Tag: Donald Trump

Tuesday’s Political Thoughts

I’m often going on about Republican lies. Some of them are breathtaking. Heather Cox Richardson brought facts about it to the table in her well-written “Letters From An American” column on September 29, 2024. I read it yesterday and then again today.

Ms. Richardson points out that in Tennessee, Republicans positioned statements about Federal relief after Hurriccane Helene as though President Biden had sat on signing it. The truth was that the Republican government didn’t declare and ask for assistance until after disastrous flooding had taken place. President Biden authorized the assistance as soon as it was requested.

The delay was caused because “…in keeping with an April joint resolution from the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature calling for 31 days of prayer and fasting to “seek God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee,” Lee proclaimed September 27 “a voluntary Day of Prayer & Fasting.”

Other signs of GOP duplicity and lying are brought up. Ms. Richardson writes, “In the past two days, Republican lawmakers who just days ago voted against funding the federal government and who have railed against government spending have been out front claiming credit for getting federal disaster relief.”

Yep; that’s the Republican M.O.

She then brings up a classic GOP ploy, trying to steal credit for something Democrats did. In this case, it’s insulin prices.

“Republican presidential nominee Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Ohio senator J.D. Vance have been claiming that it was Trump who capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month. Vance has accused Vice President Kamala Harris of lying when the Biden administration takes credit for it. Vance’s statement, itself, is a breathtaking lie. Trump signed an executive order in July 2020 establishing a temporary, voluntary program that let some Medicare Part D prescription drug plans cap monthly insulin copayments at $35. The program ran from January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2023. 

“The Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law in August 2022, required all Part D plans to charge no more than $35 a month for all covered insulin products. All Democrats in the House and the Senate voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, and all Republicans—including J.D. Vance—voted against it. “

These lies are only surface stains. Heather Cox Richardson goes into depth about the lies Republicans are pushing about women dying because of the anti-abortion laws that deny them proper care; lies about Haitians and immigrants; lies that the GOP are spreading about education.

For the GOP, the end game is clear: lie to instill fear and hatred. Lie to stay in power. Whatever it takes.

I hope you’ll take time to read Heather Cox Richardson’s complete column. The only way we’ll ever overcome the fear and hatred is through the light and power of knowledge. It’s a never-ending challenge.

Vote blue.

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Monday’s Political Thoughts

As September bows and moves out of the limelight, the NY Times announces in an editorial that they support Kamala Harris for President in 2024.

Part of me shrugged. It’s considered a liberal paper; many will dismiss its opinion. Another voice in me said, “No, this is good. It will help the Undecided make a choice.” Maybe, I replied. Easier understanding my cats’ meows than it is to follow the Undecided’s reasoning sometimes.

The NY Times invoked some of the Undecided’s reasoning. Kamala Harris is not being specific enough in her plans and policies, they complain.

Trump supporters will pull out the pieces of good the paper cites for Trump and say, “See? Even that librul rag says Trump was good.”

“In particular, he broke decades of Washington consensus and led both parties to wrestle with the downsides of globalization, unrestrained trade and China’s rise. His criminal-justice reform efforts were well placed, his focus on Covid vaccine development paid off, and his decision to use an emergency public health measure to turn away migrants at the border was the right call at the start of the pandemic”. 

They’ll dismiss where the NYT opines, “Yet even when the former president’s overall aim may have had merit, his operational incompetence, his mercurial temperament and his outright recklessness often led to bad outcomes. Mr. Trump’s tariffs cost Americans billions of dollars. His attacks on China have ratcheted up military tensions with America’s strongest rival and a nuclear superpower. His handling of the Covid crisis contributed to historic declines in confidence in public health, and to the loss of many lives. His overreach on immigration policies, such as his executive order on family separation, was widely denounced as inhumane and often ineffective.”

The NY Times then continues to tear Trump a new editorial asshole over his many failures.

Trump supporters will disagree about those.

In the end, it’s a recommendation and much of it is about how Trump is unfit to be President. As the Times announced in 2016.

And even back then, someone demanded in the comments to the Times 2016 recommendation, “But why should someone vote for Clinton? Simply because she’s “not Trump?” She flipflops more than most politicians (just in the last year or so: Keystone pipeline, TPP, gay marriage). She’s consistent only on one thing: She never met a Middle East war she didn’t like, a Middle East war that she thinks the US should steer clear of — and yet her supporters have the audacity to insist that Trump would be more “dangerous.” If Clinton were President right now, we’d probably have ground troops in Libya and Syria, and maybe even the Ukraine. How that qualifies her as the “peace” candidate escapes me.”

