Thursday, August 27, 2026

Mrs. Clinton & Democrats, US-Canada talks, Pres. Trump to Texas plus LBJ

 


Mrs. Clinton and what's going on with Democrats, US-Canada talks not moving forward, Pres. Trump to Texas plus we remember  the late President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-73).


Mrs. Clinton is another weak Democrat leader




Mrs. Clinton is another weak Democrat leader:

In her endless search for relevance, Hillary Clinton only manages to show that she’s scared of the new Jacobins.

Click to read:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/08/mrs-clinton-is-another-weak-democrat-leader/



Happy # 75 Buddy Bell




We say happy birthday to Buddy Bell, one of our favorite Texas Rangers, who was born on this day in 1951.

Bell broke with the Indians in 1972 and traded to the Rangers after the 1978 season.    He enjoyed some great seasons in Texas, 1979-85:  .293 batting average.   In 1989, He came back to Texas and retired here.   I recall watching him on opening day that season.  

Overall, Buddy Bell hit .279 with 2,514 hits in 2,405 games.   He also won 6 Gold Gloves during his time in Texas.    

1967: Brian Epstein was found dead

How Brian Epstein discovered the Beatles - CBS News
We remember Brian Epstein who died on this day in 1967.    

Brian signed The Beatles to a management contract on January 24, 1962.  He cleaned up their image and eventually got them a recording contract with Parlophone Records.   Later in October, the band issued their first 45 "Love me do", a top 20 hit in the UK. 

In 1963, the band hit # 1 with "Please please me" and "She loves you". Along with producer George Martin, Brian Epstein was a key player in the development of The Beatles.

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Wonder what LBJ would think of the Democratic Party today




Image result for LBJ 1954 US Senate images
About ten years ago, our family was driving in South Texas, and we a saw a sign about the birthplace of Lyndon B. Johnson.
It was a reminder that LBJ was born here.  He was born August 27, 1908 not far from Johnson City, a place that his family had settled.
It was an even bigger reminder of how irrelevant he’s become to the Texas Democratic Party.  
The legend of LBJ is a lost memory in Texas politics.
In 1948, a young LBJ performed a miracle to win the U.S. Senate election. 
In 1960, Texas Democrats voted for the Kennedy-Johnson ticket in a controversial election.
In 1976, Texas voted for Carter in another very close contest.  Texas gave then-governor Carter the 26 electoral votes that helped him get to 290 and victory.
What a difference for today’s Democratic Party.
Not long ago, there were Texas Democrats like Senator Lloyd Bentsen, a conservative Democrat.  He defeated then-businessman George H.W. Bush for the U.S. Senate in 1970.  
The history of Democrats in Texas makes for very enjoyable reading, as you can see in this rather lengthy but fascinating history of the party.  I found this part on recent Texas history so important:
Factional infighting in the Democratic party declined during the 1960s. First Johnson’s presidential ambitions and then his presidency dominated Texas politics in that decade. In 1959 the state legislature authorized a measure moving the Democratic primary from July to May and permitting candidates to run simultaneously for two offices, thus allowing Johnson to run for the Senate and the presidency. (This measure, dubbed the LBJ law, also benefited Lloyd Bentsen’s dual run for the vice-presidency and the Senate in 1988.)
Despite efforts by the Democrats of Texas to secure the support of state convention delegates and power within the party machinery, conservative Democrats retained control. Through the work of LBJ and the Viva Kennedy-Viva Johnson clubs, the Democrats narrowly carried Texas in 1960, reversing the direction of the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections in Texas. 
Similarly, the 1961 special election to fill Johnson’s Senate seat had a lasting effect on Democratic party organization in Texas. After Yarborough’s unexpected victory in the 1957 special election, conservative Democrats in the state legislature amended the election laws to require a run-off in special elections when no candidate received at least 50 percent plus one vote. In 1961, within a field of seventy-two candidates, three individuals made a strong claim for the liberal vote, thus dividing liberal strength and opening the way for a runoff between William A. Blakley, the interim senator and a conservative Texas Democrat, and John G. Tower, the only viable Republican candidate in the race. 
Liberal Democrats thought Blakley as conservative as Tower and opted either to “go fishing” during the run-off or support Tower, thinking it would be easier to oust him in 1966 with a more liberal Democratic challenger. Tower, however, easily won his next two reelection bids and eked out a third in 1978. Liberals also hoped that a Republican victory would encourage the development of an effective Republican party in the state and allow moderates and liberals to gain control of the state Democratic party. Indeed, Texas Democrats statewide remained divided between liberals who supported Ralph Yarborough and moderates who backed LBJ. The two factions waged war over the gubernatorial contest in 1962, when John B. Connally, a moderate to conservative Democrat associated with the Johnson wing of the party, was elected. 
As governor, Connally concentrated his efforts on economic development but received criticism from liberals who thought he neglected minorities and the poor. 
The Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963, which traumatized the citizens of Texas, also deeply shook the state Democratic party since it propelled Johnson into the White House and created the need for a greater degree of accommodation between moderate and liberal Texas Democrats. In the 1964 presidential race Johnson carried his home state with ease. 
In the middle to late 1960s, however, Connally’s iron rule of the State Democratic Executive Committee further weakened the liberal forces within the state Democratic party. 
The results of the 1968 presidential election in Texas also emphasized the sagging fortunes of the Democratic party in Texas, as Hubert Humphrey barely managed to carry the state.
My guess is that most of today’s Texas Democrats do not have a clue of this history or the names mentioned.
Texas Democrats all sound alike today.  There is no ideological diversity as you saw in the state party that produced a man like Lyndon Johnson and others. 
There are no conservative Democrats – just very liberal Democrats who subscribe to the same message of income redistribution and identity politics.  They are Obama Democrats rather than Texas Democrats.
Where are the Texas Democrats calling on the party to be more centrist?  They don’t exist, and that’s why the party is so boring and cannot compete statewide in a dynamic state.
Yes, there is calm in the Democrat ranks – the kind of calm that happens when nothing is going on.
Wonder what LBJ would say of his party today, especially the ones who want to take down symbols of the old South?  
To say the least, LBJ would not recognize his party on another anniversary of his birth in 1908.  
Sadly, most of these liberal Texas Democrats would not identify him, either.
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Wednesday, August 26, 2026

