter.  Some like conservative writer David Brooks in a recent column who tried to down play the Russia-Trump link and instead went off the deep end concerning Whitwater (Clinton years) that produced nothing but egg on the republicans face.

The greatest American Presidents spoke "politically correct" and that is why they were successful and enjoy a place of honor in the record we call HISTORY.  President Trump will never achieve that distinction because he is a President who has tainted the White House using a planned policy of "political incorrectness" and fake news." (In other words, lies)  The President has under minded every thing good about America and the highest office in the land.  And that really says it all.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

The U.S. Has An Unstable President In The White House

Five months in office and once again Donald Trump displayed he is not qualified to lead the nation or accept the responsibility that go along with the Presidency.  After trying to intimidate fired FBI director James Comey with taunt "he might have taped his conversation with Comey" Trump admitted Thursday in a tweet no tapes existed.

Trump's tweet define the actions of an unstable person who has to strike back at any one and which is of a nature that is a disgrace to the office of the President.  It is a repeated behavior problem of Trump in trying to discredit other people.  Sarah Sanders, deputy press secretary, in an answer to a question by the press concerning Trump's tweet, said Trump made the statement that they may be tapes in order to impugn Comey.   It is no wonder Comey was wise enough and felt he had to make notes of his meetings with Trump.

PolitiDose called the shot in a commentary dated 6/12 titled, Another Trump Temperament Flaw Exposed by The President Himself, in pointing out that Trump made the tape comment after he fired Comey to intimidate him.  Trump's deputy press secretary confirmed that in her remarks.  The U.S. does not have a Presidential leader.  An Autocrat is in the White House who thinks only of himself and his business interest and looks upon government and the democratic process as business tools to toss around and corrupt.  And make no mistake it will not be the last time Trump tries to use his office to intimidate some one.

And to top it off there is no end in sight unless the courts and congress step in to end this sad chapter in U.S. History.  Fifty four percent of the voting public in the 2016 Presidential election voted against Donald Trump.  They were able to see that Trump was unstable, a liar and a individual without character who lacked the qualifications to be President.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Civility Is Back In The News

And like gun control, it pops up only when violence seems to come into play.  So now civility is in the news again because of the shooting of Louisiana representative Steve Scalise and 4 others just last week.  But little attention was paid to the 4 people killed in California that same day.  A tragedy connected to an elected official seems to have a priority over the tragedy of death.

However, PolitiDose has been in the forefront on talking about the loss of civility in our political system for a number of years at a time when violence was not a factor.  In fact, the present uncivil behavior in our politics can be traced to the republican era of Newt Gingrich, the man who became speaker of the U.S. House and adopted a republican system of un-American conservative ideology  of personal attacks against the democratic party and government itself.  His brand of conservatism was and still is one of elitism where the only thoughts and positions that matter or are worthwhile are conservative ones.

Today's republican party has taken that ideology to the extreme that extends to the republican controlled congress and President Trump.  The news media, radio, TV and printed and a voting bloc even bought into and supported the uncivil ideology of the republican party in our political system.

Those who now say our politics should be civil were silent when republicans in congress called President Clinton scum, when the republicans said they would not do a thing to help President Obama after he was elected President or when the republicans and Trump said Obama was not born in the U.S and that Putin was a better leader, or when Trump ran the most uncivil and divisive Presidential campaign, or when the republicans was so uncivil in their comments about the ACA even to the point of saying it contained death panels.  They even accept Trump's uncivil behavior as President.

Conservatism that has been practiced by the republican party since the Gingrich era is an un-American ideology which was also the subject of several political commentary in PolitiDose.  The anti-Kennedy posters put out in public display on that fateful day in Dallas, one that read, Wanted for Treason, was traced to a conservative group as reported by the Dallas police department.  Civility will never return to republican politics as long as they continue to practice and preach a conservative ideology that is un-American, uncivil and extreme.