For many, the dilemma remains strangely unchanged despite the history of Trump’s relentless lying, criminal convictions, flipflopping, weird and bizarre statements and behavior, and Project 2025.

And that’s the problem we still face as a nation.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: Sundaylazing

Autumn covered us this morning with a familiar old comforter. Sunshine on changing leaves, cloudy, hazy blue sky, crisp weather ranging from the upper forties (Fahrenheit) at night to today’s high in the low to mid 70s.

Today is Sunday, September 29, 2024.

It’s National Coffee Day in the United States! Like many holidays, its provenance is a little iffy. Coffee is a staple in the United States. Lot of coffee drinkers like me swear by a daily brew or two. The only thing I drink more than coffee is water, and the only drink I enjoy more than coffee is beer. But coffee has less calories and is fat free! Woo hoo! While it has some potential benefits, it comes with potential risks. IMO, the coffee person relationship is more individualized. Either your body works well with coffee or it doesn’t. Think I’ll celebrate as I do every other day, with a cuppa coffee.

BTW, since there’s a coffee-inspired holiday, there are coffee-inspired deals available. USA Today provides a list.

Over on my brain’s political side, my spouse refocused me on a USA Today opinion piece. Written by the notorious Kevin Roberts, it’s titled “Opinion: Harris is wrong about Project 2025. Our plan is good for America.” His final paragraph cracks me up:

“What should be a scandal is the vice president’s attempt to avoid discussions of substantive policy issues. Americans want and deserve a real debate, not vibes.”

Yeah, baby, year, real debate, not vibes. Real debate as Trump and his surrogate, J.D. Vance, spread acknowledged lies about Haitians eating pets in Ohio. Let’s debate that, Roberts.

Will Trump debate the ‘stolen election’ claims he continues to make, even after admitting that he lost the election? The stolen election claims that were thrown out of court over and over again? The efforts to overturn the election that he’s been indicted for?

Let’s have a debate over Trump’s healthcare plan. The one he installed when he was POTUS. *Chortle – yeah, that didn’t happen.* Vaporware has more substance than Trump’s current ‘concept of a plan’.

Let’s debate Trump’s declaration that he’d protect women after the fucking disaster of the Trump-stacked Dobbs decision and its afterbirth on women, their rights, their bodies, and their health. You know, the women who he refers to as ‘bimbos’. The ones he’d grab by the pussy, and Jean Carroll.

Remember this exchange?

Donald Trump: You know and I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach.

Unknown: She used to be great. She’s still very beautiful.

Trump: I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f*** her. She was married.

What respect he shows! Such a protector! (Yes, that last was late-morning, coffee-fueled snark.)

Yes, let’s have a debate between Trump and Vice President Harris, Roberts! Oh, we can’t because Trump refuses to debate Harris again because she trounced him the last time so badly that Trump’s feelings remain hurt.

Moving on.

Today’s music was inspired by another’s blog post. Tom MacInnes mentioned April Wine in his fabulous series about rock music. I’ve only featured April Wine here once, six years ago. But after today’s post, The Neurons were stirred to drop “Roller” from 1979 into the morning mental music stream (Trademark limited). I had a Canadian friend serving in the U.S. Air Force with me on Okinawa. April Wine was one of his basic “we’re going to play their music” groups. If you were at his house listening to music, you would hear April Wine sooner or later.

Funny, but thinking on that, several such connections exist through my years of friendships. With Jeff, it was Culture Club. Randy could be depended on to bring out Van Halen, although Boston also came out at his place. Rich in Germany was a Chris Rea advocate while Bobby was apt to crank up Cream. Gene, being more old school, frequently invoked the Grateful Dead. Robert was always bringing in Rush. Such a group of characters. Of course, I was likely to turn up a piece out of Pink Floyd’s catalog.

Stay positive, test negative, remain strong, and lean forward. While you’re at it, could you also vote blue in 2024.

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More ‘Bout the Huckster

Today’s Theme Music

Nan shares Mary Trump’s take on Uncle Donald’s latest grift. I was thinking about D.J.T. and his grifts and thought it wouldn’t be surprising if he put out a set of ‘commemorative Presidential Seal watches’. Sure, it’s illegal to use the the seal, and subject to fine. But with the SCOTUS ruling about Trump’s immunity, I’m sure oddsmakers believe there’s a good chance that Trump will do just that.

