2026 Election Post Mortem, Part I. What happened and what happens next.

 

The Republican Party suffered such a major defeat on Tuesday that Ron Desantis, Governor of Florida and former GOP candidate for the Oval Office, characterized it as an "extinction level event".

He's not wrong.  

Trump's reaction?  He appeared at the construction site of the giant despised ballroom to sign a beam.  A pathetic desperate effort to secure a legacy.  Surely the nation won't rip down the "beautiful" overblown symbol of King Donald, would it?

A nation that rejected Trumpism at such epic levels will. This will come down, it will be destroyed, and the signatures, including Trump's will be melted into scrap.

When Donald Trump was nominated in 2016 I predicted here that he'd destroy the GOP.  I wasn't the only one.  Lindsey Graham, before he became a pathetic lackey who will always be remembered for his betrayal of the nation and his party, also did.  The one thing I didn't anticipate is that it would take so long.

What happened this week was an historic rejection of fascism in the United States.  The Republican Party on a nationwide level was a fascist party  It's now dead.  It deserved to die.  Nothing of the old GOP, the conservative party of the second half of the 20th Century, remained.  The party that had given the US Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft and Eisenhower, was murdered by a demented, octogenarian, profligate degenerate while self serving wimps like John Barrasso stood by and watched.  The revived Democratic Party, shaking off its own Baby Boomer remnants, reemerged and has taken back over at historic levels.

There's a straight line from the now pathetic old demented man in the White House babbling about a large structure that will be destroyed and Ronald Reagan.  When Reagan came up in the wake of the failed Presidency of Jimmy Carter, the Democrats were still so strong that the thought was the only way that the GOP could resume a position in government was to court the white trash of the South, and they did so.  What had been the hard right of the Democratic Party, remaining there for historic reasons, started to move to the Republican Party  Dixiecrats whose primary characteristic was complete ignorance.  Following them were the Rust Belt Democrats, less ignorant but upset as they couldn't, and still can't, understand how a temporary post World War Two economy based on the rest of the world's industry having been destroyed couldn't last forever.  Trump, with a lifetime as a salesman and used to courting the ignorant, courted them, and they made him President, twice.  In the meantime, real conservatives were driven out of office, or like Liz Cheney, driven out of public life.  There was no place for them in the GOP. They left office, like Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Chris Christie remain, but on the outside, exhiles, like escaped members of the CDP during 1930s and 1940s Germany.  Others, like John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, just sold their souls, with in the case of Barrasso only a dumb look on his face left to show for it.

Democrats, however, learned from their failures.  Nancy Pelosi is gone.  A new force has emerged.

Perhaps its best symbolized by a race in Colorado.  Lauren Boebert, white trash, lost to Eileen Laubacher, a retired two-star United States Navy rear admiral.  I.e., white trash lost to education.

It was about time.

That, perhaps, best symbolizes it.  

Trump won in 2016 as Rust Belt Democrats, Southern Dixiecrats, and the general middle class, were sick of being ignored on issues that impacted their daily lives.  Out of control immigration was a big part of that.  But so was the exportation of industry overseas and diminishing opportunity here at home.  Justice Anthony Kennedy's skipping through the law tossing rose petals in Obergefell contributed to the realization that American culture had become distressingly weird and immoral.  They were looking for somebody to pay attention to their worries.  They were looking for El Cid.

Thy got Donald Trump.

Trump was and is a huckster.  Without one single personal redeeming trait, the man who was to fix the economy and bring back a mythical 1950s that never existed, and restore Protestant Morality Lite to the country was himself a rich silver spoon salesman who had failed in business multiple times and had the personal morals of an alley cat.  So desperate for attention were they, that American voters chose a man who gave off every sign that he was nothing that people thought he was.

That was 2016.  He was widely unpopular then and was voted out in 2020.  The 2020 Democratic Party, however, suffered from the same senility the GOP still does.  Joe Biden was supposed to be a caretaker and the party did nothing to see to it that a succession plan for power was created.  Joe Biden's decision to run in 2024 shot the Democrats in the knees.  Trump came back, but this time, he was backed by the delusional, National Conservatives, Christian Nationalist, the Evangelical far right, and flat out fascists, all of whom had their own agenda and realized they could advance it through an increasingly feeble Trump.  

The first two years of Trump's administration has been flat out insane. So insane that it's been impossible for people, including members of the GOP, to ignore.  The GOP rank and file began to split between real conservatives and outright fascists.  Wyoming gives a good example.  In the Governor's race a Republican, Eric Barlow, faced off against a Dixiecrat who claims to be a Republican, but in the Constitution Party, Becky Bextel. 

But that was in Wyoming, the most Republican state in the union.  Elsewhere, everyone, including Republicans, just revolved.  Texas, which has been a national embarrassment for years, returned to the Democrats.  Maine tossed out Susan "I'm concerned" Collins.  Alaska, a heavily Republican state, appears to be going for Peltola.  A conservative region of Colorado kicked out Bobo.

As DeSantis said, the GOP is extinct.

So what will the Democrats do?

They'll sure do something.  They have to.

It won't do what Trump and his MAGA sycophants claim.  It's not going to transgender everyone up and its not going socialize the entire economy.* It is going to be much more left leaning than the GOP, however, while not being as left leaning as some seem to fear.

For immediate tasks, the Democratic Party is going to have to take on the war and the corruption of the Trumps.  It has no choice.  The out of control budget and the absurd illegal expenditures on complete crap like Trump vanity projects is going to be attacked.  The question now is whether the GOP remaining in Congress attempts to save itself, or engage in a Bitterender struggle.  

