Madam, I'm Adam

 

Madam, I’m Adam

 

Most people are familiar with palindrones.

 

Broadly defined, they are defined as a sentence that reads the same front to back, or vice versa. The sentence listed above is the most familiar, but there are others.

 https://wordsmarts.com/palindromes/

However, the purpose of this article is not to discuss the quirks of the English language.

Its purpose is to discuss the atomic bomb, which means the title actually should be “Madam, I’m Atom.

I’m in the process of finishing a book titles “The Devil Reached Toward the Sky’, and it discusses the development of the atomic bomb that was developed by the Manhattan Project. The book itself is 50 pages, but a large portion of the book consists of quotes by the various parties involved – including the survivors of the bombs that were dropped on Japan. As a result, you can safely skim through a lot of it, and still get the basics of the story.

There are plenty of pictures, as well as a few maps.

In addition, there are 5 pages of acknowledgements, 30 pages of notes, and 30 pages devoted to indexing, which would confirm the fact that this is a well reserved boo.

The Manhattan Project involved thousands of people scattered through the country, but the primary production facilities were in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Los Alamos in New Mexico, and Hanford Washington.

Oak Ridge produced enriched uranium, Hanford produced plutonium, and Los Alamos produced the bomb itself.

 The project cost $2 billion in 1945 dollars, or about $30 billion in todays.

If you don’t want to spend a lot of time reading the book, watching the movie “Oppenheimer” provides a shorter summary, but you would have to sit through if for 3 hours to see the whole thing.

Towards the end of the book is a discussion of the morality of the project, as well as it’s necessitated. In the then, though, decision to drop the bomb actually saved both American and Japanese lives.

There are two factors that define the legacy of the bomb.

1)    The project created some terrifying environmental problems. Even today, the production facility in Harford is considered most polluted site in the country.

2)   The project eventually led to the arms race. The link below lists the various types of weapons. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

Today, there are 13,805 in various counties around the world, but 90% of them are owned by Russia and the United States.

Treaties between Russian and the United States have reduced the number of weapons from their peak in the 1960’s, when Mutual Assured Destruction was thought to be a deterrent.

The weapons that were dropped on Japan had an explosive capacity of 20,000 tons of TNT, roughly equivalent to 15 megatons, or 15 kilotons.

The Nike missiles held in the United States range for 2 kilotons to 40 kilotons.

 Eventually, the participants in the Manhattan Project came to the conclusion that the awesome power of the atom could be used for peaceful purposes.

The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the  peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S. Truman signed the McMahon/Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946, transferring the control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands, effective on January 1, 1947.This shift gave the members of the AEC complete control of the plants, laboratories, equipment, and personnel assembled during the war to produce the atomic bomb.

An increasing number of critics during the 1960s charged that the AEC's regulations were insufficiently rigorous in several important areas, including radiation protection standards, nuclear reactor safety, plant siting, and environmental protection.

By 1974, the AEC's regulatory programs had come under such strong attack that the U.S. Congress decided to abolish the AEC. The AEC was abolished by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, which assigned its functions to two new agencies: the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Department of Energy Organization Act, which created the Department of Energy. The new agency assumed the responsibilities of the Federal Energy Administration (FEA), the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), the Federal Power Commission (FPC), and various other federal agencies.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Atomic_Energy_Commission

(An interesting sidenote is that when Rick Perry was appointed to lead the Department of Energy in 2017, he was unaware of the fact that the department was involved in nuclear weapons.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Perry

Eventually, countries around world started to build nuclear power plants.

Ironically, Russia was the first country to use nuclear energy – in 1951.

Nuclear power plants operate in 31 countries and generate about a tenth of the world's electricity. Most are in Europe, North America and East Asia. The United States is the largest producer of nuclear power, while France has the largest share of electricity generated by nuclear power, at about 65%.

The largest nuclear power plant in America is located in a state that could also be a leader in solar energy – Arizona. California produces the most energy from solar sources. Arizona is third, right behind North Carolina.

