Bratton… keeping up with the mailings… Greensite… on Tourism Trumps Rape and Domestic Violence Prevention in the City of Santa Cruz… Steinbruner… back soon!…Hayes… Both sides are wrong… Patton… MAGA On The March… Matlock… a joyful campaign…holding up the fort…a turn to orange?…call Elon or AAA?… Eagan… Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover… Webmistress serves you… Live at Daryl’s House Quotes on… “Hawaii”
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Dateline: August 14, 2024
SOME THOUGHTS… BrattonOnline readers… I think it’s not just important but necessary that all our readers/subscribers see and pay attention to a lot of the mass mailings that are flooding our “windows” and boxes. This arrived to me late last week. Give it your best attention…
Dear Friend of The Nation, and BrattonOnline… it’s Jane Fonda. I’m reaching out about a vital training series I’m hosting with Greenpeace USA Votes. But first, let’s talk about what’s at stake:
Donald Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill” agenda and the alarming Project 2025 plan pose significant threats to our environment. Project 2025 is a comprehensive strategy developed by Trump’s allies to dismantle climate regulations and promote fossil fuel expansion, effectively reversing decades of environmental progress.
I am ready to do whatever it takes to make sure the pro-climate majority is victorious at the ballot box this year. That’s why I’m teaming up with Greenpeace USA Votes, Sunrise PAC, Working Families Party, and amazing political leaders including Stacey Abrams to launch the Build, Lead, Win: Climate Action Training 2024!
Starting August 15th, we’ll gather every Thursday for five weeks to dive into strategies for mobilizing our communities, turning out voters, and securing big climate wins this November.
Each session will feature insights from top movement leaders, organizing experts, and special guests. We’ll cover everything from building community power to mastering persuasion techniques. I’m thrilled to reveal our exciting lineup of speakers. You’re going to love them.
What: Build, Lead, Win: Climate Action Training 2024
When: Starting August 15th, every Thursday for five weeks
Who: Hosted by Greenpeace USA Votes, Sunrise PAC & Working Families Party featuring Jane Fonda, Stacey Abrams, Aru Shiney-Ajay, Ella Barrett, Marshall Ganz, and more!
Where: On ZoomThis election is our last, best chance for climate action. If we don’t out-organize and out-mobilize the pro-fossil fuel machine, our future is at risk.
In 2020, we achieved record-breaking voter turnout in what many called the first true climate election in the U.S. This year, we need to build on that momentum and emerge victorious for the people and the planet.
This is your chance to be part of a dynamic network of changemakers. Whether you’re a new voter or a seasoned activist like me, this training series will provide the tools and inspiration to make a real impact.
See you there!
Jane Fonda
LADY IN THE LAKE. Apple series (5.9IMDB). 
Natalie Portman (who is now 43 years old) plays a Jewish author in the 1960’s Baltimore. There’s some black politics thrown in and the plot gets lost after some extreme editing. The entire plot is reversed and not as well thought out as they figured. Don’t give up anything important to watch this.
EXIT PLAN. (AMAZON PRIME SINGLE). 
An insurance investigator checks in to a very special hotel in Denmark exclusively inhabited for patients who make their own plans on dying. Then he too realizes that he’s dying from a tumor. It’s an excellently told and deep and depressing story about assisted suicide. Full of time and personality shifts you’ll be transported into moments thinking about your own demise. Watch it when you’re in a good mood only.
MIDNIGHT RUN. (1988 RELEASE) (NETFLIX MOVIE) (7.5 IMDB). An absolutely brilliant comedy plus crime plot that will have you rolling on the floor with pathos and delight, see it again even if you remember the best scenes. It stars Robert De Niro as the cop and the ever subtle Charles Grodin as the robber being escorted across country by De Niro. The laughs are both outrageous and subtle and the rest of the cast looks like outcasts from The Sopranos.
VANISHED INTO THE NIGHT. Netflix movie (5.2 IMDB) 
An Italian family’s two children are kidnapped and a huge ransom is demanded. The acting is poor, the plot is questionable and only Santa Cruz small boat owners will stay awake to solve the twists and inadequacies.
