FACT CHECKS, GROUNDHOG DÉJÀ VU, TO THE LIFEBOAT!

What a couple of weeks! If Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu aren’t already working on scripts to cover these events they are missing a bet. It would be a perfect opportunity for the old early 60s show, ‘That Was The Week That Was,’ the BBC satirical tv show that was Americanized and hosted by David Frost…for those of us who remember. Charges and accusations are still flying about the Harris-Trump debate held on Tuesday, September 10. Consensus is that Kamala cleaned Trump’s plow, setting him back on his heels for ninety minutes as she taunted him, causing him to completely lose his cool, coming up with his spur of the moment lies and defenses that held no water. His attacks on immigrants…all being criminally, mentally deranged druggies who have crossed the ‘open’ border to plague our country. Picking up on the fabrication of Haitians in Springfield, OH eating their neighbors’ pets or capturing water fowl from the city parks, he proceeded to look like the complete fool that he is. In a letter to the Fresno Bee, Fred Oakes wrote, “After listening to the guy who used to have the nuclear codes talk about Haitian immigrants eating our cats and dogs, two things occurred to me: First, I couldn’t stop laughing. And second, our three cats and one small dog who were all previously on the fence about who to vote for all immediately decided to vote for Kamala Harris.”

By now, we’ve all seen the cover page of the conservative Drudge Report which is headlined “THE END” below an AI photo of passenger Donald Trump sitting in a plane with a cat on his lap and a planeload of cats, ducks, and geese situated behind him. Founder Matt Drudge, promoted Trump in 2016 but has since backed away, and to emphasize “Trump’s worst performance of his career,” he points to other websites and their coverage, such as Mediaite, Deadline, and NBC news, which ran a story entitled, ‘The Night Trump Lost It All.’ A pro-Trumper, Scott Jennings, wrote to the LA Times with: “He’s actually in a better position to win at this point than he was in 2016 and 2020. Trump is Trump. We know him. We love him. We hate him. There’s nary a person in this country who doesn’t have an immediate and often visceral opinion of him. So a debate is unlikely to change his image.” The Times letter editor, Paul Thornton, writes that columnist Jackie Calmes says it’s time for the former Trump heavyweights, such as John Kelly, Dan Coats, and HR McMaster to come forward to tell voters that Trump is unfit to be president again.

Conservative Geraldo Rivera said, “He was childish, he was creepy, he was cringy,” and some Fox News talking heads said Harris made Trump “go down a few dog and cat holes,” biting into all the bait the VP threw out. Trump continues to ignore that he got his butt kicked by a woman, lying that he won the debate despite talk throughout his party that he performed poorly. He was warned by his coaching team that Kamala would bait him, but without self-control he just couldn’t help himself…and what about those nuclear codes he wants to ‘control?’ He couldn’t even keep his story straight on the first assassination attempt he endured, saying he got “shot in the head,” so look in the mirror again dummy; and by the way, nobody sees any external ear disfigurement, so maybe your head DID suffer damage? It’s a given that his brain was scrambled when Harris chased him down to shake his hand as they walked onto the debate stage, obvious that he meant to ignore her completely as he scowled his way to his station behind the podium…a “concept” plan, possibly? From that moment Harris knew where to aim and what his bullying backlash would be, resulting in his aged, haunted look as he exited the stage at the end. Harris had to remind her opponent at one point that she was his opponent, not Joe Biden, as she parried in a study in offense instead of being defensive of the president and the administration. Kamala’s barbs about world leaders “laughing” at him and US military leaders calling him a “disgrace” rattled him, but her coup de grâce was mocking his bored rally attendees leaving early when he started his spiels on Hannibal Lecter, sharks vs electric boats, and cancer-causing windmills.

The Vice President threw Trump off his game, avoiding vulnerabilities such as the US retreat from Afghanistan and the economy, while she pounded him on the volatile issue of abortion rights, where she is attempting to win over undecided women, despite Trump’s claim that “everybody wanted Roe overturned.” Many MAGAites throughout the day had downplayed Harris’s debating credentials, with Marco Rubio saying she would be lost without a Teleprompter. Post-debate critics claimed she wore earrings with radio capabilities to receive off-site coaching, or that she had viewed the moderator’s questions beforehand, or that ABC had skewed the debate with an unfair fix…such as doing fact-checking on Trump. It should have been apparent to all that Harris was well prepared with her rapid-fire performance of setting Trump’s hair ablaze. Jon Stewart on ‘The Daily Show’ said, “This is like one of those ‘Groundhog Day’ movies where you get to go back and fix the bad way something happened earlier to the good way.” Stewart also poked at Trump’s repetitious claim that Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the J6 Insurrection because “she didn’t do her job,” as he claims that he was simply “showing up for a requested speech,” on that fateful day. Jon reminded him, and us, that he spent two months riling up his base about a stolen election that was thrown out of every court that his MAGA team approached for a resolution in his favor. “Join me on January 6, it will be wild,” was shoved right back at him. Trump’s usual excuse, “I didn’t know anything about it,” disqualifies him from any office says Stewart…“he will always be the first one on the lifeboat as the ship goes down.”

Senator Lindsey Graham called Trump’s debate performance a “disaster,” and said his debate team should be fired, in an interview with Tim Miller on the Bulwark Podcast. Fox News host Jesse Watters felt that Trump had some chaotic moments, but “had some great knockouts, and so this race just got tighter,” with Laura Ingraham commenting that the former president “missed a few opportunities, even with ABC helping Harris.” Trump flag waver Sean Hannity determined ABC to be “the biggest loser in the debate” since they didn’t hit back at Harris on her past policies, whereby he learned nothing new to clarify who she really is with ABC-Disney giving her a pass…”an injustice to the American audience.” Right-wing podcaster Matt Walsh had to present a hard dose of reality to one of his responders who felt that Trump “rambled too much,” by asking, “Do you need me to lie to you and tell you this was a brilliant performance by Trump?” Podcaster Megyn Kelly and Arizona Senate candidate, Kari Lake, heaped blame on moderators Muir and Davis by accusing them of “running cover” for Harris, and making “bogus” corrections for Trump “after he makes a point,” – make that after he ‘tells a provable lie.’ Radio host Hugh Hewitt wrote on X, “It is laughable how ABC choreographed this to help VP Harris but it isn’t working because it is so obvious.” Muir and Davis were consistent in fact-checking the GOP candidate, once for belching out that parents in some states are allowed to kill a newborn, with a quick reminder that murder is not legal in any state. Brit Hume on Fox had to admit “she was not the complete dunderhead so many of us thought she was. She was composed, she was prepared, she kept her cool. She saw advantages, she took them. She baited him successfully, which is the story of the debate.”

Guest Dr. John Kruse, MD, PhD, who is a psychiatrist based in San Francisco, appeared on the ‘David Pakman Show’ on YouTube to offer his synopsis of Trump’s debate performance, saying that the former president was obviously on stimulants. In his thirty-year career, he has seen patients with preexisting conditions struggle with cohesiveness, instability, and rambling…as Trump did when he saw that time was left on the debate timer. Kruse speculates that The Don has ADHD and must take powerful stimulants, offering no specifics on what he uses, to control his behavior of body twitching, being unable to stay on track, and a lack of emotional regulation. The doctor believes Trump’s constant movement with 40-50 hand gestures per minute, and constant head movement saved his life in the Pennsylvania assassination attempt. His probable unwillingness to do sustained debate prep with his team was made evident in his meeting with Harris. Political consultant Philippe Reines, former State Department adviser to Hillary Clinton, studied seven previous debates in which Trump took part, and noted that in those Trump tried to drown out the other participants. Making the analogy of two people attempting to hold a conversation, while a third starts up a chainsaw, is how a chainsaw wielding Trump could win by blocking out any reasonable argument or discussion. His malfunction in the debate was giving Kamala space to talk as she wished, reminding people about the guy with a criminal record. Reines adds, “You’d never know it listening to him that he served for four years, and this whatever you want to call it, this amnesia that people are somehow having pleasant memories of his term is odd.” Observing Trump’s performances for almost a decade, Reines says The Don’s mental and physical fitness were clearly diminished, pointing out: “There is something going on with his language. He always digressed,” at earlier events. Talking about China tariffs, then talking about a Chinese bank ensconced in Trump Tower in the past, he now talks in staccato fashion, stopping short, not using proper nouns as much, and he is a different person. As reported by Raw Story, Reines says Trump looks generally the same, and he’s equally loud, and somehow being louder and tanner has been equated to health, and it’s just not there…what the former president did is “very unnerving.”

The Bulwark Podcast’s Tim Miller wrote: “The impotent Trump was too intimidated to even look Kamala’s direction…and now wusses out of the rematch. Cannot recall a more dramatic demonstration of beta weakness in a campaign setting.” Over 500 people assembled in Tucson, Arizona to hear Trump insist he had scored a “monumental victory” against Harris, he referred to Minnesota governor Tim Walz as the vice president, all while slurring his speech, with difficulty reading from the Teleprompter. Psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman writes in The Atlantic that the former president is displaying signs of cognitive decline, his tangents and inability to get to a point suggesting “a fundamental problem with an underlying cognitive process. If a patient presented to me with the verbal incoherence, tangential thinking, and repetitive speech demonstrated by Trump regularly, I would almost certainly refer them for a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness.” Trump continues his attempt at domination in refusing to back off his outlandish assertions, doubling down on lies about immigrants eating pets and teachers giving students sex change operations to the consternation of unsuspecting parents. Clearly confused, he calls Kamala a “Marxist communist fascist socialist” as he strings words together that might have given him more mileage in a different era.

Wife Melania has been missing in action during the campaign, with Trump now linking up with right-wing provocateur and twice-failed congressional candidate, Laura Loomer, who has complete loyalty to him and has been seen with him on many of his latest appearances. Loomer is an advocate of any loose cannon conspiracies floating around, prompting many Trump supporters to urge him to keep her at arm’s length, one being Senator Lindsey Graham and, surprisingly, a jealous Marjorie Taylor Greene. Loomer has struck back at Graham, questioning his sexual identity, and referring to Greene as a “trailer trash Harpy,” a “miserable lying bitch,” and a “hooker” as she calls attention to her extramarital affair. John Marshall in a Talking Points Memo notes that the GOP is running two presidential campaigns…one being headed by Trump, based on his personal grievances and stories shared at his rallies that have little to do with reality, the campaign faltering as the unhinged Trump drifts away from fact to fiction. The other campaign, run by Chris LaCivita and Susie Weiss, who recognize Trump’s decline, yet attempt to run with a more conventional strategy, as they urge The Don to discuss the economy or immigration, while dialing back on the craziness to retain voters who are now doubting his stability.

Laura Loomer, an “invited guest” she claims, seems to still be in the picture, and as long as she strokes Trump’s ego and encourages his basest political instincts, she is likely to remain, spouting her 9/11 conspiracy theories, her Islamophobia, her pro-white nationalism, and outright racism. As a guest in Trump’s private box at the LIV Golf Tournament last year, Trump can be heard in the video she posted on X, telling her she is “very special.” And earlier this year, Trump pointed her out in a crowd at Mar-a-Lago, calling her a “woman with courage.” She compounded the cats and dogs story in saying, “Haitian immigrants aren’t just eating cats and dogs. They eat HUMANS. Remember their leader? Known as ‘Barbecue?’ Only Hannibal Lecter himself would want to bring more of them to the United States! Don’t let the media say that concerns about illegal immigration are ‘conspiracy theories.’ These aren’t rumors. It’s a FACT. When you import the third world, you become the third world, and we won’t allow it here in America. Donald Trump will stop our country from further becoming a third world nation. The media is obsessing over the Haitian migrants because even the most liberal voters are horrified over the animal abuse committed by so many of Kamala’s invaders.” A few day earlier, Trump claimed at one of his rallies that, “Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a representative of the people who are coming into this country.”