Long as it’s making him money.

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Wednesday’s Political Thoughts

I read a Jamie Bouie opinion piece yesterday: “The Black Box of the Undecided Voter Won’t Yield Its Secrets”

His comments and that of experts about undecided voters were sensible to me in an abstract, collegiate manner. They’d hold true in most elections, meaning if we didn’t have Trump as a candidate, and the hollowed out, morally bankrupt GOP that now graces our nation.

I mean, when John McCain ran, I could accept him as POTUS. He’d established principles and held to them. I disagreed with most of his policy positions, but I could see him working with his party and the Democratic Party and moving forward, addressing issues and solving problems for the nation’s good, along with that of the world. I didn’t have a feeling that John McCain would try to drag us back into an era that celebrated discrimination, racism, and sexism. Nor did I think he would ally with dictators against our allies.

That’s what Trump stands for, IMO. He will crap on his base for a dollar, and crap on the Constitution for a penny. His give-a-fuck levels about treaties, democracy, and equality has dropped below acceptable standards. They’d be problematic in a citizen, but in a party leader, they’re horrendous because of the amplification.

See, the ideas behind Jamie Bouie’s piece, like much of the NY Times and many mainstream media, pushes the fallacy that Harris and Trump are equal on paper, a premise that ignores Trump’s foaming at the mouth hatred, and his urgent willingness to lie about immigrants eating pets to gain votes. It ignores his ‘faux pas’ like the claims about the Revolutionary War and airports. Oh, that was a teleprompter problem. Sure. Who in their right mind with a high school education would accidently make a claim about airports during the Revolutionary War?

If that was one gaffe, it could be written off. But there’s the sharks and electrocution riff. The repeated forgetfulness about where’s he’s at and what he’s doing. The lies about what he accomplished. The constant fucking word salad presented as though it’s coherent and meaningful discourse.

Let’s add hard facts. Trump has been convicted in court. He’s declared bankruptcy multiple times. He’s been documented as having lied over 30,000 times. We’re still counting. Even when he’s corrected about lies, he promotes the same those lies again and again. He cannot stop lying, and his base lap them up.

The media paints the GOP with pretty pastels. The book banning is set aside. Censorship, as foisted by GOP-led state governments, is overlooked. The fact that most Americans are pro-choice is punted away as though it little matters.

Climate change? The GOP calls it a hoax and turns away as more fires burn, record heatwaves are set, and the weather turns nastier and more extreme. They dance with insane conspiracy theories about the deep state and want to curtail others’ rights because they’re childless.

The GOP is still carrying on about the last election. Their claims were dispelled in courts. They have no evidence. And yet, it works. It works on those undecided who aren’t taking any time to pay fucking attention to what is happening outside of their career, their sports, their entertainment, their family.

C’mon, man.

The GOP duplicity, with Vance calling for less rhetoric while ignoring the steady spew of violence and hate that comes out of Trump, Bannion, Loomer, and other Republicans, keeps growing. Christ, they’re marching around Trump rallies with NAZI signs and flags, and Confederate signs and flags, and the press is going, well, that’s pretty normal. GOP representatives have called for an end to the separation of church and state, and the press goes, well, that’s one side of the issue.

Like hell it is. That’s not one side of the issue. That’s one of our fucking founding principles.

So, no. I’m going to cut the undecided voter a break because they might not have the time to be as deeply involved in thinking and reading about this election. They need to seriously pay attention. If this edition of the GOP wins in 2024, it will attempt to radically redefine the United States along theocratic, authoritarian lines that favor the wealthy, powerful, and whites.

Just read their playbook. It’s called Project 2025.

As for those who call themselves undecided because they think that Harris hasn’t outlined her policy positions, here’s a link to her issues page. Take time to read them and give them some critical thought and compare them to what Trump and the GOP is offering.

Vote. Blue.

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Sunday’s Political Thoughts

Down in North Carolina, we have a Black Republican who disparages Martin Luther King with juvenile insults, mocks school shooting survivors, insists that Michelle Obama is a man, and would’ve joined the Ku Klux Klan if they accepted Blacks.

It gets better.

Mark Robinson, the GOP’s overwhelming choice for nominee for the North Carolina governorship, has been around for several years with these outlandish claims. He and his claims were so out of there ridiculous that Trump eagerly endorsed him.

Now, more is coming out about Robinson. Evidence shows he’s been visiting porn sites and commenting online. He’s for slavery. Would buy a few himself.