LAND OF BAD. Netflix movie (6.6 IMDB) An unexplained battle that happens in South Africa and the Philippines within our own armed services, namely the air forces versus the infantry! It’s high tech adapting to traditional military systems. It’s probably all very true but the presentation is slow and boring.
ROCCO SCHIAVONE: ICE COLD MURDERS. Prime series. (7.8 IMDB) An absolutely engrossing, tightly knit movie about an Italian (Aosta is the city in Italy) detective whose wife is either murdered or maybe was suicidal. He’s quirky, smokes pot, and heads up a great cast in an excellent series. Go for it. I’ve repeated this review because too many folks forgot the title.
GOYO. Netflix series. (6.5 IMDB) Hard to believe and follow this tearful drama from Buenos Aires. It’s about a museum guide who has Asperger’s. We get to look at his sex life, how he loses control, and his new love of the beautiful woman guide that changes everything.
A MAN IN FULL. Netflix series (6.5 IMDB) Jeff Daniels at his very best acting (not so much) costars with Diane Lane in this drama centering on his real estate empire and all the complex issues we find in real estate everywhere. Lucy Liu plays a big part in it too as we watch his partial control over himself and his holdings mostly disappear inside banks, attorneys, and drawn out office scenes.
ROALD DAHL’S ESIO TROT. Prime movie. (6.9 IMDB) 
The top name cast has Dustin Hoffman and his chasing of Judi Dench while Richard Cordery leads us on this boring, predictable, comedy. It’s another back balcony upstairs/ downstairs over used plot. Hoffman is very disappointing when you start thinking back to his classic and serious films, he’s 87 years old now.
THE ASUNTA CASE. Netflix series. (6.9 IMDB) Another Spanish movie based on a true story about a local couple whose adopted Chinese daughter is found murdered. Even the police are suspected of the crime. Mistakes are made, the story stays tight, worth watching.
GANGS OF GALICIA. Netflix series (6.3 IMDB) A Spanish murder adventure about a woman whose father gets murdered, so she goes inside some drug cartels to find out and get revenge on whodunit!! Great seaside- water footage. With boats and police everywhere.
SUNNY. Apple series (7.3 IMDB) A Japanese comedy starring Rashida Jones who loses her husband and has a robot replace him. There’s way too much mugging, drinking, and undirected reactions to make this worth watching…avoid it
DESPERATE LIES. Netflix series. (7.0 IMDB) Juliana Paes takes the lead in this Brazilian re-take after re-take about childbirth. It appears that she got drunk, went to bed with two guys and got pregnant from both of them….and had twins! Complex, barely believable, only a bit humorous, but you will stay focused.
FANCY DANCE. Apple movie. (6.6 IMDB) Executive directed by Forrest Whitaker and starring Michael Rowe. It’s all about Native Americans and their family structure and personal issues. It’s both sensitive and amateurish and lacks a forceful direction.
YOUR HONOR. Netflix series (7.6 IMDB). Bryan Cranston along with Hope Davis and especially Rosie Perez lead this New Orleans saga. The son of a crime boss is killed and it’s the judge’s son who gets the blame. Well worth watching.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. HBO series. I re-watched much of this series prequel to Game of Thrones just to check on how relevant and applicable it may still be. It definitely has lost the magic and charm, probably due to our increasing and improving the world. Game of Thrones was back in 2011 and had an amazing 72 episodes. House of The Dragon begins 17 decades before Game Of Thrones.
Tourism Trumps Rape and Domestic Violence Prevention in the City of Santa Cruz
The banner depicted above used to be a familiar sight in the city of Santa Cruz. Placed on light poles along major city streets during April for National Rape Awareness Month and October for National Domestic Violence Month, its purpose was to raise the visibility of crimes kept hush hush and hidden. The project was initiated in 2005 by the city’s Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women (CPVAW). It was approved by the city and by the Parks and Recreation Department that handled city street banner displays. Somewhere around 2016 the project was terminated, the banners disappeared, apparently stuffed somewhere in the basement under City Hall.