Republican US Senator Thom Tillis of critical swing state, North Carolina, decries Loomer as “a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans. A (Democratic) plant couldn’t do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump’s chances of winning re-election.” “Enough,” he writes on X. Bill O’Reilly says Loomer doesn’t matter: “Does it matter to the American people that Laura Loomer exists? No, it doesn’t,” he told Leland Vittert on NewsNation’s ‘On Balance’ show. “I have no idea why Donald Trump does what he does,” was his response to Vittert’s suggestion that Loomer’s presence is “horribly detrimental to his campaign.” O’Reilly conceded that Loomer is “a bad look…it doesn’t matter to me as a voter. And I think a lot of voters feel the same way.” Miami New Times reporter, Naomi Feinstein wrote an article entitled, ‘Loomer and Trump Sitting in Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,’  as she notes that Melania was nowhere to be found at the debate, or at her husband’s side during the 9/11 ceremonies in New York and Pennsylvania. The Drudge Report ran a photo of Loomer and Trump with the headline, ‘Loomer MAGA Love,’ with the question, “Has Trump found his soulmate?” A co-host of MSNBC’s ‘The Weekend’ suggested it’s time for Melania to step up and get more involved before her husband’s campaign is completely derailed by his new far-right, gadfly companion. Former RNC chair Michael Steele thinks this interaction is not only hurting his fellow Republicans, but it is fueling rumors of an affair at a critical time following Trump’s washout at the debate. Jimmy Kimmel says watching the debate “was like a half nightmare, half hospice.”

And where is JD Vance? Spearheading the cats and dogs stories campaign, of course! Seth Meyers on Late Night says, “Maybe I’m being too hard on JD. I bet he’d be fun to have a beer with…let’s let him explain why,” as he runs a clip of Vance at a campaign stop. Asked by a reporter, “Why would the people in Wisconsin want to have a beer with you?” JD answers, “Well, I guess they’d want to have a beer with me because I actually do like to drink beer.” Meyers lowers the boom, joking, “Well, it’s official. JD Vance has done the impossible. He’s made Mike Pence the fun one! Vance answers simple questions like he’s in an episode of ‘Frasier’ where Niles accidentally joins a biker gang.” Jimmy Kimmel on his Live! show on ABC said, “There are a lot of things Trump isn’t good at…one being the picking of running mates. He made a huge mistake with JD Vance, who can’t stop stepping in it. For a guy who wears more eyeliner than Liza Minnelli, you’d think he’d have a better understanding of women.” Kimmel noted that DJT, Jr. reportedly pushed Vance’s selection, now one of the most unpopular VP picks in modern times. He speculates that if Trump loses the election, Papa Trump will sue his son to take the ‘junior’ off his name. On Vance’s veep opponent, Tim Walz, Kimmel says he doesn’t know where he’s been hiding all along, but, “His blood type is Corn Dog Batter…and he belongs to several Pickle of the Month clubs.” Mike Pence, make a note of this!

Several media outlets are reporting that Rudy Giuliani is very close to losing a large segment of his remaining wealth to the two Georgia election workers that he defamed, causing them to be threatened and harassed for their work in the 2020 election that saw Trump’s defeat. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss won almost $150M in their court victory; their patience has grown thin as they are now asking the Manhattan federal court to demand that the former New York City mayor hand over his cash accounts, jewelry, and ownership of an upscale Madison Avenue apartment. In his request, their attorney claims, “At every step, Mr. Giuliani has chosen evasion, obstruction, and outright disobedience. That strategy reaches the end of the line here.” For good measure, they are going after his Palm Beach Florida residence, as well. As BlueStar99 writes on Daily Kos, “Maybe we will soon some real justice in this case, and America’s disgraced Mayor can see what it is like to live on limited means. Now he might have to start buying the really cheap hair dye.” JD Vance should start thinking ahead…a really cheap eye shadow may be in his future, and Rudy may be his ticket to that source. Maybelline, JD?

The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, just can’t seem to stay in his own lane, having recently filed suit against Travis County over its voter registration policies, the third Democratic-leaning area in the state that he has targeted. The county, which is the home of the state capital and liberal bastion of Austin, had hired a third-party firm to assist with voter registration, which Paxton believes is not authorized by the state. The AG charges that the company’s CEO has expressed “his interest in getting people to vote for progressives candidates.” He says that Travis County’s blatant violation of hiring Civic Government Solutions is allowing partisans to conduct unlawful identification efforts to track down people who are not registered to vote, therefore inviting fraud and reducing public trust in elections. Hector Nieto, a Travis County spokesperson, says they are “proud of our outreach efforts” while remaining “steadfast in our responsibility to uphold the integrity of the voter registration process. It is disappointing that any statewide elected official would prefer to sow distrust and discourage participation in the process.” Earlier, Paxton had filed suit against Bexar County, home of San Antonio, the state’s fourth-largest urban county and a Democratic stronghold. He has also issued warnings against Harris County to discontinue its own registration drive, which it had actually halted after threats from state Senator Paul Bettencourt of the Houston area, and chair of the Senate Committee on Local Government.

Defiantly, San Antonio, and Bexar County, pushed against Paxton, arguing that the Texas laws around voter registration are far more permissive than its laws around vote by mail, which the AG had quashed in 2020 in Houston/Harris County…to Trump’s advantage. So, in the current scenario, Paxton is again rallying his troops for Trump, and Senator Ted Cruz, as the margins narrow with election day drawing closer. The Texas GOP argues that such steps are necessary to prevent widespread voting by non-citizens, in spite of countless findings that non-citizens virtually never vote. Last month, in an act of intimidation, Paxton directed his agents to search homes and offices of Democratic organizers, and one candidate for a legislative seat desired by the GOP. This voter suppression effort has coincided with the removal of 6,000 non-citizens from voter rolls according to Governor Greg Abbott, with claims that 2,000 of those had voted. With no evidence, AG Paxton is insisting that the state’s progressives are registering non-citizens, and repeated appearances on conservative media as he charges Democrats with conspiring with Mexican criminal organizations in order to move undocumented immigrants into swing states to gain control to achieve a one-party reach. Paxton’s ‘The Big Lie’ history has him fighting a lawsuit from the State Bar of Texas, which seeks to discipline him for false claims as he attempted to overturn the 2020 election of Joe Biden. The AG continues to argue that counties can only do what the state expressly permits them to do, and if that permission is not given, the assumption should not be made that the authority exists. “Counties in Texas are limited to exercising those powers that are specifically conferred on them by statute or the constitution,” he writes, even as he admits that Civic Government Solutions is required per their contract to verify that those registered are, indeed, US citizens…who are then cross-checked by state and federal authorities!

A story from the UltraViolet Action Team’s website tells of 87-year-old Lidia Martinez who has helped other senior citizens in Texas register for the vote. She recently filed a complaint that some seniors in her community were not receiving their mail-in ballots, which precipitated a raid on her house by nine police officers in tactical gear, with firearms, while forcing her to stand outside her house in her nightgown as they searched her home for over two hours. They confiscated her watch, her phone, blank voter registration forms and her certificate to conduct voter registration…all courtesy of MAGA Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas! His authoritarian overreach is just one in a long line of his vile actions, from suing a Texas woman to stop her from getting an abortion, to taking nonprofits supporting undocumenteds to court, in a continuing campaign of violence and oppression against the most vulnerable in communities in Texas. Paxton and his MAGA cohorts have demanded of the Biden administration that they allow states with abortion bans to obtain the private medical records of patients seeking legal health care in other states. They have fought to end a requirement for Kansas to allow transgender people to change their birth certificates, and on and on, all abuses made possible by corporate donors including Johnson & Johnson, T-Mobile, General Motors, and CVS – all of whom have claimed support of gender and racial justice, yet providing funds to the very people seeking to send our country back to the 1950s to ‘make America great again!’ These corporations are sensitive to external pressures but constantly balance their public image with the benefits of behind-the-scenes dealmaking to support their bottom lines. They may make a big show of pulling support should something scandalous or outrageous occurs…January 6 being a perfect example…but as soon as soon as the atmosphere cools, they are back in the cesspool.

Greg Palast shares a story online of air-conditioning repairman, David Zuniga, who stopped to help someone who appears to be in trouble, only to have Mark Anthony Aguirre, a vigilante vote-fraud hunter put a gun to Zuniga’s head, demanding he open the back of his truck. Aguirre believed Zuniga was smuggling forged absentee ballots in favor of Joe Biden to influence the Texas vote. Of course, once the truck was opened up, nothing was in evidence beyond the usual boxes of switches, wiring, mother-boards, ducting and pipes, and not one ballot. Aguirre was not some loner on a mission; in October 2020, he was paid $266,400 by a right-wing Texas billionaire, Steven Hotze, who had hired dozens of vigilantes, hoping to prove that the Biden organization was attempting to steal the election by stuffing ballot boxes with forged ballots. Palast talked to the man who supposedly had forged the 750,000 ballots in Houston, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis. “I was accused that I had masterminded this scheme to forge all of these mail-in ballots,” the commissioner said. Palast pressed him on how he miraculously faked so many ballots, noting that at eight seconds per ballot, it would take several years to sign them all. Ellis told him, “First, I’m too lazy to forge hundreds of thousands of ballots. You’ve got to be nuts. The vigilante stopped the air-conditioner repair guy, saying he was a police officer…had him on the ground with a pistol pointing to his head.” “Ellis is the first African-American elected Harris County Commissioner, and, that’s a BIG problem for Donald Trump,” says Palast, adding, “By the way, it’s particularly difficult to stuff ballot drop boxes in Texas – because there are none. Never mind. The MAGA-nauts don’t let facts get in the way of their stolen-election fever-dreams.”

Palast says people may be wondering, “Why would Democrats think they could steal Texas? Texas is redneck red.” Even with a million fake ballots, you’d think Biden could not have possibly won the state; not so, he says! Texas has the highest Black population of any state in the USA. Absent the truly vicious vote suppression tactics instituted by the state’s GOP rulers, Texas would be Democratic blue. The back story on Commissioner Ellis is, because he didn’t want Houston residents to contract COVID while waiting in 2020 voting lines, he was on the verge of mailing out ballots to all eligible Houston voters, a la California and Georgia. Up popped MAGA AG Ken Paxton who put a stop to it, and as he told Steve Bannon on War Room, “Ellis was going to mail out 2.5M ballots, all illegal, and we stopped them. If we had not done that, Donald Trump would have lost Texas.” Ellis explained to Palast, as they walked in downtown Houston with armed guards, “I have to take the protection now after men with assault weapons surrounded my house while my frightened daughter held a pajama party. There were people outside my home with signs one day reading ‘STOP THE STEAL.’ One idiot is out there with a rifle on his shoulder. I take security now.” The Texas voter suppression list now includes ‘armed terror.’ Palast explains that this doesn’t mean the state has abandoned Jim Crow/Jose Crow assaults on democracy, because since 2021, Texas has purged 1.1M voters from the rolls to prevent voter fraud when not one voter has ever been convicted of casting an illegal vote.

