I drove to Grand Island to watch the Pete Ricketts-Dan Osborn debate. I like to go to these things in person whenever possible to get a feel for the room.

The venue where the debate was held was next to the Grand Island casino and racetrack. A fitting metaphor for a longshot candidate that has made this a real horserace.

You rarely see two politicians with such a different visual style on stage. With the senator in his blue blazer and the worker in his blue-collar informal apparel. It set the stage for an evening that was long on disagreements but short on fireworks.

Pete was far more polished than Dan. But he also came across as more rehearsed. Dan seemed a little uncomfortable up there but a lot more genuine.

It was almost comical the way the incumbent senator kept calling his challenger Democrat Dan. Constantly reinforcing his message that Democrats are bad for America. A very interesting argument considering his wife is a Democrat who is running for the Board of Regents. More than one person online wondered if he calls his wife Democrat Susanne.

Share

Subscribe now

And that to me is what is wrong with American politics today. Pete attacking Dan as a Democrat plays well to his base, but as I sat there, I kept thinking that if he is reelected, he’ll be the senator for all Nebraskans, not just the 50% who are registered Republicans.

Yes, many Democrats are supporting Dan even though he has been a registered non-partisan his whole life. He didn’t switch party affiliation just for the sake of politics.

I too am a non-partisan voter. Does that mean I agree with everything Dan Osborn says? absolutely not! I also don’t disagree with everything that Pete Ricketts believes either.

And that’s the main point that I took away from the debate. Dan agreed with the president on securing the border. He also agreed with Pete on his views on importing all that foreign ground beef. Pete didn’t say that he agreed with Dan about anything.

During the whole debate Senator Ricketts championed his tax cuts, while stoking the flames of the culture wars. The Ricketts campaign is betting that the fear tactics that have worked to get Republicans elected in the past will work again this election cycle.

Osborn on the other hand is rolling the dice and wagering that people are tired of that rhetoric and are looking for someone who can work with the other side to solve problems instead of kicking them down the road. He made the point that a good idea is a good idea.

Is Osborn a little naïve when it comes to what he can accomplish in the Senate if he’s elected? Possibly. But that naivete might propel him to try to fix some of the things that are wrong in American politics today.

It really bothered me the amount of time Pete Ricketts focused on the support Dan Osborn is getting from Democrats. The head of the Nebraska Democratic Party Jane Kleeb and other high-ranking Dems were at the debate. But those Democrats are constituents of the Senator as well.

As I watched the businessman and the worker go at each other, I couldn’t help but think that they both need each other. Without the workers the companies go down the toilet. But without the businessman there aren’t any jobs in the first place.

I know Senator Ricketts thinks that government should be run like a business. Did he look down on his employees at TD Ameritrade the way he looks down at Democrats? Are the players on the Cubs costing him money or making him money?

Both sides need to work together in business, and they need to work together in politics too.

I’ll reiterate what Dan Osborn said. “A good idea is a good idea.”

I doubt the debate changed anyone’s minds. And I’m sure that the Ricketts campaign will continue to try to portray Dan as a Democrat and stoke the culture war fears.

If I was handicapping this race right now, I’d put the odds at even money. But we’re only rounding the second turn. I have no doubt it’s going to get a lot more intense when we head into the home stretch towards the finish line.

Perhaps it was fitting that the debate was held next door to a casino after all.

My real estate business is what pays the bills and allows me to work on these columns. If you live in the Omaha area contact me at Better Homes and Gardens the Good Life Group 402-321-9590 If I can help you or a friend with your real estate needs.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Even if you don’t spend any time online there’s a good chance someone will send them to you anyway.

I have had a love hate relationship with memes for years. They can often be humorous. But all too often they can also be misleading or flat out lying.

Tweets can do the same thing only with words instead of pictures.

Both memes and tweets can be used to replace critical thinking.

Subscribe now

This morning I woke up to a ton of memes regarding the renaming of Lake Ontario and our unnecessary, stupid, and childish trade war with Canada.

I’ll admit I found a lot of them to be funny. Until the critical thinking kicked in.

One that really stuck with me was that some Canadian had redesigned the American flag. In the left corner was the sea of blue and the 50 stars. But the red and white stripes were now shaped to look like a circus tent.

At first, I thought it was funny until the critical thinking kicked in and it hit me that Canadians and the rest of the world are starting to see America as some kind of joke. A circus instead of a powerful respected leader. Then it made me kind of sad.

A friend who makes it a point to defend everything President Trump does sent me a copy of a tweet this morning in a group chat. The tweet reverted to the old whataboutism arguments regarding Obama renaming Mt. McKinley to Denali and Biden taking the names of Confederate Generals off military bases and how nobody was outraged about that.

I’m sure my friend didn’t give that tweet a second thought, because if he had he would have realized that renaming those things had nothing to do with a trade war with an ally. Obama and Biden didn’t rename those things as a childish petty insignificant retaliation to them not getting their way in a trade war. My friend also would have remembered that there was outrage from the right about renaming those things and that President Trump renamed them back as soon as he returned to office.

I know that memes and tweets aren’t going away. I also know that they are just modern-day versions of political cartoons and flyers posted on street corners.

But I also know that too many people take them at face value. They react to the emotion without digging a little deeper to see if that emotion is valid.

The same can be true about the political ads you see on TV. They are used to generate an emotional response. Either to love their candidate or hate the other. How many voters make their decisions based on TV ads, tweets and memes and not on cold hard facts?

I have my real estate license, and I know that when someone buys a house it’s an emotional experience. A potential buyer will know within the first five minutes of walking through the door if that house is right for them or not.

But they don’t make their final decision based on that short time visual emotional experience.

After that initial adrenaline high of falling in love with the kitchen, yard, or neighborhood, they start to do their research. I work with them to see if the price makes sense, to see how long the house has been on the market. We make sure they have the house inspected. They check on taxes and schools before signing the papers.

I wish more voters did the same due diligence when it comes to deciding who they’re going to vote for. Do they make their decisions based the emotions memes, tweets, or TV ads generate? Do they make their decisions on the down ballot races based on their neighbor’s yard signs?

Or do they use those messages as a starting point to do more research before casting their vote?

We can’t take memes, tweets and TV ads too seriously, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy them. We just need to take a deeper look into what’s really behind them. Are they accurate? Is there more to the story? What are they trying to accomplish?

After doing the research we all won’t come to the same conclusion, but at least we’ll be able to defend our positions because the conclusions will be more thought out than a meme, tweet, or TV ad.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Share Tom Becka

If you live in the Omaha area please contact me for your Real Estate needs. I’m with Better Homes and Gardens the Good Life Group Real Estate. 402-321-9590

I was about fourteen years old and had just started to pay attention to the news when I heard the adults at the kitchen table talking about something former Illinois senator Everitt Dirksen supposedly said.

“A billion dollars here and a billion dollars there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

He was talking about the national debt which at that time, was about $352 billion dollars. That’s Billion. With a B.

When you factor in inflation that’s only $3.2 trillion dollars today.

That’s right I said ONLY $3.2 trillion dollars. Trillion with a Capitol T.

The current national debt just reached over $40 trillion dollars. Again, that’s with a Capitol T.

How did things get so out of hand?

Republicans want to point the finger at Democrats and Democrats blame the Republicans. But while those two sides have their pissing match, we’re the ones getting wet.

Subscribe now

And while the R’s and D’s duke it out the real answer on how it got so out of hand lies with us. Yes us. You and me are responsible for what may soon put us over a fiscal cliff.

To prove my point let me tell you a couple of anecdotes from my talk radio days.

Deficit spending and the national debt has always been a hot topic with me. I warned about the dangers often on my radio show.