Fast forward to 2024. One member of the Commission is on record enquiring about the banners’ whereabouts and the possibilities for reviving the project. City staff said they would make enquiries. At the CPVAW meeting on August 7, 2024, staff shared the results of their research. Control of city street banners has moved from the Parks and Recreation Department to the Economic Development and Housing Department. Word from that Department is that banners for tourism and business promotion are the only ones allowed. When a commissioner tentatively asked if perhaps staff could go back to that department and ask again, nicely, the response from staff was “I have reached the limit of my authority.” The conversation then switched to maybe having a banner outside the Civic Auditorium.
The CPVAW agenda also included item #5 on its response to the Civil Grand Jury report: “City of Santa Cruz: Preventing Rape and Domestic Violence: Where’s the Priority?” While City Councils and Board of Supervisors are required to respond to Civil Grand Jury reports that involve their jurisdictions, Commissions and Departments are invited to respond.
For each of the Grand Jury Findings there is a choice of Agree, Partially Agree or Disagree. For the latter two, an explanation is required. For each of the Recommendations sent to the Commission there is a choice of Has Been Implemented, Has Not Yet Been Implemented but Will Be in The Future, Requires Further Analysis or Will Not Be Implemented. The Commission was invited to respond to four Findings and three Recommendations.
The Agenda Report Summary sheet for this agenda item stated that “After input from the City Manager’s office, City Attorney and Santa Cruz Police Department, staff has prepared responses for review.” For the four Findings, staff checked Disagree. For the three Recommendations staff checked Will Not Be Implemented for two and Requires Further Analysis for one.
The agenda packet for this agenda item did not include the full Grand Jury report, only its Findings and Recommendations. After the meeting I wrote asking that the full report be made available to commissioners so they can evaluate city staff response. I was told commissioners had received the full report in June. It was, however, not available in the agenda packet for the public.
The Commission voted to form an ad hoc committee to review staff response to the Grand Jury Report. Their input for consideration by the whole Commission will be on the September CPVAW agenda. Meanwhile the number of SCPD reported rapes in the city has reached thirty- two so far this year, one less than was reported for the entirety of 2023. The current failure to track rapes by strangers and inform the community with alerts if the assailant is still at large, as was the practice in the past, was considered by the Grand Jury to leave the community less safe. City staff does not agree with that Finding. We will see what CPVAW thinks. What do you think? Only public opinion can enforce Grand Jury recommendations.
| Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, a member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association http://darksky.org Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild. |
Becky will be back soon!
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Becky Steinbruner is a 30+ year resident of Aptos. She has fought for water, fire, emergency preparedness, and for road repair. She ran for Second District County Supervisor in 2016 on a shoestring and got nearly 20% of the votes. She ran again in 2020 on a slightly bigger shoestring and got 1/3 of the votes.
Email Becky at KI6TKB@yahoo.com |
Both Sides Are Wrong
A lot about voting for candidates seems driven by who we don’t want, rather than who we do want. One of the debates on the national level is around how democratic our government is and whether decisions are made that benefit more people rather than only a (richer) few. I want to take that focus to the local level with environmental matters.
Leading Local Environmental Challenges
I want to emphasize the most pressing matters concerning the environment at the local level. If you disagree, I’d like to hear from you. Any sane person would start with climate change; dealing with that global phenomenon is arguably best addressed at a state and, better still, national/international policy level. Locally, climate change can be addressed by reducing automobile emissions, increasingly relying on sustainable electricity generation, improving energy efficiency of homes and businesses, and increasing use of more locally produced goods, including food. Although linked to the prior, species conservation would be the next biggest local issue on my list; avoiding impacts on any rare species, stewardship/restoration of habitat, and improving habitat connectivity are the main means towards success here. The last of the big issues I want to highlight is environmental education: people need to understand what we need to do to address climate change and species conservation – that’s the way towards an informed citizenry, which is crucial to supporting the policies and the people that will make a better future.
