Donald Trump

Next week, I hope and expect, Donald Trump will become a one-term president. Given how outrageously authoritarian Trump has been since he was inaugurated in January 2017, it's fitting -- though disturbing -- that currently he is trying to steal the election in a way that might work if he was the strongman of, say, Russia, but will fail big-time in our still democratic United States. Trump's scheme is described in an Axios piece today, "Trump's plan to declare premature victory." President Trump has told confidants he'll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he's "ahead," according to…

I'm deeply political, so naturally I find opinions about how Trump coming down with COVID-19 will affect the November 3 election highly interesting. My bet is that this increases Biden's odds, but no bet is absolutely certain, including mine. When I first heard the news about this last night, my snap reaction was This will really help the fight against the coronavirus. I thought this because Trump has been the biggest super spreader of covid misinformation about masks, social distancing, hand washing, and other public health measures called for by scientific experts. He also has touted unproven remedies, none of…

There isn't anything good to say about how Donald Trump acted in the first 2020 presidential debate last night. So if you're a Trump fan who is in deep denial about what a horrible person your Dear Leader is, prepare to be faced with some uncomfortable truths about the debate. Here's five takeaways regarding the debate. I've backed up my opinions with views from knowledgeable political observers. (1) This was the worst presidential debate ever, because of Trump. Being a progressive who strongly favors Biden, my biggest pre-debate fear was that Trump would do the smart thing for him politically…

Today the New York Times released a blockbuster story about Trump's failure to pay federal taxes for 11 of the 18 years that the newspaper was able to examine his tax returns for. In 2017 his tax bill was just $750. (Related NYT stories are here, here, and here.) And Trump's businesses have lost a lot of money, demolishing his oft-repeated claim that he's an amazing businessman. It appears that his most successful "business" was appearing on the reality TV show, The Apprentice. Trump is personally responsible for $421 million in loans that are mostly coming due in four years. Naturally…

If there's one thing we can be sure about, it's that there's nothing to be sure about. The world is unpredictable, at least the world of human events. (Physics and chemistry, along with other areas of science, are wonderfully predictable.) Small happenings can lead to large changes.  To offer a personal example, near the end of my senior year at San Jose State College back in 1970, I was unsure about what I was going to do with my next-to-worthless, job wise, B.A. in psychology. Applying for a post office job was running through my head. Then, as I was…

In 2016, Donald Trump got 38% of the presidential vote in Salem, while Hillary Clinton got 49%. So when I go grocery shopping, as I did today, likely around a third of the people I see are Trump supporters. (I'm hoping his support has slipped a bit during the past four years.) Obviously there's a wide gulf between conservatives and progressives these days. Yet being a moderate sort of progressive, in no way do I view those who want another four years of Trump as crazy. Having been raised by a fiercely Republican mother, who never wavered on her conservative…

After more than three and a half years of enduring Trump's disgraceful presidency, I thought my psyche had become inoculated against further outrages. How much lower could Trump morally go than rock bottom? But when I saw this image on Twitter last night, I realized the answer was, as low as he can get away with until he leaves office. Walter Shaub is a former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics. Being 71, and interested in politics for almost my entire life, I've seen countless photos of the White House. This is the first time it has ever…

The good news is, my brain survived -- watching part of the first night of the Republican National Convention. Yes, it came close to exploding at times (actually, many times), but I was able to press the "stop" button on my remote fast enough to avoid serious damage to my truth-loving neurons. The bad news is, just about everything else.  Given all the GOP talk about the Democratic Convention being too dismal and dark, with the Republican Convention going to be all Reagan'esque sunshine and positivity, I was thinking that maybe that actually would happen. Nope.  Fear and trembling before…

Sure, we all know what a pitiful human being Donald Trump is. Weak, a crybaby, narcissistic, egotistical, incapable of empathy -- to name but a few of his pathologies. But it took reading the book by his niece, Mary Trump, a Ph.D. psychologist, to make me fully appreciate how badly our country is being served by a president who is utterly incapable of meeting even the most basic demands of the office he holds. Last week Barack Obama made a right-on comment in his speech at the Democratic National Convention. Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't.…

With a 91% approval rating, the U.S. Postal Service is American's favorite government agency. So Trump's attacks on the USPS and mail-in voting should lead to a substantial backfire upon his already-depressed approval rating and re-election prospect. But this won't happen all by itself. Defenders of the Postal Service and mail-in voting have to apply maximum pressure, keeping this issue front and center in the minds of voters from now until election day. A few days ago I started following the American Postal Workers Union on Twitter -- @APWUnational. I seem to recall that they had something like 60,000 followers…