I started my talk radio career during the Clinton administration. A brief moment in time when it looked like the Republicans and Democrats could possibly work together to try fix the problem during the dot com boom.

That didn’t last long.

When George W. Bush became president, he inherited a national debt of 5.73 trillion dollars. By the end of his term, it had ballooned to 10.63 trillion dollars. I complained about how the deficit kept going up under Bush but because I was criticizing a Republican on conservative talk radio, callers called me a liberal.

When Barack Obama took office, I complained about how government spending was increasing the debt even more and those same Republican callers praised me for attacking a Democrat. One caller actually said, “It’s about time you started seeing things our way.”

Another angle I occasionally took was asking where the government should cut spending. But there was one caveat. You could only suggest cutting programs that benefitted you. In other words, you couldn’t say cut farm subsidies if you weren’t a farmer or cut food stamps if you weren’t on them.

That made the conversation much more difficult. It’s easy to say that the government should cut spending as long as they’re not cutting into what benefits you.

I checked all the current Nebraska House and Senate candidate’s websites to see what they were going to do about the deficit. All of them gave very generic, painless solutions. Some used the over used phrase of “waste fraud and abuse” without saying where the waste and abuse was, or who was committing the fraud.

When I brought up the 40 trillion dollar figure on my social media page you can guess how that turned out. One side blamed Biden the side other blamed Trump. But nobody blamed who was really at fault.

Us. You and me.

To get this budget under control it’s going to take all of us to fix it. It’s not the other guy’s responsibility it all of ours. There is no easy way out.

Government spending has got to be curtailed. But that means for everyone. Not just the poor or elderly on government assistance, but the rich military contractors and the farmers too.

Taxes are going to have to be raised for everyone not just the Elon Musk’s and Jeff Bezo’s of the world. Leave the working poor alone, but raise the taxes on the rich and middle class.

We need to raise the age of retirement and increase the ceiling on Social Security contributions too.

There is no one hundred percent solution to fix this crisis. There are a hundred one percent solutions.

But we can’t keep putting this off. It’s time to let our elected officials know that the country may be floating down the peaceful river now, but we can hear Niagara Falls in the distance. It’s time for all of us to start paddling to avoid the danger.

Whether Senator Dirksen actually said it or not, we are now talking about real money.

Share

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in the Omaha area, contact me at Better homes and Gardens, the Good Life Group. 402-321-9590

Well 2 epiphanies really and the first one isn’t very deep or insightful.

My first epiphany is that polling must show Pete Ricketts is really trailing Dan Osborn. Ricketts and his surrogates have got to be running at least twice as many commercials as the Osborn campaign. And we are still over 60 days from the election. It almost smells like desperation.

Speaking of political commercials my second epiphany has to deal with that topic as well.

Subscribe now

My whole life I’ve paid close attention to politics and government. I’ve made a career of it. But I focus primarily on Nebraska and national politics. I know or at least have spoken to all the major Nebraska candidates. I am friends with or have close working contact with some of the people working behind the scenes of many of the candidates. I read articles and columns about the races from multiple outlets.

I don’t pretend to know everything that’s going on politically in Omaha and Nebraska, but I do think I’m more informed than the average voter who makes their choice based only on the political ads.

The opposite is true when it comes to what’s going on in Iowa politics. I don’t know anything about any of the folks running for office except what I see on TV. If I had to vote in Iowa today, I’d be an uneducated voter and probably vote for Rob Sand and against Josh Turek based solely on what I’ve seen in their TV spots.

The only reason I chose them is because those are the only two names I could think of off the top of my head. But I’m not even sure if they are running for different offices or running against each other. I don’t know what their positions are on taxes, schools, the military, or any other issue. I don’t even know if they’re Republicans or Democrats.

I just know that Rob Sand seems like a nice guy and Josh Turek misses votes. I also know there’s some guy running for Iowa governor who spends a lot of time in Kansas. I just can’t think of his name right now.

My epiphany was that I was watching the Iowa elections the way a lot of voters watch their elections. They don’t dig into the details of where the candidates stand on the issues. Many voters make their decisions on how the commercials make them feel.

Take a look at some of the ads currently running here in Nebraska. Denise Powell has toned down her rhetoric. She’s not as pissed off as she was during the primary. She has some guy saying that she’ll work with both sides in congress.

Her opponent Brinker Harding is also claiming that he’ll work across the aisle. He makes that point by claiming that since he is the only male in the family, he’s learned to deal with a hostile environment.

Neither of those ads makes the voter more informed. They do try to set the tone that they are nice people before the knives come out closer to November. I’ll bet it won’t be long before Denise attacks Brinker for saying that women are hostile and Brinker starts calling her Dark Money Denise.

Those ads won’t give you any real insight into either Brinker or Denise, but they do strike an emotional chord with the voters who don’t pay close attention to the details of the candidate’s policies.

Neither of my epiphanies aren’t really epiphanies. Both seem pretty obvious when you think about it. And I hope the voters will think about it. I hope that they will do some more research and dig deeper than the TV ads and the party affiliation. I hope that they will go to the websites. Watch the debates. Go to the town halls. Walk up to them and ask them questions if the see them marching in a parade.

And while I realize that won’t happen to the extent I wish it would, I do hope more make a concerted effort to be more educated voters regardless of what they decide. I hope they won’t be like I would be if I was an Iowa voter.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

This article and more of my work can be found at the Omaha Daily Record.

What do you remember about 9/11 2001? Do you remember anything at all?

I’m sure you’ve seen the yard signs popping up all over town. They say The Heartland Honors 9/11. It’s to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and Shanksville Pennsylvania.

I was at the press conference where Mayor Ewing, Police Chief Schmaderer, Fire Chief Kathy Bossman and others announced the plans to commemorate those events.

The room was filled with fire, police, and other first responders. Many of whom weren’t even born then or couldn’t have been more than 5 years old when it happened. To them 9/11 is ancient history. But to many of us who were adults when the tragedy occurred, the memory is still very fresh.

When America celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the end of WWII I was only 10 years old. The nation remembered the day the war ended, but my friends and I sure didn’t. We weren’t even alive during the war. But we were living in the world that war and its aftermath created.

My parents knew a world without the nuclear bomb. A world where women’s rights were ignored and segregation was accepted.

I never knew that world.

Subscribe now

Just like all those young people at that press conference never knew a world where we didn’t have troops in combat zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. A world where we weren’t constantly fighting terrorism.

I knew that world. They don’t.

They say the only constant in life is change, and 9/11 changed America. In some ways for the better some ways for the worst.

The Heartland Honors 9/11 is an area wide event to remember the good things that happened. It is an effort to bring back that sense of unity and service that we had immediately following that horrific attack.

Starting September 1^st through the September 11^th, SHARE Omaha, SHARE Iowa, and the United Way of the Midlands will be putting on a full court press to encourage young people and reinforce older generations to understand the importance of helping others and working together as a community. Just like we did after 9/11.

They’ll be highlighting ways to get involved to make Omaha, America, and the world a better place.

Politicians and many in the media talk about how divided we are as a country. And if all you look at is the political landscape or opinions on individual issues it’s easy to believe that’s true.

But if you look beyond that you’ll see that we have a lot more in common than we’d like to admit.

The Heartland Honors 9/11 is an effort to remind us that we are all in this together.

Immediately following that terrorist attack America came together. People prayed together for the victims. They donated to the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, the United Way and other church and civic organizations to do their part to help.

Nobody cared if the victims were Republicans or Democrats. Nobody cared if they were straight, gay, or transgender. Nobody cared if you were here legally or illegally. We just knew that people were hurting and we had to do something to help.

