Back in the day, the three worst things that a young guy could be were dishonest, disloyal and cheap. Now, as an adult, I realize that the worst thing you can be is a hypocrite. Alas, America is awash with hypocrites these days. Let’s count down to the worst of the bunch.
5. The Goldwater Institute. These people dishonor the person for whom their cabal is named by wailing against government waste and then turning around and arguing that private contractors who get fat at the public trough by running quasi-public charter schools shouldn’t have to explain where the taxpayer money went. Their logic(?): Not having to account as to how and where taxpayer money is being spent helps “streamline” (their word) the process and is therefore cost effective.
So, give me a whole bunch of money. I’ll spend it, but I won’t tell you what I spent it on and then you can trust me that I saved you money. Gee, I don’t think so.
I don’t know if there is any evidence that the late Senator Goldwater would have supported charter schools. But it’s for damn sure that he wouldn’t have been in favor of the use of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money without any accountability.
The Goldwater Institute people (who also have glaring conflicts of interest in this matter) are hypocrites on a grand scale.
4. The Wall Street Journal. This is truly one of the finest newspapers in America. I really don’t care that it leans to the right (sometimes way to the right), it’s well done. I have no problem shelling out four bucks for the weekend edition with its book reviews and political commentary.
However, WSJ Editor-in-Chief Gerard Baker recently took the convoluted stance that his paper will not refer to lies that emanate from the Trump Administration as “lies.” Baker said, “I’d be careful about using the word ‘lie.’ ‘Lie’ implies much more than just saying something that’s false. It implies a deliberate intent to mislead.”
That deflection might work with common folk, but we’re talking about somebody who, starting tomorrow (ugh!) will be one of the most powerful people on the face of the earth. He is surrounded by professional people whose job it is to tell him the truth. If he takes in the truth and then spits out the opposite, he is lying.
Maybe he could hire Ivanka to be his truth provider. When he’s rubbing up on her in public, she could whisper, “Daddy, that’s a lie … and you’re creepy.”
3. Arizona Republican Legislators Who Claim to Care About Public Schools. Twenty years or so of breaking the law and attempting to squeeze the life out of Arizona’s public schools contradict any words that come out of their mouths. They care about public education like Hitler cared about Hanukkah.
2. Congressional Republicans Who Used to Care About Budget Deficits. Remember these people? They’re the ones who had both feet on the brake while President Obama was trying to use the tried-and-true method of stimulus spending to get the country out of the Great Recession. “Deficits bad!,” they howled. But now that tax cuts for the super-rich and increased defense spending are going to ravage the budget process, all of a sudden these same people are saying, “Deficits no big deal.” Hypocrites.
1. The so-called Christian Right. Y’all can take your Bibles and have a big ol’ book burnin’ because you guys are hypocrites by the millions.
Look, I get it. You didn’t want to vote for Hillary Clinton. (I said in this column that she was a bad candidate; however, your rabid hatred of her was a bit overdone.) You hated her politics. You hated her family. You believed to your tarnished souls that the Devil wears pantsuits.
But you didn’t have to vote for Donald Trump. Conservative Catholics claimed that he is anti-abortion, but if he’s telling the truth about that (and that’s always a big “if” with that clown), he’s only been holding that view for the past couple years. And not a whole lot of people actually come to Jesus in their late 60s.
Please don’t blurt out your knee-jerk response to this question. Think about it and keep the answer to yourself. If you had to bet your rent money on this, do you think that Donald Trump might have paid for an abortion or two in his lifetime? Yeah, I think so, too.
The thing is, if you don’t think that God wants a woman to be President, that’s fine. But instead of voting for a woman, you chose to vote for somebody who brags about feloniously assaulting women? I don’t get it.
You could have voted for the Mormon guy, Evan McMullin. Heck, you could have voted for the stoner dude from New Mexico. God would have forgiven you.
Instead, you voted for the guy who claims to be a billionaire but is so cheap, he stiffs minimum-wage workers and cheats creditors out of what is owed them. You voted for the guy who is disloyal to his fellow Republicans and for the guy who is so dishonest, he literally lies more often that he tells the truth.
That makes you conservative Christians the biggest hypocrites of all. You guys can just suck it for the next four years.
This article appears in Jan 19-25, 2017.
OK, look. Before you start a flame war against poor Tom, consider this. I don’t always agree with Tom, but I _ALWAYS_ learn something from him. Perhaps it is that I’m right after all; sometimes it is something I hadn’t thought of before. Tom’s job is not to confirm my (or your) preconceived notions, but to teach us something. Open your mind. Read Tom and learn something. I won’t tell you what, but I learned something from him today. You can, too. Thank you, Tom.
I learned something about Tom today too. I learned that he can disagree with someone, even have no respect for them, and point out the reasons without resorting to offensive foul language. Without resorting to wishing them beaten, jailed or killed. He also managed to do it by presenting facts and opinions supported by facts. So rare today. One thing I did not learn was that these people are hypocrites. I’ve seen that as self evident from their actions for years now.
