The week in review with Bll Katz, editor of Urgent Agenda. We will review the recent developments in Iran, the Venezuela oil deal, the Michigan AG will not attend the Democrats' state convention because she fears for her safety, NY City public teachers vs Mayor Mamdani plus other stories.....
The Piker problem did not happen by chance.
Click to read:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/08/stand-not-by-your-piker/
Our podcasts from last week.............
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
The entire Texas Democrat party has moved in lockstep so far to the left that it bears no relationship to LBJ’s Democrats.
Click to read:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/08/sorry-talarico-but-you-are-no-lbj/
Let’s remember Casey Stengel, who retired on this day in 1965.
Along the way, he managed the Brooklyn Dodgers (1934-1936), Boston Braves (1938-1943) and took over the New York Yankees in 1949 when he replaced the retiring Joe McCarthy.
It was his time with the Yankees that reminds me of my late father and his generation sitting around watching the TV or catching the sports pages about those great teams of the 1950’s. Casey won 1, 149 games (696 losses) over 12 seasons with the Yankees, including 10 AL pennants and seven World Series rings. Back then, my father would tell me that you were either a Yankee fan or cheer for whoever they were playing in “La Serie”.
He was quite a character as well as an amazing manager. Stengel’s critics say that he was a “button pusher” because of great teams. In fact, he was the first manager to use the platoon system (lefty batter vs right handed pitcher) and was a great judge of talent.
As my father said, Casey managed great teams but he was also a great manager. He was also the author of a lot of wonderful lines that transcend baseball such as this: “There comes a time in every man’s life, and I’ve had plenty of them.”.
So we remember Casey today and baseball conversations that I had with my late father over the years.
World War II: A look at the military leaders with Barry Jacobsen....click to listen:
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CBC and 9-11. US oil deal with Venezuela. Democrats say bye bye to Piker. We remember Dolly Parton.....
Canada is no longer the same country it was on September 11, 2001, and its recent memo about that grim day shows how far Canada has fallen.
Click to read:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/08/the-cbc-goes-piker/
Mason Williams & others had a big hit on the radio this week in August 1968:
1. People Got to Be Free - The Rascals (Atlantic)
2. Classical Gas - Mason Williams (Warner Brothers)
3. Turn Around, Look at Me - The Vogues (Reprise)
4. Light My Fire - Jose Feliciano (RCA)
5. Hello, I Love You - The Doors (Elektra)
6. Sunshine of Your Love - Cream (Atco)
7. Stoned Soul Picnic - The 5th Dimension (Soul City)
8. Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan (Epic)
9. Born to Be Wild - Steppenwolf (Dunhill)
10. Dream a Little Dream of Me - Mama Cass (Dunhill)
11. Pictures of Matchstick Men - The Status Quo (Cadet Concept)
12. Love Makes a Woman - Barbara Acklin (Brunswick)
13. Soul-Limbo - Booker T. & the MG's (Stax)
14. You're All I Need to Get By -
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (Tamla)
15. Journey to the Center of the Mind -
The Amboy Dukes (Mainstream)
16. I Can't Stop Dancing - Archie Bell & the Drells (Atlantic)
17. Stay In My Corner - The Dells (Cadet)
18. The House that Jack Built - Aretha Franklin (Atlantic)
19. Mr. Businessman - Ray Stevens (Monument)
20. The Fool On the Hill - Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 (A&M) P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
We recorded this November 2014............
LEAVING CUBA AGO WITH ORESTES MATACENA....Listen in now at........
The US-Canada "trade war", as some are calling it, keeps getting sillier by the minute. PM Carney should release the text and settle the matter. The CBC is not saying that their reporters should not refer to 9-11 as terrorism. We remember "I have a dream" speech 1963.......
Canada may have its pride, but sometimes pride leads people to cut off their noses to spite their faces, and that seems to be its current trajectory with Trump.
Click to read: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/08/too-much-about-trump-not-too-much-about-canada/
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).
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/
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.
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......
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/
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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.