For us baby boomers, November 22 has the same significance as December 7 does to our parents and September 11 to a succeeding generation. It was the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I have reached an age where a lot I have lived through is now in the history books so I thought I would provide some perspective.

The transition from the Eisenhowers to the Kennedys was unprecedented. The outgoing couple were 70 and 64. The new First Couple were 43 and 31. A pair of cute young children added to the allure. Their tastes were cosmopolitan. The hiring of a French chef launched a national craze. There was a sense of vitality the country hadn’t seen since Theodore Roosevelt. At the time we had no idea of his sexual adventures and questionable health.

I was in junior high (that’s what we called middle school). We were on our way to see a dress rehearsal of Our Town the high school was putting on. A high school kid shouted out that he had been shot. After the play was over, we learned he was dead.

I can’t describe the shock the nation felt. It seemed inconceivable that a misfit like Lee Harvey Oswald had taken the life of a beloved leader. When he was killed two days later, the conspiracy theories began. I have seen no evidence that anyone else was involved.

The country lost its innocence that day. The next eleven years saw war, assignation, violence and the downfall of two presidents.
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I will be back to my usual ranting and raving next time.

Democrats have been working to get President Trump out of office ever since he was inaugurated. The Ukraine hearings are generating the most attention but multiple committees have investigations. They are still trying to get something out of the Russia collusion debacle.

I believe they have developed a new strategy. They realize that there is no way Senate Republicans are going to throw him out of office without solid proof of a serious crime. Instead, they are going to use these investigations to throw mud. A couple of things lead me to this conclusion. They had a focus group determine that using the word bribe was more damaging than quid pro quo. Nancy Pelosi said what he is done is worse than Watergate. This tells me that they believe they can attack him so viciously that he would be unelectable.

I think this is a misguided effort. Hillary Clinton tried it in 2016. Further attacks have a diminishing effect. It could even make Trump a sympathetic figure, as unimaginable as that is. House Democrats have to face voters telling them they spent two years doing little but attacking Trump.

They need to do three things to take back the White House. First, they must nominate an electable candidate. Right now I’m not sure who that might be. The party needs to stay united. That might be even tougher. Finally, they need to come up with reasons to vote for them. Right now we about presidential candidates with extreme proposals and coast mayors (plus the California governor) overseeing the degradation of their domains. None of that will appeal to deplorables in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
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My city recently had a mayoral election. The challenger spent a ridiculous amount of money on attack ads. The incumbent won easily. Perhaps Democrats could learn from this example.

Being a whistleblower takes courage. They run the risk of losing their job and being subject to heaps of abuse. CBS just fired a whistleblower even though she informed on activities at ABC.

The so-called whistleblower who started the impeachment hearing on Ukraine isn’t really a whistleblower. He or she claims to have had a conversation with someone who made the accusation against President Trump. They had no way to know if what they heard was true or false. They worked with Democratic congressional staffers and hired a lawyer who once talked of staging a coup. They acted as a political partisan rather than a concerned government employee.
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The FBI and our intelligence agencies should do their jobs without regard to politics. We have seen all kinds of abuses coming from the FBI. There was even talk of an “insurance policy” to prevent Trump’s election. Some have broken the law by leaking classified information. These wrongdoers should be dealt with regardless of their political affiliation.

We all want to know what will happen in the future. Over the ages people have used tea leaves, crystal balls and many other dubious methods to forecast it. Today we have political analysis. It’s just about as accurate.

Several states held elections on Tuesday. Many analysts talked about what it meant to the 2020 election. In actuality, it doesn’t mean a thing. Over the next year there will be many changes that aren’t expected. Michael Bloomberg entering the presidential race is a perfect example.

Elections in Virginia and Kentucky are cited as proof that Republicans are in deep trouble. Both houses of the Virginia legislature are in Democratic hands. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Virginia is now a blue state.
An unpopular Republican governor in Kentucky appears to have narrowly lost. That can’t be a big shock. Besides, he would have won had the Libertarian Party not siphoned off votes.
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There is an easy way to learn who our next president will be. Just stay up and watch the election returns.

President Trump announced that he has taken steps to change his state of residence to Florida.  Presumably this was because it has no state income or inheritance taxes. Trump is hardly alone. The biggest migration from one state to another is New Yorkers heading to Florida.

Governor Andrew Cuomo echoed the thoughts of many New York Democrats when he said “Good riddance”. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio sent condolences to the state of Florida.

Soaking the rich is very much in fashion in Leftist circles. Elizabeth Warren recently said that only billionaires will pay more taxes under her healthcare proposal.

There are two problems with this idea. There aren’t enough of them. Taking every dollar they had wouldn’t begin to cover the cost of Warren’s plan.

They also assume that the rich won’t alter their behavior when their taxes rise. Many people are fleeing high tax states. I have a friend in Idaho. He said there is a building boom going on because of the large number of arrivals from California. At least New Yorkers have electricity.
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It seems interesting that a poor liberal would be welcomed to New York while a rich conservative would be treated with contempt. Margaret Thatcher said “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money”.