If the wounded members of the GOP in the 119th Congress realize what's good for them, they'll abandon Trump right now.  Smart Republicans still in office will take the path of Jan Smuts.  They'll abandon Trump right now and start to cooperate with the Democrats wherever they can, which won't be everywhere. Those GOP members in Congress who survived to go into the 120th Congress should blaze a new path towards the Democrats right now.  And plenty of them have taken this path before.  Deseret Mike Lee was once an adamant opponent of Trump's for example.  John Barrasso was once a moderate Republican and he can affect a dumb stare as John Thune moves to the middle just as easily as he can at John Thune as he lingers on the right.

The thing they really need to realize is that the GOP is completely dead.  Conservatives need to form a new party. They can call it the Republican Party if they wish, but it'll be a new party. Frankly, the GOP's brand is now so trashed that they'd be better off forming a completely new party.

The thing they cannot do is to try a series of one last charges in the name of Dixie and Donald Trump. Some are set to try that.  Democrats need to resist that at all costs and let Republicans know they do that, they'll pay for it in the 120th.

Democrats in the 120th need to get up and get moving.  I've noted some of the things they need to do already.  They also need to investigate certain things. They need to fully release the Epstein Files, name of the perpetrators and the victims included.  The whole thing needs to come to light.  They need to investigate the decision to bring the US into a war with Iran.  They need to investigate the decision to invade Venezuela.

They need to do whatever they can to to end the war against Iran.  We need to end the murder of people in cigarette boats off of South and Central America.  People responsible for these illegal acts need to be exposed. 

Funding for Trump vanity projects needs to end.  The Democrats need to use the power of the purse like a sword.  Don't fund what people don't want funded, wars most of all.

Pete Hegseth needs to be impeached.  Marco Rubio needs to be impeached.  Todd Blanche needs to be impeached.

Not one Trump appointment going forward should be approved.  Not one cabinet officer.  Not one janitor.  Approval of military commissions should simply cease.

In the next two years, one or more Supreme Court justice will die. Those spots should be left open.

If the votes are there, and they may be as Republicans move to save themselves, Donald Trump needs to be impeached.

An effort needs to be made to expand Medicare for all.  It might just pass. It's been promised, and the time is here.

And none of this can move at the speed of Baby Boomers.

Footnotes

*To my utter amazement, a well educated far right individual I know, who unfortunately is deep in the Trump Kool Aid, is now convinced the Democrats are going to do just that.

That's just stupid.

Related threads:

2024 Election Post Mortem, Part I. What the heck happened?

Labels: 2024 Election, 2024 Election Post Mortem, 2028 Election, Christianity, Commentary, Donald Trump, Economics, homosexuality, Joseph Biden, Kamala Harris, Sexual Revolution, Social Issues, transgenderism

2024 Election Post Mortem, Part 2. What's going on?

Labels: 2020s, 2024, 2024 Election, 2024 Election Post Mortem, Central Intelligence Agency, Court, Donald Trump, Government, Immigration, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, The Second Trump Administration, Vladimir Putin, War

The 2026 Election. 28th Edition. The Count (before the coup).

Labels: 120th Congress, 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, 2026 Trump Coup, Chuck Gray, Constitution Party, Democratic Party, Eric Barlow, Harriet Hageman, James Byrd, Libertarian, Lisa Kinney, Republican Party, Shaun Johnson

Labels: 2026 Election, 2028 Election, American Solidarity Party, Amy Klobuchar, Cathy Holscher, Commentary, Donald Trump, Georgia, Guam, J. D. Vance, John Barrasso, mehr Mensch sein, Mental Health, The Madness of King Donald, Wyoming

Saturday, September 14, 1901. The death of William McKinley., additional labels.

Thursday, August 19, 1976. Ford prevails over Reagan.

U.S. President Gerald Ford edged out challenger Ronald Reagan, 1,187 to 1,070 in delegate votes, on the first ballot to win the Republican National Convention in Kansas City.  He thereafter chose Sen. Bob Dole as his running mate.

The choice would prove fateful.  Ford was swimming upstream against an insurgent Carter due to the impact of Watergate, when Americans still cared about corruption, and high inflation.  Carter, of course, would prove to be a weak President, giving rise to a successful run by Reagan in 1980, who in the meantime had developed a Southern strategy that would ultimately destroy the GOP.

Last Edition:

Wednesday, August 18, 1976. Panmunjom axe murder incident (Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건).

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Army, British League of Nations Mandates, Catholic, Christianity, Communism, Namibia, North Korea, North Korean Army, Operation Paul Bunyan, Poland, religion, South Africa, South Korea, South Korean Army

Acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt, et De mortuis nihil nisi bonum, et Regula Ernii Pyle. The reaction to the Death of Lindsey Graham.

If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.

Lindsey Graham, 2016.

I hadn't intended to post more on Lindsey Graham after my note on, well not Graham, but his dying at age 71.  

Not too surprisingly, however, he was a topic of all three new shows this weekend.  Meet The Press had yet another interview with Donald Trump (they've had a pile of them yesterday), on Graham.  Trump claims to have spoken to him just before his death and of course, Graham was for the Stopping Americans from Voting Act that Trump hopes will pass and save his bacon this fall.

The other interviews were more interesting.  I thought one of them gave a really good insight into Graham's evolution from a Trump opponent into a Trump supporter, that being pure politics.  He was, the person claimed, simply play politics, basically, and by cosying up to Trump was able to influence him and get what he wanted overall.

That might be right, and is the only good explanation I've ever seen for it. The question is, at what point have you gone too far.  Frankly, I think Graham went too far.

Lucien Truscott obviously feels that and has one of the most blunt applications of the Ernie Pyle Rule I've ever seen by a well known writer.*

The hole in the Senate named Lindsey Graham

Truscott outright states that Graham was a homosexual and betrayed his like attracted.