Unfortunately, that unity didn’t last very long. The Heartland Honors 9/11 is an effort to rekindle that feeling in America. An effort to thank the first responders and the others who help those in need every day.

There’s no need to wait for September to roll around. There are little things we can do every day. Reach out to someone who has different political, religious, or social beliefs. Get to know them. Have them get to know you. Rekindle old friendships that may have been strained in the current political environment.

Donate to a church or charity that you support. Spend less time on social media and more time being social.

Volunteer.

Be a part of the 11 days of service. Visit

https://heartlandhonors9-11.com

to find out more details on how you can contribute.

It shouldn’t take a tragedy to bring the country together. It shouldn’t be a national emergency to get us to volunteer or care for others.

You may have been too young to recall what America was like on that fateful day, but we can’t forget the men and women who lost their lives that day and always remember that we are much better when we serve others and are united,not divided.

My sub stack page is sponsored by my real estate business.

Contact me at 402-321-9590 if I can help you to buy or sell a home.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Just when you think politics in Nebraska can’t get any stranger, the Secretary of State says, “Hold my beer.”

Last Friday, Bob Evnen the Secretary of State announced that Brett Lindstrom didn’t have enough valid signatures to qualify to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for governor. Three petitioners who have already been charged with a felony for falsifying signatures on a separate issue, allegedly falsified signatures for Brett causing him to not meet the necessary threshold.

Brett had been previously scheduled to speak to the Free Speech Society the following day and it would have been understandable if he backed out. But Brett is a man of his word and he showed up. Boy did he show up.

Brett talked about how the business community in this state know what a disaster Pillen has been as governor, but don’t have the courage to speak up and support a challenger to the powers that be.

That word really stuck with me… COURAGE.

Subscribe now

We see a lot of the cowardice of the Republican Party these days. People that see what is going on and are afraid to speak out. Afraid they might not get invited to the parties. Afraid that the leadership might not like them.

It’s like they haven’t grown out of high school and don’t want to be ostracized from the cool kid’s clique. A perfect example is when Marco Rubio to wore shoes 3 sizes too big just because President Trump gave them to him and he didn’t want to upset his boss. He didn’t want to get kicked out of the club.

That same cowardice can be found in Nebraska.

Brett Lindstrom spoke of how the Aksarben elite talk a good game behind closed doors, but when push comes to shove, they are cowards who are afraid to put their money where their mouth is. Afraid to upset the ruling class.

At a previous Free Speech Society meeting Mike Cassling spoke about how Nebraska is on the wrong path under the current administration. We are falling behind other neighboring states when it comes to inviting primary and secondary businesses to enjoy the Good Life. Mike Casling and Dana Bradford have put together a plan to right that wrong and they map it out on their website. I don’t have space to get into the details here but please visit

https://strengtheningnebraskafamilies.com

to see their plan.

And while Brett didn’t call out Mike Cassling, Dana Bradford, or others out by name, it was very obvious the group of people he was talking about. The monied men and women behind the scenes who donate to the politicians to get them elected. The folks who grease the wheels to give qualified people like Brett or Lynne Walz the needed funds to compete on a fair playing field.

I have no doubt that the Aksarben monied elite know that Jim Pillen won’t do any better in his second term than he has in the first. Yet Jim Pillen has listed many of those people in the business community as supporters of him serving another four years.

COWARDS!

Brett wasn’t afraid to speak out and tell the state that the emperor had no clothes. He spoke out to say that Nebraska can’t keep going down this fiscal path and that things have to change. And for that he’s paid the price.

And while Brett spoke about Pillen’s fiscal failings during his talk, we can’t dismiss Pillen’s moral failings like the 2.5 million dollar no bid contract he gave to a close friend as well.

Brett is down but he may not be out. He may hitch a ride on a “pirate ship” and be the nominee for governor in the Working People’s party. One of the two new parties trying to get on the ballot this November. These parties were ostensibly set up to play a part in the senate race, but they might have a part to play in the governor’s race now as well.

Politics has always been a contact sport and it’s hitting hard right now. It takes a courageous person to step up and speak truth to power.

It also takes money.

If Brett gets on the ballot both he and the Democratic challenger Lynne Walz are going to need those monied people behind the scenes to have the courage to say what their saying behind closed doors and fund those who have the courage to make the changes we need to get Nebraska back on the right track.

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

Governor Pillen wants to stop paying people to get the names. But we can’t throw the baby out with the bath water. In our Unicameral system of government, with a weak Democratic Party, the petition process is the only way to get some important measures before the people.

Nebraska isn’t as red of a state as many people say we are. If you take a look at what the voters pass once it gets on the ballot vs what our elected officials give us when the Unicameral is in session, it’s a tale of two states.

There’s no way our conservative Republican legislators would have passed legislation to legalize medical marijuana, increase the minimum wage, expand Medicaid, end a private school voucher program or allow us to have casino gambling if it wasn’t for the petition process.

Subscribe now

Even after voters have their say on these issues the governor, attorney general, and other conservative powerbrokers in the state do their best to water down, delay or even totally disregard and dismiss the will of the people.

For Nebraska to move forward we need the petition process as a way to let the voters voices be heard on issues many legislators don’t want to hear.

But as evidenced by the arrests in Lancaster County, paying petitioners per signature is a flawed system. So how do we make it better?

In a perfect world every petition drive would be run by dedicated volunteers who were taking time out of their weekends to go door to door or stand in front of stores and libraries to get legitimate signatures.

But we don’t live in that world. To get something on the ballot we need to pay those who are gathering the signatures.

I don’t mean to be rude but the men and women who take these jobs don’t always have other options. It’s not like they have the choice of being either an employee who holds a clipboard to collect signatures or a CEO of a fortune 500 company. There really isn’t any room for upward mobility in these jobs.

But you’d think the possibility of going to jail would be enough motivation to do the job right.

Governor Pillen wants to use this crime as an excuse to get rid of paying petitioners for signatures. But if we don’t pay people, it will in effect kill the petition process taking away the voice of many Nebraskans.

Voices that the governor and other conservative politicians too often don’t want to hear.

Instead of getting rid of the current system making the rules tougher and the penalties harsher might be a better idea.

Currently those who are accused of violating the law are charged with just one count of fraud. The penalty for that Class IV Felony is punishable by up to two years imprisonment, a $10,000 fine, or both.

Maybe they should reform the law to make it mandatory to add a separate charge for every bogus page turned in. If a petitioner was faced with 30 or more felony charges, they might think twice before making up names and birthdays.

They could also pass legislation where the organization that sponsors the petition could face a civil penalty if they don’t make a good faith effort to check the signatures before submitting them to the Secretary of State.

I’m sure there are other and better ideas to reform the way we do things now. Our senators need to look at all options except the one where we stop paying petitioners all together.

Governor Pillen knows better than most that money is the lifeblood of politics. Take money away from the petitioners and you are giving more power to the political establishment and taking away power from the people.

The investigation into this crime continues and more arrests are expected to be made.

I hope that when the senators return to Lincoln in January, they can find a way to prevent things like this from happening again.

No system is perfect, but getting rid of petitioners would be a crime.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

If you’re not paying attention to the case out of Lancaster County where 2/3 of the signatures submitted by a group called Good Government Lincoln were flagged as fraudulent, you should be. While this petition was focused on Lincoln issues, there could be broader political consequences statewide.

As I write this, five people from out of state have been arrested and charged with falsifying a circulator’s affidavit. This is a Class IV Felony punishable by up to two years imprisonment a $10,000 fine or both. According to Lancaster County Deputy Sheriff Ben Houchin, there are still outstanding warrants and the investigation is ongoing.