Local Political Choices for Environmental Benefit
Reflecting on the three key areas listed above, think about who in elected office at the local level is leading, and in which areas. If you are like me, you will quickly realize that no elected official is leading on these issues, which are key to life on Earth. Instead, local governmental officials spend most of their time moving forward issues that do not relate to the aforementioned priorities or are even detrimental to the environment. As with the situation nationally, the agenda that local officials consider is largely determined by a very few people with related financial interests, and likewise, the benefits of elected officials’ decisions are generally directed at the very few. When one side of the political spectrum accuses the other of ‘fascism,’ or a politician suggests that they will be dictatorial, I wonder who in their right mind thinks that those traits are more likely to be applied by one party more than the other. What is your reaction to the people who accuse relatively ‘liberal’ local governmental officials of being dictatorial or fascist?
Project Examples
There are good examples of local initiatives exhibiting traits that subvert democracy. For instance, the development of Arana Gulch’s paved trail system, where the City was able to do exactly what it had decided was right decades before. In that case, there was significant public involvement, even opposing factions that collaborated to propose viable alternatives…and still the City decided to construct what you see now – ignoring long term costs that taxpayers are still beholden to. The City’s plan was extremely destructive to sensitive habitat and endangered species. In a similarly autocratic process, the City’s sale of the Pelton Street property out from under the Homeless Garden Project (HGP) and its half-heartedly apologetic and extremely novice plan to relocate the HGP to a lead-contaminated site at the Pogonip greenbelt is another such example. At the County level, we see no enforcement of protections for endangered species in wetlands, streams, and rivers, despite repeated calls to action. The County’s Rail Trail process is the current project that fails to instill faith in democracy: despite deep public engagement, there has been zero transparency about implementation of the environmental protection measures promised to the public. For example, see the paucity of information on the North Coast Rail Trail at this link: how hard would it be for more detailed updates, including plans to mitigate ($8 million worth!) or otherwise protect the many rare species affected by the project?
Process Examples
County Supervisors regularly ignore requests for species protections by appointed public advisors with the County’s Fish and Wildlife Advisory Commission including most recently requesting assistance from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife that would have provided increased protection of sensitive critters across thousands of acres of public land on the North Coast. Elected officials’ active engagement with appointed advisory bodies are one hallmark of a more viable democracy, a great way to expand and broaden democratic decision making. The City of Santa Cruz likewise has a differently ill-used advisory committee named the Parks and Recreation Commission. That City Commission oversees many rare species on the City’s greenbelt but most of the individuals Council members have chosen to appoint to the Commission have no interest in, or knowledge about, species protections. Moreover, the City Council never asks that Commission to assist with strategies to conserve its greenbelt lands and the associated sensitive species.
Polarity
If these issues were part of the national presidential race, here are the two sides you’d hear:
- Additional environmental protections are unnecessary, we have the most beautiful water, such wonderful air; we don’t need more regulations! The other party is trying to take away your liberty.
- Don’t let the other party win, they will destroy the environment!
In the first case, you will note the very familiar anti-regulation fervor, which is increasingly being acted upon to the detriment of values that the vast majority of US citizens hold. In the second case, you will note the utter lack of commitment to policies that make a difference for the priorities I listed above concerning climate change, species conservation, and environmental education. These are choices about the speed and methods of destruction of nature, not whether it should occur.
Doesn’t it seem like these contrasting statements are repeated locally?
Answers
How do we improve the democratic process for environmental issues facing our local governments? For projects affecting the environment, public officials should learn from other areas where public process is taken seriously: a little research and they will find a wealth of highly rated examples of ways to improve community involvement for better outcomes. With regard to climate change, local governments need to report regularly to the public on how they are succeeding. The website on the County’s 2022 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan has no updates or reports on how the County is addressing the number one threat to our local environment. With regard to species conservation, County Supervisors should have better respect for the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Commission, which should be more heavily involved with advancing the species conservation principles of the 2024 County General Plan/Local Coastal Plan. And, insofar as environmental education goes, local governments could easily and affordably partner with nonprofits to increase environmental education for staff, schools, and citizens to foster pro-environmental behaviors that make a difference for local conservation. Of course, all of this would be more likely to happen if locals voted for candidates that professed to believe in the priorities listed above. But alas, people seem to vote for the most business-friendly candidates who coincidentally view environmental conservation as anathema to the economy. Why?
