Cloud Nine Higher

Okay, I get it, folks: It's late July, and you're a big football fan. You are counting the days until the beginning of the NCAA football season and the NFL season, too. If you're reading this from our home city of Nashville, you may be more interested in the latest developments from the open practice of the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium and "Back Together Weekend" - pitched cleverly by the NFL when  no games are being played. If you're reading this from another city, you may be more interested in the football team from your area - college, pro, etc.  Great. But, before your mind scoots ahead to football, let's consider baseball: Major League Baseball, in specific. Did you watch the All-Star Game from Truist Park in Atlanta on July 15? If you missed it, you missed a great game. Both American and National All-Stars went full-tilt in a game that means what it meant in decades long gone by - a high-profile exhibition game that merely meant the pride of bo...

By all accounts from major news sources across America, President Donald J. Trump is on a roll. His "Big Beautiful Bill" is now "Big Beautiful Law". The Supreme Court of the United States gave him authority to fire employees of the Department of Education. Leaders around the world fear his tariff threats. Following passage of the budget bill and President Trump's signing it into law on Independence Day, another nine billion dollars of cuts was approved. The president is strongly in command of his Republican party - so much that pretty much every influential politician in this party craves his endorsement for their elected position. If they know they can't get said endorsement, they bow out. Give the president credit: He has a remarkable work ethic for a 79 year-old man. He has a clever sense of what goes on around him, and he uses it to his advantage. For instance, I would imagine that President Trump has a bead on most, if not all, of the 435 U.S. House dis...