Now I want to make it clear that it’s very possible that these five people were just lazy and falsified signatures to collect their paychecks and go home. It’s also very possible that Axiom strategies, the conservative consulting firm that employed these petitioners, did nothing nefarious. As of now there is no indication the firm headed up locally by Jessica Flannagain did anything illegal. In talking with people who have been involved in previous petition drives, the only thing Axiom might have done wrong was they didn’t properly vet the petitioners or check the signatures themselves before turning them in.

Subscribe now

But the investigation into this crime needs to be seriously investigated considering the powerful people involved with Axiom strategies. Axiom Strategies is a national political consulting firm that focuses on Republican and conservative candidates and issues. Jessica Flanagain is a partner in the firm, and her clients include people like Senator Pete Ricketts, Attorney General Mike Hilgers, and until recently Governor Jim Pillen.

Axiom has never worked with Lancaster County Deputy Sheriff Ben Houchin but people who have endorsed him have. Ben Houchin was the man who announced the arrests and exposed the alleged fraudulent behavior. At that press conference the Deputy Sheriff said, “Nothing in our investigation makes us believe any political entity is working or affiliated with this.”

While the claim that no political entity is involved in the crime could very well be true, it’s also possible there could political pressure applied. The Attorney General has endorsed Ben Houchin. Politics should not play a part in this investigation.

I like dealing with facts not rumors or conspiracies. But the fact is the firm involved with hiring these alleged criminals has powerful people in place to protect them.

Remember when there was minimal fraudulent activity with the medical marijuana petitions? The Attorney General got in front of the cameras and ran the medical marijuana leaders through the wringer. There were press conferences, lawsuits, and public hearings to try to find widespread criminal activity. After all that digging and character assassination one person was found guilty of misdemeanor charges and fined $3,800. A verdict he’s appealing. Jessica Flanagain and Axiom strategies were consultants in the anti-medical marijuana campaign.

One other interesting sidenote. In 2023 Axiom was a defendant in a Las Vegas lawsuit where a political action committee claimed that the company defrauded them. This $2.2 million dollar lawsuit claimed Axiom failed to gather at least 140,000 valid signatures to break up the Clark County School District. The lawsuit alleged that the company gathered “fraudulent and forged signatures.”

The case was settled with Axiom not admitting to any wrongdoing. The financial details were not disclosed.

Once again, I’m not alleging that Axiom or Jessica Flanagain did anything illegal. I am saying that this needs to be investigated thoroughly. I am saying that Attorney General Mike Hilgers went after the Medical Marijuana petitioners in the media and in the courts. Will he give the same scrutiny to a political ally?

The investigation is still going on so we need to pay attention but not rush to judgement. An independent special investigator might not be a bad idea. It also might not be a bad idea to revisit how we pay petitioners. Currently the sponsors pay them per signature. Perhaps an hourly wage with bonuses for reaching valid signature goals might be a better system.

Election integrity is very important. And it looks like the safeguards put in place to guarantee the validity of the signatures worked.

But it only works if we elect people with integrity and keep paying close attention.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Former World Herald cartoonist along with screenwriter Christine Burright and comedian Matt Geiler are working on a a streaming project that they believe will have a large world wide audience. It’s an animate series called Bunny & Bear.

They currently have an indigogo page to raise the final funds necessary to complete the first season. They will also be holding a fundraiser at the FunnyBone on August 12th where I’ll be the MC.

Check out their project and if you can lend a hand to get them to the finish line I know it would be greatly appreciated.

https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/christineburrightmcguigan/bunnybearseasonone?ref=explore

This would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. The political gamesmanship that’s being played between the Ricketts camp and the Democratic party.

It’s funny how Ricketts thought he was pulling a fast one by getting a very conservative man to call himself a Democrat to confuse voters on election day.

It’s funny how the Democrats outsmarted him by getting a real Democrat to win the nomination and then pull out of the race giving a boost to the Osborn campaign.

Now it’s funny to see that losing candidate has filed a lawsuit to force the Democrats to put a candidate on the ballot. Mind you he’s not suing to get HIS name on the ballot. He’s suing to get ANYBODY’S name on the Democratic ticket to take votes away from the independent candidate Osborn.

Subscribe now

The head of the state’s Democratic party Jane Kleeb is laughing in the face of the lawsuit. There is no law that says the party must run a candidate. Hell, there have been elections in the past where the Democrats can’t even find a candidate to run for a statewide office like senator. I’m sure if the Democrats had a viable candidate, they’d put one up for a vote.

Yes, watching all this unfold is rather humorous.

But the consequences are very serious.

It appears that the incumbent senator is running scared.

He’s afraid that people will remember that his votes helped put Pete Hegseth in office, the man orchestrating the failing war in Iran.

He’s afraid that people haven’t forgotten that his vote helped keep the Epstein files under wraps by supporting Pam Bondi for Attorney General. Or that the measles epidemic and exploding diarrhea explosion are happening under the unqualified head of Health and Human Services. A man he voted to put in office.

And if that isn’t enough, he’s worried that the 70% of Nebraska voters who voted for medical marijuana will remember how hard he’s worked to nullify their vote.

Last Thursday night Dan Osborn held a rally at the Astro amphitheater to kick off his tour of all 93 Nebraska counties. At first it was to be held at a union hall, when demand grew, they moved it to a bigger union hall. And when the RSVP’s reached a number that hall couldn’t handle, they moved it to the Astro theater in predominantly Republican LaVista.

Now traditionally politicians like to hold rallies in venues that are smaller than the demand. It looks better on TV to see the place packed. There might just be a few hundred people there, but with the right camera angle in a small venue it looks bigger than it is.

I was curious to see what it would look like in a venue that holds 2,400 people. Would the place look empty? Did they make a mistake in booking the bigger venue?

The crowd wasn’t at capacity, but there had to be at least a thousand or more people there to hear what Osborn had to say. Having followed local politics all these years, I can tell you that having that many people come to hear a candidate talk five months before an election in the middle of summer,is a lot of people.

A lot of people who especially cheered when Dan Osborn made his more pointed attacks on our current senator. They loved his slogan “If you want to fix Washington send in a mechanic.”

I was at the first rally Dan Osborn held a little over two years ago when he announced his independent run for senator. There were maybe 150 people there and 4 or 5 campaign volunteers.

But even then, I could sense that there was something happening. I saw Republican and Democratic friends who were looking for something different. But back then an independent running against Deb Fischer seemed like a joke.

But nobody’s laughing now.

The Ricketts camp is spending a lot of money to run a series of TV ads. One TV ad attacks Dan personally, another praises Pete for cutting taxes.

But will voters be thinking of tax cuts if they can’t afford gas, groceries, and doctors? Will voters be more concerned with standing up to this administration’s abuses than what bathroom a person uses?

From a spectator’s point of view what’s going on in this Senate race is fun to watch. But the consequences of this election are no laughing matter.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

I just wish he was a better American.

As I write this, they say that the senator from Kentucky is alive, lucid and recuperating. If that’s true I wish him a speedy recovery.

I also wish he would step down and let an able-bodied person do his job.

Mitch McConnell is 84 years old. And that’s not a spry 84 years old. He’s blacked out in front of the cameras. He had to be wheeled through the halls of the Capitol too feeble to walk. Even when he was visibly present on Capitol Hill, he was one step away from Weekend at Bernies.

Subscribe now

Mitch McConnell doesn’t get enough credit for getting us in the mess America is in today. His lack of leadership and his political cowardice during the January 6^th impeachment trial gave Donald Trump a lifeline to return to the White House.

If he was a better American, he could have done more to convict the president, preventing him from ever running for the office again. At the very least he could have joined the seven Republican senators who voted to convict.