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Grey Hayes is a fervent speaker for all things wild, and his occupations have included land stewardship with UC Natural Reserves, large-scale monitoring and strategic planning with The Nature Conservancy, professional education with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and teaching undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz. Visit his website at: www.greyhayes.net
Email Grey at coastalprairie@aol.com |
Click the link I am providing to find out about “MAGA’s Plan to Take Over America.” Oops! Whether you will actually be able to access this discussion may well depend on whether or not you subscribe to The New York Times. It’s just another one of those “paywall” things!
The link I have provided in the paragraph above references a column by Jennifer Szalai. In essence, Szalai’s column is a book review, and the book being reviewed is Finish What We Started, by the journalist Isaac Arnsdorf.
Arnsdorf documents what MAGA (the movement) has been doing since January 6, 2021. There is, it seems, an actual “plan” to take over the government, and it’s all based on a “bottoms up” approach. Here is one of Arnsdorf’s observations:
Bannon’s extravagant bluffing — “We’re two-thirds of the nation!” he bragged at CPAC — can’t hide the fact that MAGA extremism is still terribly unpopular. An NBC News poll last year put the share of Americans with a favorable view of the MAGA movement at a meager 24 percent. But consolidating power whenever possible can allow the faithful to “feel some wins,” Arnsdorf writes. Bannon, by constantly telling his listeners that they’re the culmination of democracy instead of its death knell, is feeding them a useful and invigorating delusion. The precinct strategy has become another way of energizing the base.
And the base turns out to have infinite patience for the nitty-gritty of local politics, as long as the ultimate goal is not governance but domination. “Now they understand how important the rules are,” a merry Bannon tells Arnsdorf. “We’re having a civics lesson here. We’re exploding, and the reason we’re exploding? We’re really getting into the granular, and people can’t get enough of it.”
My suggestion, if you don’t want to wait around to see if MAGA will be successful in its march towards “domination,” is to get engaged in local government yourself – right where you are living right now.
I am extolling the benefits of such local political involvements NOT, let me say, as a good way to take over the nation, but as a way to prevent the nation from being taken over by someone else, including that magnificent MAGA bunch.
The “genius” of self-government in the United States is the ability of ordinary men and women, at the local, state, and ultimately national level, to establish a “representative” government that actually does “represent” the people, and works to achieve what the people want. When and where “self-government” is strong, no group, striving for national “domination” will ever be able to succeed. Read On Revolution by Hannah Arendt, if you want to have this all fleshed out in political theory.
Tyranny is stymied, Arendt tells us, when there are lots of independent “powers,” locally based, that cannot be cowed or compelled into the kind of totalitarian government that she watched emerge in Germany prior to World War II.
So, let’s not watch MAGA march by, on its way to “domination.” Let’s just take over our government ourselves, starting at the local level, and working our way up.
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Gary Patton is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read and subscribe to his daily blog at www.gapatton.net
Email Gary at gapatton@mac.com |
FIRED UP, ON OFFENSE AGAINST FELONIOUS BUNK, STOLEN FIRE
Kamala Harris’s choice for her VP running mate, 60 year-old Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has turned him into a household word for most who were never aware of his existence. The former six-term congressman has made his presence known quickly and can be credited with slapping the term ‘weird‘ onto the GOP’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees, much to their consternation. The Donald doesn’t care for name calling if someone else does it…especially towards him! In his term as governor, Walz is credited with securing free school lunches, free college tuition for students in low-income families, enacting 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, and enacting an impressive children’s tax credit. As a hunter and gun owner, the NRA awarded him an A-rating for a time, but that was speedily downgraded to an F-rating when he dared to call for more stringent gun control measures. A former football coach, he says he is “fired up and back on offense” and is ready to bring some joy to their campaign to turn around the doom and gloom politics of the MAGA Monsters as exhibited by the scowling, angry Donald Trump and his cat-woman hating sidekick.
