Tag: Donald Trump

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More polls are coming out on the 2024 presidential election and pundits everywhere are trying to explain what they mean. This might be a useful exercise if the polls weren’t so damn depressing. But they are depressing. No matter what polls come out, it points to a close election with Biden behind in all the states that need to be won for a Biden victory. It doesn’t really matter why at this point. What matters is can Biden change this in time to win the election. I see no evidence of this.

Nate Silver was looking at the polls and had some interesting thoughts about what to do. The Democrats seem committed to a strategy that insures a close election particularly in regards to the Electoral College. Silver sees the most likely scenario for a Biden win is Biden with 270 Electoral Votes(the minimum number needed to win) and Trump with 268. This result has numerous potential for election stealing complaints with all of the contingent problems those complaints would bring. The better question is there an option?

Obviously, a different candidate might help. But isn’t this a roll of the dice when Biden, at least, has a chance of winning? It is. This, however, misses the point. As Silver noted the Democrats are already rolling the dice with Biden. He isn’t a sure thing and numerous things could get worse with a Biden candidacy and very little can get better. If the Democrats are going to roll the dice, why not roll it on a different candidate that could shake things up for Trump because Biden, at least as of this date, isn’t.

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New polls are showing Trump still leading Biden in a close race. Democrats are saying not worry though because Biden leads with likely voters as opposed to registered voters. I guess I shouldn’t worry then, right? Because these experts are never wrong, right? Well, if you ignore President Al Gore and President Hillary Clinton. Somehow I don’t find this comforting because, and I am just speculating here, what if some of those registered voters turn into actual voters. It could happen. Registered voters could actually turn out and vote.

The lack of energy on the Democratic side is disheartening. It is like the election is all wrapped up. They are confident that Trump will do something that will ruin his chances and everything will be just fine. They mean, of course, something like a videotape of Trump talking about grabbing unwilling women by the pussy. Yes that should work, absolutely. Nobody could vote for him after saying something like that. Waiting for Trump to make a mistake or to get convicted of a felony is a terrible strategy. It puts Trump in the driver seat. He has been successfully milking his grievances to get his way for years. I don’t understand it and I don’t like it but it is nonetheless true.

Even more disheartening is Biden doesn’t seem up to the vigorous campaign required for someone is such a tight election. He has disappeared. I challenge you to go to any news web site and check the number of times the name Trump is mentioned with the name Biden. It isn’t even close. Trump is always in the public eye. Yes, a lot of it is bad press but it is press and a lot of people either don’t understand the arguments against Trump or don’t care. We are, after all, talking about low information voters. Either way, the name Trump is on everyone’s lips — friend or foe, Biden not so much.

Surprisingly for a man who needs to change people’s minds about his age, Biden is doing remarkably little to do it. Protecting Biden from public view is a terrible idea. Better that he is bumbling around in front of a camera than hidden away in the White House. Could he do any worse than falling asleep at a trial which hasn’t seemed to hurt Trump in the least. Trump is only a few years younger than Biden. They are both old men. Right now Trump appears to be the more energetic of the two. If there are people who care about this, and, by that, I mean low information voters, then Biden needs to meet the challenge. Isn’t it better to get him out there in order to test the old fellow to see how he does? If he is up to then I am fine with sticking with him. If he isn’t, I would rather discover this now than in August after the Democratic Convention when the die is cast.

But telling me not to worry and trust that the Democratic big wigs know what they are talking about and this is in the bag is madness. True bat shit craziness. Before I can trust you with your speculations, you need to show you can turn things around. Biden’s continuing stagnant poll numbers misses the mark by a mile.

I am worried.

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There are many good reasons I won’t be voting for Donald Trump this November, but the one that stands out is that he is mean-spirited. Trump recently pointed out Senator Jon Tester’s weight. It takes a lot of moxie for an overweight man to pick on another man’s weight. Let he who is without extra weight cast the first stone, I say. But much more importantly, what adult publicly points out a person’s weight? It is widely understood social faux pas. He isn’t making a catty comment about someone among a few friends which is wrong but also completely understandable. Almost everyone makes catty comments from time to time. And, if some friend reported that Trump said something like this in a private setting, I would think the reporting friend was an asshole. Trump, though, is speaking in front of an audience at a fundraising dinner. He thinks being mean-spirited is amusing and, worse still, isn’t the least bit embarrassed about it.

Since he finds it so amusing, I couldn’t help myself with my title. It is all in good fun after all. Ha Ha Ha Ha.