That brings up my first observation.

I don't know if Graham was a closeted homosexual or not, but if he was, it didn't seem to impact his votes at all.  That's part of what Truscott is complaining about, but on the Twitter, the epicenter of nastiness, I've seen.

Here's the thing, however.  A lot of the speculation on Graham's sexuality comes from his never marrying.  He was asked about it over his lifetime and his response was that he never found the right girl, or the right girl was lucky enough never to have found him.

Anyhow, as an observation, which of course is part of what this blog does in a evolution of time fashion, merely being a single adult doesn't mean a person is a homosexual.  One of my law school colleagues never married, for example, and I've known him since he was a pre teen.  He's definately not same sex attracted.  An older friend of mine is the same way.  He's now in his 70s and has never married.  He's not a homosexual, he just has a very unique personality that's operated against marriage.

If you'd asked me when I was in my late 20s, I would probably have said it wasn't going to happen.  At that age I'd lost a pretty serious girlfriend and broken up with a girl was sort of serious about me, but not the other way around.  Had things kept going the way they seemed to be going, and I thought at that point they definitely would be, I'd have reached the age of declining prospects pretty quickly and likely have been a single guy my whole life.  I wouldn't have liked that, but it happens.

Still, most men do marry, or at least if they aren't married, you can find pretty serious love interests they've had.  I've noted that above in regard to myself.  Its not as if I hadn't dated at all in my 20s.  It's odd for somebody to have no friends of the opposite sex who they're interested in that way, but it does happen.  

The opposite also happens, I'd note.  One of my high school friends was undoubtedly a homosexual, but he did marry a girl.  They divorced and he died quite young.  If you read his obituary it doesn't say of what, but I suspect I know.

Anyhow, I don't care if Graham was a homosexual at all and as it wasn't an open part of his life, and he didn't make it some sort of big political deal, I don't know why it matters.

On a finale note, the current Wyoming election season features one man who is an open homosexual but doesn't work that into his campaign.  One of his opponents is like Graham, there's no known female friends at all that have ever popped up, which raises questions if you are campaigning on the far edge of the far right.  And, fwiw, Wyoming has had one very good state office holder in the past who was a homosexual, while it never came out, and there's questions about a well known political figure as well.

The rest of Truscott's article, I'd note, is really blunt.  And Graham may deserve the application of Pyle's rule.

Public Interest wasn't much kinder:

Lindsey Graham and the rot of modern conservatism

From Gingrich to Trump, Graham was a fixture as the GOP became increasingly malignant.

Their article stated:

Lindsey Graham died a coward. His three-decade career in national politics should be remembered for more than his shameless, pusillanimous capitulations — but not, unfortunately, for some noble pursuit or purpose he used his chameleon-like political skills to secure. He should instead be remembered for using his power to bow and scrape, to change his political colors, largely if not solely in service to himself.

I guess that reminds of, in a way, of the maxim Acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt. There comes a time when reform is too late.  Medieval texts used to worry a great deal about the powerful dying with their sins unconfessed.  Well, many regular people do.  There's a lesson there.

Anne Applebaum wrote in The Atlantic:

But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. Graham went out of his way to telegraph his closeness to the president. He played golf with Trump, made excuses for him on television, and supported him as he slowly destroyed the alliances that Graham had defended all his life, even as he undermined the institutions of democracy at home. In 2021, Graham refused to vote to convict Trump, even after he assaulted the Capitol and tried to reverse the results of the election.

Another commentator noted all of the post death accolades by members of the press who knew Graham.  He was a frequent press guest, having appeared for example on Meet the Press some sixty times.

Here's what Lindsey Graham should be remembered for--not corporate media's whitewashing

The whitewashing of Graham is awful!

That item started off with Shakespeare, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

Adam Kinzinger was much kinder, which in turn has resulted in Kinzinger being attacked on Twitter.

Some Brief Thoughts On The Passing Of Lindsey Graham.

Ann Telnaes ran a series of her political cartoons.

Sen. Lindsey Graham dead

A shameless political opportunist and one of Trump's chief enablers has died

In short, the "legacy media" was kind to Graham and his legacy. The print and pundit media, not so much.

In my view, he probably didn't deserve much respect.  The thing he should be remembered that he did best was rising to the occasion of his father's death (his mother had died less than a year prior) and raising his 13 year old sister.

On that, I noted here the other day that his father was 69 years old when he died.  My comments on age got some shocked rebukes in other quarters.  "71 isn't old".

Yes it is. 

Just looking at the social history aspect of this for a second, Graham was apparently 21 when his father died.  That would have meant that his father 48 years old when Graham was born, old to be a father.

Florence James "F.J." Graham was married to Millie Waters.  She was 52 when she died in 1977.  Graham's sister was only 13 when he died, meaning that their father was 56 when she was born, very old to become a father.  Their mother was was approximately 33 when Lindsey was born, and approximately 41 when she was.  41 is quite old to have a child for a women.  I don't know when they married, but there was an age gap of about ten years there, which isn't that uncommon.  More uncommon is that they apparently married sort of late with the mother in her very early 30s, or they had a hard time having children.

Some Twitter Twits have absolutely freaked out about his dying, attributing it to a conspiracy.  Complete nonsense.

By the way, Sam Neal died yesterday at 79, 8 years older than Graham.  James Van Der Beek at 48.  Catherine O'Hara at 71.

Trump, in an interview, said several times "I thought he would live forever".  He claims to have told Graham that several times, but with Trump, you can never tell if that's true.  That probably says more about Trump than Graham.