Some countries operated nuclear reactors in the past but have no operating nuclear power plants at present. Among them, Italy closed all of its nuclear stations by 1990 and nuclear power has since been discontinued because of the 1987 referendums. Lithuania closed its nuclear station at 2009 because it was of the dangerous RBMK reactor type. Kazakhstan phased out nuclear power in 1999 but is planning to reintroduce it possibly by 2035 under referendum. Germany operated nuclear plants since 1960 until the completion of its phaseout policy in 2023. Austria (Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant) and the Philippines (Bataan Nuclear Power Plant) never started to use their first nuclear plants that were completely built.

Sweden and Belgium originally had phase-out policies however they have now moved away from their original plans. The Philippines relaunched their nuclear program on February 28, 2022 and may try to operate the 1984 mothballed Bataan Plant.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_by_country

 Although nuclear energy is considered to be very same, there have been a few instances where things went wrong. The most prominent examples are Three Mile Island in 1979, and Chernobyl in 1986.

“Midnight in Chernobyl “goes into more details on the causes of the catastrophe.

Conditions have improved since 1986 so that, as of today, you can buy vodka produced in the area near the site.

 It’s called Atomic vodka, and it has had GLOWING reviews.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49251471

 It’s up to you if you want to read the book, but if you like history as much as I do, I think that you will enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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what might have been

 

World War II resulted in an estimated 70 to 85 million fatalities, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. This number represents roughly 3% of the global population at the time. The majority of these deaths were civilians, with estimates ranging from 50 to 56 million, while military deaths are estimated between 21 and 25 million. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

Although most Americans are familiar with the cause of the war in Europe, less understand is WHY Japan became an aggressor in the war.

The link below (from the History channel) provides more answers, and some of them go back nearly 50 years:

 https://www.history.com/articles/why-did-japan-attack-pearl-harbor

There are a number of factors that led to the wars in both hemispheres, but a complete analysis of all of them would necessitate an article that could easily require at least 200 pages (with lots of notes) – which is why it is a project for another time.

In brief, though, here are a few of the factors that contributed to the wars:

Henry Ford – author of “The American Jew”

Eugenics – a course of study that first started in 1893

The treaty of Versailles

The League of Nations – although a total of 63 nations joined the league between 1920 and 1946, the United States was not one of them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_League_of_Nations

 Neville Chamberlain (“peace in our time”)

The burning of the Reichstag on February 27, 1933

The appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor on January 30, 1933 (he became president by decree in August of 1934)

The Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_for_International_Settlements

If all of the factors listed above had been handled differently, it is entirely possible that WWII would not have occurred at all.

 Although a full analysis of all of the times listed above would be an interesting exercise, a more meaningful use of your times is to look at where we are today.

For starters, read the definition of a narcissistic personality.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder

You’ll quickly realize that Donald Trump “checks all the boxes”

The nest step is to look at the 14 characteristics of fascism:

https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html

Again, Trump “checks all of the boxes”

The political news that we all get becomes more disturbing by the day, since we are rapidly becoming very similar to the German of the 1930’s. The link below provides more details:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2025/04/lets-pretend-that-we-are-germany-of.html

I recently finished reading a book titled “The School that Escaped the Nazis “, written by Deborah Cadbury.

In brief, it is the story of brave German woman named Anna Essinger who successfully moved her school in Berlin to England as the Nazis gained more power in Germany. If you are interested in reading the book, I have listed some of the relevant pages and topics below

Page 1 – the ghettos in Poland in 1942

Page 5 – Anna Essinger’s awakening

Page 13 – the rally in Anna’s home town of Ulm in November of 1932 – Hitler was greeted with large enthusiastic crowds, some of whom believe that Hitler was sent by God (does this remind you of the Trump rallies in his first term?)

Page 15 – the burning of the Reichstag

Page 17 – the establishment of the first concentration camp in Dachau (which has a striking resemblance to Alligator Alcatraz in Florida)

Page 23 – the role of the Quakers

Page 28 – the opening of the new school in England

Page 34 – the burning of Jewish books on July 15, 1933

Page 37 – the capitulation to Hitler (much like the Republican party of today)

Page 57 – the established of Bunce Court

Page 66- the Nuremburg Laws

Page 70 – the rise of Nazi ideas

Page 82 – the rise of the Gestapo

Page 95 – the establishment of the SS

Page 99 – the alliance with Mussolini

Page 106 – the Munich Agreement of 1938 and Kristallnacht

 Miss Cadbury does an excellent job of covering the atrocities of the Nazi era, but she also provides more depth to how the survivors of those atrocities were able to return to lives that most of us would call “normal”.