Instead, when it came time, he voted not guilty even though he knew the President was indeed guilty. After they failed to reach the 2/3 majority to convict, he went on the Senate floor to excoriate President Trump calling him “morally responsible.” He went on to say that the president’s actions were a “disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.”

Tough talk when it was too late to do anything about it.

Thanks to McConnell’s cowardice we are in a war with no sign of getting out. A war that has increased the price of gas and threatens to upset the world’s economy. A war that is being used as a recruiting tool for terrorists.

Due to McConnell being so concerned with covering his political ass we have tariff’s that are alienating our allies like Canada and Australia.

These tariffs are not only alienating our friends, but it’s also making it harder for everyday Americans to feed their families. But thanks to McConnell being such a good politician we have a president that is using his office to generate billions for his own personal wealth.

Mitch McConnell is a hypocrite. When Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to be a Supreme Court Justice, he refused to take it up for a vote saying that it was too close to the next presidential election. His argument was that the next president should make the nomination. There were 294 days left in Obama’s term.

And while I disagreed with that tactic, I could have given him the benefit of the doubt if he wasn’t such a hypocrite.

Because when President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett with only 100 days left, McConnell fast tracked that nomination guaranteeing a conservative majority in the Supreme Court.

McConnell’s hypocrisy gave us a nation where the Supreme Court gave the president expanded powers and increased immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.

Mitch McConnell is stepping down in November anyway. But either he or his wife and handlers are clinging onto that seat regardless of the lack of representation for the voters of Kentucky.

It’s all part of being a good politician.

But a good American would do the right thing and let a competent person have the job. A noble American would be more concerned with the good of the country and less concerned with his own political power.

But I guess I’m just being a dreamer. Even though the Constitution calls for our government to be concerned with the “General Welfare” of the country, in today’s world too many in politics are more concerned with their power and influence.

Mitch McConnell was a very good politician. He’s Kentucky’s longest serving senator holding office for over 40 years. During that time he saw the nations debt increase from 1.8 billion in 1985 to almost 40 Trillion dollars today. He was able to go up the ranks of power to eventually be the longest serving Senate leader in U.S. history.

And still with all that power he doesn’t get enough credit for helping to put us in the mess we are in today. He helped create a country where we have plenty of money for bombs, but not enough money to help pay senior citizen’s medical costs or help feed the poor.

But those things will happen when our elected leaders are more concerned with being good politicians instead of good Americans.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

I started my career in talk radio during the Clinton administration. During that time, I had numerous Republican callers complaining about the dumbing down of America.

But over the years the Republican leaders got smart and realized they could benefit from the dumbing down of America.

Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that all Republicans are dumb. Far from it. I will say that the party works to appeal to the dumb ones to get votes and the smart Republicans just go along for the ride.

Some Republican voters actually believed Mexico was going to pay to build a wall. Others thought that immigrants in Ohio were eating dogs and cats. And with absolutely no proof, some believe that there is rampant voter fraud.

Take the case of Republican candidate for Nebraska Secretary of State Scott Petersen. Now I don’t know Mr. Petersen personally, so I don’t know if some of his claims and policies are things that he actually believes, or if he’s playing to the same voters who believed Trump when he said he could reduce prescription drug prices by 3,000% or end the war in Ukraine in a day.

Subscribe now

Mr. Petersen doesn’t seem to believe that our elections are safe and secure. Yet somehow he won the primary. Does he think he was victorious with the help of thousands of illegal immigrants voting? Or is he like President Trump and believes that the elections he wins are the only ones that are safe and secure?

Mr. Petersen also thinks that mail in ballots should be curtailed. Is he aware that that would hurt the rural voters in the state? Does he know there are 11 counties in Nebraska where you can’t vote in person? Eleven rural counties that have no physical polling place. And many more rural counties where the voters have to drive for miles to be able to cast a ballot. Does he want to take away the rural vote? Voters who tend to vote for more Republicans than Democrats?

That doesn’t seem very smart.

I took a look at Mr. Petersen’s Facebook page and saw where he has reposted claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election. Claims that have been disproven time and time again.

But the Secretary of State does more than oversee elections. They also oversee business registrations and international relations. During an interview Mr. Petersen said that he would defer international trade policies to the governor. Even though Nebraska law clearly states that the Secretary of State is the Chief Protocol Officer for International Relations. It says that the Secretary of State needs to coordinate with other state agencies, not be subservient to the governor.

I wonder if Mr. Petersen would have that same fealty to the governor if Lynne Walz were to be elected. I seriously doubt it.

In a previous column after the primary, I expressed doubts about the viability of Sarah Slattery the Democratic nominee for Secretary of State. I didn’t know much about her then other than she was a small business owner and a chef.

Since then, I have had the opportunity to have a conversation with Ms. Slattery. I have learned that she is much more than that. I now believe that my doubts are unfounded.

I’m not naïve, I know it’s going to be an uphill battle to defeat the candidate that was able to upset the incumbent Secretary of State. But I know Ms. Slattery is out there climbing that hill. She is traveling the state talking to groups and building support. I’m starting to see some yard signs pop up.

People are seeing that we can’t have an election denier running our elections, or a man that’s unqualified or unwilling to handle foreign trade issues. There’s a sense of urgency and a renewed vitality in her campaign.

I’m appealing to the smart Republicans. The ones who know that a president can’t run for a third term. The ones who don’t believe that January 6^th was a peaceful protest. The ones who know that elections are safe and secure even when a Republican loses. I’m appealing to the smart Republicans that complain about the dumbing down of America to stop supporting the decline.

Don’t vote for an election denier to run our elections. Don’t vote for Scott Petersen for Secretary of State. Be smart and vote for Sarah Slattery.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

When you think of the bastions of progressive liberalism three cities automatically come to mind, San Francisco California, New York New York, and Fremont Nebraska.

Yes, Fremont Nebraska home of Lynne Walz. The candidate who Governor Pillen’s spokesperson said was propped up by far-left donors and staff. Pillen’s campaign said that Walz wants to “trick Nebraskans by pretending to be a moderate.”

Lynne Walz is a former state senator with a rural background that was elected twice by the voters of towns like Fremont, Hooper and Scribner. Does Pillen’s camp think those small Nebraska cities harbor a large number of latent commies?

I doubt that Pillen’s campaign people would be open to any advice from me, but if I were them, I wouldn’t try to convince voters that Lynne Walz is a liberal. It makes them look foolish.

Subscribe now

Lynne Walz is the definition of moderate. When she was in the Unicameral, she worked with another gubernatorial hopeful Brett Lindstrom to pass property tax relief and school funding legislation.

She ran to head up the Education Committee and beat out Republican incumbent Mike Groene through a secret ballot. Since Democrats are so outnumbered by Republicans in the so called nonpartisan Unicameral, it took a number of Republican votes to get the gig. That wouldn’t happen if she was the liberal the Pillen camp would have you believe.

I really hate trying to put labels like liberal or conservative on people. I especially hate it when you put those labels on politicians. It puts them in a silo and defines them in a way that may or may not be accurate. People are more complicated than one monolithic term. What do those terms even mean anymore anyway?

If you take a look at Nebraska, we’re supposed to be such a conservative state. Yet if you take a look at how we vote on issues like minimum wage, medical marijuana, expanded Medicaid, and gambling, we are far more liberal than most of the politicians we elect want us to be.

If you put two conservatives in a room together, by definition, one of them will be liberal. Likewise, if two liberals are in a room at the same time, one will be more conservative than the other.

Pete Ricketts is accusing his opponent Dan Osborn of being a liberal Democrat. Osborn is a lifelong registered independent. Our Senator must really be worried about losing to Osborn because he’s running a ton of TV spots. One of those ads shows Osborn saying that if he had defeated Deb Fischer, he wouldn’t have voted for the so called Big Beautiful Bill.