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Donald Trump is somebody I enjoy making fun of. He is a pompous buffoon. He says whatever comes to his mind and it is invariably nasty mean-spirited drivel. He deserves every insult that comes his way for those things. But falling asleep during court isn’t one of them. Anyone who has ever been to court knows that the most difficult thing about the whole process is staying awake. It is boring — filled with a lot of instructions, explanations, points of law and other things that are mostly obtuse and uninteresting. Staying awake is a real challenge for any non-legal person.

It is petty to point it out and certainly doesn’t do him any damage with his supporters. In fact, it humanizes a person whose large personality makes him difficult to humanize. The gleeful reception that his opponents greeted his dozing with is out of proportion to the crime committed. Let’s not get sidetracked by minutiae because if you wait long enough, Trump will provide plenty of real fodder for his critics to chew on.

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Democracy is at stake or so we are told. America’s two largest political parties are going to nominate aging unpopular candidates as their nominees. The Republicans because they think they were cheated and want revenge and the Democrats because, well, I don’t know why. I am told there is no one better. For many voters, this means, it could come down to flip of the coin which is frightening when you consider the very close races that decided the elections in both 2016 and 2020.

But not to worry, Trump will be a convicted felon by election day. Or not. I don’t know why people think the courts would save the day. Have these people ever dealt with courts? I know it has been loads of fun watching Trump getting frustrated by these court appearances but this is the type of ordeal that Trump was made for.

Trump has been using the courts his entire adult life to gain advantage and he understands the key to winning is delay. He knows how to wear people down until his nemesis surrenders and makes a deal. Now Trump has even a better option than a deal. If he delays long enough and wins the presidency, he can pardon himself.

The Democrats argue that the best response to Trump is Joe Biden. I wish I shared their confidence because Biden trails Trump in the polls. Biden is in trouble because many people think he is too old to be president. This could be handled easily by putting the old boy out there on the campaign trail. But someone is keeping him off and this would be fine if it helped. But it doesn’t. It’s a no win position. If Biden makes public appearances he looks old and if he doesn’t make appearances people think he is hiding because he is too old.

Don’t worry. Joe is saving it for the Fall. I am not sure why Biden will be better in the Fall because his problem is a perception of being old. He isn’t recovering from an illness and can expect to be in better shape after a short rest, he will, in fact, be even older in the Fall. Unfortunately, while Biden is comfortably resting,Trump is grabbing all the press — good, bad, or indifferent. Trump may be crazy but he is certainly visible and Trump likes being visible. He thrives on it. So, perhaps the Democrats nominating a candidate who has to save it for the fall isn’t the appropriate choice for such a rigorous undertaking as running for president.

People are saying that Trump is cornered now and has nowhere to run. This seems to be wishful thinking by the powers that be and a continual mistake that people make when dealing with Trump. In 2016, the Republican Establishment assured us that there is no way Trump could be nominated. Well, he was. The Democrats gave us Hillary Clinton who they assured us was the candidate who could defeat Trump. She wasn’t. Trump was impeached once. He laughed that one off. He slyly instigated violence on January 6. He denied everything and told us that we got it all wrong and began rewriting the history of the day. His supporters backed him. He was impeached again. Almost the entire Republican party got in line to say that nothing actually happened despite what they said to the contrary on January 6.

Trump has survived some very heavy fire and is relatively unscathed. At this point, I have more confidence that Trump has a better understanding about what is going on than the doyens in the press and government. Trump is constantly being underestimated which is sad for a man so dangerous. Just because they think a man is an uncouth idiot doesn’t mean everyone else agrees with them. This continual confidence that Trump is finally on the ropes displays a stunning amnesia of recent history. Trump has beaten his betters time and again and they don’t seem to realize it. Which is more than a little disconcerting.

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I try to ignore the Trump family as much as humanly possible but they just are too difficult to ignore. They are always out there doing something, saying things and making people crazy. Sometimes you just have to break down and comment on what they are doing, knowing full well that they love every moment of attention they are getting. Good or bad, attention is attention and, for some reason, the Trump family love getting it and I apologize now for giving it to them. Forgive me but I must comment about something Trumpish.

The Trump men love to appraise women’s looks and then give their usually unflattering appraisal particularly if the woman is a political opponent (see Donald Trumps thoughts on Rosie O’Donnell and Carly Fiorina if you need some examples). Trump’s namesake Donald jr. got into the act recently with his unkind comparison of Michelle Obama to a football linebacker.

Oddly, he comments that this is a joke which was a lame way of trying to protect himself from criticism that he knew would be heading his way. He was joking. Ha ha. Right. Got it. Though I have to wonder would if his wife or sister would think it was funny to be compared to a linebacker? If he is just being funny that is. I am sure they would get the joke, right? They know his sense of humor best after all.