 Although I am opposed to almost all of Trump’s ideas, the one that infuriates me the most is the role of ICE. Like the Gestapo, officials of ICE have been kidnapping innocent people from a variety of places, often without due process.

The disgusting bill that was just rammed through congress on July 4 increased funding for ICE to $175 billion, which is more than the military budget of every country in the world except for Russia and the United States. As of today, there are roughly 20,000 people employed by ICE, but there are plans to hire 10,000 more. The Gestapo employed 32,000 people. In 1934, the population of Germany was 79,000 people, which meant that the Gestapo terrorized roughly half of the population of Germany.

The architect of Trump’s immigration policies is his deputy chief of staff, a truly evil man named Stephen Miller. Not surprisingly, Miller owns stock in Palintar, the data processing firm started by Peter Thiel in 2003.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies

The company has been criticized for its role in expanding government surveillance using artificial intelligence and facial recognition software. Former employees and critics say the company's contracts under the second Trump Administration, which enable deportations and the aggregation of sensitive data on Americans across administrative agencies, are problematic. Since Stephen Miller owns somewhere between $100,00 and $250,000 in Palintar stock, he benefits financially whenever someone is deported 

 

I wrote an article about Miller in April of 2019. If you read it again, you will have noticed that he bears a striking resemblance to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister.

 https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-nazi-in-white-houe.html

So, where do we go from here?

So far, the courts have been able to rein in some of Trump’s excesses, but congress has been unable to exert much control due to the fact that both parts of congress are controlled by the Republican Party. Since their grip on power is extremely thin, the 2026 midterms have become very important. That also explains why Texas and a few other states are thinking about modifying legislative maps now instead of 2030 – and it also is why Gavin Newsome and other Democratic governors are fighting back.

For now, all the rest of us can do is to stay informed, stay calm, and protest whenever we can. Just as importantly, try to focus on something besides politics as much as you can so that you don’t go completely crazy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Department of Education

 

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to pause a lower court order that required the Department of Education to reinstate nearly 1,400 employees who had been laid off while proceedings over the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the agency continue.

The high court granted a request from the Trump administration to lift for now the injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, which blocked the mass layoffs at the Education Department. A federal appeals court rejected a bid to pause that decision while the Justice Department appealed, after which it sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court.

The decision to lift the stay was 6 to 3, with the majority saying the lower court's injunction would be paused while the case works its way through the appeals process. 

The court's three liberals disagreed with the move, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing a dissent that was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

"When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary's duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it," Sotomayor wrote. "Two lower courts rose to the occasion, preliminarily enjoining the mass firings while the litigation remains ongoing. Rather than maintain the status quo, however, this Court now intervenes, lifting the injunction and permitting the Government to proceed with dismantling the Department. That decision is indefensible."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-allows-trump-administrations-mass-firings-at-education-department-for-now/

 Naturally, Linda McMahon was pleased:

“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies. While today’s ruling is a significant win for students and families, it is a shame that the highest court in the land had to step in to allow President Trump to advance the reforms Americans elected him to deliver using the authorities granted to him by the U.S. Constitution. 

The U.S. Department of Education will now deliver on its mandate to restore excellence in American education. We will carry out the reduction in force to promote efficiency and accountability and to ensure resources are directed where they matter most – to students, parents, and teachers. As we return education to the states, this Administration will continue to perform all statutory duties while empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy.”  

https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/secretary-mcmahon-statement-supreme-court-victory-future-of-american-education

Like most of Trump’s cabinet, she is not as qualified for the position that she holds as many of her predecessors. To make matters worse, the Department of Education is now part of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is even LESS qualified to the position that he holds.

