Tag: Trump

Thursday’s Political Thoughts

Met with the beer friends last night. We’re a gang of retirees (one still works) who meet for a brew at a local place (of course) and discuss things. Most are out of the Bureau of Land Management (botanists and biologists) these days, though a retired helicopter designer is among us, along with a doctor, a couple journalists, retired department head of biology for our local university, and software engineers.

Small group last night. Seven participants. Discussion swiveled to the Hanford nuclear waste in Washington. Set up to process weapons grade plutonium, the plant was shut down by 1971. All through its life, dealing with the issue of the radioactive water and chemicals was a problem. Storing it in barrels was the short-term answer. The barrels began leaking. They figured a long-term solution would emerge. Plans evolved, were discarded or failed, etc.

Latest plan is glassification of waste barrels. Targeted to be completed by 2052, costs have multiplied and the project is off to a slow start. The DOE slid the target completion date back to 2069, just two years short of the 100-year anniversary of the plant’s closing. Wit this record, my friends and I have concerns about transporting the nuclear waste through Oregon, which is part of the plan.

After that long run-around, I come to today’s point. Whether nuclear waste, plastics, fossil fuels, DDT, etc, we as a civilization keep coming up with ‘answers’ without really parsing out how to deal with the problems which might come up. Problems are often treated on a “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” approach. Then we skid onto the bridge and begin struggling to find an answer. We’re often lax about it until it’s a crisis.

Now we come to the politics of today. One huge aspect of the Trump led GOP is that they seem to want to continue this as our mode. Kick it down the road. Call it a hoax. Pretend it’s not a problem. See climate change with its attendant extreme events and rising sea waters as an example. Man, those GOP cats will do anything to pretend there’s not a problem. To garner support for that, they’ll dump fake news and misinformation all over the news. Non-existent problems are created. Then they scream it to their base until the base is screaming about it too in true call and response fashion. See ‘woke’, ‘cancel culture’, and ‘immigrants eating pets’ as examples of this.

That’s what bugs me most about this brand of the Republican Party. They want to torture the clock until they can pretend they reside in another time where all was well. Basically, they want to perform and live as if the problems created by kicking the solutions down the road is a feasible governing approach. In an era when packaging plastics are leaching the carcinogens responsible for breast cancer into our food, and mass shootings keep increasing, they think less regulations is the answer. And then, to support the leader capable of leading them backward into the future, Donald Trump, they attempt to ignore or rewrite history, twist ethics and principles, and undermine others’ rights and freedoms. They pretend his adultery and multiple marriages align with their religious values. They’ll turn their heads and look away as he’s tried and convicted in court and hum quietly to themselves as he speaks gibberish and tells lies.

Not only does that render them a sad state as a party, but it renders us ineffective as a nation and will lead to greater and greater disasters. That’s a demonstrated trend. But they, his supporters, have turned off their minds and refuse to see that. This is what deeply frustrates me and many others.

But worse than frustration is the fundamental and serious consequences of their inactivity. If they believe Hurricane Helene was disastrous, they haven’t seen anything yet. We said the same after Katrina. After the disastrous wildfires in the west. After the record high temperatures established again and again and again in this century.

The way the GOP closes its eyes and minds to these issues, they will continue to refuse to see the consequences of their unwillingness to face these problems. Another disaster and another town will be gone.

And we’ll continue suffering from this conveyor belt of disasters and disease until irresponsible members of the GOP are removed from power and influence.

Please, vote blue in 2024.

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Wednesday’s Political Thoughts

I’d seen the non-answer and privately mocked it.

I’m addressing the Veep debate of 2024. In this corner, JD Vance, acknowledged purveyor of lies. In the other, a schoolteacher, Minnesota governor Tim Walz.

The non-answer was how JD Vance bobbed and weaved around the last election and Trump’s efforts to deny he’d lost and game the system to convince others that it’d been stolen. Ol’ orange skin has a thin skin. Anyone and everyone seeing him react to criticism knows he responds with vigorous childish antics. Admitting he’d lost the election was above his skillset, so he’s been conjuring an alternate reality ever since a record 80,000,000 voters told him to get lost. He just can’t take that reality.

The way Vance spoke, Trump didn’t do anything to impede a peaceful transfer of power.

Let the NY Times state it:

Mr. Walz had a question for his counterpart.

“He is still saying he didn’t lose the election,” Mr. Walz said of Mr. Trump, turning grandly to Mr. Vance. “Did he lose the 2020 election?”

“Tim,” Mr. Vance replied, “I’m focused on the future.” 

Tim Walz reacted to that.

“That,” Mr. Walz said, “is a damning non-answer.”

There was a reason, he added, that Mr. Pence was not on the stage as Mr. Trump’s running mate anymore.

And it was worth asking, he said, what that could tell viewers about Mr. Vance.

“America, I think you’ve got a really clear choice,” Mr. Walz said, his eyes getting bigger, “of who’s going to honor that democracy and who’s going to honor Donald Trump.”

