At the risk of entering the fray....
There should be term limits on all elected officials and NO parties. The parties exist to compete with one another, while they each make the same promises and do none of those things once elected. Check out Biden's message now: "vote for us, and I'll pass a national law mandating abortion on demand." Well, a) The SCOTUS just said that decision was up to the states, and b) if it's so damned important, why wait? That decision came down months ago -- what are you doing about it NOW?
I won't bother to go into taxes because I'm not here to educate the masses. As to tariffs, I'm all for them. Did we learn nothing from COVID? America needs to produce its own goods, foodstuffs, energy, etc., and stop relying on lower-paid foreign workers for the things we need. Try walking into a Wal-Mart and finding anything made in the US. I've done it, and ended up having to decide which country I despised least among the makers of a freaking IRON.
One point I do want to add to the conversation is that we need to stop voting for ANYONE from the same family as another prominent politician. Our founders did not leave us a monarchy, or an aristocracy, but a REPUBLIC. They never intended our representatives to spend all their time partying in DC on a lobbyist's dime and making themselves millionaires at our expense. And trust me, that's exactly what they do. The examples of these family dynasties are too numerous to list here, but a few examples include the Bushes, the Clintons, the Kennedys, the Vances, the Sununus, etc., etc., etc., etc.
Wake up, people. We need to stop rewarding these people for screwing the rest of us. If there's someone on your ballot who's never been in politics, try voting for him or her. We need the change.

Several years ago, I watched the news go by, hearing what politicians said and how it was reported. Utterly fallacious statements were made by one particular pol, and the press eagerly jumped on the bandwagon with its full-throated approval, even though history -- and not ancient history even, recent history -- demonstrated quite clearly that these ideas did not work.
Flash forward to the present, and that same press is braying at all of us that "mother" and "father" are now unacceptable old terms. This is a biological impossibility, but that doesn't stop the madness. My hairdresser recently threw one of her daughter's friends out of her house for referring to her, repeatedly, as her daughter's "birthing person." Being adopted, I get even more of a kick out of this idiocy, since my "birthing person" was not my mother. The United States Air Force now advises that no reference should be made to a service member's "mother" or "father," and has even created a video for new recruits to educate them on using fellow service members by their proper pronouns.
As if. Boys are boys. Girls are girls. It's chosen for us, and if we're unsure, it's easy enough to look down one's own body and identify the salient parts. And for the love of God, not one of us, other than a royal, is a "we" -- as in, "we are not amused." The rest of us are just me, or you, or him or her, or my. Not "our," "my." Every time I see an individual referred to as a "they" in a news story it just cracks me up.
Can the time be far distant when each of us decides what color the sky is, and when it will be offensive to refer to it as blue lest we offend another who "identifies" it as red?
It's time we stop the madness. Language exists cooperatively, otherwise it becomes babble. Our newest Supreme Court justice may not know what a woman is, but I do. Been one all of my adult life. The United States was formed in 1776, not 1619 -- and in 1776, it had to fight the greatest existing power at the time just to be able to form THEN. If we can't agree on actual facts, society's utter breakdown is inevitable.
Sorry to be so direct today, and not the slightest bit amusing. Just wanted to encourage everyone who can read this to run over to a safe space where one can conduct truth-telling, and encourage other to join them!!!!!

Please accept the heartfelt condolences of one of those in that first escaped colony on the passing of your lovely Queen Elizabeth. Very few, if any, of us will be working (at 96!) two days before we are dead. Her lifetime of dedicated service will stand as a shining example for the whole world for generations to come.

Godspeed, Ma'am.

I was saddened to see no one commemorate the 4th of July in these notes. The parallels with Ukraine are noteworthy -- perhaps Zalensky (spelling uncertain) is Ukraine's Washington, or Jefferson, or Franklin.
What strikes me the most this year is the incredible courage of those who against overwhelming odds fight on day after day for the freedom of a people. We've seen it succeed in this country, and watched in helpless grief at it fail in Syria. I hope Ukraine will be the US, at least as the US was intended.
It takes something special in enough certain people to see a republic flourish, or even to achieve one. Those who begin the journey know with some degree of certainty that they will surely die in the process, and that if their enemies reach them, they will be murdered in their beds, their homes and families destroyed, perhaps achieving nothing. "Our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor...."
As we remember those who gave all for all of us, let's send our goodwill, our weapons and our greenbacks to help others along the way. Perhaps that is the most fitting remembrance of all.

Congratulations to NATO for belatedly doing the right thing in sending heavy weaponry to Ukraine. One only wonders how many lives might have been saved if they hadn't stood by watching for more than two months.