To be fair, she does have SOME education experience, which you can read in the link below

https://www.ed.gov/about/ed-organization/meet-secretary-of-education/linda-e-mcmahon

However, the REAL reason she was chose had a lot to do with money.

 Linda McMahon has donated $10 million to Donald Trump's presidential campaign, more than almost anyone else.

• McMahon spoke at the Republican National Convention this week and also expressed a desire to return to Trump's cabinet.
• McMahon served on Trump's cabinet during his first term as president between 2017 and 2019.

Beyond it being of interest to every US citizen since it will determine who runs the country for the next four years, there doesn't tend to be a direct link between pro wrestling and who's running for president. That's a little different at the moment since Donald Trump is making a bid to return to office. Trump is in the WWE Hall Of Fame, was a key player in WrestleMania 23's main event, and several big names from the wrestling industry were in attendance at this week's Republican National Convention to show their support for the presidential candidate. (You may remember that Hulk Hogan tore off his shirt on the stage during the convention).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/linda-mcmahon-has-donated-10-million-to-donald-trumps-presidential-campaign/ar-BB1qiSfL

The Department of Education is the most recent Federal Department, since it was created 1979. However, most people do not really understand what the department actually does.

To better explain that, I have copied verbatim that is posted on their website, although I have added a few highlights in a few areas.

What Is the U.S. Department of Education?

The U.S. Department of Education is the agency of the federal government that establishes policy for, administers and coordinates most federal assistance to education. It assists the president in executing his education policies for the nation and in implementing laws enacted by Congress. The Department's mission is to serve America's students-to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.

In 2007-08, the Department's elementary and secondary school programs served approximately 55 million students (pre-K through grade 12) attending some 100,000 public schools and 34,000 private schools. Department programs also provided grant, loan and work-study assistance to about 10 million undergraduate students. *

When Congress created the Department in 1979, it declared these purposes:

1. to strengthen the Federal commitment to ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual:

(One example of this is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)

https://www.disabilityhelp.org/what-federal-laws-protect-students-with-disabilities/

2. to supplement and complement the efforts of States, the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the States, the private sector, public and private educational institutions, public and private nonprofit educational research institutions, community-based organizations, parents, and students to improve the quality of education;
3. to encourage the increased involvement of the public, parents, and students in Federal education programs;

On occasion, this can lead to adverse outcomes, as exemplified by the extremist group known as Moms for Liberty)

4. to promote improvements in the quality and usefulness of education through federally supported research, evaluation, and sharing of information;
5. to improve the coordination of Federal education programs;
6. to improve the management and efficiency of Federal education activities, especially with respect to the process, procedures, and administrative structures for the dispersal of Federal funds, as well as the reduction of unnecessary and duplicative burdens and constraints,
7. including unnecessary paperwork, on the recipients of Federal funds (One example of this is the Pell Grants)

 

8. to increase the accountability of Federal education programs to the President, the Congress and the public. (Section 102, Public Law 96-88)

The Department's History

Although the Department is a relative newcomer among Cabinet-level agencies, its origins go back to 1867, when President Andrew Johnson signed legislation creating the first Department of Education. Its main purpose was to collect information and statistics about the nation's schools. However, due to concern that the Department would exercise too much control over local schools, the new Department was demoted to an Office of Education in 1868.

Over the years, the office remained relatively small, operating under different titles and housed in various agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Interior and the former U.S. Department of Health Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services).

Beginning in the 1950s, political and social changes resulted in expanded federal funding for education. The successful launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik in 1957 spurred nationwide concern that led to increased aid for science education programs. The 1960s saw even more expansion of federal education funding: President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" called for the creation of many programs to improve education for poor students at all levels—early childhood through postsecondary. This expansion continued in the 1970s with national efforts to help racial minorities, women, people with disabilities and non-English speaking students gain equal access to education. In October 1979, Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88). Created by combining offices from several federal agencies, the Department began operations in May 1980.

In the 1860s, a budget of $15,000 and four employees handled education fact-finding. By 1965, the Office of Education had more than 2,100 employees and a budget of $1.5 billion. As of mid-2010, the Department has nearly 4,300 employees and a budget of about $60 billion.

https://www.ed.gov/about/ed-overview/an-overview-of-the-us-department-of-education--pg-1

 The current battle in the courts is the result of Project 25, which is a roadmap created by the Heritage Foundation to essentially destroy our government as we know it.