According to the CBO that singular piece of legislation will add another 3.4 trillion dollars to our primary deficit through 2034. When you factor in the interest it’s projected the deficit will grow to 4.1 trillion dollars over the same period.

Pete Ricketts voted for that bill. Does his lack of fiscal responsibility make him a liberal? Is Dan Osborn a conservative because he would have voted against the bill?

I understand why politicians use the words liberal or conservative as pejorative terms. It creates an emotional response in voters. Especially voters that don’t have the time, inclination, or intelligence to look deeper into the issues and decide for themselves.

A good idea is a good idea or a bad idea is a bad idea regardless of which side of the aisle it comes from. If we want this Republic to remain standing, we need to elect more moderates and independents. We need to elect more people that are willing to work together. We need to rebuild many of the bridges between the two parties that have been burnt. We can’t dismiss an idea or a solution to a problem just because it comes from a member of a different tribe.

If Lynne Walz was the liberal that the Pillen camp wants to make her out to be she never would have been elected to the Unicameral in the first place. If you haven’t had the opportunity to meet Lynne yet, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to before November. She is traveling the state and getting good crowds to hear her message. A message of unity that seems to be resonating with a lot of voters.

And not just the voters in that bastion of liberalism, Fremont Nebraska.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

I wasn’t quite sure of what I’d find. I wasn’t even quite sure of what I was looking for. But I wanted to get a feel not only for those two towns, but rural Nebraska in general.

After driving the backroads through towns like Axtel and Funk, my first stop was McCook, home of the Cornhusker Clink. The town was what you might expect from a town with a population of 7,000. There’s a Casey’s, a McDonalds, a Walmart and a CBD store.

Subscribe now

It also has a prison populated with immigrants whose only crime may have been they didn’t file some paperwork before entering the country.

Before checking into my motel, I had to drive by the prison and take a look. It’s located on Hiway 83, about a mile outside of the business district. Before getting to the prison there was a sign by the side of the road that said, Somos Amigos de los Inmigrantes or We are friends of the immigrants. Next to it in English there was a sign that said Shame on Pillen and another that had the names of those killed by ICE or Border Patrol agents.

During my stay in McCook that was the only outward sign that even acknowledged the Clink.

The facility still says Work Ethic Plant without addressing the change in the building’s mission.

When I drove by, the parking lot was full but the prison yard was empty. Even though it was hot and humid that day I would have thought there would be some inmates milling about. I drove by numerous times during my stay, and I never saw anyone outside in the fenced in barbed wire recreation area.

I spoke with a number of locals about the facility. I wondered if the Clink would be a hot topic considering the recent murders of immigrants.

Many locals seemed hesitant to talk about it with an outsider. Those who did talk about it gave differing secondhand opinions. I couldn’t find anyone who worked there, but I found some who knew those who did, and they gave me differing stories. Some told me they heard the prisoners are treated great, others said they heard the conditions were bad and it was overcrowded.

I’m not sure I left with any more insight than when I came to town.

In Lexington I found a town that is doing its best to survive despite the Tyson plant closing. The empty parking lot once held the cars of 3,200 employees. The building once processed 5,000 head of cattle a day. It now stands as a memorial for what once was.

Speaking with a restaurant owner across from the empty plant, she said that her business was hanging in there because she’s located on a busy highway. However, the businesses further in town were having a much harder time.

Some other observations from my windshield time through central Nebraska.

I thought I’d see some Trump flags waving in the yards of the farmhouses. Except for one pro-Trump bumper sticker in McCook, and the iconic Trump sign on the barn off I-80, I saw no other reference to the president. I’m not sure what that means or if it means anything at all.

I also wondered how concerned many of these voters are about the transgender issue. Pete Ricketts seems to think it’s a big deal from the ads that he’s running, but I can’t imagine there’s a single transgender person within a hundred miles or more of these small towns. I wondered if those scare tactics were working on the farmers and their families, or were they more concerned about getting fertilizer and selling their crops.

I recommend everyone take a road trip through the backroads of rural Nebraska from time to time. We don’t have mountains or oceans, but there is a real beauty in the cornfields and the trainyards. Stop at a local bar and grill and have a cheeseburger and talk to some of the locals.

If nothing else, it’s a great way to clear your mind. Who knows what you’ll discover.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

When it comes to politics Nebraska has always been unique.

Another Nebraska candidate that’s registered as an independent has joined the race for a high-ranking government position. Former state senator Brett Lindstrom has filed the paperwork to get the necessary signatures to be put on the November ballot for governor.

Nebraska has always been a state that tended to ignore party affiliation. At least on paper. We have open primaries for our state senators and city offices. Even though it doesn’t always work out this way in practice, our Unicameral is officially nonpartisan.

It’s interesting that both Brett Lindstrom and Dan Osborn can win in the general election, but they probably couldn’t win if they were attached to their respective parties. Lindstrom couldn’t beat Pillen for the Republican nomination, and Osborn while a lifelong independent would most likely have to attach himself to the Democratic Party if Nebraska had a strong Democratic Party to attach himself to.

Subscribe now

The younger voters won’t remember this, but there was a time in the not too distant past, when Nebraska had a strong Democratic Party. We had Democratic governors like JJ Exxon, Bob Kerry, and Ben Nelson. All three went on to be powerful United States Senators.

But in the political world that was a lifetime ago. Outside of Omaha the Democratic Party is a shell of its past glory days. There have been elections where the Legal Marijuana NOW Party had more candidates on the statewide ballot than the Democrats.

Likewise, the younger voters may not recall a time when Republican politicians ran on issues like fiscal responsibility, family values, and rule of law. Now they run on stoking fear that if you vote for their radical left opponent, boys will be in your daughter’s bathroom, and communists will take over the government.

So where does that leave us today? Brett Lindstrom is an old school Republican. A fiscal conservative, pro-life, pro-business candidate. When vying for the nomination for the second congressional district, he needed the far-right MAGA crowd to get the Republican nomination. But that isn’t who he is. So, he dropped out of the congressional race and left the Republican Party.

Now this old school Republican is trying to become governor. How will this all play out?

It depends on who you ask. According to all the political “experts” on social media, he either takes enough anti-abortion votes away from Pillen to put Lynne in the governor’s mansion, or it takes away the independent and Republican anti-Pillen voters from her and gives the governor four more years. Of course it’s also possible that Brett will take enough votes from both sides to win the race.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties are going through an identity crisis. Both are going further to the right or left leaving moderates in the dust. More and more voters are registering as nonpartisan.

Lynne Walz has the best chance a Democrat has had to win the governor’s seat in years. She’s raised more money than any Democratic candidate in decades. She has both an ag and a business background. She is a moderate who has worked with both sides of the aisle to get things done. Lately she’s had good turnouts at her townhalls across the state. I see Lynne Walz yard signs up all over town.

Brett could also win as an independent. He has the backing of many in the business community. He is a traditional Republican more concerned with moving the state forward than identity politics. Brett will appeal to many Republican voters and right leaning independents.

Jim Pillen is a failed governor. Even if you don’t consider the scandals like the 2.5 million dollar no bid contract, or the death of the young man on one of Pillen’s farms, he has put the state in debt and has no positive accomplishments to campaign on.

Nebraska cannot afford another 4 years of Jim Pillen.

While coming at it from different angles, either Lynne or Brett would be a much better choice than the current occupant of the office. Both are intelligent, honest, hard working and experienced.

Pillen on the other hand……

As we get closer to November if it looks like either Brett or Lynne will be a spoiler that puts the governor back in office one of them will have to drop out. But for now, we have a three-way race for governor.