Governor Abbott is so concerned about Commissioner Ellis turning out voters in November that he’s threatening Vladimir Putin-style prison sentences for Ellis and his fellow officials, telling Fox News that Harris County is refusing to follow the laws. “And two things need to happen. One is investigations and prosecutions need to take place against those County officials,” says Abbott. Harris County recently made the decision to send out voter registration forms to Houstonians, and now Abbott and Paxton are threatening a state takeover of the county’s elections operations. Commissioner Ellis is concerned, but undaunted, saying, “The level of vitriol out there, it’s just amazing.”  Ellis is featured in Palast’s new film, ‘Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen,’ which is just finishing a one-week-run in Hollywood, before beginning an Oakland showing on September 25.

The jury trial, Cervini v Cisneros, opened in Austin, Texas last week, stemming from the final days of the 2020 presidential election, when a Biden-Harris campaign bus was surrounded on a main highway by around forty vehicles flying MAGA flags. The plaintiffs allege that they were ambushed, terrorized and intimidated for more than 90 minutes as they canvassed for the Democratic ticket by this so-called ‘Trump Train,‘ as they tried to run the bus off the road in a machination termed as a “madcap game of highway chicken” in the suit. Plaintiffs include the bus driver, and Biden staffer Wendy Davis, a former Texas senator who was also a gubernatorial candidate. Davis says they were forced to cancel events in fear of further intimidation. Pursuit of damages sought, both punitive and compensatory, will be under Texas law, as well as the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a federal statute from the Civil War Reconstruction period, enacted to end political violence and voter intimidation. Co-counsel John Paredes, a litigator for Protect Democracy, a participant in bringing the case said, “The violence and intimidation that our plaintiffs endured on the highway for simply supporting the candidate of their choice is an affront to the democratic values we hold dear as Americans.” This precursor to the January 6 riot in Washington, DC is sizable, with five named defendants and an unknown number of additional unidentified John Does and Jane Does alleged to have been a part of this terrorist campaign.

The announcement by the Biden-Harris campaign on October 27, 2020, of its three-day “Soul of the Nation” bus tour through Texas for rallies and gatherings of Democrats, raised the hackles of MAGAnation, increasing the chatter on social media for organizing their ‘trains.’ A Trumper in Alamo posted that they should “flood the hell out of them,” as the MAGA– and American-flagged pickemup trucks gathered for their romp on the highway. Donald Trump, Jr. posted on Twitter, “It would be great if you guys would all get together and head to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome. Get out there. Have some fun. Enjoy it.” The flag-festooned vehicles began their ‘escorts’ on October 28 and 29, one being adorned as a “Trump hearse,”  with the message “collecting Democratic votes one dead stiff at a time.” Even larger numbers of cars had answered the call by October 30, being lured by the erroneous rumor that Harris would be on the bus…she was campaigning in McAllen and Fort Worth…as they planned an ambush on Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Austin. The bus was mobbed by vehicles which came within inches of it, forcing the driver to slow to a crawl to prevent collisions, as MAGAnation live-streamed their operation on social media, gloating about their aggressiveness, as the plaintiffs are alleging.

Defendant Eliazar Cisneros is accused of side-swiping the SUV following the bus, being driven by a Biden-Harris campaign staffer, and later bragging about “slamming” the vehicle. The bus riders had implored the police to escort them safely, but none showed up, and in a separate case last October, local law enforcement admitted they had fallen short of their standards, agreeing to pay compensation to the plaintiffs. The current lawsuit claims that the plaintiffs have endured “ongoing psychological and emotional injury,” with bus driver, Timothy Holloway, being so traumatized that he has given up his tour bus business, not being able drive buses again. Wendy Davis says she suffered “substantial emotional distress” and has not spoken publicly about the experience for fear of physical harm from Trump supporters. The lawsuit reads, “Where groups are permitted to terrorize those with whom they disagree into forgoing their constitutional rights, the functioning of our democracy demands accountability.” Free speech doesn’t protect intimidation and threats against those with differing political ideologies! Any volunteers to drive this home to AG Ken Paxton and Governor Abbott and their Texas vigilantes? Vote!!

It is reported that former first lady, Melania Trump, has a new book ready to hit the shelves on October 1, and it has already reached Amazon.com’s top ranking on its ‘Best Seller’ list for pre-orders. Entitle simply, ‘Melania,’ it is number one in the ‘Memoirs‘ category, number one in the ‘US Presidents‘ category, and number one in ‘Political Leader Biographies.’ Melania explained to Fox News Digital that, “although daunting at times, the process has been incredibly rewarding, reminding me of my strength, and the beauty of sharing my truth. It was an amazing journey filled with emotional highs and lows, each story shaping me into who I am today.” The press release describes the volume as “a powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has carved her own path, overcome adversity and defined personal excellence. The former First Lady invites readers into her world, offering an intimate portrait of a woman who has lived an extraordinary life. Melania includes personal stories and family photos she has never before shared with the public.” It is expected that many pre-orders will be canceled once the news gets out that there will be no full-color centerfold photo of her from her previous life as a nude model. For certain there will be no reproduction of her 2016 plagiarized speech from the RNC that she copied from Michelle Obama. National security lawyer, Bradley Moss, joked, “I understand this book is a riveting tale of growing up as a young black woman on the south side of Chicago.”  And where is that “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U? jacket as it becomes relevant?

ARLINGTON FRACAS, A DISAPPEARING ACT, NO INTROSPECTION

Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, pulled his weight to allow Donald Trump to once again continue to show his disrespect and disdain toward the military and their families, by setting up a visit to Arlington National Cemetery. Curious that he failed to mark the first or second anniversary of the Kabul tragedy…busy selling Bibles, knick-knacks, trading cards, and incidental huckstering, perhaps? In spite of the federal law prohibiting the use of the hallowed ground for political or election related purposes, Trump showed up with his usual entourage of staffers, including photographer and videographer who proceeded to capture the former president in a familiar pose, grinning ear-to-ear and thumb’s-up, along with family members of those service members killed by a suicide bomber during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan’s Kabul airport. The grinning doofus clearly has no idea how to behave around fallen heroes, as he stands by the grave of a Marine…it’s all about him! Trump’s team was told he could only attend in his personal capacity, with no staff members, and it is reported that the family members had specifically requested no media coverage…Trump must have missed that, too. A cemetery employee attempted to prevent any filming, but Trump’s goons verbally and physically abused her and continued to collect their footage, which later ended up on a TikTok post as a political ad for his presidential campaign. The Trump campaign officials were informed beforehand that only cemetery officials were allowed to take photos in Section 60, where recent casualties are buried, but the Trumpers bullied their way to get what they wanted. Campaign spokesman, Steven (Luca Brasi) Cheung, maintains nothing untoward occurred and could offer video proof that an unnamed individual having a mental health episode had tried to block the MAGA team during the ceremony…so far, crickets on video proof! Sadly, the victimized cemetery employee declined to press charges against the Trumpers for fear of retaliation.

Trump has a record of insulting the military, denying the late Senator John McCain was a war hero because he had been captured and held for five years in the Vietnam War years. Former aides have confirmed that he called World War I casualties “suckers and losers,” though he continues to deny doing so. And most recently he was condemned for telling a billionaire donor, Miriam Adelson, a past recipient of his largesse in his bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom, that the award was “much better” than the military’s Medal of Honor. He explained to Adelson that her civilian award ranked higher because “soldiers who get the Medal of Honor are either in bad shape from being shot up or they’re dead.” As president, Trump told his chief of staff John Kelly that he didn’t want “any wounded guys” in his Independence Day parade because, “This doesn’t look good for me,” and he had been quoted as saying, “Nobody wants to see that.” A previous visit to Arlington with Kelly to visit the gravesite of Kelly’s son Robert, a casualty in Afghanistan, had him asking, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Last week’s wreath-laying and brouhaha was an attempt by Trump to clean up his past indiscretions and establish some credibility as a champion of our military, but as it turned out, the visit only served to remind the country how little he understands service, sacrifice, and heroism with his campaign stunt. One of the GOP politicians in attendance, Governor Spencer Cox of Utah, is now under fire for using a photo of the Arlington event in his reelection campaign emails, later apologizing for his indiscretion. Semper Fi!

The Washington Post columnist, Eugene Robinson, writes that, “Donald Trump has shown the nation, once again, that he has no shame,” for exploiting the fresh graves of war heroes by using them as props for his campaign…“a deeply dishonorable act by a shockingly dishonorable man.” Robinson believes just because we are accustomed to this kind of behavior from Trump does not mean we should accept it. Just because he has no sense of honor or appreciation of sacrifice does not mean we have to pretend honor and sacrifice no longer exist. Just because ‘Trump is an awful person’ is an old story does not mean we should yawn at this latest demonstration and quickly move on. He adds, “there is everything wrong with that former president using the occasion to generate visual fodder for is bid to return to the White House…his campaign team knew, and he surely knew, this was forbidden.” Robinson refers to Trump’s phony-hillbilly VP sidekick, JD Vance who chimed in by saying, “She [Kamala Harris] wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up? She can go to hell.” Of course, she had said or yelled nothing, only later when asked about the incident did she offer an opinion. And just for the record, Robinson writes that it was Trump who negotiated the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, forcing the Afghan government to release thousands of jailed Taliban fighters in a prisoner swap…to the eventual detriment of our military and the downfall of the Afghan government.

In his defense concerning the Arlington incident, Trump claims he “didn’t need the publicity,” and it’s being blown out of proportion by “bad people in Washington.” Robert Reich writes, “The incident has blown up into a big issue, but not because the Trump campaign erroneously held a political event at the Arlington National Cemetery…it’s blown up because it’s a microcosm of Donald Trump’s moral squalor…his disdain for the law.” Reich feels that abusing and pushing the ANC employee who was trying to enforce the law recalls other instances when the Trump Gang pushed people aside, using violence to get their way…think January 6, 2021. And, that the employee is a woman brings to mind the multitude of ways Trump has employed violence against women, hence the woman’s decision not to press charges for fear of retaliation…she knows! Reich concludes, “The entire incident is also a microcosm of Trump’s utter disdain for morality, honor, and patriotism – the public virtues, the common good. The cemetery is a sacred, hallowed ground. It is considered to be a national shrine. Trump sullied it to achieve his personal goal of the moment: to get a news clip in which he could bash Biden and, indirectly, Kamala Harris. The incident rings the warning bells, rekindles the dark memories, revives the fear. What happened at Arlington National Cemetery was more than an erroneous photo op. It was Trump on full display.” In the meantime, Trump is trying to run away from his actions, pointing to others as the guilty ones, and telling lie after lie to make it all disappear.

And we can bet that Elon Musk is doing his best to assist The Don in making this misadventure disappear…with his “free speech” project on X. Users of the platform saw that a link to the NPR story on the Arlington Cemetery incident was flagged as spam. Clicking on the link, an alert popped up, reading, “Warning: this link may be unsafe,” followed by the URL to the webpage…hardly a malicious or non-factual report by any means! Self-fashioned free speech absolutist Musk has reduced moderation on his platform, terming it a form of censorship, but there seem to be some exceptions to his acceptance of the First Amendment. Last week, a judge in Brazil banned Elon’s social-media platform after a months-long battle over allegations that disinformation was being spread. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled that internet service providers must block X for Brazil’s 215M citizens, and that anyone attempting to avoid the ban by use of a VPN would be subject to a fine of 50,000 reais, approximately $8900. Musk and X must comply with court orders to remove some of the named accounts, as well as paying fines, amounting to $3.28M, for his recalcitrance. Make that disappear, Elon!

