The-Asterisk

Now that we have seen the craggy contours of Joe Biden’s Schlock and Awwww re-election campaign, it is time to find out what Donald Trump will bring to the fight. As I watched the State of the Union last week on my DVR, I ended up fast forwarding through the last 15 or 20 minutes. I just couldn’t take any more of it. Not only was the cake he brought to the party made of the same layers of BS, he slathered a thick coating of frosting over it to hide the contents and cover up the smell. And… he says he will pay for it all by taxing 1000 billionaires $50 billion more per year. Sorry Joe, but 50 billy doesn’t go very far these days even if you somehow manage to squeeze some juice from the oligarchs.  Donald Trump now has the perfect opportunity to contrast himself with “Feisty Joe” and it is high time he seized it. At every chance he has been given since Biden was installed as President, Trump reminds us of Russia, Russia, Russia, the perfect phone call, the Mueller Report, stolen ele...

Stephen Curry has changed basketball. Forever. The "three-point shooter" has turned the NBA championship process on its ear. He did it by doing nothing wrong. He played by the rules. But he and the Golden State Warriors completely changed the dynamic of the game. Michael Jordan. Need I say more? MJ made it OK to make bucketloads of cash, endorsing products while making more bucketloads of cash from the team. This guy could dunk the ball from the foul line! He scored like a banshee and his likeness was EVERYWHERE. Cereal boxes, shoes, billboards, hats, TV, movies, EVERYWHERE. Even today, after 15 years of retirement, everyone knows who belongs to the number 23. Michael. To say Allen Iverson broke the mold is to be unfair to molds. The Newport News native rocked the NBA like no other player besides Dennis Rodman. His cornrows, massive tats and uncharacteristic off-court style brought a swagger to basketball which exists to this day. At 6' 0", he made up for his l...

There are two major schools of thought when it comes to providing and paying for medical care in the United States. The first is single payer where one entity, most likely the Federal Government, pays for all medical care; basically acting as the universal health insurance provider for all citizens. Many countries use this model. We will not discuss the efficacy and economics of these single payer plans in this posting. The second school of thought is to keep medical insurance in private hands and allow individuals or employers to purchase care as they deem most effective and most affordable, and oftentimes these two schools are in total conflict. Over the years I have promoted a bifurcated health provider scheme where all citizens have access to basic day-to-day health care through a network of government and government-sponsored facilities. Those who want more customized, personal, comfortable and immediate health care can pay out of pocket or through supplemental insur...

 Today on Meet The Press , surrogates from the Clinton and the Trump campaigns were on the show. The host, Chuck Todd first spoke to John Podesta, he of WikiLeaks email fame. Chuck asked him several questions about polling, the campaign, Hillary's apparent weakness in states like Michigan and their tactics. During his answers (or non-answers, depending upon how one saw the responses), he stated as fact that Trump was a bigot, a misogynist and that his campaign was being directed by the Russian Foreign Ministry. As his segment was ending, I was thinking "Are we going to hear anything about the leaked emails?" Todd's last question was essentially "How are you feeling about having your emails leaked so that everyone can see your dirty laundry." Podesta replies, "Me, personally? Oh... I have thick skin..." Wow, now that was a tough question. Next up was Newt Gingrich. Newt was asked similar questions and during one answer said that the nation has...

A thread on a friend's Facebook timeline yesterday discussed some of the ugly things said by Hillary which have recently come to light via the Wikileaks email dumps and supposed first person accounts from recent events. It is virtually impossible for a human to totally bottle up their true feelings and emotions. Some manage to do so and I think they suffer greatly for it. Others let it all hang out (I think we know where Trump comes down on this one.) Clinton, according to many recorded accounts, is very emotional and emotive, but she has an uncanny ability to put on a semi-likable facade for public consumption. Having said that, when she (or anyone for that matter) does "let it all hang out", it gets recorded. For many of us "folks" it gets recorded primarily in the memories of those around us, but for others, especially those at a high level of prominence, it also gets recorded in emails, text messages, audio, video, hidden video, journals and memoirs. ...

I am sitting at the breakfast table, contemplating Presidential politics, wondering who would end up being the nominees and knowing that NO ONE has a clue how this will all turn out. Then it hit me like a two ton heavy thing ... Donald J. Trump  is actually using Barack Obama's playbook with some heavy editing. Hear me out on this one. People complain that Trump has no experience in government. Obama had very little experience as well. Right after being sworn in as a US Senator and as soon as he could get the furniture set up in his new office, Obama began his purposed journey to the White House. People say that they don't know how Trump would vote or what he stands for. Obama, when he actually voted, pretty much toed the party line. I don't believe he authored any significant legislation during his short time in federal or state office. No paper trail there. Obama was a rock star. He had star power after that eloquent 2004 Democrat National Convention speech whe...