It’s the type of joke you would expect from a 12 year old boy trying to impress his friends by making fun of the smartest girl in the class. It is mean-spirited joke. The interesting thing for me, is that it was more important for Donald jr. to amuse his juvenile friends than to be a decent human being. He relishes in the hurtful nature of the joke.

You would think that the son of man who is running for president would understand this and not post this type of joke on social media. Of course, he is free to post whatever he damn well pleases, that he can’t discern what is appropriate and inappropriate is the problem. In Donald jr.’s mind, it is perfectly OK to publicly demean a woman’s looks.

That neither Trump seems worried about that is concerning.

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The two parties seem intent on nominating incredibly unpopular people as their candidates for president. For the Trump Republicans, this is at least understandable. They want revenge and there is some passion there to get it. The Democrats, on the other hand, just can’t be bothered to come up with someone better than Biden. It’s too dangerous. Let’s stick with a known winner. Don’t rock the boat, everything is fine. Shut up and get in line seems to be the campaign slogan.

It’s not even that I dislike Biden. I don’t. I just don’t think he is the leader for this particular moment and, to say, we don’t have anything better is depressing. In this whole vast country of 330 million plus people, we can’t come up with an alternate to Joe Biden? If this is true, then the Democrats are in deep trouble. If all you got is Joe Biden, then well, the future is rather bleak.

And, I really hate to have to say this, because it should be obvious but, for some reason, no one seems to care, Biden is polling badly against Trump. Let’s think about this for a moment. Between two very unpopular candidates, Biden is getting out polled by Donald Trump. Millions of people, forced with a terrible choice between two candidates they don’t like, are choosing Trump. Trump the insurrectionist, the serial liar, the hawker of tennis shoes, the butt of comedians jokes for all the stupid things he says, this man is out polling Joe Biden.

If Biden was polling better against Trump, I would say right Joe is the answer. But he isn’t. Then I think, who am I to argue with the experts who gave us President Hillary Clinton. They have a proven record of success, maybe they are seeing something that I just can’t see. I should just relax, leave it to the experts. They know what they are doing. Right?

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The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, wants to flood the Civil Service with true believers because they want people who will follow Donald Trump’s orders when he is elected in 2024. I had to check my history books here but I thought the whole point of the Civil Service Reforms enacted after the Civil War was to ensure that workers were actually there to do their jobs and not perform as political operatives of the party in power. After only one google search, I discovered that I remembered correctly. A Republican administration and congress created laws to ensure that the civil service employees maintained their jobs through merit. This stopped the practice of using political strings to gain employment after election victories.

I can’t say I was shocked but it does reveal yet again the intentions of the modern Republican Party to undermine effective government. This is not an argument over the size and scope of government. It is a plan to gain a foothold in the present government institutions and then to dismantle them. They no longer want an independent civil service, they want servile employees who will follow orders. Well, ok but what happens when the Democrats win the next election and replace the Republican Party hacks with Democratic Party hacks? Isn’t preventing the chaos and confusion that such actions have on the independent civil service the exact problem that the Civil Service Reforms were designed to protect us against? So, much for moving forward.

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I know that a lot of people will disagree with me about this but I think the best way forward is to leave Donald Trump alone. If nobody pays attention to him, he might (notice I said might) just disappear. Now, personally, I admit it would be great fun to see the man in an orange jumpsuit. He certainly deserves it. On the other hand, the effort to get him in the orange jumpsuit might be more trouble than it is worth. All of Trump’s legal trouble keeps him in the public eye which gives him the attention he craves. The problem is people think of Trump as a normal person who might be embarrassed by all of this negative publicity. I know I would be mortified but Trump is not a normal person. He loves attention and because of that there is no such thing as bad publicity. He will take what he can get.

Then there is the media who, despite their seeming outrage over Trump’s behavior, in reality, love the man. And I mean love that has no bounds. Trump actually is aware of it and plays them. He didn’t become a reality television superstar for nothing. The media, however, isn’t so savvy or they just don’t care. Neither of which is particularly comforting. Trump, on the other hand, knows how to generate headlines. The media has to pay attention to headlines. Headlines drive the media.They can’t very well ignore them, can they? They need an audience for their news and Trump supplies it in spades. It is a very sick relationship.