Bill Maher on HBO’s ‘Real Time,’ commented, “There’s a law, as there should be, at Arlington National Cemetery, where our bravest and greatest are buried, that you can’t take pictures. You can’t use it as a campaign prop. I mean, it’s like when homeless people started making love in libraries. You don’t think there should be a law about it, but you have to. Sometimes you just need a law. So of course, when Trump heard this, he was like, ‘the laws, right?’ And they told him to stop. And he was furious. He said, ‘You are ruining a perfectly good exploitation of a tragedy.’ Then he grabbed some flowers off someone’s grave and said, ‘Send these to Melania!’ When people told him to stop, he just shoved them aside…his goons shoved her. Ever wondered what Donald Trump is like in real life? Tony Soprano, without the introspection.”

Maher also commented on the CNN interview with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Of Walz, he said, “He was just sitting there for a very long time without saying anything…it was like watching ‘Jeopardy’ when one of the players can’t work the buzzer.” All in all, the duo received good reviews for their appearance, but CNN got dragged by most observers for a lackluster presentation, with Dana Bash on the receiving end of the harshest comments. Harris was clearly delighted with Walz’s answers, and was obviously pleased that he had been selected as her running mate. In an interview last week, Jeff Walz, Tim’s older brother who lives in Florida, revealed on Facebook that he had donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign, and appeared to be less than content with his younger brother’s political path. Jeff says, “Tim is not the type of character you want making decisions about your future. I’m 100% opposed to all his ideology,” hinting that he would be open to publicly endorsing Trump’s candidacy. Urged by a Facebook post that he should “get on stage with President Trump and endorse him,” he responded: “I’ve thought long and hard about doing something like that! I’m torn between that and just keeping my family out of it,” adding, “The stories I could tell!” The two brothers are estranged and have not spoken for eight years, cause of the rift being unclear, but opposing political beliefs are at the forefront. The elder Walz once worked in education and was an assistant principal at a Florida middle school, and both brothers have had brushes with the law. Tim has talked about pleading guilty to a reduced charge of reckless driving after a drunk driving arrest, and Jeff pled guilty to retail theft from a Walmart store in 2001, as reported by The Tampa Bay Times. Tim can find comfort in knowing that he has rallied other family members to support him and the Harris/Walz ticket.

Viewers of the aforementioned CNN/Dana Bash interview with the Democratic standard-bearers had their questions answered about the hesitancy of the two to do an earlier interview as the GOP had been urging. Neither of the candidates were challenged by the shallow, predictable questions, handled well by the two, but having little value for prospective voters. The first meaningless question about ‘intentions on the first day in office,‘ was viewed as a trap question by Harris who ignored the path toward dealing with Trump’s claim that he would be a dictator on day one, preferring to speak of her overall goal to economically raise opportunity for the middle class. One writer posted that Bash’s questions might have come from the fax machine at Mar-a-Lago, as she referenced an “economic crisis in America,” “a crisis of affordability,” which made the Trump economy attractive to voters. Kamala confidently pushed back about the strengths of the current economy, which Bash snarkily called “Bidenomics,” pointing out that the White House had effectively corrected the mess left behind by the Trump administration. Bash showed no interest in comparing the agendas of the two opposing parties and their approaches to governing, though both Harris and Walz attempted to broach the subjects. Harris responded to questioning about having a Republican in her Cabinet with a positive answer that it would be a good move to bring a new energy to politics, to have a more inclusive feel to move a united country forward. Bash brought out Prosecutor Harris’s demeanor when she attempted to bring up the race card, but the Vice President told Bash to move on, referring to Trump’s “old, tired playbook” that has no place in the election. David Rothkopf of The Daily Beast feels that Harris “rose to every challenge. Her ascendancy is not a fluke. She is well prepared for this moment…and is the ideal person to confront her opponent face-to-face and to let him know the dark era of US politics that he ushered in is now at last about to come to an end.”

Donald Trump, however, is still working on his debate bailout plan, as he attacks ABC News as “unfair,” employing “terrible” journalists, referring to “George Flopadopoulos” and Jonathan Karl as his prime suspects. Anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis are set to moderate the September 10 debate in Philadelphia. The Cowardly Don has repeatedly threatened to bail out of the face-to-face on the “very biased network,” all while whining and complaining that Joe Biden abandoned him, only to turn him over to an opposing woman candidate. Debate rules seem to have been settled upon, but not with much jousting in the past week or so. Trump told Mark Levin on Fox News that he liked to debate and had “won a lot of debates, otherwise I wouldn’t have been president.” He continues to lament his debate with Biden, which was a catalyst for the president exit from the presidential race. “I think I did a very good job, and maybe I did too good a job.” Felon, prepare to meet The Prosecutor! The Kraken has arrived!

A SWAN SONG, A NEW BEGINNING WITH THAT LITTLE GIRL

That’s all folks! It’s a wrap on the Democratic National Convention for this election cycle…and with luck, there’ll be another in four years…Lord willin’ and the MAGAs don’t rise. President Biden gave his swan-song speech at the end of a long evening, well past his bedtime and that of many TV viewers, but it was a well-done handover to give his complete support to his vice president to wear the mantle of the high office if she is successful in November. Biden received well-deserved praise throughout the days of the gathering, but Monday was his day to be suffused in the adoration. Late Show host, Stephen Colbert, praised him for “decades of tireless public service,” but he fact-checked the speech where the president said, “Donald Trump promised infrastructure week, every week, for four years. And he never built a damn thing.” Colbert pushed back with, “That’s not entirely fair, sir. He did build all those little burger towers,” as he brought up the photo of Trump posing behind mounds of hamburgers (that’s hamberders in Trump-speak texts) and a spread of fast food items from several outlets, all to celebrate Clemson University’s national football championship during their visit to the White House. Of the ‘hamberder’ towers, Colbert guarantees us that Trump designed them. As you may recall, many of the footballers thought the offering was “on the cheap side,” unworthy of a White House invitation.

Stephen lauded Biden for taking the stage and giving a powerful speech after his four-and-a-half-minute standing ovation, by “using up all the energy that he didn’t use during the debate with Trump.” “If only he knew he could have received the same reaction by telling fart jokes on CBS,” he added. Colbert went on to fact-check New York governor, Kathy Hochul, who “wasted no time in making no sense,” when she asked, “Are you ready to elect Kamala Harris the first president of the United States?” Colbert laughingly said, “Yes, the FIRST president of the United States. Now it SEEMS like that was a mistake, but it’s like George Washington FAMOUSLY said: ‘That little girl was me!'”

Late Night host, Seth Meyers, observing efforts by the GOP as the DNC progressed, says their wishful thinking about Trump’s lackluster campaign, has taken them to the airwaves to give the former president advice where they know he will notice it…on TV. Senator Lindsey Graham thinks Trump can win…his “policies are good for America, but as a provocateur and a showman, he may lose it.” Meyers contributes, “The guy can’t stay on message because, ONE, there is no message. TWO, America was demonstrably worse when he left office, and, THREE, he can’t stomach anyone else getting attention for anything, ever.” So, with all the GOP’s attempts to get their candidate to stay on track, what does he do? As Meyers says, “Republicans are basically saying to Trump, ‘We still have a chance if we focus on the economy,’ and his response is, ‘What if we make it about looks?'” At a Pennsylvania rally, The Don offered the crowd, “I’m a better looking person than Kamala!” Womp, womp, womp.

Guest host of the Daily Show, Michael Kosta, warned the Democrats when he noticed that on the release of the party platform, they had failed to replace Joe Biden’s name with that of Kamala Harris.  “That’s not just lazy, guys. It’s risky. Joe Biden is gonna read that and say, ‘gas up the Corvette, I’m going back in.'” Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, spoke on Monday night, portraying Trump as a union-buster who “laughs about firing workers who go on strike,” as was done with his compatriot Elon Musk during a recent interview. He then removed his jacket to reveal a shirt printed with the words, ‘Trump is a Scab,‘ which became the chant during his speech from those assembled.

The theme of Tuesday’s DNC events might have been entitled ‘Men Who Married Well,’ with Doug Emhoff and Barack Obama as the prominent male duo on the speaking docket for the evening. Emhoff’s presentation was well-done, introducing himself and his family to an audience desirous of all the facts, and showing his unbridled support for wife, Kamala, who has been a perfect step-mom to his kids. It’s said that Doug’s ex-wife supports Kamala more enthusiastically than Trump’s wife, Melania, is supporting him! In fact, satirist Andy Borowitz writes that Melania wished to speak at the DNC’s Thursday session, as she explained, “None of us can stand another four years of Donald Trump. I DO care – don’t you?” Borowitz further indicates that Ms. Trump plans to “steer clear of the personal attacks that have typified the Republican campaign. When they go worst, we go best.” Contemplating what her life might look like post-Donald Trump, she adds, “I may get cat.”

Barack Obama didn’t disappoint in his speech, captivating the Democratic faithful, as always, and lamenting that his task at the podium was a bit onerous, having to follow wife, Michelle, who had the crowd climbing the rafters with enthusiasm. Many were afraid that she might resurrect her old, “When they go low, we go high!” refrain, but she was ready…as a poster on X wrote that she essentially began, “Girl, hold my hoop earrings while I drag this weird s.o.b.!” And drag she did, one of her best attacks on Trump being, “Who’s gonna tell him the job he is currently seeking just might be one of those ‘Black Jobs’?” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s speech managed to send a heat-seeking missile in Trump’s direction when he began a statement with, “Take it from an actual billionaire…” Surely, the Orange-One’s head is still exploding.

Former president Clinton rewrote his original Wednesday speech, feeling it was too dark, and his final was a bit low-key, but containing some relevant digs at the narcissistic GOP standard-bearer…being quick to point out that he is younger than The Don. Hillary spoke at the Monday session, luckily for Bill, and she roused the troops in a fitting tribute to her 2016 candidacy, and her steadfastness. Former NRC chair, Michael Steele, pointed out that Hillary was “getting in the groove” of the crowd’s chant of “Lock him up” as she referenced Trump’s 34 felony convictions. Steele called it, “Probably the most rich, ironic moment in political history. She’s always been the bogeyman for a lot of Republicans, but this idea of locking her up because of crimes she never committed, and wrongdoing that she was never involved with, is a bit ironic.” True to form, after Trump was convicted, he claimed he had never used that phrase against Hillary. Let’s just smile knowingly…along with Hill!

The Morning Joe show began on the Wednesday following the first two nights of what was a jubilant atmosphere at the DNC, with a video showing the difference between the DNC and the somber RNC a few weeks earlier. Joe Scarborough could only say, “Wow, just wow!” and turning to co-host, Willie Geist, Joe added, “Willie, I mean, talk about a show of force, a show of power!” Geist responded, “Yeah, 20,000 in Chicago [at the DNC] and then, 15,000 in Milwaukee [where Kamala & Tim appeared on Tuesday]…that was crazy.” Geist termed the roll call where each state’s delegation was introduced with lively music…a first…as “perfect stagecraft.” Host Mika Brzezinski summed up the contrast between the two conventions as “A Tale of Two Roll Calls.”