 Project 2025, a 900-page conservative policy agenda that proposes eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, has become a dominating force in the 2024 election campaign as President Joe Biden and Democrats use it to make their case against former President Donald Trump.

Biden’s team has referred to Project 2025 as a “manifesto infused with MAGA ideology” that “should scare every single American” and has mentioned it in dozens of recent news releases. Its creators frame it as an effort to bring “self-government to the American people,” according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign recently has tried to distance itself from the initiative.

For K-12 schools, the agenda proposes a complete restructure of governance at the federal level and the eventual elimination of a key federal funding source: Title I, which provides grants to schools with large populations of low-income students.

 https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/project-2025-what-it-is-and-what-it-means-for-k-12-if-trump-wins/2024/07

There WAS a time when we had the best educational system in the world, but that is not longer true, since the best system in the world can now be found in Finland, while we have sunk to #17, and the link below explains why:

 https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2015/01/why-finns-are-smarter-than-us.html

Teaching is now an easy job, and am speaking from experience, since I have been a teacher for close to 20 years.

 

It’s an absolute fact that Trump 45 was the worst president in our nation’s history, and Trump 47 is worse. Although it will take decades to reverse the damage that Trump is doing to our country, it will happen EVENTUALLY.

For now, there is little that we can do other than electing the right people in every single election we can, but don’t forget to protest every chance we can.

 

 

how can you tell if a politician is lying?

The answer to that old question, of course, is “his lips are moving”.

E.J. Montini of the Arizona Republic dug into this topic in more depth this morning. If you do not have a subscription, you will not be able to open the link, so I’ll post the entire column below:

 ************************************************

Steve Benson was the whitest white person I had ever come across.

That’s what I told my friends back east.

Benson, who died this week at 71, started at The Arizona Republic a few months after I did in 1980.

He was a buttoned-up, short-sleeved, necktie-wearing Mormon (the first one I’d ever met), and I was a black T-shirt, blue jeans, moustache and shaggy-haired steelworker’s kid from Pittsburgh (the first one he’d ever met).

Neither one of us could decide which of us was from another planet, and we argued about that until we finally figured out the answer:

We both were.

A newspaper is a lot like the Island of Misfit Toys

It is the nature of the news business.

Benson was the grandson of Ezra Taft Benson, who had been secretary of agriculture during the Eisenhower administration and became the president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which Benson defined for me (given my Roman Catholic roots) as “the Mormon pope.”

He was born into LDS royalty, and he chose as his life’s work … cartooning.

I was the grandson of Italian immigrants whose father, uncles, cousins and brother worked in a steel mill, and who also worked in a steel mill, but only to save money for college tuition, so instead of using his shoulders and backbone for work he could use his fingers … typing.

A newspaper can be the Island of Misfit Toys for people like us. A safe haven. A home.

Benson and I shared an important thing in common

Benson was wrong about everything in those days — an unyielding arch-conservative who somehow believed that I was wrong about everything. We talked just about every day, agreeing on nothing except that the other guy was misinformed, if not completely nuts.

Then, in the late 1980s, along came Gov. Evan Mecham, who was impeached and removed from office, and we found out that one thing we had in common was that a person’s honesty and integrity mattered more to each of us than anything else.

Political persuasion. Race. Religion. Anything.

For a time, we even took our show on the road, appearing at public gatherings where we spoke and answered questions, almost always about how wrong the other guy was, yet at the same time showing — without saying so — that it was possible for people who disagreed vehemently with each other to coexist.

To be friendly. To even be friends.

He never stopped using his pen as a stiletto

Of course, this still included over time Benson mocking me in caricature drawings and even lambasting me in a published editorial cartoon after I criticized Charles Barkley (then playing with the Phoenix Suns) over his politics.

When Benson became disillusioned with his church, discovering that his ailing grandfather was being manipulated, his personal, political and religious views did a 180, and we argued even more, only now with him complaining that I was nowhere near the fire-spewing liberal he thought I should be.