CNN’s Van Jones believes the GOP is breathing a sigh of relief with Walz’s candidacy, relieved that Harris passed up on selection of Shapiro or Kelly, referring to their estimate of Walz’s middle-of-the-road leanings; yet they are attempting to portray him as a left-winger who will burn the country down. Jones sees satisfaction in MAGAland at facing Walz, which he says is a disquieting early indicator, but “this is the most unpredictable race that you’ve seen, I think in the past 50 years…it’s just nuts, yeah.” Convicted felon Trump issued a statement criticizing Walz, saying, “Embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.” So, citizens in both Minnesota and California won’t necessarily be seeing him taking up residency in their states post-election…ya think? A New Republic staff writer comments, “Need to get the campaign’s position, but it sure seems like they think Florida should strip Donald Trump’s voting rights!” Walz’s 2023 legislation restored voting rights to over 55,000 formerly incarcerated citizens in his state…and thank-you, Felon Don for the reminder of one of the prime issues the Democrats are pushing in this campaign. Crying-on-My-Pillow election denier, Mike Lindell, chimed in with his complaints against Walz, saying, “He made horrible decisions with the China virus…we had to sit out in snowbanks to eat.” He claims his company was prepared to provide masks for congregations during the pandemic before Walz “shut down our Christian churches.” And the clincher for Walz’s sinfulness against Lindell, the My-Pillow CEO complains, “And I was gonna run for governor of Minnesota after the 2020 election, but Walz feared that and he put out a hit job on me throughout the state, sent postcards out everywhere.” Ok, that’s it, Mikey! Your fifteen minutes were up long ago…back to your pillow fort!
Satirist Andy Borowitz writes, “Responding to Vice President Harris’ choice of Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, Donald J. Trump claimed that the Minnesota governor ‘was never white before. ‘I saw him on television many, many times, and, quite frankly, he was never white. Then, he suddenly became white.’ Hinting that ‘there’s something going on, and his last minute decision to become white should be looked into.'” Film critic and journalist, Peter Travers, reviewed Walz with, “Coach Walz sells well from left to right! Nobody will believe this guy is anything but their neighbor…America will love Coach Walz. He’s authentic, jocular, everybody’s favorite uncle, and affable, engaging, a rural ex-teacher with ‘dad energy’ – and he can land a punch, too! Give him four mesh trucker hats, way up!” As The Lincoln Project says, “So, if you’re keeping score at home, that’s a prosecutor and a solidly moderate Governor, versus a convicted felon and a bonafide weirdo who no one likes.” Taking up Walz’s call for “going on offense,” Trump will “make even more mistakes in his backpedaling, whether it’s forgetting to supersize his meal at McDonald’s or making the worst VP pick in recent memory (oops!), it all adds up. Being inside the head of Donald Trump is how we win this election.”
Several postings on X zero in on the impressions Walz is making with voters: “I just know Tim Walz could teach me how to drive a stick shift without making me cry once.”
“My real concern with Governor Tim Walz is that he seems like the kinda guy if you leave your car unlocked in the summer, he’s going to leave you 6 zucchinis on your front seat.” “Tim Walz is definitely bringing green bean casserole to the DNC convention.” “Walz has the vibes of a man who makes short, helpful videos on how to fix garbage disposals in his spare time.” “Tim Walz would immediately stick out his palm if he heard the Chex Mix bag open in the back seat of the car on a vacation trip.” “Guaranteed 1000% that Tim Walz says, ‘What’s the damage?’ when the waiter hands him the check.” “Tim Walz seems like the kind of guy who has a favorite ladder in his garage. Moreover, he’d let you borrow it.” “Tim Walz would take his family to Disney World and have a Dole Whip for breakfast everyday.” “Tim Walz is the dad an entire generation wish they had instead of the one they lost to Fox News.” “JD Vance will disintegrate when Walz hits him with a ‘son, lemme tell you something about life.'” “If you want to signal midwestern ‘dad solidarity’ with Tim Walz, open your garage door just half way for absolutely no reason.”
