Posted in2024 election Donald Trump

Hard to feel sympathy for Trump when he acts like an asshole

After the first assassination attempt that left Trump with a wounded ear and a rally attendee dead, I felt some sympathy for Trump, along with most Americans. It helped that at first Trump spoke about being a changed man after his brush with death, vowing to unify the country. That didn't last long. Soon Trump was back to blaming Democrats for the assassination attempt, ignoring the inconvenient truth that the shooter was a registered Republican and hadn't expressed any particular political leanings.  Yesterday there was another attempted assassination according to the Secret Service, though the person in custody, Ryan W.…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Kamala Harris

Debate with Harris showed what an unmanly wimp Donald Trump is

Donald Trump likes to pretend that he's a macho guy. But in truth, he's really unmanly. Even more, he's a wimp -- as Bill Maher likes to call him, a "whiny little bitch."  Trump is always complaining about how people treat him unfairly. Yet while he demands respect, Trump doesn't act in ways that elicit respect. Speaking as a man with 75 years of experience of that gender, men know the difference between a leader who, as the saying goes, "speaks softly and carries a big stick" versus what Trump does: speak loudly and carry a fragile twig. Now, I…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Kamala Harris

Harris beat Trump so badly in the debate, I almost feel sorry for him

If this was a boxing match, it should have been called after the first round: technical knock-out for the clear victor over Donald Trump, Kamala Harris! But the bout, or rather the debate, went on for more than ninety minutes tonight. Trump got in a few good punches, but the evening clearly belonged to Harris. She outdid him on both style and substance, leaving Trump fumbling and mumbling his way through answers to questions that he clearly was incapable of using to his advantage. Largely this was because Trump is so bad at talking about specific policies, preferring to resort…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Kamala Harris

Harris and Walz interviewed on CNN. Now let’s see Trump and Vance.

Ever since Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, following Biden's withdrawal, many in the media have been clamoring for her to do interviews and press conferences. Today Harris and Walz were interviewed by CNN's Dana Bash in a Georgia diner. Hopefully this will put an end to the claims that Harris is scared to answer tough questions. She handled everything Bash threw at her with calm competence, as did Walz. Given how often Trump changes his policy positions, it's amusing that Bash thought it was worthwhile to ask Harris about her 2019 statement that she'd ban fracking if…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Kamala Harris

Nate Silver says Harris is a great candidate and RFK Jr. dropout won’t mean much

Last night Kamala Harris gave one of the best acceptance speeches I've ever heard from the presidential pick of the Democratic National Convention. I've watched them all since the 1960s, I'm pretty sure.  Harris was virtually flawless in both the substance and delivery of her speech. And I've added "virtually" not because I found anything not to like in what she said, just because no one is perfect. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch the 38 minute speech. Which is relatively short by acceptance speech standards, way shorter than Trump's. NPR reports that Harris' speech…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Kamala Harris

Harris-Walz are doing great, but I have one big worry

Happy days are here again for us Democrats. We've gone from severe depression when it looked like Biden was going to stay in the race and hand a victory to Trump, to fervent joy now that Kamala Harris is at the top of the Democratic ticket and is kicking Trump's butt. The good news is plentiful. I'll be content with just providing a few examples before doing what is typical for Democrats: worrying.  Nate Silver's "Silver Bulletin" take on the presidential race currently has Harris with a 56% chance of winning this November, with Trump at 44%. That's basically a…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump

Trump lied lots in yesterday’s press conference. Reporters let him get away with it.

At least since 2015, and before that also, it's been obvious that Donald Trump lies. Not just a little. A lot. He's a compulsive liar. Can't stop himself. Even, or probably I should say, especially, at yesterday's press conference at Mar-a-Lago. The New York Times fact-checked Trump's rambling, often incoherent, statements in response to questions asked by reporters -- which couldn't be heard at all clearly, since the Trump campaign didn't provide a microphone for those asking questions, probably so Trump could blather on about whatever he wanted without the television-viewing audience knowing the question he was asked. I've copied…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Kamala Harris

I hate Trump, but here’s my advice to him for defeating Harris

I'm not actually a Buddhist, but occasionally I like to pretend that I am. So I'm putting on my Buddhist persona for this blog post in which I demonstrate my boundless compassion for all sentient beings by telling Donald Trump what he needs to do to defeat Kamala Harris and win the election this November. Even though that prospect fills my non-Buddhist self with revulsion. But since there's basically a zero chance that Trump will take this advice, I feel fine sharing it. Donald, things haven't been going well for you lately. Sure, your surviving the failed assasination attempt garnered…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Kamala Harris

Harris has much better chance than Biden of beating Trump, says Nate Silver

Today Nate Silver, who ran the acclaimed 538 web site back when it was part of the New York Times, turned on his proprietary election prediction model (Silver maintained the rights to it after he became an independent analyst) following a hold when Biden withdrew from the presidential race. Now Silver considers that there's sufficient polling data for him to get the model up and running again with Harris as the Democratic candidate. Here's a couple of key figures from his Silver Bulletin, which I pay $10 a month for a subscription that gets more detail than his free offering.…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump National politics

It’s good Trump wasn’t killed. Now let’s defeat the S.O.B.

Let's not learn the wrong lesson from yesterday's attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. The biggest problem facing our country isn't toxic political discourse. It is Donald Trump. To believe otherwise is to deny some evident facts. That's why I disagree with the basic premise of Biden's speech to the nation today.  President Joe Biden used a rare Oval Office address on Sunday to condemn political violence and plead with Americans to turn down the temperature in the increasingly toxic political system after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. ...Speaking from the Resolute Desk, Biden decried that the political…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Joe Biden

Here’s what I predict will happen with Biden. It doesn’t end well.