Wednesday evening’s highlight was Harris’s wing-man, Tim Walz, at the podium to accept the party’s nomination…hardly a disappointment, except that he failed to wear his Maytag Repairman’s coveralls! He delivered a moving speech, highlighting his career as a teacher, a coach, a US Representative, a state governor, and a National Guard sergeant, while reprising his favorite line to the GOP on reproductive health, “Mind your own damn business!” He brought his family to tears, proclaiming, “We’re all here tonight for one beautiful, simple reason: We love this country.” His neurodiverse son, Gus, has become a figure in most of the highlight videos of the evening, as he tearfully and enthusiastically stood to applaud and point to his father, saying, “That’s my Dad!” to all who could hear over the cacophony. His action prompted an outpouring of positivity on social media toward the 17-year-old, but dragons lashed out from the MAGAverse. One of the most reprehensible came from the right-wing’s Molotov Cocktail thrower, Ann Coulter, who posted a screenshot of Gus, captioning it, “Talk about weird.” She was immediately barraged with backlash from Xers with biting comments: “I can see why a child loving their parents would feel foreign to you;” “No one will ever cry for Ann Coulter;” “This is a direct quote from you in 2010: ‘Christianity fuels everything that I write.’ Sorry, Ann, but there’s nothing Christian about your comment. I don’t think Jesus would like this one little bit. I’ll pray for you;” and, “Trump has mocked a handicapped reporter, and last night Ann Coulter and the pundits on Fox News made fun of Tim Walz’s son’s disability…why would anyone support this morally bankrupt MAGA party? The cult needs to be destroyed once and for all this November!” Another posted photos of weepers Gus Walz, and Kyle Rittenhouse, the Kenosha, WI AR-15 shooter who killed two demonstrators, known for blubbering during his courtroom acquittal. The photos are captioned: “Ann Coulter thinks one of these kids is weird and the other is a hero.’” The attack on X was so fierce and immediate that Coulter deleted her post rather quickly, but not before it was screenshotted by an alert posse.

Notably, several Republicans and former-Republicans voiced their opinions at the DNC podium during its run. Former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan urged his fellow GOPers to vote for Harris, despite some policy disagreements, feeling that Trump poses significant threats to our republic. “These days our party acts more like a cult, a cult worshiping a felonious thug,” he stated. Dace Potas, Republican columnist for USA Today, agrees with Duncan’s assessment, but he is suggesting to his party that they abstain from voting for either candidate, in his belief that neither are fit for the job. By his abstention he hopes the GOP will get the message, and prefers to benefit neither candidate by holding out, while fully understanding that some in his party feel they have no choice but to support the RNC’s standard-bearer. He says if the GOP loses the 2024 presidential vote, Trump is likely to encourage his minions to do a repeat of January 6, particularly in light of GOP frustrations stemming from 2020 and the predicted 2022 ‘red-wave’ mid-terms. He concedes that Trump and his base have already laid the groundwork to instigate violence. “Frankly, I don’t know which path is a more direct route to ridding our party of Trumpism. A victory cements his vein of conservatism as the future of the Republican Party, whereas a loss means he will likely run for a FOURTH time in 2028…America is sadly stuck with Trump’s influence on American politics. Those looking for a quick fix ignore the problems that got us here in the first place,” he says. Is your hair on fire yet?

Governor Walz ended his speech with a football coach’s pep talk, urging ‘the team,’ with, “Never underestimate a public school teacher! It’s the fourth quarter, we’re down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we have the ball, we’re driving down the field, and boy, do we have the right team! When we fight…we win!!” The conventioneers erupted with cheers and chants, echoing Walz’s words, banners and signs waving like a Minnesota wheat field. Donald Trump had ridiculed Walz on Truth Social, saying that Walz was only “an ASSISTANT Coach, not a COACH,” which brought Stephen Colbert into fray with, “Oh my God! Of course, he was an assistant coach, and you know what that means? Walz is only qualified to be some sort of…Vice President.” Colbert joked that the RNC had offered us Lara Trump and Marco Rubio at their convention, comparing it to a restaurant server saying, “Sorry, we don’t have Coke. Is diarrhea OK?”

Seth Meyers agrees with Tim Walz’s “never underestimate a public school teacher” remark, disclosing that his mother is one of them and “she can drink WAY more than you might think.” Fox News host, Laura Ingraham, admitted the DNC looked exciting, but criticized the Democrats for focusing on “all the good vibes, instead of the actual issues that matter. You can’t eat good vibes.” The Daily Show’s John Stewart conceded, “I guess you’re right. You can’t feed your family on vibes. You can only feed your family on immigration fear-mongering.” Jesse Watters of Fox News continually denied the liveliness of the DNC, saying it “felt like a funeral.” For this, Stewart showed a video of a DJ happily dancing during the proceedings, commenting, “And we all know funerals always have a DJ!” and joking that Jesse’s life “is a never-ending joyride of talking to Brit Hume in between catheter ads on Fox.”

Kamala Harris rounded out the DNC’s week on Thursday night, accepting the party’s nomination to head up the ticket for the presidency. Her presence on stage was summed up by MSNBC’s Jen Psake: “The Democratic National Convention was a joyful, inclusive reminder of what politics is supposed to feel like. And Vice President Kamala Harris ended the week by delivering a fierce, patriotic and refreshing speech that combined her positive vision for the country with an absolute takedown of Donald Trump. She looked and sounded like she was going to walk off that stage right into the Oval Office.”

The profound change Harris has brought to this presidential contest, was evident in her story, which she termed an “unlikely journey” to get the nod to run for the high office. She told the boisterous DNC crowd that Americans can take the road of “chaos and uncertainty” with Trump, an “unserious man,” with his threats against our democracy and our basic American freedoms; or, we can recommit to the values and endless possibilities we expect and deserve as Americans. Trump’s diatribes that this is a “third world country,” afflicted with “American carnage,” and his threats of retribution for his ‘personal slights’ gave Harris the opportunity to present herself as the catalyst for our renewal. By leveraging her previous prosecutor role, she pledged to always be “for the people” as she dragged Trump for serving “the only client he has ever had: HIMSELF.” She ended with, “So, let’s get out there and let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there and let’s vote for it. And together, let’s write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.” Cue the balloons, the confetti, the signs and raucous cheering!!

So, Kamala left the electrified, exuberant, and united gathering with new hope, joy, and harmony. Let’s hope that the convention’s self-reinforcing bubble aspect will carry forward into the next 70 days or so, during which time Harris must prove she can become a worthy and strategic figure in the race. TV viewership of the convention bested that of the RNC by millions, and many were sad to see the celebration end. Satirist Andy Borowitz writes that MSNBC had received so many complaints that the DNC wasn’t being aired, they decided “to cancel regular evening programming in order to show reruns of the event.” And in the meantime, Trump’s babysitters had to disable his golf cart to get him off the green in order to campaign, and his overripe second-banana, JD Vance continues to hold rallies drawing tens of…tens? Let’s win it!

SWIFTIES TO THE RESCUE? SCRAWLING POLI-SCI 101 IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT, VASELINE COVERED CRAZY

Presidential candidate Donald Trump will soon have to drop his popularity indicator of rally crowd size if he starts paying attention…hoping that your are not, of course! He is denying the reports of his audience starting to trickle away at his Wilkes-Barre, PA rally, which took place to begin with in a venue that started off with rows and rows of empty seats with unclaimed ‘Trump-Vance’ campaign signs. In spite of photographic- and video-proof, The Donald shot back, “We had to turn away lots of people yesterday…but Comrade Kamala Harris’ Social Media Operation showed empty seats, long before the Rally started, early in the afternoon when, in actuality, we had to turn away 11,500 people!” Perhaps he meant 11,780 people since that number has such meaning for him, particularly in his effort to overturn the Georgia state election in 2020…and we can be assured that staff was outside with hand-counter clickers to back him up with an accurate count of those sent packing. Ramblin’ on, Trump added, “She should have never been Vice President, and had to stage a COUP of Joe Biden, with her America-hating friends, Barrack Hussein Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and the rest. Comrade Kamala is a STONE COLD LOSER, and she will FAIL and, if she doesn’t, our Country will cease to exist as we know it, turning into a Communist, Crime Ridden Garbage Dump. November 5th will be the Most Important Date in the History of the U.S.A. It’s as simple as that!”

The bearer of bad tidings, USA Today reporter, Zac Anderson, who was in attendance, writes that as Trump’s ‘speech’ hit the one-hour mark, people were headed for the exits, though the former president directed his critical remarks toward Harris, later posting that his opponent, “…is a LIAR, and shouldn’t even be allowed to run for Office!” Former Republican Jeff Timmer flagged the post about empty seats, writing, “Looks like someone woke up on the gibbering, barking, panicked side of the bed today.” Ron Filipkowski, a former prosecutor, commenting on the high number of posts the subject spawned, said, “Panicked Trump completely melts down. He’s coming apart.” Republicans Against Trump highlighted his desperation, after discovering he had posted ‘Swifties for Trump’ using AI-generated photos of supposed Taylor Swift fans displaying the slogan on t-shirts…below which Trump wrote, “I accept.” Conservative Army Iraq War Veteran Peter Heinlein laughingly posted, “LOL…I mean…this is uniquely pathetic, even for Trump.” Another Trump post features another AI-generated photo of Kamala Harris posing before a communism-themed rally, prompting former Republican lawmaker Chris Vance to post, “I guarantee you this moron couldn’t write a coherent PoliSci 101 answer to the question, ‘What is communism?'”

The Palmer Report’s Robert Harrington writes that he is gratified by the current political polls, acknowledging that polls can be erroneous, so he derives greater comfort from crowd size, coupled with its enthusiasm…for him, a metric that is more telling than the theoretical. Harrington admits that Trump would agree with him…in theory. He is buoyed by the fact that Harris and Walz filled the 20,000 seat arena in Phoenix, while Trump on the same day, only filled half of the 7,000 seats in a Montana arena. Trump’s Phoenix rally the previous week, same venue, was much smaller…with photo evidence for proof. Desperate MAGA posters claim, it’s ‘reported’ the Harris-Walz rally was attended by vetted, paid actors, the majority being flown in to the closed-to-the-public venue. Harrington counters with his charge that, “It is being reported by the voices in your head…an obvious lie…have to be loony to believe it…you would have to be a Republican, but I repeat myself.” “Besides,” he maintains, “…bribing 20,000 people to a rally is something a sane person would never consider. It would immediately leak. How do we know this? Trump has tried it many times…and it always leaked.” Bocha Blue writes on Palmer, “Something is happening. He has matriculated at the University of Psychotic Criminals. Witness the anger, the wild lies, the FUTILITY in every letter he writes. Something is different. Here’s what is it…the madness has claimed him…from dawn to dusk…no longer confined to a few mad scrawls in the dead of night.”

Recent comments reported by Jack Dunn of Variety, from the ‘Variety, Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Summit’ as seen on Paramount+, a panel discussion with Yamiche Alcindor of NBC News, Katy Tur of MSNBC, CNN anchor Abby Phillip, PBS News Hour co-anchor Geoff Bennett, CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil for the Politics in the Zeitgeist, and moderator Ramin Setoodeh of Variety, emphasized that transparency in the journalistic process is more important than it’s ever been. Alcindor remarked that “truth is fact,” a simple definition to which not everyone subscribes. She recalled, as a PBS reporter, she was hit with tear gas outside St. John’s Episcopal Church as protesters were cleared to allow then-President Trump to pose in front of the church directory sign holding up a Bible.  Her report of the incident on PBS was promptly labelled a lie by the government, then a couple of days later it was admitted that people were gassed…“not exactly tear gas.” Bennett responded, “People often assume bias on the part of us as journalists because they don’t fully understand how we do the work we do, and to the degree that we are able to be more transparent about how we do that news gathering and how we pull it together, is good. It’s good for the work we do and it’s good for our democracy.”