Graham came up during the Reagan era.  Reagan remains the huge hero to conservatives, but more and more he doesn't deserve to be.  It was Reagan who caused the sweep of old Dixiecrats into the GOP which has lead to its ultimate destruction.  I can't say that Graham was a Dixiecrat, but I will note that he was endorsed early on by Strom Thurmond, who most definitely was.

Graham had been a major supporter of the US effort in Afghanistan and  he was a big supporter of Ukraine.  I agree with him on both of those things . Ironically, given how close Graham was to Trump, it was Afghanistan that really started the riff between Liz  Cheney and Trump which lead to Harriet Hageman.

After January 6, Graham appeared to briefly find his moral ground.  For a few weeks there it looked as if Trump might be impeached.  Graham lead a speech from the floor that absolutely condemned what happened and implicitly condemned Trump.  Like most of the GOP, however, he went back to Trump boot licking.  That will be his legacy.

Well, legacies matter I suppose to the living, and for a reason. For the dead, they're beyond that.

May the perpetual light shine upon him.

Footnotes:

*Ernie Pyle, the famous World War Two reporter, once reported on troops reaction to having to pack a dead lieutenant they didn't like out of the Italian hills on a mule  A Sergeant stated "Son of a bitch alive, son of a bitch dead".

Related thread:

The death of Lindsey Graham. A timely American reminder.

Labels: Baby Boom Generation, Death, Middle Age, Old Age

Sunday, July 4, 1976. The Bicentennial., additional Labels.

Tuesday, June 8, 1976. The last primaries of the 1976 season.

The final primaries of the 1976 election season were held.  Gerald Ford came out with a lead of 105 delegates over Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter has 1,250 of the 1,505 delegates he needed to secure the election.

Several state conventions remained to be held.

Last edition:

Saturday, June 5, 1976. Teton Dam collapse.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Disaster, Geology, Idaho, Idaho (Rexburg), Idaho (Wilford), Irish Republican Army, Snake River, Terrorism, The Troubles, Ulster, Ulster Volunteer Force

Tuesday, December 23, 1975. Going metric.

In baseball:

December 23, 1975: The Reserve Clause Is Killed

President Gerald R. Ford signed into law the Metric Conversion Act. The country should have carried through with it, but abandoned it in 1982 when Ronald Reagan was President, the point at which, in the long history of the evolution of things, the country began its slide into idiocy, although it was hardly evident at the time.

CIA Station Chief in Athens Richard Welch, his identify recently exposed, was gunned down by terrorists in Athens.

Last edition:

Monday, December 22, 1975. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Christmas, Comedians, Gerald Ford, Growing up in the 1970s, J. Edgar Hoover, OPEC, Personalities, Petroleum, Terrorism

Going Feral: A lack of the land ethic in office.

Going Feral: A lack of the land ethic in office.: 

A lack of the land ethic in office.

Back when I was 18 years old and first registered to vote, I registered as a Republican.  The first President I voted for was Ronald Reagan.

Soon thereafter, relative terms, and certainly before I went to the University of Wyoming I changed my registration to Democrat.  Wildlands had a lot to do with that, maybe everything, almost, to do with that.  Sometime prior to the Fall of 1983 I'd concluded that the Democrats wanted to protect nature, where as Ronald Reagan's Administration, with James Watt as the Secretary of the Interior, most definitely didn't care about it.

I was a Democrat for a very long time, but I often voted Republican, following a family trait of really voting very independently.  If you aren't thinking about the person you are actually voting for, you aren't thinking.  I voted, I know, for our Democratic Governors, but I also voted, I know, for some Republican Congressional candidates.  Starting prior to the 2000 election I started to consider 3d parties.  Some time after that I became disgusted with the Democrats constant embrace of abortion and changed my political affiliation to none.  By that time a lot of Wyoming Democrats were feeling the same way and a lot of them drifted into the GOP, some so solidly that they're regarded as stalwart traditional Republicans now, which in a lot of ways, they are.

I also eventually came into the GOP.  

I was comfortable, if often upset, with the GOP up until it nominated Donald Trump for the Oval Office the first time, which absolutely horrified me and still does.  This term, which is illegitimate (Trump is a seditionist who has not had the ban from holding office lifted upon him by Congress), has been bad beyond my fears as to what it would be.  Trump is all about land rape on the land.

We're back to the 1970s, I fear.

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Condemns Effort to Roll Back Public Lands Rule

Posted by Nadia Marji | September 12, 2025

Trump moves to nix Public Lands rule; Alfalfa exports data dump

Also re-upping and freeing-up a piece on political violence and rhetoric

I still am registered as a Republican, but I constantly debate it. The Wyoming "Sweet Home Alabama" pack of carpetbaggers Freedumb Caucus has gained control of the Legislature and is busy driving through the state's culture like the Dukes' of Hazzard through Hazzard County in the Gen. Lee.  It's disgusting.  There''s some reason to believe that this is changing, but it isn't changing quickly enough.  Wyoming's GOP Congressional delegation supported the land raping proposal by the Senator from Deseret, Mike Lee, in spite of the majority of Wyomingite's being opposed to it.  "Your dumb" was the practical reaction to Wyoming voters from one of the three.

If you aren't a registered Republican, you aren't going to get to have a say in the primary, which is why I'm still there. Am I one of the RINO's that Chuck Gray cries about?  If the current GOP reflects the Republican Party, I am.  There's no alternative here, however.

This is all appalling.  

Wednesday, February 9, 1825. John Quincy Adams chosen as President.

The 1824 Presidential election, which ran from October 26 to December 2, 1824, saw Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and William Crawford run for the oval office.

John C. Calhoun was elected with a comfortable majority of the vote for Vice President. 