As I said, when it comes to politics, we are a unique state. There truly is no place like Nebraska.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Before I get accused of having TDS or Trump Derangement Syndrome, what I just wrote is a stone-cold fact.

Last year due to DOGE cuts, the CDC stopped mandatory monitoring for cyclospora the parasite found in unwashed food that causes that condition. So far more than 30 states including Nebraska and Iowa have reported over 3,000 illnesses, with Michigan alone reporting more than 1,250 cases.

The DOGE cuts have also resulted in the CDC no longer monitoring for 5 other foodborne illnesses. So, who knows what else may be on the horizon.

Subscribe now

You also probably didn’t realize it at the time, but when you voted for Trump, you voted to make it harder for you to vote in the future. The president recently dismantled a bipartisan commission that worked with the states to help make voting easier and more secure.

But he’s not stopping there. With the help of a number of Republican Senators and Congressmen, he keeps pushing the half-truth that the SAVE act is all about having voter ID. Nebraska and 34 other states already have voter ID. The SAVE act isn’t about what they are telling you it’s about. It’s really about making it harder for people to be eligible to register to vote.

You also probably didn’t realize it at the time, but when you voted for Trump you voted for the Department of Justice and the FCC to have the green light to attack the free press.

You thought you were voting for stronger borders, not realizing you were also voting for ICE agents being allowed to murder citizens and immigrants alike with immunity.

And I know that if you voted for Trump, you never could have imagined you voted to get us into a war that raises gas prices and doesn’t seem to have any way out.

Speaking about higher gas prices, I’m betting when you voted for him you didn’t vote for higher food costs and inflated products due to tariffs.

When this administration came back into power and broke so many of the norms, a lot of people who didn’t vote for the president were angry, outraged, and shocked.

I was one of those people.

But you can only stay angry, outraged, and shocked for so long. After a while you become numb to all that’s going on. You start to get used to all these abnormal actions and start to think they are normal. Which is just what they want you to do.

But they’re not normal.

Some will just dismiss what I’m writing as TDS. But it’s not TDS it’s TRS… Trump Reality Syndrome.

There are some things the president has done this time around that I can agree with. Getting NATO to pay more for their defense, shoring up our borders, and reclassifying marijuana come to mind. But the attacks on the foundations of our government, the needless war, the cuts in programs to benefit the poor and elderly plus so many other abuses of power, override any positives.

The added powers the Supreme Court has given the Executive Office should have us all concerned. Even if you support this president, you may not support a future president that has the same unchecked power.

If I accuse President Trump of cheating on his taxes, you might accuse me of having Trump Derangement Syndrome. But then I’d ask why would he work out a deal with the Department of Justice to avoid him and his family from being audited if he wasn’t cheating on his taxes?

The turnout at the so-called Great American State Fair wasn’t all that great. It may be a sign that many Trump enthusiasts aren’t as enthused as they used to be. Many are now starting to realize that what is happening is not what they voted for.

We can’t count on the Republicans in the House and Senate to keep the president in line like our founding fathers wanted. And we can’t stay angry, outraged, and shocked over everything the president does.

But we do need to stay informed. We do need to get involved. And we do need to be concerned.

Because if we don’t get our checks and balances back like they need to be, explosive diarrhea won’t be the only thing hitting the fan.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

In my 30+ years of doing this kind of work I have met many politicians of all political persuasions. And with very few exceptions, I have found them all to be decent people. That doesn’t mean that I agree with them all or would even consider voting for many of them. But regardless of party they all seem to me to be good men and women who want to make democracy work.

I put Congressman Mike Flood in that category.

I went to his recent town hall in Bellevue the other day to see what they are like in person. I had seen the television reports of his other town halls. These town halls were attended by hundreds of people, most of them loudly disapproving of what the congressman had to say.

Subscribe now

While listening to the congressman speak, I was reminded of Ice-T’s song, Don’t Hate the Playa’ Hate the Game. And Mike Flood knows how to play the game.

I watched as he stood on stage trying to defend the Trump administration’s policies. I wanted to yell out bullshit as he tried to sell the SAVE Act as a “common sense” voter ID bill. I wanted to yell out JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION when he gave a long-winded political response to a yes or no query. I wished I could have asked a follow up question when he tried to sell the cuts in SNAP benefits as a fiscally responsible thing to do. I wanted to know why we have all this money for bombs, but not food.

When he complimented Ukrainian president Zelinsky for being a small country that is using modern technology to hold Russia at bay, I said to myself, “You mean like Iran is doing to us with the Strait of Hormuz?”

To Mike Flood’s credit he is one of the few elected officials holding in person town hall meetings these days. Don Bacon, Pete Ricketts and Deb Fischer hold tele-town halls where the questions are screened in advance and very few critical views get through. Plenty of critical views were getting through at Congressman Flood’s gathering. Which may have been the point.

The first town hall Flood held in 2025 after Trump was sworn back into office made national news. The sound bites showed angry Nebraskans. He liked the anger because seeing pissed off Democrats pleases his far-right MAGA base. In fact, he told Don Bacon that the reason he still holds in person town halls is so he can “own the libs.”

But the mood in the country has shifted since that first town hall. I’m not sure any libs were owned that night.

The country is at war and inflation is running rampant. Nobody has been held accountable for the Epstein Files. The president’s approval rating keeps dropping as he falls asleep at cabinet meetings and basketball games. The farmers that make up a large part of the first congressional district pay more for fertilizer (if they can get it) and they have a harder time selling their products overseas.

A group of Mike Flood’s political handlers sat up front and smiled as citizen after citizen expressed their displeasure at what is going on in America right now. I wondered what was going through their minds. Are they happy these angry people might motivate their MAGA base? Or are they concerned that these angry people might hurt their candidate in November? Do they believe that when all is said and done, the culture wars will prevail, and people will be more concerned about bathrooms than the price of food and medicine?

I’m not sure if anything was accomplished the other night. Both sides did a lot of talking but I’m not sure either side did a lot of listening.

I am sure that the town hall was a part of democracy in America. The Mike Flood supporters in the audience were outnumbered by the detractors, but everybody had a chance to be heard.

When it was all over and they left the hall, there was no shouting or fighting. Just two hundred Nebraskans trying to make sense of all that is going on. Two hundred good and decent people trying to make democracy work.

If I lived in the First District I wouldn’t vote for Mike Flood. Not because he’s a bad guy. But because he’s carrying the water for some very bad policies. If Mike Flood doesn’t win reelection, it will say more about Donald Trump than it says about him.

Don’t hate the Playa’ hate the game.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Yes, there are some quirky laws on the books. Some laws like the one about buying your wife a hat are never enforced. Other crimes like whale fishing in Nebraska are never committed. And some rights like American citizens who have never set foot on American soil can still vote in Nebraska are seldom used.

Subscribe now

Nobody is calling to take the laws about hats or whales off the books, but the law about this very minute subsection of American citizens voting is currently being challenged by the Republican National Committee and two Lancaster County voters.

This law is to benefit adults who were born and raised overseas but were still eligible to be United States citizens. People like the offspring of diplomats, military personnel, or CIA agents. Like I said a very minute subsection of the population.

It’s just the latest attempt by Republicans to make it harder for people to vote.

We just celebrated our Independence Day. The day we told King George that we weren’t going to be taxed without being represented. We had parades, and concerts, and picnics, and fireworks to celebrate our self-governance. Meanwhile behind the scenes our right to self-govern is gradually being taken away.

This obscure election law was sponsored in 2005 by Deb Fischer when she was a state senator. Mike Flood was in the Unicameral at the time and he tweaked the bill a bit. At the time congressman Flood told the World Herald that the law was to give these citizens “every opportunity” to vote.

