Gongol.com Archives: August 2017
August 10, 2017
A President has no Constitutional claim to an agenda
If you expect your President to "drive the agenda", then you're doing the Constitution wrong. A timely reminder in light of the President's open heckling of the Senate Majority Leader. Let it not escape our memory that the President's authority even to veto legislation is embedded as a subordinate item within Article I, Section 7. The President is given no Constitutional authority to tell Congress when to do so much as open a window curtain, and that's how it's supposed to be.
Every wasted day without a responsible Federal budget is going to cost us real money
That old line about compounding interest being the most powerful force in the world? It wasn't just personal financial advice.
Venezuela has an "all-powerful" new assembly
Don't let anyone sugarcoat the fact that bad government ruins good lives. The people of Venezuela deserve better.
President Trump cracks jokes to "thank" Putin for diplomatic expulsions
As stand-up comedy, this isn't clever. As fiscal statement, it's immaterial. As geopolitical strategy, it's nonsensical.
Democratic centrists in the fight of a generation
For the good of the country, both parties need strong centrist wings. "Politics as it is, and not as ideologues wish it to be" is an apt description of the overarching problem for both major parties. American politics could use a lot less Santa Claus ("Here's what I'll give you in exchange for nothing!") and a lot more James Madison.
Iowa's drought is growing worse
Much of the state is now in a drought condition. That's bad news especially for a farm economy that's already weak.
Passengers on an around-the-world cruise were told to help turn it into a ghost ship at night when traveling around the pirate-infested waters of the western Indian Ocean.
A dramatically renovated Lawther Hall
(Video) A classic building on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa has been radically updated