The topper? This is an Evangelical.

Let’s pause and wrap our heads around the things Robinson says with what an Evangelical is supposed to be in the world of Christianity.

This is the GOP: a warped amalgam of American values, history, and political positions. Besides Trump and Robinson, there is JD Vance. He’s Trump’s running mate, out there lying about his Ohio constituents by claiming some of them are eating their neighbors’ pets. He agrees it’s a lie, but the lie is too important to their message to drop. Doesn’t matter to him that he’s endangering his constituents with his rhetoric…even as he calls for the rhetoric to be cooled because of threats to Trump.

Is that fucking twisting, or what?

As late night informercial offers used to declare, “Wait, there’s more!”

Elon Musk has become quite enamored with the right wing which Trump and the GOP are. So much that he took up Trump’s defense in the weirdest, most twisted way possible when pop star Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for POTUS.

“Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life”

Weird has become popular to describe Trump. But the reality is, that party is getting more twisted. Sure, these are leaderships I’ve highlighted, but it’s their supporters and the party which keep them in power.

Vote blue. Please.


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Wednesday’s Political Thoughts

Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for President of the United States in 2024.

The GOP candidate, Donald J. Trump, reacted strongly, ‘truthing’, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”

That reaction is symbolical of Trump’s maturity and life approach. Such behavior probably posts Ms. Swift’s case for not supporting Trump.

What prompts me to think about it and write about it is another writer asking via a headline, “Opinion: Why is Trump picking a fight he can’t win with Taylor Swift?”

Matt Lewis is the author. He writes a reasonable column about a reasonable question, if the subject, Donald J. Trump, was a reasonable person with reasonable self-control.

But Trump has shown himself not to be a reasonable person. He’s revealed himself to be petty. He’s demonstrated that he lacks self-control. The governor on his mental processes seems seriously damaged.

And that’s why he should not be POTUS: because he can’t stop himself from instigating and pursuing petty fights. A petty person is not what we need as the leader of our nation.

Vote Blue in 2024.

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Monday’s Political Thoughts

There was a second attempt to kill Donald J. Trump, the GOP nominee for President of the United States, last weekend.

As usual, deaf and oblivious to his own words, Trump blamed the Democrats, especially President Biden and Vice President Harris, using the same words that they used on him, “a threat to Democracy”…again.

It seems shortsighted for the entire nation to be surprised that political violence is taking place, that presidential nominees are being targeted.

This is a nation that frequently turns to violence when things go awry. Authorities often respond to violence with violence. Police showed up in military hardware. It’s not rare for them to kill after issuing a brief warning with no time left for anyone to react to their orders. Check out the newspaper articles and cop cam footage that exists. Citizens have armed themselves to ‘defend their homes’ and stand their ground, shooting innocents along the way, ending disagreements by killing someone.

The nation has had over three hundred mass shootings in this year alone. Statistics show that the leading cause of death for children under age 17 is by shooting — for three years in a row. People on the right have been arming up since Trump lost in 2020. More guns than ever are in the hands of private citizens.

“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless ― if the left allows it to be.” That’s the public remark made by Kevin Roberts, president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation. The folks behind Project 2025. Project 2025 is the plan for how Trump will reshape the United States by undercutting rights, deregulating industries, reducing women’s rights, and eliminating the Department of Education, among many, many other things.

Trump supporters have been calling for violence to solve matters for years. And Trump himself frequently and consistently refers to Democrats and judges as evil or bad people, often because they did their job as they needed to be done. As POTUS, Donald Trump wanted to use the military to shoot protestors.

Then, there is Jan. 6, 2021.

And now people are surprised that guns are being brought into politics?

Some just don’t get it.

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Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: Monrainbizy

Ah, Monday, September 16, 2024, a day of conflicting energy. We’re sleepwalking through summer’s last days in the nothern atmo, at least in Ashlandia’s tiny, tiny slice of it. Autumn is fast closing in, rendering the weather as a short season called sumumn.

As it’s Monday, people must endure the back-to-work energy and the commutes and setups and activities so associated with beginning a new work week. September has piqued and we’re slipping down its backside. The brings the month and the week different energies, but it’s also the last month of the third quarter, with yet other energies. And school has swung into gear, with its activities and demands. These all crash together like a restless sea.