However, none of the main contestants for the Presidency held a an electoral vote majority.  On this day in 1825 the House of Representatives voted,with each state delegation casting one voted,  elected John Quincy Adams as President, giving the election to him.

Andrew Jackson was a bufador, so Adams was the right choice.  Unfortunately Jackson (a Democrat, I might add) would revive, and, and come back, Trump like. Indeed Trump, who is also a bufador, admires Jackson, or claims to.

For years, the local Democratic Party here had Jefferson Jackson Days, honoring the supposed founder of the party (who wasn't) and its early populist leader.  Populism was a main element of the Democratic Party, like it currently is of the Republican Party, from Jackson's election through the 1980s, when Reagan's Southern Strategy co opted the Southern Democrats and Rust Belt Democrats, unfortunately.  Now, the GOP is what the Southern Democratic Party had been.

One of the comforting things about knowing history, I might add, is to know that there were prior eras when we acted darned near as stupidly as we currently are.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 27, 1825. Origin of the Trail of Tears.

Labels: 1820s, 1825, James Monroe, Native Americans

Tuesday, November 7, 1944. Roosevelt wins a fourth term.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 7: 1944     President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.

Truman, of course, became his Vice President.

Truman was chosen over prior VP Henry Wallace as Democratic insiders were concerned about Wallace's far left leanings.  People have wondered about how far Wallace went in that direction, but The New Republic, which ironically was featured here just yesterday, and for which Wallace was an editor after he was no longer VP, actually stated that he was a Communist in its 75th anniversary issue.  He was certainly very far left.

He was also an expert on chickens.

Truman had been a small businessman before entering politics and was the last U.S. President to lack a college degree.

Roosevelt in many ways created much of the modern state which the current Republican Party, once again flirting with isolationism, threatens to tear down under Donald Trump, something that got started with Ronald Reagan.

US fighters strafed a Red Army column near Niš, mistaking it for a German column.  Soviet aircraft responded.  There were losses on both sides, but what exactly occured is confusing as it remains classified.

The US took Bloody Ridge on Leyte.

The USS Albacore struck a mine off of Hokkaido and was sunk.

SOE operative Hannah Szenes, age 23, was executed in Hungary, which was controlled by Hungarian fascists at the time.

Last edition:

Monday, November 6, 1944.. The photo.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, British League of Nations Mandates, Canadian Army, Egypt, Iowa, Medicine, Netherlands, Palestine, Scotland (Liverpool), Terrorism, Vichy France, World War Two, Zionism

Tuesday, October 8, 1974. WIN

President Ford launched his "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN) campaign. 

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished guests, my very dear friends: 

In his first inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, and I quote: The people of the United States have not failed .... They want direct, vigorous action, and they have asked for discipline and direction under our leadership. 

Today, though our economic difficulties do not approach the emergency of 1933, the message from the American people is exactly the same. I trust that you are getting the very same message that I am receiving: Our constituents want leadership, our constituents want action. 

All of us have heard much talk on this very floor about Congress recovering its rightful share of national leadership. I now intend to offer you that chance. 

The 73d Congress responded to FDR's appeal in five days. I am deeply grateful for the cooperation of the 93d Congress and the Conference on Inflation, which ended ten days ago. 

Mr. Speaker, many—but not all—of your recommendations on behalf of your party's caucus are reflected in some of my proposals here today. The distinguished majority leader of the Senate offered a nine-point program. I seriously studied all of them and adopted some of his suggestions. 

I might add, I have also listened very hard to many of our former colleagues in both bodies and of both the majority and the minority, and have been both persuaded and dissuaded. But in the end, I had to make the decision, I had to decide, as each of you do when the roll call is called. 

I will not take your time today with the discussion of the origins of inflation and its bad effect on the United States, but I do know where we want to be in 1976—on the 200th birthday of a United States of America that has not lost its way, nor its will, nor its sense of national purpose. 

During the meetings on inflation, I listened carefully to many valuable suggestions. Since the summit, I have evaluated literally hundreds of ideas, day and night. 

My conclusions are very simply stated. There is only one point on which all advisers have agreed: We must whip inflation right now. 

None of the remedies proposed, great or small, compulsory or voluntary, stands a chance unless they are combined in a considered package, in a concerted effort, in a grand design.

I have reviewed the past and the present efforts of our Federal Government to help the economy. They are simply not good enough, nor sufficiently broad, nor do they pack the punch that will turn America's economy on. 

A stable American economy cannot be sustained if the world's economy is in chaos. International cooperation is absolutely essential and vital. But while we seek agreements with other nations, let us put our own economic house in order. Today, I have identified 10 areas for our joint action, the executive and the legislative branches of our Government.

Number one: food. America is the world's champion producer of food. Food prices and petroleum prices in the United States are primary inflationary factors. America today partially depends on foreign sources for petroleum, but we can grow more than enough food for ourselves. 

To halt higher food prices, we must produce more food, and I call upon every farmer to produce to full capacity. And I say to you and to the farmers, they have done a magnificent job in the past, and we should be eternally grateful. 

This Government, however, will do all in its power to assure him—that farmer—he can sell his entire yield at reasonable prices. Accordingly, I ask the Congress to remove all remaining acreage limitations on rice, peanuts, and cotton. 

I also assure America's farmers here and now that I will allocate all the fuel and ask authority to allocate all the fertilizer they need to do this essential job. 

Agricultural marketing orders and other Federal regulations are being reviewed to eliminate or modify those responsible for inflated prices. 

I have directed our new Council on Wage and Price Stability to find and to expose all restrictive practices, public or private, which raise food prices. The Administration will also monitor food production, margins, pricing, and exports. We can and we shall have an adequate supply at home, and through cooperation, meet the needs of our trading partners abroad. 

Over this past weekend, we initiated a voluntary program to monitor grain exports. The Economic Policy Board will be responsible for determining the policy under this program.

In addition, in order to better allocate our supplies for export, I ask that a provision be added to Public Law 480 under which we ship food to the needy and friendly countries. The President needs authority to waive certain of the restrictions on shipments based on national interest or humanitarian grounds. 

Number two: energy. America's future depends heavily on oil, gas, coal, electricity, and other resources called energy. Make no mistake, we do have a real energy problem.

One-third of our oil—17 percent of America's total energy—now comes from foreign sources that we cannot control, at high cartel prices costing you and me $16 billion—$16 billion more than just a year ago. 

The primary solution has to be at home. If you have forgotten the shortages of last winter, most Americans have not. I have ordered today the reorganization of our national energy effort and the creation of a national energy board. It will be chaired with developing-or I should say charged with developing a single national energy policy and program. And I think most of you will be glad to know that our former colleague, Rog Morton, our Secretary of Interior, will be the overall boss of our national energy program.

Rog Morton's marching orders are to reduce imports of foreign oil by 1 million barrels per day by the end of 1975, whether by savings here at home, or by increasing our own sources. 

Secretary Morton, along with his other responsibility, is also charged with increasing our domestic energy supply by promptly utilizing our coal resources and expanding recovery of domestic oil still in the grounds in old wells. 

New legislation will be sought after your recess to require use of cleaner coal processes and nuclear fuel in new electric plants, and the quick conversion of existing oil plants. I propose that we, together, set a target date of 1980 for eliminating oil-fired plants from the Nation's base-loaded electrical capacity. 

I will use the Defense Production Act to allocate scarce materials for energy development, and I will ask you, the House and Senate, for whatever amendments prove necessary.

I will meet with top management of the automobile industry to assure, either by agreement or by law, a firm program aimed at achieving a 40 percent increase in gasoline mileage within a 4-year development deadline. 

Priority legislation—action, I should say—to increase energy supply here at home requires the following: 

One, long-sought deregulation of natural gas supplies,

Number two, responsible use of our Naval petroleum reserves in California and Alaska,

Number three, amendments to the Clean Air Act; and

Four, passage of surface mining legislation to ensure an adequate supply with commonsense environmental protection. 

Now, if all of these steps fail to meet our current energy-saving goals, I will not hesitate to ask for tougher measures. For the long range, we must work harder on coal gasification. We must push with renewed vigor and talent research in the use of nonfossil fuels. The power of the atom, the heat of the sun and the steam stored deep in the Earth, the force of the winds and water must be main sources of energy for our grandchildren, and we can do it. 

Number three: restrictive practices. To increase productivity and contain prices, we must end restrictive and costly practices whether instituted by Government, industry, labor, or others. And I am determined to return to the vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws.

The Administration will zero in on more effective enforcement of laws against price fixing and bid rigging. For instance, non-competitive professional fee schedules and real estate settlement fees must be eliminated. Such violations will be prosecuted by the Department of Justice to the full extent of the law. 

Now, I ask Congress for prompt authority to increase maximum penalties for antitrust violations from $50,000 to $1 million for corporations, and from $50,000 to $100,000 for individual violators. 

At the Conference on Inflation we found, I would say, very broad agreement that the Federal Government imposes too many hidden and too many inflationary costs on our economy. As a result, I propose a four-point program aimed at a substantial purging process. 

Number one, I have ordered the Council on Wage and Price Stability to be the watchdog over inflationary costs of all governmental actions. 

Two, I ask the Congress to establish a National Commission on Regulatory Reform to undertake a long-overdue total reexamination of the independent regulatory agencies. It will be a joint effort by the Congress, the executive branch, and the private sector to identify and eliminate existing Federal rules and regulations that increase costs to the consumer without any good reason in today's economic climate. 

Three: Hereafter, I will require that all major legislative proposals, regulations, and rules emanating from the executive branch of the Government will include an inflation impact statement that certifies we have carefully weighed the effect on the Nation. I respectfully request that the Congress require a similar advance inflation impact statement for its own legislative initiatives. 

Finally, I urge State and local units of government to undertake similar programs to reduce inflationary effects of their regulatory activities. 

At this point, I thank the Congress for recently revitalizing the National Commission on Productivity and Work Quality. It will initially concentrate on problems of productivity in Government—Federal, State, and local. Outside of Government, it will develop meaningful blueprints for labor-management cooperation at the plant level. It should look particularly at the construction and the health service industries. 

The Council on Wage and Price Stability will, of course, monitor wage and price increases in the private sector. Monitoring will include public hearings to justify either price or wage increases. I emphasize, in fact reemphasize, that this is not a compulsory wage and price control agency. 

Now, I know many Americans see Federal controls as the answer. But I believe from past experience controls show us that they never really stop inflation—not the last time, not even during and immediately after World War II when, as I recall, prices rose despite severe and enforceable wartime rationing. 

Now, peacetime controls actually, we know from recent experience, create shortages, hamper production, stifle growth, and limit jobs. I do not ask for such powers, however politically tempting, as such a program could cause the fixer and the black marketeer to flourish while decent citizens face empty shelves and stand in long waiting lines. 

Number four: We need more capital. We cannot "eat up our seed corn." Our free enterprise system depends on orderly capital markets through which the savings of our people become productively used. Today, our capital markets are in total disarray. We must restore their vitality. Prudent monetary restraint is essential. 

You and the American people should know, however, that I have personally been assured by the Chairman of the independent Federal Reserve Board that the supply of money and credit will expand sufficiently to meet the needs of our economy and that in no event will a credit crunch occur. 

The prime lending rate is going down. To help industry to buy more machines and create more jobs, I am recommending a liberalized 10 percent investment tax credit. This credit should be especially helpful to capital-intensive industries such as primary metals, public utilities, where capacity shortages have developed. 

I am asking Congress to enact tax legislation to provide that all dividends on preferred stocks issued for cash be fully deductible by the issuing company. This should bring in more capital, especially for energy-producing utilities. It will also help other industries shift from debt to equity, providing a sounder capital structure.

Capital gains tax legislation must be liberalized as proposed by the tax reform bill currently before the Committee on Ways and Means. I endorse this approach and hope that it will pass promptly.

Number five: Helping the casualties. And this is a very important part of the overall speech. The Conference on Inflation made everybody even more aware of who is suffering most from inflation. Foremost are those who are jobless through no fault of their own.

Three weeks ago, I released funds which, with earlier actions, provide public service employment for some 170,000 who need work. I now propose to the Congress a two-step program to augment this action 

First, 13 weeks of special unemployment insurance benefits would be provided to those who have exhausted their regular and extended unemployment insurance benefits, and 26 weeks of special unemployment insurance benefits to those who qualify but are not now covered by regular unemployment insurance programs. Funding in this case would come from the general treasury, not from taxes on employers as is the case with the established unemployment programs. 

Second, I ask the Congress to create a brand new Community Improvement Corps to provide work for the unemployed through short-term useful work projects to improve, beautify, and enhance the environment of our cities, our towns, and our countryside.

This standby program would come alive whenever unemployment exceeds 6 percent nationally. It would be stopped when unemployment drops below 6 percent. Local labor markets would each qualify for grants whenever their unemployment rate exceeds 6.5 percent. 

State and local government contractors would supervise these projects and could hire only those who had exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits. The goal of this new program is to provide more constructive work for all Americans, young or old, who cannot find a job. 

The purpose really follows this formula: Short-term problems require short-term remedies. I therefore request that these programs be for a 1-year period. 

Now, I know that low- and middle-income Americans have been hardest hit by inflation. Their budgets are most vulnerable because a larger part of their income goes for the highly inflated costs of food, fuel, and medical care. 

The tax reform bill now in the House Committee on Ways and Means, which I favor, already provides approximately $1.6 billion of tax relief to these groups. Compensating new revenues are provided in this prospective legislation by a windfall tax, profits tax on oil producers, and by closing other loopholes. If enacted, this will be a major contribution by the Congress in our common effort to make our tax system fairer to all. 

Number six: stimulating housing. Without question, credit is the lifeblood of housing. The United States, unfortunately, is suffering the longest and the most severe housing recession since the end of World War II. Unemployment in the construction trades is twice the national average. 

One of my first acts as President was to sign the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. I have since concluded that still more help is needed, help that can be delivered very quickly and with minimum inflationary impact. 

I urge the Congress to enact before recess additional legislation to make most home mortgages eligible for purchase by an agency of the Federal Government. As the law stands now, only FHA or VA home mortgages, one-fifth of the total, are covered. 

I am very glad that the Senate, thanks to the leadership of Senator Brooke and Senator Cranston, has already made substantial progress on this legislation. As soon as it comes to me, I will make at least $3 billion immediately available for mortgage purchases, enough to finance about 100,000 more American homes. 

Number seven: thrift institutions. Savings and loan and similar institutions are hard hit by inflation and high interest rates. They no longer attract, unfortunately, adequate deposits. The executive branch, in my judgment, must join with the Congress in giving critically needed attention to the structure and the operation of our thrift institutions which now find themselves for the third time in 8 years in another period of serious mortgage credit scarcity. 

Passage of the pending financial institution bill will help, but no single measure has yet appeared, as I see it, to solve feast or famine in mortgage credit. However, I promise to work with you individually and collectively to develop additional specific programs in this area in the future. 

Number eight: international interdependency. The United States has a responsibility not only to maintain a healthy economy at home, but also to seek policies which complement rather than disrupt the constructive efforts of others. 

Essential to U.S. initiatives is the early passage of an acceptable trade reform bill. My Special Representative for Trade Negotiations departed earlier this afternoon to Canada, Europe, Japan, to brief foreign friends on my proposals. 

We live in an interdependent world and, therefore, must work together to resolve common economic problems. 

Number nine: Federal taxes and spending. To support programs, to increase production and share inflation-produced hardships, we need additional tax revenues. 

I am aware that any proposal for new taxes just four weeks before a national election is, to put it mildly, considered politically unwise. And I am frank to say that I have been earnestly advised to wait and talk about taxes anytime after November 5. But I do say in sincerity that I will not play politics with America's future. 

Our present inflation to a considerable degree comes from many years of enacting expensive programs without raising enough revenues to pay for them. The truth is that 19 out of the 25 years I had the honor and the privilege to serve in this Chamber, the Federal Government ended up with Federal deficits. That is not a very good batting average.

By now, almost everybody—almost everybody else, I should say—has stated my position on Federal gasoline taxes. This time I will do it myself. I am not-emphasizing not—asking you for any increase in gas taxes. 

I am—I am asking you to approve a l-year temporary tax surcharge of 5 percent on corporate and upper-level individual incomes. This would generally exclude from the surcharge those families with gross incomes below $15,000 a year. The estimated $5 billion in extra revenue to be raised by this inflation-fighting tax should pay for the new programs I have recommended in this message. 

I think, and I suspect each of you know, this is the acid test of our joint determination to whip inflation in America. I would not ask this if major loopholes were not now being closed by the Committee on Ways and Means' tax reform bill. 