Just ’bout summed it up for me. Vance won’t admit the truth. Anyone ignoring reality and history won’t learn from either. That’s a person I don’t want in any leadership position.

But reading the NYTimes comments always delivers a surprise. Like expecting a birthday cake and opening the box to find a turd. Here’s one, two, and three of those comments about the non-answer.

JD Vance made some interesting points about January 6. He basically distanced himself away from the event. Of course, Walz, needs to associate Vance with January 6 and rightfully so, because the Vice President has an important role to play: they count the electoral votes. If the Vice President does NOT count the electoral votes, there cannot be a new president. Another thing, Donald Trump had to leave office on January 20 because of Mike Pence’s refusal of Donald Trump’s command not to certify the election. If Vance were VP that day, I think he wouldn’t count the electoral votes and Trump would have an excuse to stay in power. Of course, there would be the threat of impeachment, but based on how the last trial went, I’m not sure if that process works.

A plastic statement to be sure, but generally makes sense. Next.

Mr Vance was absolutely correct in his response to what took place on Jan 6. The protest at the Capitol was initiated and instigated by Democratic operatives and FBI plants and informants. The legacy media glosses over these facts in a desperate effort to convince America that the attempts by President Trump and his supporters to get to the truth about election interference prior to certification and the instigation of events at the Capitol were some nefarious plot by President Trump. No they were not and the election results and the true instigators of Jan 6 still need to be investigated and exposed. One of the biggest fears the left has is that his reelection will result in these truths being exposed. The left well knows that President Trump isn’t a threat to democracy but a threat to their hold on the levers of our governments power.

Well, someone is certainly drinking the Qanon tuna juice. They get their info from where? Delusions are deep in this one. They ignore all evidence and the facts of what happened and just 3D print some new reality.

And comment #3.

Tim Walz came across as a nice guy, good neighbor, but not VP material much less POTUS in the event he has to step up to the plate. Harris made a profound mistake by picking Walz when she had the opportunity to choose either Josh Shapiro or Mark Kelly. I am not voting for Harris and I am not voting for Trump but had Harris picked Shapiro or Kelly as VP, I would definitely have reconsidered voting for her in November.

Basically, in their opinion, ‘Harris made a mistake in Walz so she’s not good enough for my vote cause Walz isn’t good enough to Veep.’

Everyone heard the same words and saw the same scenes. But the baggage we carry always drives our perceptions. And if Trump wins, and it all turns to shit so many like me and others gag on as a possibility, that third commenter will proclaim, “Well, it’s not my fault. I didn’t vote for either of them.”

Yeah, Vance’s performance didn’t change me. I didn’t come up with shivers from his wisdom or oratory prowess. I saw none of the first and little of the second.

With all I’ve seen of Trump and Harris, I’m still voting blue. Not only do I share my values and hopes for the nation with her, but with him, I believe he and ‘his supporters’ would continue shredding the Constitution and moving us backward.

Guess that’s my baggage.

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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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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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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: Moontalized

And just like that, summer struck back. A friend wrote in an email about meeting up for a beer, “Is it PC to refer to this pleasant time of year as ‘Indian Summer?’ I sure hope so.”

Yep, autumn and autmer and sumumn have all been displaced for summer, if we use the weather as a ruler. It’s September 24, 2024 on the calendar. Here in Ashlandia, that should translate to autumn, or ‘fall’ as many locals call it. But with the low only dipping into the middle sixties last night and an expected high of 95 F, this Tuesday has summer scrawled all over it. Add in a deep blue sky tinged with hazy edges, and it feels like June has fallen on us once again.

There’s all manner of news spreading across the wires today. Good stuff like new 2024 election trends and Trump’s claim that if he loses this time, he’s done. WTF news about a blizzard in South Africa. Gold hit an all-time high, Texas is suing the Biden Administration, and Hurricane John is a cat 3 striking Mexico.

Oh, and Earth is closer to getting that ‘second moon’ we’ve always hoped for, though it’ll be just a temporary addition. Call it a trial run. We’ll need to be careful in how the new moon is introduced and ensure that it gets along with the old Moon. It’s used to being the only moon, so there’s some trepidation that the new and old moon will go after each other.

I was outside in the backyard at 3 AM (yes, it was a cat thing) when I was overtaken by the stunningly clear sky and brilliant, bold moonshine. I stood out there alone for a while, sucking in the fresh air and stargazing. That probably contributed to The Neurons posting a Thin Lizzy song, “Dancing in the Moonlight (It’s Caught Me in Its Spotlight)” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark two-step). The song came out in ’77 but it doesn’t get much radio play in the U.S. these days.

Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and vote blue in 2024. I have reached the bottom of my coffee cup, so I am facing a personal sad time. Here’s the music! Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: Sumumnsatting

With change of season almost on us and the world’s relationship to the sun shifting, the sunbeams jumped right into my bed through the room’s sliding glass door, illuminating me and my faithful buddy, Tucker (pronounced Tuck-ah). Time to get up, I think I said, and he replied, Time to eat.