Tur says Trump has remained the biggest story in political reporting since he ran in 2016, and although he is unpredictable, he is “self-aware” and operates on “gut reaction” regarding how he communicates with his supporters. “He has an instinct of how to behave in front of a camera and in front of a crowd. That’s why you saw him raise his fist after he was almost assassinated. I was one of the first people that covered him, so it was often just me and him at rallies. I was the only reporter he knew. So he would come up to me, and call me a lot. He is very magnetic, he’s very charming. And when he doesn’t think he can charm you any longer, he’ll get very angry, and that’s when he starts to attack,” Tur notes. She continued, “My discomfort here is, we interview him and we don’t get a lot out of it. It’s not as if we are covering all the crazy things he says. The headline is, ‘Donald Trump Gives Long, Meandering Speech, Agrees to Debate Kamala Harris.’ That puts Vaseline over the crazy of what he’s saying. This is a guy who tried to stay in office because he wanted to…he tried to do it in 2016 when he thought he was going to lose, and he is starting to do it again.”

Dace Potas of USA Today writes that Trump “erred greatly in selecting JD Vance as his running mate,” displaying his overconfidence in facing Joe Biden and leading him toward prioritizing the MAGA legacy. Everything shifted when Biden dropped out, endorsing Harris, making the Vance misstep painfully clear. The election changed, leaving The Donald with his Ohio Albatross, blowing up his confidence and that of his Republican base and their willingness to follow along. Trump has jeopardized the election and his own legacy, handing the Democrats the momentum on a silver platter, yet in his cockiness he remains his own worst enemy. Potas says as of July 15, Trump had an implied 66.2% chance of winning in November, but since that time his chances have dropped by over 20 percentage points, with his opponent having to do almost nothing…the biggest factor benefitting Democrats is that Trump is electoral poison. His narcissism may cost the GOP once again, in his choice of Vance, and by taking over the RNC as a family organization, assigning the party platform to himself…further sowing divisions rather than building bridges of cooperation. Potas concludes, “In reality, the best thing for Democrats is GOP incompetence and Trump’s own ego. This has been true the whole time.”

From digital media company, The Dispatch: “Kamala Harris is hardly even bothering to campaign in the conventional way against Donald Trump. And why should she? Joe Biden beat Trump in 2020 without running a real campaign against him, either. Trump’s three big problems as a candidate are precisely the same qualities that mitigated the worst of what might have been a much worse Trump presidency the last time around: He is lazy, he is stupid, and he is childish.” Terming this description as analysis, rather than name-calling, and being the most relevant traits of The Donald, we should be accept this on its face value! The Dispatch believes “…laziness is most hurtful for Trump, unable to get his mouth and his brain in gear, as he speaks in half-understood generalities…dishonest ones at that! His stupidity is wrapped up in his laziness. Anyone who has heard Trump speak or read his unedited writing knows he is not an especially intelligent man. But his native stupidity is compounded by his ignorance, which is to say, by the fact that he is too lazy to do his homework and acquire the kind of grasp of the issues that would make him a more effective candidate. But he won’t do his homework, and he may not have the raw brainpower to simply file away enough mental notecards to get the job done. There is a reason he wanders all over the place in his speeches…it isn’t only arrogance and self-centeredness…he’s dumber than nine chickens. That’s why he was an incompetent real estate investor even though he was a successful reality-television grotesque. He isn’t the first dumb person to find success in the celebrity business, where stupidity seems to be an asset. All of this is made worse by his childishness when he goes into rooms full of possible donors and supporters and bores them to death with tales of how the 2020 election was stolen, or his blubbering about the unfairness of Biden and Harris trading places to make him suffer. His penchant for using demeaning nicknames as a substitute for political argument might be thought of as an aspect of his laziness or his stupidity, but it is, at heart, part of his childishness…he doesn’t need to run a conventional campaign because he is a very special little boy. I am not quite sure that I believe the maxim that ‘character is destiny.’ Stupidity, on the other hand…”

JD Vance continues to get his derogatory comments about Trump’s 2016 candidacy thrown at him, but as The Lincoln Project says, “Trump’s found his anti-Pence who will do or say anything to be next in line…there’s no zealot like a convert.” And, ClimatePower.us reminds us the Ohio senator has pulled in $340K in donations from Big Oil since 2019 for his vote to dismantle EPA protections…member in good standing of Club Grift! People for the American Way describes Vance as a former never-Trumper who fully embraces the most extreme MAGA policies, as an election denier, a supporter of Project 2025 – Trump’s lapdog for this proposal, and an advocate of the white nationalist’s racist ‘great replacement theory.’ Vance joins the chorus in describing immigration as an ‘invasion’ that will replace ‘real’ – make that read, ‘white Christian’ – Americans. Steve Schmidt blames the ‘stupidity’ of Chuck Schumer in not funding the $5M needed for Democrat Tim Ryan’s Senate campaign, allowing Mitch McConnell to put the GOP’s $40M to get Vance his ticket to the Senate seat. He says it’s only history now and we can point a finger at Donald Trump, Jr. for his pushing JD into the VP candidate slot for his daddy. Both Don Jr. and brother, Eric, must have glossed over a 2021 Vance quote that hits squarely upon dear ol’ dad; Vance said, “One of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, was convincing people in ‘unhappy,’ or ‘even violent’ marriages that getting divorced would ‘make people happier in the long term.'” He also criticized people who “shift spouses like they change their underwear.” Oopsie!

Anti-woman Vance’s spiel about “miserable, childless cat ladies with no direct stake in America’s future,” has gained him few fans, yet he continues to double down with this attack, against Democrats in particular. His stance is not enhancing his favorability ratings which range from -5 points overall, to -16 points in his stomping grounds of Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana…the region that knows him best like him even less than the remainder of the country. Where’s Sarah Palin, or Dan Quayle, when you need them!? Satirist Andy Borowitz writes, “In a move that infuriated her Republican opponents, Kamala Harris announced that her economic plan would include a $10,000 tax credit for households with cats. “For too long, Americans with cats have shouldered an unfair burden,” said Harris, who revealed that a household with multiple cats would receive $10,000 per cat. Shortly after her announcement, Sen. JD Vance alleged, “Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and their far-left cronies are plotting to turn America into a giant litter box.” “Mark my words,” Vance said. “If the Democrats are elected, millions of cats will come swarming over the border to give birth to anchor kittens.”

Vance seems unwilling to face reality when pressed about the GOP’s sluggish poll numbers. “Consistently, what you’ve seen in 2016 and 2020 is that the media uses fake polls to drive down Republican turnout and to create dissension and conflict with Republican voters,” he claims. Sounds reasonable and valid, huh? Forward!

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.

STUPIDS IN FERTILITY WRECK, 2025 SMOKESCREEN, MEOW, MEOW, MEOW

“Hello, 9-1-1, there’s a black woman running for President of the United States!” That seems to be the panicked message being disseminated by the MAGA/GOP for the past couple of weeks after Kamala Harris dive-bombed the election scene and began to overtake The Donald and his cat-aclysmic, fake Sancho Panza in the polls, a former lead that seemed to have a bright future for them in facing President Joe Biden’s windmills. Trump continues to self-destruct as evidenced by his out-of-control, wild appearance on stage before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago. Down-ballot GOP candidates looked on in disbelief as he sabotaged their standings among the electorate, but they only have themselves to blame…they created this Orange Monstrosity! And of course, they, along with his handlers can’t attempt to stop him simply because they are afraid of the reactions, and they see the futility of such a course of action in the end. With no level-headed Mike Pence-type as second banana, they’ll have to go forward with a woman-hating, cat-hating, dishonest charlatan who is too crazy to neutralize Trump’s irrationality. Republican operatives are in a complete panic because Trump can’t stop his grifting…donations to the RNC are paying his legal bills instead of keeping his campaign afloat or benefitting other races. In President Biden’s campaign exit speech, he said, “We are a great nation because we are a good people.” Earlier that day, Trump said, “We are a stupid country that’s led by stupid people.” Whose side are you on?

Bocha Blue, on The Palmer Report, writes, “I want to see a wipeout. It’s not enough, friends and readers, to merely beat them. I want to see a wipeout. I want to clean their clocks and wipe the floor with them. I want to see our margin of victory so large, so amazing, that they won’t know what hit them. We have a few things on our side that will make this wish a reality. Republicans work less hard than we do. Oh, they try. But they ALWAYS seem to get sidetracked by their own weirdness, by outrage at the latest food or drink they must boycott, and by infighting that has torn them apart for years. They have anger but no way do they have our PASSION, our determination…yes, we need to have a wipeout. We want a wipeout. They want a whiteout. A whiteout blanketing America, insolent white Christian MEN, a whiteout so vast, so completely glowingly white that it wipes out all the other colors of the rainbow…like Black, Brown, and Gold.”

We can make Trump’s run for the presidency analogous to a dog running to the door when the doorbell rings…it’s never for them.

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SNAKE BITTEN, A RUBBER STAMP, ROTTEN TOMATOES, YES WE ARE!

Watch out for flying ketchup bottles at Mar-a-Lago! Seems like at least a year since the events of few weeks ago began…first with the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, followed by the RNC convention where 39-year-old JD Vance became the second banana on the GOP presidential ticket, only to be capped by President Biden’s decision to abandon his attempt to be elected for a second term. Enter VP Kamala Harris in dramatic fashion, tossing her hat into the race for the nation’s top spot, and quickly gaining support of the Democrats who responded with carloads of cash donations. A bewildered Trump called ‘foul‘ since his backers had spent wads of campaign funds to battle Biden in what seemed like a sure path to victory. MAGA is trying to block Harris’s entry by insisting her delegate count doesn’t belong to her, but to the President, as well as the campaign’s $91M money stash, even though she is listed as a part of the Democratic team vying for reelection. And besides, Trump wants compensation for all the time and money spent for his lying and name-calling against Biden…calling it “fraud!” Trump has been out-trumped in his quest to find someone to solidify his base of White working-class voters!

Many in the GOP had second thoughts about the selection of JD Vance on the ticket, and now with Kamala’s show of strength, the dissatisfaction is growing, though Trump will not acknowledge that he has an albatross around his neck…as Roy Cohn told him, “never admit that you’re wrong!” Extremist psychopath Vance has become mired in trying to explain his way out of multiple flubs from past social media posts and TV appearances, Harris changing her characterization of him as a DJT rubber-stamp to describing him as a “hypocrite” and a “major liability.” Counting on her VP running mate to focus on that narrative during the campaign, she is saying, “The message is not just that Vance is ‘weird,’ it’s that the Ohio senator shouldn’t be a heartbeat away from the presidency, and that Trump picking him raises more questions about the top of the ticket.” Picking up on the previous criticisms of Biden by MAGA, she intends to highlight Trump’s 78 years of age to raise the alarm on a Vance presidency…a deflection of GOP targeting her supposed lack of experience. As Harris’s campaign co-chair, Mitch Landrieu, told CNN, “We have a Black woman, we have a White guy, and nobody asked the White guy about his job qualifications.”