President Trump is not only the most uncivil President the people can remember, he is a President who has governed with lies.  The elitism that republicans preach will not change until the voters change so do not look for civility to return to our political system because of violence.  And never forget, it was Donald Trump who said he could go out and shoot some one and his supporters would not care.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Tragedy: The War In Afghanistan and Iraq.

In October, the war in Afghanistan will be 16 years and counting.  It started when President
George W. Bush sent U.S. forces there to bring Bin Laden to justice after his attack on America on 9/11/01.  The war was also for the stated purpose of destroying the Taliban who allowed training camps to be set up in their country to train terrorists.  The war did not bring Bin Laden to justice or destroy the Taliban.

And now, almost 16 years later, reports are circulating that President Trump will send approximately 4000 more U.S. Troops to that country to try and bring that same Taliban under control who controls more territory once again and are a threat to the Afghan government and U. S. troops.  And in fact in the last two months 5 U.S. Troops have been killed and 7 wounded.

It is a war with no limits and factions among the Afghan people who have yet to find a way to govern themselves. Ten years of war and Russian occupation and soon to be 16 years of U.S. occupation and war has not solved the problem.  So now a U.S. troop surge of 4000 troops is supposed to bring the country together.  We have been there and done that and the results never seem to match the promises.

In March of this year the Iraq war hit its 14 year and still counting.  It was a war and occupation over WMD that did not exist and ordered by President George W. Bush.  It was a war of lies including the statement that Saddam was a threat to the national security of the U.S. and that our troops would be welcomed as liberators.  It was a war with terrible consequence to our men and women in uniform and America's intelligence community for being used by the President and Vice President for the purpose to remake the middle east.

Because the stated purpose was a lie and failure, Iraq was destabilized.  That opened the country and its doors for Al Queda in Iraq to enter, kill a lot of Americans and then expanded to ISIS and other terror groups never heard of before.  ISIS took it to the most extreme level and spread their terror all through the middle east and beyond.  Almost every country in the middle east is fighting terrorists or some forces within their own country.  The civil war in Syria is still raging and could blow up any minute in a full scale war.  And our U.S. troops are smack in the middle and still there.  Good thing President Obama had the wisdom to move most of our troops out of harms way.  But those that are still there still can not always define the enemy.  Some of the latest troops death came at the hands of some Afghan government troops that were trained by our men and women in uniform.

After 14 and 16 years it is late, but it is time for congress to step in and show leadership.  War is the is the responsibility of congress not just the President.  Our men and women in uniform have paid the price for too long and congress and the President need to decide and identify the real threat to our country's national security.  Tough talk has had no effect on solving the problems in Iraq  or Afghanistan or ending the occupation.  Leadership, responsibility and wisdom are in need now more than ever before.  The most powerful military and economic country in the world needs to change its thinking.



This commentary written by Joe Lorio

The State of Louisiana Finally Has A Budget For Fiscal Year Beginning July 1, 2017

The republican controlled state legislature finally passed a budget during the special session called by governor John Bel Edwards.  In fact the budget that passed was almost a duplicate that the House failed to pass in the regular session.  This time the House passed the senate's budget with little changes.  As a result the budget that passed was in tune with what the governor, the House democrats and the senate was pushing.

The budget could have passed the regular session if handled properly but the leader of the House would not take up a proposal to pass the senate budget and then closed the regular session.  The down side of both sessions was the legislature's failure to address tax reform and other tax matters.  It also failed to address the $1.2 billion projected budget deficit for fiscal year starting 7/1/18 because of expiring taxes that will take place next year  That is a huge problem to over come without tax reform and a workable increase in state revenues.

There is also the question of the budget just passed by the legislature.  Will they have to come back 6 months from now like they have done for the past 8 years and say the budget is out of balance.  Or will this be the state budget that puts our fiscal house on the right path to fiscal responsibility.

The budget process still remains flawed because the republican leadership in both houses are not good at governing and that applies also to their party.  And until they commit to a tax reform where everyone pays their fair share of all taxes, Louisiana's fiscal problems will only become worse.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio