Why It Matters For Senator Hatch To Retire, Mitt Romney To Seek Election

The news keeps coming and sounding the same as reports from earlier this year.

Senator Orrin Hatch has privately told allies in Utah that he is planning to retire at the end of his term next year, and if he does, Mitt Romney intends to run for his seat.    Why this is so important to CP is based on one primary reason.

Establishment Republicans must not allow for any slippage in their ranks at a time when nationalistic and other harmful elements are hijacking their party.

It has been reported for months that Republicans in Utah have been quietly working behind the scenes to convince 83-year-old Hatch, who is the longest-serving Republican Senator in Washington, that it is time to retire.  Threats of a primary challenge at a time when a number of state polls show a majority of voters want him to retire makes an insurgent candidate from the unglued part of the party a real possibility.  Therefore Hatch is going exit on a graceful note.

Which brings us to Mitt Romney.  While I am not a kindred spirit to his political points of view I am well aware he is a reasoned and sensible person.  Given the lack  of morals and principle among too many in the GOP due to President Trump I think it most important that the seat be carried by one with ties to the party establishment.

In addition, I have favored the spine that Romney has been able to locate at times when standing up to Trump.  A voice of that kind in the Senate will be of value to the entire nation.

The New Yorker Cover “October Surprise” Is Truly Scary

What a perfectly toned and styled cover to convey the scary nature of what is taking place in America.

Quote Of The Week

HOW TRUE!

“[Brexit] was the single stupidest thing any country has ever done, but then we Trumped it.”

— Media mogul and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg

“Border Patrol Agents Stopped The Ambulance She Was Riding In.”

This week there was one story which just struck me in the heart.

A 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy was detained by federal immigration authorities in Texas after she passed through a Border Patrol checkpoint on her way to a hospital to undergo emergency gall bladder surgery.

It is indeed, sadly, a true story.   While so many aspects to this story are troubling the part that brought a shout from my chair as I was reading the newspapers was when it stated “Border Patrol agents stopped the ambulance she was riding in.”

There is no way to defend such behavior. The xenophobia in this nation, which has allowed for those in power to even think such things and then follow through on them—as evidenced by this story–is simply staggering.

Everyone of us who knows and loves a young child, should picture that child in that hospital bed, picture that child being taken away by armed agents, while recovering from a serious surgery and then being handed over to strangers in a children’s prison. Think about that child crying for their Mom while bring afraid and in pain.

How can this be happening in our country?   How can the evangelicals who make sure to attend church each Sunday, and then demonstrate in polls across the nation their strong support for President Trump live their lives in such a split personality type of way?  Family values at church as they show off for their friends and then supporting truly immoral and outrageous policies during the rest of the week?

ICE agents stopped an ambulance!  Might any minister on Sunday morning find that a reason to speak from the pulpit about what Jesus would have us do?

And so it goes.

Who Will Be First To Be Taken Into Custody For President Trump’s Russian Schemes?

WHO WILL BE THE FIRST CHARGED BY ROBERT MUELLER, MIGHT BE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY BY MONDAY?  PREDICTION BY CP SAYS PAUL MANAFORT.

THEN THE SQUEEZING BEGINS…..

Mark Halperin News Stunned Me

You could have knocked me over with a gentle breeze off the lake.  I was simply stunned to hear the news reports about the allegations concerning Mark Halperin.   One of the most grounded, low-key, and spot-on political analysts in the nation has a series of very troubling allegation made against him.   While I will very much miss his insight and wisdom on the issues of the day it also needs stating that if what has been claimed turns out to be true then he can no longer be a talking head on current event shows.

When I was a 21-year-old student, I attended a political event in Boston. Present were several candidates running for president. It was interesting to see political leaders speak in person for the first time, but it wasn’t the speeches that intrigued me — it was the cameras in the back of the room. The media asking questions, trying to break stories, making their news reports — that was most exciting to me. 

 

So I worked up the courage to go to the back of the room to speak with one of the journalists. That’s when I met Mark Halperin, who was at that time working for ABC News. He gave me his card, told me to give him a call and said he would help me understand how to get into the business.

 

Fast forward several months later to when I graduated and asked for an informational meeting. I reached out to Mr. Halperin and he asked me to come see him. I was thrilled that someone from ABC News was willing to meet with me — perhaps that was my way in the door. It was my first official meeting; I even had to buy a suit for the occasion.

I don’t quite remember what we talked about, but I do remember him asking me to sit down next to him on the couch. I thought it was awkward to sit on the couch when I was perfectly comfortable sitting in the chair across from his desk. But I complied, and I also remember him sitting a little too close to me.

There Are 1,542 Billionaires Around The World

Is there a tipping point?

The world’s super-rich hold the greatest concentration of wealth since the US Gilded Age at the turn of the 20th century, when families like the Carnegies, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts controlled vast fortunes. 

Billionaires increased their combined global wealth by almost a fifth last year to a record $6tn (£4.5tn) – more than twice the GDP of the UK. There are now 1,542 dollar billionaires across the world, after 145 multi-millionaires saw their wealth tick over into nine-zero fortunes last year, according to the UBS / PwC Billionaires report.

Josef Stadler, the lead author of the report and UBS’s head of global ultra high net worth, said his billionaire clients were concerned that growing inequality between rich and poor could lead to a “strike back”.

“We’re at an inflection point,” Stadler said. “Wealth concentration is as high as in 1905, this is something billionaires are concerned about. The problem is the power of interest on interest – that makes big money bigger and, the question is to what extent is that sustainable and at what point will society intervene and strike back?”

Stadler added: “We are now two years into the peak of the second Gilded Age.”

He said the “$1bn question” was how society would react to the concentration of so much money in the hands of so few.

See Mount Vernon From Your Own Home

One of the highlights from our spring visit to Washington, D.C. was the one-day side trip to Mount Vernon.  There is no way to describe in any adequate manner the feelings I had standing on the front side of the famed home of President George Washington while looking down on the Potomac River.  I spent several minutes there in reflection and would have so loved to been able to sit with a cup of coffee and watch the sun lower over the home and water and sensed more fully what Washington would have seen so often.   We visited on one of those hot days when the humidity was very high and that suited me just fine so to experience the conditions that often confronted those who lived and worked on this large farm.

There is a most wonderful link to the entire home at Mount Vernon you can experience as a virtual tour.   If you want a thrill take a look.  But if you want to truly feel the awe plan your trip to this place on the banks of the Potomac.  History is calling you.