Whether you support Donald Trump or think he is guilty of nefarious deeds regarding the Ukraine, he is not going to be removed from office unless Republicans have a death wish. This, despite ponderous pontifications by liberals that at least ten Republicans senators will turn on him and provide a constitutional majority for removal. Right now, I see only Mitt Romney who probably would like to run for president (again) and a couple of others so inclined. This is all about the 2020 election. Trump is his own worst enemy with intemperate tweets and unnecessary insults. The fact is that the stock market is at an all-time high and unemployment is at historic lows. He has gotten China to the table on tariff issues that should have been addressed a long time ago and he made a charcoal briquette out of a jive-talking Iranian terrorist intent on doing us harm. Were this Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, the national media would be wetting itself. . . .
Speaking of Bill Clinton, I had to laugh the other day when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was being interviewed by one of her suck-up media sycophants. She intoned ominously that no matter what the outcome of the Senate trial, Donald Trump would forever be known as an “impeached president.” What the suck-up didn’t ask was whether she would apply that title to Bill Clinton, too. That is why I would not be a good suck-up media sycophant. I would have asked that very question. . . .
It looks like Gov. Brian Kemp is going to follow through on giving the state’s public schoolteachers a $2,000 increase this year as the second part of the $5,000 pay raise he had promised them when running for governor. I like a governor who keeps his promises. However, I suspect schoolteachers would also welcome something money can’t buy – respect in the classroom. More than 40 percent of new teachers in Georgia leave within their first five years. Money alone won’t solve that problem. . . .
I think schoolteachers and the organizations that represent them are getting their political act together at last. But they had better keep an eye on some of our intrepid public servants trying to sneak another private school voucher bill by them instead of fixing the societal problems outside the classroom that private schools don’t have to face. The Republican majority in the Legislature is shrinking like a pair of cheap shorts and pushing another voucher proposal scheme in an election year could be political suicide. And to those legislators contemplating doing so, it doesn’t matter what kind of slick name you give the scheme, it is still lipstick on a pig. . . .
According to your emails, you think as little of the uncapped film tax credit giveaway to the Hollywood crowd as do I. Whether the Legislature does anything about it is another matter. But this much is clear: There is some serious money to be made brokering the tax credits. Monarch Private Capital brags on its webpage that it “has brokered over $500 million in entertainment and film credits and is the largest broker of tax credits in the state of Georgia.” It seems that the company’s Director of Public Policy & Business Development is state Rep. John Carson, R-northeast Cobb. His bio says he handles the firm’s legislative and business development initiatives and public policy matters in many of the states in which they operate, just not in Georgia. Therefore, I am sure all of this is just one of those staggering coincidences that occasionally occur in politics. By the way, if the name sounds familiar, John Carson is the poster boy for private school vouchers. . . .
Finally, the world is minus a bright light today, but heaven has gotten itself a winner. My beloved sister-in-law, Bebe Yarbrough, a great Christian lady, fought a good fight against an insidious disease and succumbed shortly after Christmas. She had the quickest wit, the sharpest sense of humor and the sunniest attitude of anyone I have ever known. Her service at the Lakewood Baptist Church in Gainesville was as positive as she was – a lot of wonderful stories and much laughter through the tears. Her minister, Dr. Tom Smiley, talked about the fact that everybody with whom she came in contact was certain that they were Bebe Yarbrough’s best friend. And they were. What more appropriate eulogy for a life well-lived than that?
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at dick@dickyarbrough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139 or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dickyarb
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