Andy Borowitz has picked up on the ‘Dad-can-do-it-all’ theme regarding Walz, writing, “Turning up the heat on his Republican counterpart, on Thursday Gov. Tim Walz challenged Sen. JD Vance to change a tire. ‘I’ve driven in the dead of night outside Duluth when it’s twenty below and the wind chill coming off Lake Superior makes it feel like thirty,’ Walz told supporters in North Carolina. ‘All of a sudden, holy hell, you get a blowout,’ he continued. ‘What would you do, JD? Call Elon and ask him to send you a new car? I can’t wait for you to show me what you learned about changing a tire at Yale,’ Walz declared. ‘Any time, any place, any tire.'” Petition both parties to arrange for a debate at a convenient Firestone or Big O outlet! We need to witness this!
So the Orange Felon is angry. Angry that Joe Biden skipped out on him after it had burned into his brain for over three years that Joe was to be his adversary. The only happy moments in his life are when he gets into his performance art of name-calling, or making others unhappy alongside him…a trace of a smile perhaps, a smirk with certainty. With Kamala’s campaign showing its strength, especially with drawing huge crowds, Trump is beside himself, attacking Fox News for rashly reporting the truth of her success. He’s mad at everyone, even attacking Kellyanne Conway to slap at critic George Conway, though she remains loyal, so far. Lately, he’s been quiet about sharks, sinking electric boats, and windmills, but he must think his new story of crash landing in a helicopter with California’s Willie Brown who dished on Kamala Harris during their ride is a winner. Hannibal Lecter probably feasted on his brain cells containing the other subjects, so the MAGA faithful have to suffer with this new falsehood in his pity-party rally diatribes. Willie says he was never on a helicopter with Trump, and former governor Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom recalled their shared ride to a destructive forest fire site was uneventful.
To be fair, The Donald wasn’t lying completely about a scary helicopter ride according to Nate Holden, a former LA city councilman and state senator. Holden says, “I guess we all look alike…Willie is the short Black guy in San Francisco…I’m the tall Black guy in LA.” Sometime in the 90s, Trump was planning to develop a site of a historic LA hotel, which was approved by Holden. Five passengers, including Holden, Trump, Trump’s brother Robert, attorney Harvey Freedman, and Trump’s executive VP of construction and development boarded a helicopter to take a quick tour of the new Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. Instrumentation was lost during the flight, with the aircraft shaking violently, necessitating an emergency landing at a Teterboro airport…and you guessed it…Trump later enjoyed joking about Holden “turning White.” Holden says it was actually Trump who turned white, and incidentally, Kamala Harris was never mentioned, and that Trump has now “mixed it up, or he made it up.” Trump threatened to sue The New York Times for disputing his story, claiming he has the flight record to substantiate his lie, but so far…nada, with only crickets from his campaign. And as Steve Schmidt suggests, “Perhaps Donald was never orange after all?”
Handlers of the former president are perturbed as his rallies become more chaotic, with him flailing, unable to stay on subject while bouncing around with his on-the-fly stories, or his repetitive lies and fantasies. The assassination attempt has thrown him off-balance, with Harris’s sudden surge in the polls and her ability to attract large crowds which should be flocking to him as a mark of his popularity. The old byword to just “let Trump be Trump” has fallen with a thud, but his keepers have no influence, knowing he will never change. He has taken to calling Harris a “bitch” in private…actually a milder version of his name-calling, and his staff now fears he has alienated Miriam Adelson, calling her and the super PAC Preserve America to which she has donated heavily, “RINOS” – Republican in name only – according to The New York Times. To cope with Trump’s stubbornness, his advisers are focussing “not on the need for him to change but on the need to adapt his message to win,” a source admitted to Axios. It’s difficult to even see this happening! After all the strutting he displayed at the RNC, his smugness and contentment transmitting to the faces of those in attendance that victory was just 100 days away, only to have his fire stolen a few days later, by a WOMAN!