But how can the country let such a prominent law breaker like Trump get away with his criminal behavior? It is pretty clear that he has engaged in illegal activities. The man needs to be punished or, at the least, reigned in. I would argue in this special case we would be better off not pursuing it. Half of the country thinks he is a martyr, finding a jury where at least one Trump supporter doesn’t slip through the jury selection is going to be difficult if not impossible. Then, even if the impossible does happen, and he is convicted, he is wily man with access to wily lawyers. Being an overweight 77 year old man, I am pretty sure that he can drag this out long enough that he will die in his own bed. There is a very small chance that he will get convicted and go to prison. In the meantime we are giving Trump endless access to the spotlight he craves. He is a careless man who doesn’t care a whit about anybody but himself. He will burn the country to the ground if he has too. Is it worth it just to see him behind bars?

If by pursuing legal action, we hope to shake loose his supporters and get them to see reason, then give up. It isn’t happening. His crimes seem to have little effect on his followers who, instead of seeing the man for what he is, are opting to take Trump’s complaints against the justice system and the media at face value. It has strengthened their commitment to him which, I am afraid, means that they will follow him with matches if he decides it is a good idea to burn down the country. Given Trump’s insatiable narcissism, I don’t like the odds that Trump can be persuaded to do the right thing.

The continued pursuit of legal action against Trump gives him a platform to talk about the really important issue of how horribly people treat Donald Trump. Again and again, day after day, waah, waah, waah. With his chorus in the media breathlessly asking the important questions. Did you hear what Trump said today? Is he admitting to a crime? How can prosecutors use this information in the coming trials? Will this finally force Republicans to abandon him? All great media fodder but increasingly meaningless sideshows to what really ails the country.

Every minute spent discussing Trump is one less minute Americans are talking about real problems like homelessness, crime, the Ukrainian War, inflation, educational reform and onward and so forth. He won’t stop talking as long as we continue to listen and the bright minds in the media can’t stop themselves from talking about Donald Trump. It would be better for everyone to ignore him and that means biting the bullet and leaving him alone. Let him rot away in the Florida sun.

Some Democrats think that all this attention will force the Republicans to nominate Trump again for president because they believe that Trump will be easier to beat. Maybe. But if all the Democrats have is a weak Republican candidate then the Democrats deserve to loose. The election should be about better ideas and good candidates. Talking about what a stupid asshole the Republicans have nominated is hardly a winning strategy and it is embarrassingly weak too. It is dependent upon the Republicans doing what the Democrats want and is pretty nakedly apparent that’s what the Democrats want. The Republicans might surprise us and change their minds about committing political suicide. Then where would the Democrats be.

It would be better for the country to start with a fresh face. Ron DeSantis maybe an asshole but he is a different asshole with different ideas and different ways of doing things. It is a risk. Yes. But I would much rather face someone like Ron DeSantis or anyone other than Trump. Because if someone other than Trump is the Republican nominee there is a remote possibility that Americans might talk about something other than Donald Trump. If Trump is the nominee, the media spotlight remains focused on Donald Trump. And all that means is waah, waah, waah people are so mean to Donald Trump. The media will give him 24/7 coverage and nothing will change. It is, however, great television. There is that.

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I avoid talking about Donald Trump because he, in my opinion, is a narcissist. As long as people are talking about him, he is happy. It doesn’t matter if they say good things or bad things as long as they are talking about him. But occasionally he says something that irritates me so much, and so obviously wrong, I have to point it out in the futile hope that the people who voted for him will finally come to their senses.

So here goes. In a recent speech, Donald Trump claimed he could end the Russian war immediately with two words. So end it, I say. Why wait? Say the two magic words he thinks will end. But no, Trump is waiting. He is saving this information for a future when he might be President.

There is a lot wrong here. A secret plan is all well in good but if Trump keeps it a secret it is impossible to determine whether he even has a plan at all. It’s all locked away in his head. There is no way to determine whether he knows what he talking about or is full of shit. Not telling anyone what you are thinking is game playing at its worst. He is being positively useless it ending the war while pretending to have superior knowledge about what can be done. Thanks for absolutely nothing.

Then there is the idea that he can end a bloody and costly war with two little words and won’t do it because there is nothing in it for him. Thousands of people will die, billions of dollars will be wasted fighting the war and rebuilding the Ukraine, millions of displaced people will remain refugees while he sits on his surefire solution to a complicated problem. Not too surprisingly, his Republican allies are silent while they are trying to make cuts to balance the budget. If he could end the war, as he says he can, wouldn’t that save the American taxpayer billions and help cut costs in the budget. Of course, they would rather grumble about Medicare and Social Security. Again, thanks for nothing.

Trump needs to stop sulking and spill the beans or keep his big trap shut. But saying you can stop and war and then doing nothing is heartless and unforgivable. People are dying here.