I urge you to join me before your recess, in addition to what I have said before, to join me by voting to set a target spending limit—let me emphasize it—a target spending limit of $300 billion for the Federal fiscal budget of 1975. 

When Congress agrees to this spending target, I will submit a package of budget deferrals and rescissions to meet this goal. I will do the tough job of designating for Congressional action, on your return, those areas which I believe can and must be reduced. These will be hard choices and every one of you in this Chamber know it as well as I. They will be hard choices, but no Federal agency, including the Defense Department, will be untouchable.

It is my judgment that fiscal discipline is a necessary weapon in any fight against inflation. While this spending target is a small step, it is a step in the right direction, and we need to get on that course without any further delay. I do not think that any of us in this Chamber today can ask the American people to tighten their belts if Uncle Sam is unwilling to tighten his belt first. 

And now, if I might, I would like to say a few words directly to your constituents and, incidentally, mine. 

My fellow Americans, 10 days ago I asked you to get things started by making a list of 10 ways to fight inflation and save energy, to exchange your list with your neighbors, and to send me a copy. 

I have personally read scores of the thousands of letters received at the White House, and incidentally, I have made my economic experts read some of them, too. We all benefited, at least I did, and I thank each and every one of you for this cooperation. 

Some of the good ideas from your home to mine have been cranked into the recommendations I have just made to the Congress and the steps I am taking as President to whip inflation right now. There were also firm warnings on what Government must not do, and I appreciated those, too. Your best suggestions for voluntary restraint and self-discipline showed me that a great degree of patriotic determination and unanimity already exists in this great land. 

I have asked Congress for urgent specific actions it alone can take. I advised Congress of the initial steps that I am taking as President. Here is what only you can do: Unless every able American pitches in, Congress and I cannot do the job. Winning our fight against inflation and waste involves total mobilization of America's greatest resources—the brains, the skills, and the willpower of the American people. 

Here is what we must do, what each and every one of you can do: To help increase food and lower prices, grow more and waste less; to help save scarce fuel in the energy crisis, drive less, heat less. Every housewife knows almost exactly how much she spent for food last week. If you cannot spare a penny from your food budget—and I know there are many—surely you can cut the food that you waste by 5 percent. 

Every American motorist knows exactly how many miles he or she drives to work or to school every day and about how much mileage she or he runs up each year. If we all drive at least 5 percent fewer miles, we can save, almost unbelievably, 250,000 barrels of foreign oil per day. By the end of 1975, most of us can do better than 5 percent by carpooling, taking the bus, riding bikes, or just plain walking. We can save enough gas by self-discipline to meet our 1 million barrels per day goal. 

I think there is one final thing that all Americans can do, rich or poor, and that is share with others. We can share burdens as we can share blessings. Sharing is not easy, not easy to measure like mileage and family budgets, but I am sure that 5 percent more is not nearly enough to ask, so I ask you to share everything you can and a little bit more. And it will strengthen our spirits as well as our economy. 

Today I will not take more of the time of this busy Congress, for I vividly remember the rush before every recess, and the clock is already running on my specific and urgent requests for legislative action. I also remember how much Congress can get done when it puts its shoulder to the wheel. 

One week from tonight I have a long-standing invitation in Kansas City to address the Future Farmers of America, a fine organization of wonderful young people whose help, with millions of others, is vital in this battle. I will elaborate then how volunteer inflation fighters and energy savers can further mobilize their total efforts. 

Since asking Miss Sylvia Porter, the well-known financial writer, to help me organize an all-out nationwide volunteer mobilization, I have named a White House coordinator and have enlisted the enthusiastic support and services of some 17 other distinguished Americans to help plan for citizen and private group participation.

There will be no big Federal bureaucracy set up for this crash program. Through the courtesy of such volunteers from the communication and media fields, a very simple enlistment form will appear in many of tomorrow's newspapers along with the symbol of this new mobilization, which I am wearing on my lapel. It bears the single word WIN. I think that tells it all. I will call upon every American to join in this massive mobilization and stick with it until we do win as a nation and as a people. 

Mr. Speaker and Mr. President, I stand on a spot hallowed by history. Many Presidents have come here many times to solicit, to scold, to flatter, to exhort the Congress to support them in their leadership. Once in a great while, Presidents have stood here and truly inspired the most skeptical and the most sophisticated audience of their co-equal partners in Government. Perhaps once or twice in a generation is there such a joint session. I don't expect this one to be. 

Only two of my predecessors have come in person to call upon Congress for a declaration of war, and I shall not do that. But I say to you with all sincerity that our inflation, our public enemy number one, will, unless whipped, destroy our country, our homes, our liberties, our property, and finally our national pride, as surely as any well-armed wartime enemy. 

I concede there will be no sudden Pearl Harbor to shock us into unity and to sacrifice, but I think we have had enough early warnings. The time to intercept is right now. The time to intercept is almost gone. 

My friends and former colleagues, will you enlist now? My friends and fellow Americans, will you enlist now? Together with discipline and determination, we will win.

I thank you very much.

There are some very serious lessons from The Great Inflation that have been largely forgotten, not the least of which is that running the massive deficits we currently are inevitably will feed into an inflationary cycle.  Neither party, nor the American public in general, have any fiscal restraint.

The campaign was a failure.  High inflation would persist until the Reagan administration intentionally through the economy into a recession, which cured it.

Pins with WIN were offered for free.

The Franklin National Bank on Long Island failed, the largest bank failure in U.S. History. 

Baja California Sur as its 30th state and Quintana Roo were added as the 30th and 31st Mexican states.

Last edition

Monday, September 16, 1974. Letting the evaders and deserters off, somewhat.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, 1977, Conscription, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Provisional Irish Republican Army, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Vietnam War