We saw each other only a few times after he was laid off, joking about how the journalistic island we’d washed up on had become a little less inviting for misfits.

“The two of us might have to find real jobs when we finally decide to grow up,” he told me. “At least you would.”

Ever profession has its share of crooks, even though the majority of the people in that profession are honest and hard work.

Having said that, though, it IS true that some professions are not respected as well as other professions:

According to the lates Gallup poll, nurses remain the most trusted profession.

Americans’ ratings of nearly all 23 professions measured in Gallup’s 2023 Honesty and Ethics poll are lower than they have been in recent years. Only one profession -- labor union leaders -- has not declined since 2019, yet a relatively low 25% rate their honesty and ethics as “very high” or “high.”

Nurses remain the most trusted profession, with 78% of U.S. adults currently believing nurses have high honesty and ethical standards. However, that is down seven percentage points from 2019 and 11 points from its peak in 2020.

At the other end of the spectrum, members of Congress, senators, car salespeople and advertising practitioners are viewed as the least ethical, with ratings in the single digits that have worsened or remained flat.

gallup.com/poll/608903/ethics-ratings-nearly-professions-down.aspx

2019	2022	2023	2023-2019
	%	%	%	pct. pts.
Advertising practitioners	13	15	8	−5 −5 −5
Bankers	28	26	19	−9 −9 −9
Business executives	20	14	12	−8 −8 −8
Car salespeople	9	10	8	−1 −1 −1
Chiropractors	41	--	33	−8 −8 −8
Clergy	40	34	32	−8 −8 −8
College teachers	49	--	42	−7 −7 −7
Dentists	61	--	59	−2 −2 −2
Engineers	66	--	60	−6 −6 −6
Insurance salespeople	13	--	12	−1 −1 −1
Journalists	28	23	19	−9 −9 −9
Labor union leaders	24	24	25	1 1 1
Lawyers	22	21	16	−6 −6 −6
Medical doctors	65	62	56	−9 −9 −9
Members of Congress	12	9	6	−6 −6 −6
Nurses	85	79	78	−7 −7 −7
Pharmacists	64	58	55	−9 −9 −9
Police officers	54	50	45	−9 −9 −9
Psychiatrists	43	--	36	−7 −7 −7
Senators	13	--	8	−5 −5 −

You probably noticed that politicians are the least respected profession, even tough there ARE some honest politicians.

Examples include Joe Biden, Barack Obama, John McCain and Jeff Flake.

It’s also not hard to find politicians who have no integrity at all, which SHOULD make the voting process easier,

During his first terms of office, the Washington Post kept trace of the number of lies told by Trump.

When The Washington Post Fact Checker team first started cataloguing President Donald Trump’s false or misleading claims, we recorded 492 suspect claims in the first 100 days of his presidency. On Nov. 2 alone, the day before the 2020 vote, Trump made 503 false or misleading claims as he barnstormed across the country in a desperate effort to win reelection. This astonishing jump in falsehoods is the story of Trump’s tumultuous reign. By the end of his term, Trump had accumulated 30,573 untruths during his presidency — averaging about 21 erroneous claims a day. What is especially striking is how the tsunami of untruths kept rising the longer he served as president and became increasingly unmoored from the truth. Trump averaged about six claims a day in his first year as president, 16 claims day in his second year, 22 claims day in this third year — and 39 claims a day in his final year. Put another way, it took him 27 months to reach 10,000 claims and an additional 14 months to reach 20,000. He then exceeded the 30,000 mark less than five months later.

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FD/FD00/20240515/117301/HHRG-118-FD00-20240515-SD003.pdfdby Trump,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_or_misleading_statements_by_Donald_Trump

When Walter Cronkite was on the air, there were fewer shows on the air, a sharp contract to today when there are hundreds of channels to choose from in addition to the dizzying number of broadcasts – but it is still an easy choice.

It does not matter what a politician’s opinion is on immigration, gun control, abortion, religion, or taxes.

All you need to know is "does he have integrity"?

Here are a few exampled of that:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7431976391999907996/7962410017902551179

That, my friends, is all you need to know.