As Walter Einenkel writes on Daily Kos, “Vance’s RNC speech was so boring that the enthusiasm from the crowd, who was clearly desperate for something to cheer, came when they started chanting for themselves. Vance says, ‘You guys are a great crowd,’ with the crowd answering back, ‘Yes we are! Yes we are! Yes we are!'” The speech pushed Trump into golden slumbers, but women have since perked up since the surfacing of his old interview with Tucker Carlson, when he called childless women “miserable ‘cat-ladies’ with no direct stake” in America’s future. In 2016’s run for the presidency, Trump’s inner circle included Melania, Ivanka, Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway, all instrumental in his selecting of Mike Pence as his VP, but this time around, females were benched…even Melania only brought her smile and a few friendly waves for the gathered at the RNC confab. With The Don letting only men be pivotal in the selection process which resulted in Vance, he is stuck unless, or until, JD offers to jump ship. No doubt the estrogen will continue to roil the campaign if Vance continues with his advocacy of no abortions, elimination of no-fault divorce, and no leaving an unhappy/abusive marriage. A Harris VP selection will certainly have women’s input on her final choice.

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NEVER MIND, WORKING CLASS NAPALM, ATTACK DOGS ON THE LOOSE

Last Sunday marked a dramatic change for American politics in one of the most unusual presidential races in our history with Joe Biden stepping aside from his Democratic presidential campaign. After weeks of back-stage whispers and hand-wringing by party stalwarts, the growing cacophony in support of this conclusive act caused the president to acquiesce after discussions with associates and family, ending his bold promise to charge on against Trump and the MAGA horde. His embarrassing ‘debate’ with Trump was not the first indication that trouble lay ahead, but it was the final straw for a majority, and his follow-up interviews with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and CBS’s Lester Holt did nothing to restore any confidence in his ability to carry on with the race as concern about his age and mental acuity only increased alarm.

Despite eroding poll numbers, Biden was undaunted, even in the face of the now-steady stream of calls for him to step aside to allow a stronger candidate to save democracy from the MAGA-controlled GOP which threatens to overhaul the government and negate the Constitution and our body of laws. His withdrawal basically reshapes the campaign for both parties, and may invigorate the Democrats who have faced waning support from apathetic voters, especially the big-money donors. Over the past months a disinterested electorate has rolled their eyes at a possible repeat of the Trump-Biden race of 2020, so a fresh new face could put some spice into the race, spurring the undecideds, as well as those who had decided to sit this one out to start paying attention. Democratic donors and operatives have been discussing possible replacements for some time now; and while several names have come to the fore with the dawning of a new day, VP Harris seems to have leapt to the top with her declaration of candidacy, donors coming out of the woodwork to fund her campaign. The only other person who has said Biden’s delegates are her target is Marianne Williamson, author, spiritual adviser to Oprah, and perennial political candidate who has never received more than 5% of the vote in any state primary she has entered. Senator Joe Manchin had hinted that he was considering re-registering as a Democrat in order to throw his hat in the ring, but Monday morning brought him to his senses and he discounted the notion.

CNN’s Trump-Biden ‘debate’ was damaging to Biden not only for his faltering showing, but it allowed the former president to retreat, holding back without revealing the real Donald Trump…fewer lies and name-calling than in his usual performance. Some members of Congress thought that Biden had been slow to reach out to his party’s leaders, and to those lawmakers in difficult races, with some charging his staff with shielding him from those calling for his withdrawal. A recent meeting of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, allowed members to vent about The Boss and his staff, referring to the situation as “the elephant in the room,” some calling it “the donkey in the room.” Last week, as Biden fell victim to his third bout with COVID-19, Democratic strategist Van Jones remarked, “Wednesday was a terrible day for Democrats,” as he contrasted the Trump assassination attempt the previous Saturday, adding, “If you pull back and look at this thing, strength versus weakness, a bullet couldn’t stop Trump. A virus just stopped Biden. The Democrats are coming apart. The Republicans are coming together.” After his diagnosis, Biden headed for Delaware for self-isolation, and presumably the critical meetings that resulted in his letter on X for a graceful withdrawal from the race, which Obama adviser, David Axelrod, had termed “inexorable.”

Biden announced his support for VP Kamala Harris, giving her a clear edge to replace him, also saying that selecting her as his 2020 running mate was the best decision he has made. One advantage she has is that she was a member of that winning ticket, and has several months of campaigning under her belt already. She has been a prominent figure in the administration’s push for abortion access, and is likely the candidate who would be able to access the president’s campaign war chest of donations for a solid start to a candidacy. Conventional wisdom says an open DNC convention is unlikely at this late date, but should that happen it could well be a disaster of infighting and chaos which will defeat the party in the end. Ryan Grim, on a Substack post says, “If Kamala Harris wants the nomination, and wants it to be worth anything, she has to at least show that she fought for it and won it cleanly. It just so happens Democrats are scheduled to meet to nominate a presidential candidate in Chicago next month. That process could help to resolve the legitimacy crisis by at least offering an attempt at something like a participatory democratic process.” Quickly tossing her hat into the ring, Harris issued a statement saying, “I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.”

Republicans, anticipating this turn of events, have their attacks against Harris in a row, labeling her the “border czar” for her work on addressing the root causes of migration from Central America, and of course, she will be connected to the issues they have raised that are plaguing the Biden administration. Trump’s attack dogs were in the fray after Biden’s endorsement, blasting that, “Kamala Harris is just as much a joke as Biden is. Harris will be even WORSE for the people of our Nation than Joe Biden.” As satirist Andy Borowitz reports, the Trump campaign is “Calling it ‘the most crooked conspiracy in American history,’ as Trump and other Republicans accused Democrats of plotting to nominate a winning presidential candidate. ‘I’ve seen the Democrats do some pretty evil things, but I never thought they’d choose a nominee with a chance of winning,’ Trump said. ‘This should never be allowed to happen in our country.’ ‘What we are witnessing is no more and no less than a shameless scheme to mount a successful election campaign,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson charged. ‘As God is my witness, this will not stand.’ Senator J.D. Vance attacked the Democrats’ ‘blatant use of strategy’ and warned of more sinister machinations to come. ‘In a matter of days, be prepared for them to announce that they’ve chosen a qualified and appealing VP candidate,’ Vance said. ‘We Republicans would never do that.”” We can expect culture-war excesses over a Harris nomination from the MAGAs. A Californian? Too liberal! A former prosecutor? Too conservative! Too female! Too Black! The last two charges will not be said aloud…but count on dogwhistles thunderous enough to disintegrate the case holding the Constitution.

When the RNC closed its convention, party officials were beaming at the future they believed was spread out before them, expectations high! A party united, a candidate leading in the polls, opponents disorganized and a Democratic incumbent dropping like a rock in the polls. Donald Trump with victory in his eyes, had started solidifying plans for the post-election transition period, his 2024 election being a given in his cockiness. Then came the slap in the face, as Biden abandoned his candidacy, provoking fear in the MAGA ranks, as their anti-Biden offensive fell apart, while Democrats transitioned from despair to prudent optimism that they were finally on-track. One important factor is the contrast of youth versus old should VP Harris be the chosen one to face Trump…it’s no longer a race between two old, unpopular candidates…The Donald is now the oldest presidential nominee in US history! A South Carolina state representative said in a CNN interview, “The man is 80-years-old and so the question is, can he serve another four years? I’m not sure he can.” Tit-for-tat retribution! Anti-Trump Republican George Conway chimed in with, “Seriously, how do you convince people you’re going to make America great again with some old guy who slurs his words and rambles incoherently after his jail ti- …um, I mean bedtime??” And perhaps the most delicious comment came from E. Jean Carroll who said, “Suddenly, he is looking really old.” Former Trump advisor and MAGA extremist, Stephen Miller, enraged in his Fox News interview, accused Democrats of undemocratic actions, calling Kamala Harris a weak choice, and “napalm for the working class.” Miller whined that the GOP had spent tens of millions of dollars running against Biden, only to have the Dems pull the rug out from under them with a “never mind.”

Trump primary challenger, Nikki Haley, predicted in January, “The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins the election.” In her campaign, she had called Trump “unhinged” and “not qualified,” drawing an impressive number of followers, but her appearance at the RNC convention giving the former president her “strong endorsement” revealed her true colors. A small PAC of disaffected Haley supporters, committed to preventing Trump’s return to the Oval Office, has endorsed Kamala Harris for president, changing their organization’s name too ‘Haley Voters for Harris.’ The group’s director, Craig Snyder, calls Harris a “tough former prosecutor and the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump in November.”

Ezra Klein writes in The New York Times: “It was a convention that picked Abraham Lincoln over William Seward. It was a convention that chose F.D.R. over Al Smith. I’ve been reading Ed Achorn’s book ‘The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History.’ My favorite line in it comes from Senator Charles Sumner, who sends a welcome note to the delegates, ‘whose duty it will be to organize victory.’ Whose duty it will be to organize victory – I love that. That’s what a convention is supposed to do. It’s what a political party is supposed to do: organize victory. Because victory doesn’t just happen. It has to be organized.” Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic Daily: “Every voter who cares about democracy but has claimed to be paralyzed by the two old men in the race will now have no excuses for indecision. The Democrats have made clear that they intend to field a stable, experienced candidate. The Republicans, a cult of personality in the grip of fevered delusions, will field Trump. Tonight, Americans have the clarity they demanded.”

Independent presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had to get his licks in, saying, “the contest for the White House is now a two-man-race’” and that only he can defeat Donald Trump. At his press conference he praised Biden for his service to the country while blaming Democratic leaders for concealing the president’s “mental decline.” “If the Democrats do what I suspect they’re going to do, which is to anoint Kamala Harris, a vice president who is monumentally unpopular within her own party…they’re doing it because it’s the easiest way to hold onto the money,” he added. He also said he would consider accepting the Democratic nomination if it were offered to him. Count on your telephone ringer to be deathly silent, junior!

As reported on HuffPost by Lee Moran, former Trump White House aide, Sebastian Gorka made racist comments about VP Harris before Biden pulled the plug on his candidacy, as talk arose regarding her possible succession to the slot. Gorka called the first female, Black and Asian American VP, a “DEI hire” and “colored,” reflecting a racist right-wing spin on efforts to boost diversity, equity and inclusion…which they have made into racist diatribe with the “DEI” term. Actor and comedian, D.L. Hughley, on CNN called Gorka’s comment a product of “mediocre white men,” as he defended Harris in her past achievements, her professionalism and ability to run the country, which makes her suitably qualified in the event of Biden’s inability to complete his term now or in the future. Hughley believes, “America has been more damaged by GCI than DEI…greedy, corrupt, incompetent white men who have caused more damage to the USA than diversity, equity, and inclusion. So what men do, what mediocre white men do, is blame things. They have no excuse for their failures. Trump did to get a second term because he so mishandled COVID that he was fired by the American people.”