Sumumn has brought his cool night temps. It’s ranging around 56 F at this moment. Clouds and blue skies are mixing it up. Rained last night, leaving us with wet foliage and earth. Angles, distance, and clouds force the sun to work harder to get some heat and light to us. Gonna peak in the upper sixties on the thermometer’s top end.

We’re all talking about the second assassination attempt on Trump. We wonder if the right wing’s continual threats of violence and their stated determination to take us back fifty years socially, blended with many on the right stating how much they hate Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives, could be triggering others to take action. Imagine the lasting infamy which would be attained for a bent individual if they could claim the title of The Man Who Shot Donald J. I don’t want Trump assassinated; don’t think it would be good for the world’s political dynamics. But I do wonder how much of his hateful rhetoric affects the situation. Then again, that reasoning irritates me as it reeks of ‘blame the victim’ mentality. Yes, I’m in a sore spot over it.

Trump will likely harvest a few sympathy votes from this latest attempt. Some will also christen him as tough and brave, and that’ll win their votes. I remain focused on the man’s character flaws, multiple lies, confused speechs, broken values, and lack of coherent, substantial policies to make my voting decisions.

Now, I admit that on the last, he seems to have a group backing him with very coherent and substantial policy ideas in the form of Project 2025. But Trump is trying to distance himself from that after the American people reacted to it like a load of crap-filled diapers. Which is probably why Trump lacks coherent and substantial policies; he can’t say they’re good ideas because most voters hate those idas and would vote against him. Trump is cunning enough to understand that.

Moving on.

Today’s song has been played here before. But, once The Neurons have made their play choice, they’re like a toddler, demanding to play it over and over again, making me feel a little nuts. So it is today that the theme music comes via John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, aka CCR or C.C.R. Their 1971 song, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” has a lock on the morning mental music stream (Trademark wet).

The song isn’t really about the weather, but about the depression and tension the group members were feeling even as the band achieved greater success. In a way, that metaphor about rain and weather can be applied to the U.S., that even as we taxed the rich and built our infrastructure, financed public education, and ensured everyone’s right to vote was realized and protected, forces within the nation were becoming dissillusioned and delusional, leading us to the polarizing facturing we now face. Will it break up the band (the nation)?

Be strong, stay positive, and vote blue in 2024. Vote against Project 2025. Vote against taking away people’s voting rights. Vote for protecting the environment and addressing climate change.

Here’s the music. Uintentionally ironically, it’s Fogerty playing it without CCR in 2005. Cheers

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Sunday’s Political Thoughts

In other news that isn’t news, Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for the President of the United States, is upset.

I know, it’s not strong news. Donald J. is often upset. He’s frequently angry at judges, former allies, authors, journalists, prosecutors, the DOJ, media outlets, actors and actresses, women, his lawyers, his advisors, former members of his administration, generals, professional athletes, other billionaires, politicians — especially Democrats, or ‘Dems’ as he likes to say, but also RiNOs — and people who are suing him or serving as witnesses in one of his many trials. Donald J. is not one to shrug it off and sing, “Life is but a dream.” No, he is a serious, angry individual. Just look at his face. I’d share a photo of his face, but I can’t personally stand looking at his face. Sorry.

Aside, though. It used to be common to refer to the POTUS as ‘leader of the free world’. That appellation used to be more frequently used. Maybe it’s just that it’s not used in my silos of information. Could be that the expression is a cold-war relic and went out of popularity with the U.S.S.R.’s collapse and break up.

Anyway, Taylor Swift, a talented, hard-working, world-famous young singer, entertainer, and pop culture queen, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as her choice for POTUS.

This was bigly news to Trump. Storming stormed around, throwing ketchup, tossing Big Mac wrappers, he swore, “Covfefe!” Aides and advisors familiar with his patterns got out of his way for their own safety and peace of mind.

“Where’s my phone, where’s my phone?” Trump shouted. “I need to text.”

So he did, pouring his feelings out into social media. “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” 

All caps. The man was deadly furious. A dam on his emotions had broken.

Lips pursed in a manly scowl, he nodded in satisfaction. “That’ll show ’em. That’ll teach them to endorse other, other, other people. Nobody puts Donald J. Trump in a corner.” Waddling back to the table, he sat down and ordered a soft drink.

“Anyone know where my wife is?” He thought about it for a moment. Did he have a wife? Been so long since he’d seen her.

Trump smiled. No way was Biden going to win. Sleepy Joe. Ha. No way. Just wait. Just wait. He’d show ’em. He’d show ’em all.

Just as he’d shown Taylor Swift.

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