News from Washington lately has highlighted a total contrast. President Trump was in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE) and brought back promises of billions of investments and a new airplane for the Defense Department. With a lot of arm twisting, a big budget bill was passed by the House Republicans. Whether Senate Republicans will agree on the 1100-page bill is yet to be determined. Note that I said “Republicans” because so far, no Democrat has dared a ‘yes’ vote on it.

In contrast, news about Joe Biden and his Presidency has been sad. He is suffering from advanced prostate cancer. And half the country is just now learning that he suffered from declining mental capacity for most of his 4 years as President. I said “half the country” because their favorite TV news networks and newspapers failed to report the news. The other half were getting their news from the much-derided (faux) Fox News. (I realize this statement will upset some readers. But can you point to any newscaster on the traditional TV networks who questioned President Biden’s mental condition before the June 2024 debate?)

President Trump with his “tariff diplomacy” is causing financial gyrations around the world. Oddly, a lot of folks think Trump invented tariffs; that they did not exist previously. But the reality is that other countries have had higher tariffs on our goods than we had on theirs. That was a financial disadvantage for us. Most Americans would prefer zero tariffs everywhere.

Democrats are scrambling. With no apparent leader, they are left with only anti-Trump messaging. Oddly, Will Rogers noticed the same situation in November 1934, two years after FDR was elected. Switch party names, and FDR for Trump, and you are looking at 2026: “The Republicans have had a saying for some time, ‘The Roosevelt honeymoon is over.’ If there is one thing the Republican party has got to learn it is that you can’t get votes by just denouncing. You got to offer some plan of your own. They only had one platform, ‘Elect us, and maybe we can think of something to do after we get in, but up to now we haven’t thought of it, but give us a chance, we may.’”

Then two days later, Will wrote this: “The day after election I said the Republicans lost because they had nothing to offer but criticism. No plan. Denounce, but don’t suggest…It’s nothing but the old saying, ‘You can’t beat something with nothing.’… I imagine Roosevelt is wrong, but there ain’t nobody just smart enough to tell where he is wrong.”

On Memorial Day I’ll be attending a special memorial to a veteran of World War I. On Wildcat Road in Lewis County, West Virginia, a bridge will be dedicated to PFC William Lowther. Better known as “Uncle Bill” to folks around Walkersville, Ireland and Duffy, he lived to age 105. (And for me and my cousins, he really was our great-uncle.) I don’t know much about his experience in Europe, except that he learned how to take a rifle apart, clean it, and put it back together in total darkness. Uncle Bill was a sharpshooter. Even at 100, he could pick off a squirrel, groundhog or a buck deer.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

 “Another Decoration Day passed and Mr. Abraham Lincoln’s 300-word Gettysburg Address was not dethroned. I would try and imitate its brevity if nothing else. Of course, Lincoln had the advantage; he had no foreign policy message to put over. He didn’t even have a foreign policy. That’s why he is still Lincoln. (signed) Yours for shorter and better speeches,” DT #268, May 31, 1927

“From what I can gather from everyone I talk with, things are definitely picking up. If they just get more folks to working, there is no way to stop this country. Just quit listening to the politicians…. The Constitution will remain as is.” WA #655, July 14, 1935