The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda

 


Guest:   Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda.   The Trump administration  declares economic war on Iran.  "Bodegas" vs in New York City.   Former Secretary Clinton calls what's happening in the Democrat Party is a healthy experiment......


Green is bad





Green is bad:

Why is gasoline more expensive in LA than just about everywhere else?

Click to read:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/08/green-is-bad/

--------------------------------------------

Before the Iran war, or before the affordability crisis could be blamed on President Trump's gas prices, gasoline was very expensive in California. I remember a friend visiting Los Angeles and telling me that he saw $6 gasoline when it was slightly over $3 in Texas. That's a lot of cash going from your wallet to the pump. I was surprised to hear that gas was so expensive out there.

So why was gasoline more expensive in LA than just about everywhere else? The answer comes in green --  this madness also known as the green agenda. Let's read more about it from Joel Kotkin:

Since the early 2000s, governors and legislators from both parties have signed onto a climate agenda that has contributed to a rise in California’s gas prices to around $5.55-$5.59 per gallon, compared to a national average of about $4.02. The cost of electricity is among the highest in the continental U.S.

Gov. Newsom’s response has been to blame Big Oil for price gouging. But that’s a convenient excuse. The truth is that California’s high energy prices are better understood as a self-inflicted wound, traceable to the state’s quixotic green energy policies.

Energy analyst Robert Bryce notes that wherever governments have tried to base their energy supply on a swift shift to renewables -- the UK, Germany, California -- the result has been huge spikes in energy prices.

Germany’s vaunted industrial economy has been devastated in large part because of the high cost of renewable energy.

These costs undermine California’s prosperity, while expanding the state’s already extreme divide between the haves and have-nots. The Air Resources Board’s most recent “scoping plan” -- the state framework for achieving carbon neutrality -- projects that the shift to renewable energy will result in significant income declines for households earning less than $100,000 annually, while boosting incomes for those above this threshold.    

These high costs make it difficult for California to cash in on its still remarkable innovation economy. This is one reason expanding tech firms -- many of them funders of green NGOs -- have set up new facilities in Arizona or Texas rather than California. Electricity costs are a major factor in chip-manufacturing and high-intensity computing.

 Let me make a long story very short: Go green, go broke.

The reality is that going green makes life more miserable for the middle class. The pain comes when you put gas in your car, or you get that electric bill in the mail. This is the reality of the green climate agenda. Everything is more expensive, and the Democrats just blame it on oil companies or (what's new) President Trump.

The green climate agenda also makes California less attractive for investment and drives more companies out. What happens when one of these companies, say, moves to Texas? They usually take jobs with them and a few taxpayers as well. Just drive through Central Texas, and you will see what I mean.

Green kills your economy -- just look at California. What a shame. Such a beautiful state governed by environmental fanatics.

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The TV and major league baseball games




We take baseball on TV for granted these days.  In fact, I watch more games on TV than at the ball park.  

So when did "baseball on TV" start?  The answer is 1939:
"Red Barber, the long-time radio voice of the Dodgers, also called the game for the broadcast. In the first game, Reds ace pitcher Bucky Walters flummoxed the Dodgers, holding them to just two hits in a 5-2 win. The Dodgers got their revenge in the second game with a 6-1 victory. In that second game, Dodger pitcher Hugh Casey snagged his ninth win with help from first baseman Dolf Camilli, who hit a two-run game-winning home run, his 22nd of the year, in the second inning. 
The game was broadcast from New York City’s Empire State Building, completed just eight years earlier, and could be seen in homes up to 50 miles away."
And that was the first televised game!

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Chicago 1968 and the Democrats

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August 26, 1987: Paul Molitor's streak ended at 39

Image result for paul molitor images
On this day in 1987, Paul Molitor went 0-for-4 and the streak was over.  He hit .415 during the streak.  It is still the 7th longest streak and the best since Pete Rose in 1978 and Joe DiMaggio in 1941.

Molitor broke with the Brewers in 1978.   He went on to have a marvelous career:  .306 average, 3,319 hits, & 1,307 RBI.  

He hit .355 for the Brewers in the 1982 World Series and was the 1993 World Series MVP when Toronto beat Philadelphia.

Just a great player and recently managed the Minnesota Twins.

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