SHE has also stolen his big crowds, filling stadiums, as he continues to bore his decreasing number of followers out of their gourds. As he plunges in popularity, voters tiring of his same-old-same-old act, he has to be questioning his choice of a weird running mate – privately, of course – and as Bocha Blue writes on the Palmer Report, “He picked a moron, and she picked America’s dad.” Harris has something to say, Trump does not, which is why, after the ugly Mar-a-Lago press conference, Blue calls the GOP candidate, Donald Dump. Non-stop exaggerations and lies…the gathered reporters could hardly keep up with his rapid-fire diatribes and the praises he heaped upon himself. Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, believes “Trump has issues on his side, but that his ‘persona’ is to blame for his drop in the polls.” As he told CNN, Trump could be more successful if he sticks to the issues, but Harris’s attributes are pointing her toward success because people like her better. Luntz continues, saying, “If he’s watching this interview right now, his head is exploding – and that’s part of the problem. He has lost touch with the people that he needs, and she is in perfect touch. And the reason is the Donald Trump persona.” As a source told Axios, “He has to convince himself to leave the other garbage behind.” Enough with “The Silence of the Lambs” cannibalism jokes, Donald Dump!
Comedian Chelsea Handler is adding her jibes to those criticizing VP candidate JD Vance, particularly after his notorious “childless cat ladies” comment. She posted on X, “Listen up, you Wingnut Elegy! This country is still controlled by men in systems that were set up by men that are carefully crafted to continue to benefit men. So, to put it in women-hating terms that you’ll understand, you’re being hysterical.” She continues, “There’s no correlation between childless people and the presidency,” noting that President George Washington had two stepchildren, as does Kamala Harris, who has none of her own. Further, she points out that no president in the history of the US has ever been a mother, all being men. Dinging nominee Donald Trump, she writes, “But maybe if she had five kids with three different men, and a scandalous affair with a porn star, and was a convicted felon, that would be more palatable to Republican men.” Not letting up on JD, she rants on, “You sad, Diet Mountain Dew-drinking, couch humping, dolphin-porn aficionado…all of us childless cat and dog ladies are gonna go from childless and crushing it, to childless and crushing YOU in November. And before you tell me the couch story is untrue, spare me. I grew up in New Jersey in the 80s where everyone had a couch in their basement, and I know a couch [abuser] when I see one.” A skit on “The Daily Show” last year, with Handler celebrating not having children, drew criticism from former Fox News luminary, Tucker Carlson. After his head exploded, she responded, “Are you really upset about how much freedom I have, or are you upset that you haven’t been able to take it away from me yet?” Ah yes…and to that we can add, “Nothing says family like three marriages, lusting after your daughter, cheating on your pregnant wife, and burying the woman you divorced on a golf course.”
If you support Trump, we won’t judge you for your choice of political parties. We will judge you for your lack of morals, ethics and humanity. So will others. So will history.
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Dale Matlock, a Santa Cruz County resident since 1968, is the former owner of The Print Gallery, a screenprinting establishment. He is an adherent of The George Vermosky school of journalism, and a follower of too many news shows, newspapers, and political publications, and a some-time resident of Moloka’i, Hawaii, U.S.A., serving on the Board of Directors of Kepuhi Beach Resort. Email: cornerspot14@yahoo.com. |
EAGAN’S SUBCONSCIOUS COMICS. View classic inner-view ideas and thoughts with Subconscious Comics a few flips down.
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s “Deep Cover” down a few pages. As always, at TimEagan.com you will find his most recent Deep Cover, the latest installment from the archives of Subconscious Comics, and the ever entertaining Eaganblog.
Hawaii
“Hawaii is paradise born of fire”
~Rand McNally
“I believe Hawaii is the most precious jewel in the world”
~Don Ho
“Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace”
~Paul Theroux
“For me, the magic of Hawaii comes from the stillness, the sea, the stars”
~Joanne Harris
“Coming to Hawaii is like going from black and white to color”
~John Richard Stephens
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Daryl Hall has this AMAZING series of “Live at Daryl’s House” episodes, where he hosts a plethora of famous musicians, and they play with a whole band in his livingroom. Here is one fabulous clip, but there are so many more. Watch them all!! |
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