Tom is upset because people didn’t waste their vote on who he wanted them to? Tom 8th graders are big on crying hypocrite. Grow up and find a way to enjoy the next 8 years. Why not organize community groups to ban and burn bibles? Seems you know God’s heart. Hatred has consumed you. Acceptance will cleanse your soul.
And another bi weekly (now, thank god) installment of the Danehy liberal rant fest, we lived through Obama, now you get your turn. You can suck it.
M.R. Heywood:
Reading your posts reveals who already knows everything about sucking it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ovc-O_z4daQ
Tom let’s do this. Let the facts prove the hypothesis. Let’s print letters of support for the Affordable Care Act from a sample segment of the population.
To qualify they….
1. Must have had pre existing condition that kept them from healthcare in the past.
2. They were given subsidies to pay the premium they could not afford.
3. They had a medical emergency and used their government subsidised healthcare.
4. They had the $10,000 deductible available and paid it, keeping them from bankruptcy.
5. They have another $10,000 on hand in anticipation of using the ACA plan again in the next five years.
This would be a brilliant piece of journalism that would prove to the American people just how effective and affordable the ACA was and is. Maybe that will shut up all the naysayers.
I have to be honest. Just like many of the others that do not support a Trump Presidency, I am most upset by the fact that the first lady is not an American born citizen. After President Obama was forced to show his original birth certificate, Why Donald Trump’s wife, Melodia, is allowed to waltz into our country as the first lady, is simply not fair. America is for Americans. We need to continue to speak out about this injustice and I will join Congressman Grijalva and John Lewis in making this known. She is illegitimate and he knows it.
Read the &!?* rules.
Tom, I don’t know why you have so much antipathy for the Christian right, but your conclusion that we didn’t want to vote for a woman is wrong. I don’t hate Secretary Clinton, nor do I believe all the ridiculous conspiracy driven tripe that is said about her and Bill. She made her position clear on abortion and wouldn’t even give an inch on late term abortions. As the scientific evidence continues to prove that it isn’t a blob of flesh in the womb it is a baby.
Doug,
And yet you are OK with President Trump switching his stance on abortion to whatever flavor of the month will get him the most attention? He has been pro-choice, pro-life, ambivalent, etc. Something tells me his current pro-life stance isn’t exactly set in stone.
What a weak argument.
For you, as a Christian, this is a good opportunity for self reflection not rationalization. You voted for one of the least Christian candidates, in actions and words, that this county has ever seen. You can’t correct your mistake but you can admit it, ask for forgiveness and go out into the world to do some good deeds to take your soul in a more Christian direction.
Maybe stepping up to the place and donating time, money or space in your home to one of the thousands of children in the state of Arizona foster care system that need a home would be a great step. Pima County has the highest percentage of children in the system without a bed or foster home to sleep at. Step up and help! Be a real Christian, not just one in name!
@Open Minded and Liberal 2017:
1) Donald Trump’s wife became an American citizen in 2006.
2) Donald Trump’s wife’s first name is Melania.
Read the &!?* history before you post.
Exactly! look at all those that attended their wedding, long after she became a citizen.
After becoming engaged in 2004, Donald and Melania were married in an Anglican service on January 22, 2005, at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a reception in the ballroom at Donald’s Mar-a-Lago estate.[41][42]
The event was attended by celebrities such as Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Rudy Giuliani, Heidi Klum, Star Jones, P. Diddy, Shaquille O’Neal, Barbara Walters, Conrad Black, Regis Philbin, Simon Cowell, Kelly Ripa, then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and former president Bill Clinton.[42][43] At the reception, Billy Joel serenaded the crowd with “Just the Way You Are” and supplied new lyrics about Donald to the tune of “The Lady Is a Tramp”.[42] The Trumps’ wedding ceremony and reception were widely covered by the media.[38] Melania wore a $200,000 dress made by John Galliano of the house of Christian Dior. wikipedia
She is legitimate. get off her back.
I can’t help but feel sorry for good ‘ol Tom. And not for the just the usual reasons. How he’s proud to admit that his wife is the bread winner in the family. His total contribution is writing for the Weekly and teaching a bunch of 16 year old girls how to run up and down a basketball court. What I’m referring to is the rotten week he’s having. It started for anti-gun Tommy last week up in Phoenix when an armed citizen saved the life of an Az. state trooper by blowing away the scumbag who was attacking him. It got worse when let ’em all in Tommy found out that he was here illegally. And now today. President Donald J. Trump. So for the next 8 years you can write all the anti-Trump columns you please and it ain’t going to make the slightest difference.
I’m looking for my first 100 dislike comment. Can you do it?
Patty G:
I don’t want to get off her back. Especially after looking at those nekkid pictures that she published!
(Insert *Wolf Whistle* here.)
Last week we witnessed an amazing number of marches and protests in 600 cities around the world. All I could think was WOW! Then I read that 6 of the 7 Democrats vying for the DNC leadership did not attend any of the marches. They were too busy sunning themselves in Florida in a meeting hosted by party mega donors. What a buzz kill.