But that was twenty-one years ago. The Republican party has changed a lot since then and Mike Flood has changed along with it. He now says that he supports the RNC’s challenge to our law. A law he helped to pass.

I’ve written about how the White House is trying to sell the SAVE Act as just a voter ID bill. It is not that at all. It’s a voter suppression bill plain and simple. It’s a law geared to suppress voter turnout by making it harder for people to register to vote.

Investigation after investigation have proven that our elections are safe and secure. Very very few people who are ineligible to vote do. Voter fraud is statistically nonexistent. But that isn’t stopping the Republicans from claiming that it’s rampant.

Nebraska Republicans have nominated a candidate for Secretary of State that has made it clear he doesn’t trust our elections. Elections that have put Republicans in power in the White House and both chambers of congress. Nebraska elections that have given Republicans victories in all the major statewide categories and most of the Unicameral seats.

If Democrats and foreigners are cheating in our elections they’re doing a piss poor job of it.

I have volunteered to work the elections. I have seen firsthand the painstaking attention to detail to make sure the votes are cast and counted fairly. For the time being I have total faith and trust in our election results.

But the attempts by the GOP to hijack the process are extremely concerning.

If the RNC is focusing on something as inconsequential as this rarely used 2005 law, they are showing they are leaving no stone unturned in their attempts to take over our elections.

We need to remain diligent. So the next time you’re at the Platte River keep an eye out for whale fishermen.

But more importantly be diligent in protecting our voting rights. Stand up and speak out and let your representative know that you oppose these drastic measures to take away this precious constitutional right. Vote for candidates that don’t want to suppress the vote.

And after you do that, go out and buy your wife a new hat.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

The expression “birth tourism” sounds kind of funny. It evokes an image of travel agencies in China, Mexico, Columbia, or other countries chartering planes to have groups of pregnant women fly to America just to give birth. You know like we have excursions to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower or Liverpool to visit where the Beatles used to live.

Share

Subscribe now

President Trump and the racists who follow him are upset at the obvious ruling. One of his top advisors Stephen Miller even proposed a ban on foreign pregnant women flying into the country.

Which also sounds kind of funny. What is he suggesting and how would you make that work? Would he have women between the ages of 14-40 pee on a stick when they land at Laguardia?

I almost feel sorry for people like that who let their hate of different people overwhelm them to the point they lose all common sense.

Speaking of losing their common sense, let’s talk about Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Samuel Alito. The three Justices that voted to allow President Trump to negate a Constitutional Amendment with the stroke of a pen. What were they thinking?

Were they planning on stripping those born on American soil with foreign parents of their citizenship? Would you deport these former citizens after you’ve told them they are no longer American? Where would you send them? If they aren’t a citizen here, where would they be a citizen?

Even if the Constitution didn’t spell it out, the logistics of a different ruling would have been a nightmare.

I’m no constitutional expert, but it seems to me that if the 14^th amendment only applied to the children of slaves as some on the far right have suggested, they would have specifically put that in writing or added a cutoff date on the amendment. They did none of that.

I’ve listened to a number of different opinions from lawyers and scholars, and most if not all, were surprised that three justices voted the way they did. These experts felt as if the decision should have been unanimous. But then again, I listened to the experts on outlets like CNN and the POTUS channel on SiriusXM and read opinions in the Wall Street Journal. I’m sure I would have gotten a much different story if I got my news from Fox, OAN, Steve Bannon’s War room or tik tok reels.

On the same day the Supreme Court ruled on birthright citizenship, they ruled on transgender women in sports. I believe that transgender people should be treated with decency and respect. But that doesn’t mean transgender women should be allowed to compete in women’s sports. That’s just common sense.

The whold transgender women in sports issue is blown waaaaayyy out of proportion. Currently there are fewer than ten trans women competing in NCAA sports. There are currently over 500,000 NCAA athletes throughout the three divisions.

But politicians have made it such a big issue because they can use it to scare people and get votes. Riley Gaines is a swimmer who tied a trans woman for 5^th place at the NCAA championship 200 yard freestyle event. Immediately after the event Gaines had nice things to say about the trans woman. But after conservative media got a hold of her and made this an issue, she has made a profitable career speaking and writing about being a victim of the trans community.

Our Founding Fathers were wise when they formed a government with three separate and coequal branches of government. On their final day this session the Supreme Court made a mistake and ignored their policies by giving the president even more unchecked power.

But I don’t have time to write about that now. I need to get to work and see what I have to do to start my new business idea. I have to check bulk rates for airlines, cruise ships, hotels and hospitals. I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and cater to that new group of travelers I’ve heard so much about. The “Birth Tourists.”

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

I knew that if I found an extreme story about a person or groups group doing something outlandish, I could make it into a bigger issue than it was and get the phone lines buzzing. It would make for good talk radio and get me through the show.

I never made up an opinion or lied about how I felt about the story, but I often blew it out of proportion for the benefit of the show.

Subscribe now

For instance, if I found one PETA person that wanted to pass a law to allow their dog to vote, I would make it sound as if that was something all liberals were trying to do. I would make it sound as if it was a widespread movement even though it was just one person and a few of their friends who had some mental issues.

The phone lines would be jammed with people just as angry with whatever topic I was so outraged about. I thought it was all in good fun and it was good for ratings.

I wasn’t the only talk radio host doing that. In fact, when I went to talk radio conventions there would be break out sections dealing with what were the best ways to get things buzzing. Many are still following that formula today.

I thought what I was doing was harmless fun because I felt that the adults were in charge. Well Donald Trump saw how well taking extreme views worked for talk radio ratings, and he took the same technique all the way to the White House.

And now the Democrats are seeing how well that’s worked and are using that same technique.

In last Tuesday’s elections, Democratic Socialists beat out the more traditional Democrats to get on November’s ballot, setting up a battle between them and the MAGA Republicans. And just like the Republicans they have left more moderate candidates stranded by the side of the road.

Here at home, Denise Powell beat out a traditional Democrat with a solid blue pedigree. And she won based on a gazillion ads where she reinforced the fact that she was really pissed off.

Recently I had coffee with Ms. Powell. I had never met her before, and I found her to be a friendly, charming, strong woman who is dedicated to make things better. She seemed more focused than pissed off. But focused doesn’t win primaries. Pissed off does.

I mentioned to her that I was frustrated with her ads because I was more concerned with who was going to be Speaker of the House, than losing the Second District’s Blue Dot. I felt that John Cavanaugh had a better chance of winning the general election based on his name recognition and political experience.

But after meeting Ms.Powell, I think she has a good shot at beating Brinker Harding.

But it’s not going to be easy. Brinker came out of the Republican Party primary unscathed. Denise on the other hand came out bruised and battered.

Normally when the Republicans have a tough primary, they hold a unity breakfast the next day where all the candidates get together and smile before the cameras hold hands and sing Kum Ba Yah. The Democrats held no such event. There are still some hard feelings that need to be soothed.

Denise Powell is going to have to overcome the nick name “Dark Money Denise.” I have no doubt we’ll be inundated with commercials trying to label her a Democratic Socialist. While she’s definitely more liberal than Brinker Harding, I don’t believe she’s a Zohran Mandami liberal.

My fear is if the Dem’s get control of the house in November, the Democratic Socialists will take over their party the way MAGA has taken over the Republicans. A handful of far left New York liberals will clash with a handful of far right MAGA Republicans and nothing good will get done.

But I think that’s a chance we’re going to have to take. We can’t let one man and one party have all the power.

Democratic Socialists are much like the guy that wanted his dog to vote. Good to get conversations started on cable news and social media, but hardly realistic in achieving their goals.

These extremes may be good for talk radio and winning primary elections, but it’s no way to run a country.

Share

Leave a comment

Subscribe now