Hughley says, “I find the whole tone of this insulting…for a couple of reasons. I watched a man get convicted of 34 felonies. I watched a man get adjudicated for sexual battery. I watched a man who got convicted of fraud and never have I heard from the media in general about his qualifications to be president.” Trump, as might be expected, took to his Truth Social platform to launch more conspiracy theories and propel insults at the president. “It’s not over! Tomorrow Joe Biden’s going to wake up and forget that he dropped out of the race!” Said the man who is still facing questions regarding his own mental fitness! He went on, accusing Biden of faking his COVID illness, and saying, “He is a threat to democracy. Who is running our Country right now? It’s not Crooked Joe, he has no idea where he is. If he can’t run for office, he can’t run our Country!!!” Yada-yada-yada…

Stephen Colbert, on a recent show said, “Donald Trump’s brain is broke, and we got more proof of that when he tried to shame Joe Biden into taking a cognitive test.” A video clip was shown of Trump bragging…again!…about passing a cognitive test of his own, muffing the name of the doctor who administered the test by calling him “Ronny Johnson” instead of his correct name, Ronny Jackson. Launching into his Trump-voice impression of the former president, Colbert said, “Doc Ronny Johnson, he gave me the test, then I went home to my beautiful wife, Malaria, and my two hideous sons, Urkel and Carl’s Jr.” The Late Show host then reminded us of the comments from a Republican lawmaker, who said a meeting with the former president was “rambling…like talking to your drunk uncle at the family reunion,” and a business leader who complained that a meet-up with Trump was “meandering…he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

The Late Night host, Seth Meyers gave President Biden credit for allowing Melania Trump to attend the RNC convention undisturbed after passing new protections for undocumented immigrants, which shields about 500,000 immigrants from deportation. Meyers said, “It’s the first time a US president has done something nice for Melania.” So, the mystery of the missing Melania ended when she made an appearance in the final hours of the RNC gathering, only 45 minutes late. Her apathy showed as she appeared onstage with The Donald after his record-breaking snoozer of a speech, when she quickly turned aside as he tried to kiss her. Maybe there is something to satirist Andy Borowitz’s post that she was lured to the convention by a promise that her husband was ready to sign the divorce papers?

A GATHERING OF FASCISTS, AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT, BRINGING DOWN THE HORSE

It’s a mystery at this writing, how the RNC’s Milwaukee nominating convention is going, and most of all, how it ended up. So, how did the electrifying coronation go? And did the gathering of fascists (so named by Steve Schmidt) celebrate their new martyr with the veneration that a cult leader who disdains them…cares nothing for a single one of them…truly deserves? We have to remember Trump’s Las Vegas rally where people were falling like flies from the heat, when he said, “Because I don’t want everyone going on me, we need every voter. I don’t care about you, I just want your vote. I don’t care.” Straight from the MAGA Master’s mouth! Schmidt writes, “The Republican Party retains a name, but it has lost its identity because it has become unmoored from Americanism. It rejects the US Constitution, the peaceful transfer of power, election results, pluralism, women’s rights and separation of church and state. Trump is running on a platform of retribution and revenge with the claim that an American president is a Caesar.”

Would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, turned the presidential election sweepstakes on its head, by disrupting the Trump rally in Butler, PA with his AR-style semi-automatic rifle, clipping the former president’s ear, killing one attendee and wounding two others, before he was dispatched by a Secret Service sniper. A Bethel Park High School classmate disclosed that the shooter failed to make the junior varsity rifle team, and “was asked not to come back” because he was such a poor shot. Curiously, he was looked upon as a political conservative. However, this is a perfect opportunity for Trump to resurrect his fulmination, “They’re not after me. They’re after you. And I just happen to be standing in their way,” and we might expect to hear more of the same paranoid martyrdom from 2016, “I am your voice. Today, I add I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those of you who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” Trump promised to carry out his plans for attendance at the RNC convention, suggesting that he would edit his scheduled anti-Biden speech by calling for more unity in our nation’s politics. So, was it a complete change of heart, a conversion on the road to Damascus, and assigning Project 2025 to the scrap heap? Ha!

HBO’s Real Time host, Bill Maher posted, “I unequivocally denounce the shooting. Not funny. Not for me. I don’t want to say the election is over, but MAGA nation finally has its full martyr. They loved it when he went to jail…the mug shot…nailed it! And he reacted to the shooting like he rehearsed it…one take! It doesn’t matter who the Democrats put up now…so much damage to the Left now. I’ll be in Milwaukee tomorrow…to go to the strip clubs! But I’m glad Trump’s okay. I gotta say this: he’s he luckiest ______ that ever walked the face of the Earth. Always lucky, lucky, lucky!” The bartender at Mar-a-Lago looked up to see a distraught-looking Trump plop himself onto a barstool, ordering a Scotch. The bartender says, “Whoa, Mr. Trump…that’s not like you! What’s eating you?” He replies, “I thought I’d sneak out and take a short drive to get away from all the activity, and on the way home my car died. I had no idea what to do, so I raised the hood like everybody else does. A horse popped his head over the roadside fence and told me how to fix it! And here I am!” The bartender says, “Wow, was it a black horse?” Puzzled, Trump answers, “Well, yes it was…?” The bartender tells him, “You are a lucky man! There’s a gray horse in that field that doesn’t know crap about engines!”

In the aftermath of the shooting, both parties signaled they would back off from campaigning, a sort of grace period…but how long will/did that last? Tim Stanley of The Telegraph says descriptors of Trump will transcend from “admirable” to “awesome…like Moby Dick or the Terminator, a force of nature…who can doubt he will win?” Stanley says, “In the United States, every assassination attempt is a tragedy but every near-miss is a triumph – because Americans are schooled in what could’ve been…Lincoln, Kennedy, King. This time, the target got right back up. Trump punched the air, he yelled ‘Fight,’ and the crowd chanted ‘USA! USA!’ Remember: Rocky lost in the first movie, he didn’t win until the second. And in the fourth he single-handedly brought down the Soviet Union.” A post on X-FKT presents a dilemma: Should Americans be traumatized by the happenings at the Trump rally, or should Americans just pretend it was another elementary school shooting  and get over it…asking for a nation tired of double standards!

USA Today’s columnist Rex Huppke posted on X-FKT (X-Formerly Known as Twitter – aren’t you tired of seeing this silly clarification in every news story mentioning X?) that after the news of the shooting broke, a chaotic churn of social media, the birthing of lies, conspiracies and speculation arose that has become our new normal. “The event was sickening, we didn’t need to wait on specific details to know that…a crackle of gunfire, seeing the presumptive GOP presidential nominee rushed offstage with blood on his face? It’s unthinkable. It’s not how America is supposed to work. Speculation blasted out on social media from random knuckleheads, pundits, lawmakers who decided in the moment they knew exactly what happened. Facts rendered meaningless. Opinions and hot takes elevated to levels that were once the sole realm of actual, reputable news. It was this person’s fault…it was that person’s fault…you’re to blame…they’re to blame. Trending topics took off with claims of everything from an assassination attempt to a staged event. Unfettered garbage. Cynical manipulations. Sick, twisted imaginings and attempts at humor…worthless chatter that once had no way to enter the mainstream were blasted out to a country where, quite literally, everybody has to have a damn opinion in order to grasp at some form of social status. What is wrong with us? How have we let the drip of conspiracy theories and lies that are part of any society become a fire hose? I look forward to every detail of this horrific shooting coming out so we can move forward together and do what Americans should be doing: Make things better.”

Ryan Grim of dropsitenews on Substack posts, “One quick thought on the political ramifications: My first instinct was that the assassination attempt would seal the election for Trump, particularly given the imagery it produced. But others have noted that it may also feed into the fear the public has that another Trump term means a return to nonstop political chaos. There’s no reason for us to guess, though, as we’ll have polling in a few days that answers the question.” Polls in ‘a few days’ may not be entirely accurate since presidential candidate’s usually get a boost immediately following a convention, so ‘calm down‘ may be the cautionary phrase needed here.

Steve Schmidt writes on The Warning: “Violence begets violence begets violence, and on and on it goes. Donald Trump is a man who has long courted, celebrated, incited and threatened violence. He has now become a victim of the malice and insanity that he has spread more singularly, directly and indiscriminately than any living American. Donald Trump has built his political career on grievance, imaginary persecutions and indomitable toughness in the face of his enemies. Much of MAGA is a community of the disaffected and aggrieved who have been conditioned to believe Trump is being attacked by a hideous elite who is similarly attacking them. Last night, Trump became mythological to those people. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump was every bit as much an attack on American democracy as was the disgrace of the January 6 insurrection. It deserves absolute condemnation and our utter contempt.” Schmidt sees no silver lining for our future, believing, “A period of chaos has begun in America, and unfortunately, it will get worse through the election and beyond. This is a moment during which Trump could choose to back down and refuse to pour gasoline on the fire. He will not make that choice. He will inflame the situation. ‘Fight, fight, fight!’ will become his anthem. The one thing that nobody gets to say about this situation is that they are surprised by it.”

We were greeted last Monday with news that Trump the Lucky had his classified documents case dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida…although not a surprising turn of events, it was still shocking to hear the announcement, nonetheless! Without a doubt, the decision will be appealed, and the case assigned to another judge, with no chance of it being heard in the courtroom before the presidential election. With a Trump election victory, this case, along with the other Federal charges will be scattered to the Four Winds, never to see the light of day! So, Mr. Lucky rode into the RNC convention on a black field horse, and exited atop a black, fire-breathing steed with hooves of steel. The only thing easier to buy than a gun in America is a US senator or judge…is it future president Cannon, or Supreme Court justice Cannon? Ms. Lucky has hit the jackpot!

And how did this element work itself out? Retired, former Fox News media mogul, 93-year-old Rupert Murdoch was actively seeking an active role in the selection of Trump’s running mate but was not looking forward to kissing the former president’s ass, reports Kipp Jones on Mediaite. Murdoch was said to be pressuring people within Trump’s inner circle, expressing his wish to see North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum in the VP slot, since he loathes JD Vance. So serious was Rupert, that he called Trump and his staff several times a day, sending surrogates to do his campaigning, or dispatching reporters from The New York Post to Mar-a-Lago to smear Vance. Even News Corp execs met with the former president to make the case for Burgum, though the original pitch was for ‘anyone but JD.’ Marco Rubio was acceptable originally but Murdoch’s focus narrowed. It is speculated that because Rupert had always viewed Trump as subservient to him, and since he doesn’t look forward to another four years of kissing up to him by having him on Fox News, a VP Burgum could be the face of the administration as they groom him for a presidential run. Thus ending Trumpism? Nah…not a chance! All the while, Trump had a great time with his reality show lead-up to the “You’re HIRED!”  finale…sorry, Little Marco!

Ruth Ben-Ghiat posts on Lucid@Substack: “Afraid to talk about Trump right now? You can continue to talk about the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, and the ghastly outcomes of a Republican return to the White House. The collective popular and media focus on Project 2025 has led many Americans to wake up to the dangers that will befall us if Trump is re-elected. Focus on policies, not personalities. That’s always a good rule.”

Regardless of all the recent chain of events, Steve Schmidt warns us that Trump is an American fascist, raising money from the assassination attempt, with his MAGA faithful competing in “an Olympics of demagoguery blaming President Biden for the crime.” The Biden campaign has paused “all outbound communications, working to pull down television ads as quickly as possible” in the wake of the attempt…probably for the best since they are ineffective, a waste of money, says Schmidt, and a pathetic decision a that. A former Republican who had senior roles in two presidential campaigns, serving in the White House before joining the Lincoln Project to help elect Biden, he says his life was never threatened until Trump came on the political scene. He’s had suspicious packages mailed to his home, was accused of pedophilia, the purpose of which was to trigger an unhinged person to confront him, all thanks to MAGA. Steve say, “Violence has always ridden in the shadows of our republic, accompanying our progress towards justice every step of the way. Trump has incited violence, he celebrated thuggery in the 2020 presidential debate, he has killed with words, following his January 6 speech. He has openly pondered the killing of his fellow Americans. The choice in the election is perfectly clear because what Trump stands for is perfectly clear. National suicide is on the ballot…talking about this isn’t just honest, but reality-based. History didn’t stop on Saturday night [in Butler, PA]. It kept moving forward.” And all we have to do for verification of this statement is review the speeches given at the RNC, from Tucker Carlson to Marjorie Taylor Greene. Trump must be defeated…we must become the lucky ones!