Everybody deals with stress in different ways. Being a compulsive writer, now mostly in the form of my three blogs, I feel better when I get things off my mind and onto a computer screen, then into cyberspace. So that's what I'm going to continue to do with my #1 stressor, President Biden's all-important campaign against Donald Trump for the presidency.  I can't do what I heard Michael Steele and Joy Reid pontificating about on MSNBC as I drove around this afternoon. Steele was super annoying, and dead wrong, as he loudly proclaimed that the only people who want Biden…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Joe Biden

More bad news for Biden. He needs to withdraw, or our country is screwed.

Recently on MSNBC's Morning Joe program, President Biden phoned in to announce that he's not going to withdraw as the presumptive Democratic nominee, no matter what the "elites" say, because Biden claims to know that the average Democratic voter wants him to stay in the race.  As evidence he cited what people were telling him at campaign events following his debate debacle. Wow, what a non-shock: most of those who take the time and trouble to attend a Biden rally support his candidacy. Next Biden should attend a Kansas City Chiefs home game. He'll probably find that most of the…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Joe Biden

With the presidential debate looming tomorrow, the race currently is a toss-up

Suddenly the 2024 presidential race is seeming real. Well, make that much more real, because I've been fretting about the race for a long time.  But tomorrow's debate between Biden and Trump marks the genuine kickoff of the campaign to lead our country. Until now, there just have been skirmishes between the major party candidates. The debate will be an all-out war.  Being a Democrat, I worry a lot.  Will Biden stumble and fall on his way to the podium? Will Biden make some faux pas that will lead undecided voters to decide that he's senile? Will Trump summon up…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Joe Biden

Why liberals have more to fear from the 2024 election than conservatives

Last Saturday my wife and I hosted the monthly meeting of a Salon discussion group that we've been part of for many years. Everybody in the group leans liberal, some more than others, naturally, because us liberals, like cats, are notoriously resistant to being herded. One thing that we all agreed on is that it's going to be tough to maintain a semblance of calm between now and the 2024 election this November. President Biden is roughly tied nationally with Donald Trump, but Trump has the edge in some of the all-important swing states. I tried to be as understanding…
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Posted inDonald Trump

Trump would never write the message Eisenhower did in case D-Day failed

Today I heard MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell read the message that General Dwight Eisenhower, commander of the D-Day allied forces that invaded the beaches of Normandy in France on June 6, 1944, wrote the day before the invasion -- to be shared if D-Day failed. (Eisenhower wrote the date as July 5, rather than June 5. Hey, the guy had a lot on his mind. His writing isn't highly legible, so I've shared the text below the image.) "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump

Donald Trump is a convicted felon. I’m so happy.

Yesterday I was putting my socks and shoes on after an acupuncture treatment when the acupuncturist, who either knew my political leaning or made a good guess, stuck her head in the door and said, "Trump has been convicted on all 34 counts!"  I said, "Thanks so much for telling me. You've made my day." Also, my week, my month, and if that well-deserved felony conviction ends up helping Biden to beat Trump this November, my entire year. Lifetime, even, because if Trump is elected, I fear that our beloved democracy is in mortal danger. A day later, I'm still…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump

Here’s 241 scary words about what another Trump presidency would be like

I've read lots of TIME magazine cover stories. None has scared me as much as the May 27, 2024 issue, which featured "If He Wins" by Eric Cortellessa. The "he" is Donald Trump. Though the cover story is lengthy, at the beginning of it Cortellessa summed up the main things he learned Trump plans to do if he was elected to a second term as president this November. Here's those scary 241 words. How any patriotic American could vote for Trump after reading them baffles me. Everything that Trump wants to do is either illegal, morally wrong, or ethically dubious. …
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump

Trump falling asleep in court is amusing, yet also disturbing

Donald Trump likes to call President Biden "sleepy Joe." That's one reason I find the reports of Trump falling asleep in court yesterday on the first day of his hush money/campaign finance violation trial so amusing. Forbes has a summary of the reports of Trump's dozing that should put to rest any suspicion that this is fake news. Here's excerpts from "Trump Fell Asleep In Court -- Twice -- Reporters Say." The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman was the first to report on Trump’s seemingly exhausted manner, writing in the Times’ live blog of the trial around 12 p.m.…
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Posted inDonald Trump

Buy stock in DJT, Trump’s media company (if you like to lose money)

In the 1980s my father gifted me some stock in a company he co-founded, thereby assuaging his guilt for ignoring me after he and my mother divorced, causing me to only spend one hour in my life face-t0-face with him aside from my very early years. The company, Systems and Computer Technology Corporation, traded on the NASDAQ as SCTC. That's where Donald Trump's company trades also. Its name is Trump Media & Technology Group Corporation; stock ticker is DJT. Aside from sharing a home on the NASDAQ, there aren't many resemblances between SCTC and DJT. When SCTC went public, the…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump National politics

Ronna McDaniel shows what’s wrong with the Republican Party

To clarify the title of this blog post, I want to be clear that currently there are lots of things wrong with the Republican Party. For example, the failure to acknowledge the reality that humans are causing global warming and we've got to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as rapidly as possible to prevent civilization as we know it from being tossed into the garbage can of history. But there's a common denominator in many, if not most, of the flaws afflicting today's GOP: Donald Trump. Trump, who sows discord and destruction with every step he takes, like a malevolent Johnny…
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