Sumumn still holds on, dropping cool nights on us, like 50 F last night, but taking us to pleasantly warm temperatures, like 82 F today. A finely consistent coat of gilded sunshine holds the days while nights are wrapped up in clear, starry skies. This is Saturday, September 21, 2024.

After reading some of Trump’s latest stuff, I read about Danica Patrick’s declarations about being between a Republican and an Independent. Danica Patrick is a retired race driver who is always down on Vice President Harris. She’s also Aaron Rodger’s former girlfriend. Patrick commented, “I think our country should be run by someone that knows business and has integrity.”

Well, as true experts will clarify for you, running the nation as a business is not realistic; a nation and a business have different goals, with a nation being concerned about its people welfare and security, and the multitude of issues and needs which fall into those wide buckets. A business is focused on making a profit. Those are contrary end-goals.

Patrick doesn’t mention that she’s voting for D.J. Trump. I can’t believe that she would if she’s realistically assessing Trump’s business acumen. After that, discussions about Trump’s integrity can open. Documented as being a consistent liar, he’s also demonstrated that he’s out of touch with the nation’s history and needs, flipflops on his positions based on what he believes voters want to hear (see abortion and Project 2025), and if you believe the lawsuits and commentary from New Yorkers, he regularly stiffs contractors. Trump’s business bankruptcies are also well-chronicled.

Anyway, out of that, Hall & Oates began playing in the morning mental music stream (Trademark trumped) as Der Neurons called up “You’re Out of Touch” from 1977. Hall & Oates were a musical duo whose sound was stamped all over the popular music scene. Living in the barracks in the Philippines at the time, I’d hear this song being played in others’ rooms, and regularly hear it at the Airman’s Club. It’s encrusted in my psyche.

Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and vote blue in 2024. Coffee is being swallowed in fine gulps. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Thursday’s Political Thoughts

Peter Sage’s blog post today was titled, “Three Corners of An Intersection”. It’s a tale of political signs.

Peter installed his sign first, Kamala Harris – 2024.

The next day, a neighbor responded with a Trump in 2024 sign across the street.

The day after that, a third neighbor put up a handmade sign against Trump.

There’s no sign on the fourth house at the intersection. They must be the undecided.

IMO, this pretty well paints the political scene of the United States in 2024.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: repetigird

Thursday, September 19, 2024, kicked off split between sunshine. One end of the sun was bathed in refreshing warm gold light. The other end was dim, caught in shadows. The situation is slowly changing as the sun lifts over the barriers and heaves into the sky. Which, accidently, sounds like the sun might be puking up there.

58 F here and now, we have blue skies in the main, with some haziness coalescing along the horizons, especially to my west, where the valley flattens out. Yesterday presented us with a gorgeous warm but not overbearing afternoon of sunshine and breezes. Today might duplicate the results, with a high of 79 F being batted around.

Speaking of weather, I’ve been reading about the U.S. healthcare system’s ranking compared to like countries. Yes, that’s a non-sequitar, ain’t it? Few should be surprised that our nation was ranked last, with higher costs, lower levels of service, less access to care, and shorter life spans. I find the comments of Dr. Joseph Betancourt, President of the Common Wealth Fund, relevant.

“This report reveals that our health system is continuing to lag far behind other nations when it comes to meeting our citizens’ basic health care needs. The US spends more on health care than any other country, and Americans are sicker, die younger and struggle to afford essential health care. We spend the most and get the least for our investment.”

“As a primary care doctor, I see the human toll of these shortcomings in our system on a daily basis. I have patients who need medications they can’t afford. I spend time going back and forth with insurance companies who have denied care I know my patients need, and I see older patients who arrive sicker than they should because they’ve spent the majority of their lives uninsured.” 

Reading newspaper, magazine, and online articles, I’ve encountered the story he tells again and again. Worse, the laws and actions the GOP and the right wing are initiating are compounding health issues for women by inserting the state and religious views into the transactions. Neither have a need to be there, and both are detrimental to good health practices. Trump and his concept of a plan would most likely worsen the situation, as he’s for business, against government, and has little empathy for the middle class and below. This fuels our need to vote blue in 2024.

We ordered six more Harris-Walz yard signs last night. These are earmared for friends who are looking for yard signs. One woman said she’s putting on on her fence, facing her Trump-supporting neighbor. All turned down bumper stickers. This is a blue to purple area, with a lot of red inflammation around the edges. My friends stated that they have real concerns about what those MAGAs would do to them or their car; yes, we’ve seen the videos and heard the threats MAGAs like to issue.

Without great surprise, I read of an EPA IG report that said top EPA officials had retaliated against whistle blowers. This was done under the previous administration.

Ah, moving on through the morning. I have Jackson Browne singng “The Pretender” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark calloused). The Neurons brought it up when I was sipping coffee, watching cats wash after they’d eaten, studying the line of the morning sun moving across the backyard. Then the songs’ lines came up, “And when the morning light comes streaming in, we’ll get up and do it again.” Yep, that’s where I stand. Time to do it again.

Be strong, stay positive, test negative, and vote blue in 2024. Here’s the music. Cheers

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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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