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Face it, Trump is what he is. Pathetic

9/30/2020

Last night was not a presidential debate. It was a call to arms.

The President of the United States when asked to condemn white supremacy instead looked into the camera and told the Proud Boys, to “stand back and stand by.” Seemed pretty clear to me that when you tell a (mostly) white, male-only organization that was formed to engage in political violence to “stand by,” Donald J. Trump is telling them to get ready for election night and do what you do.

Trump likely cannot win this election without suppressing the vote. And if that doesn’t work, he is promising violence. Let’s quit pussyfooting around with Trump:

If he doesn’t win, he will watch as his most right-wing supporters, from the Proud Boys to the KKK, start violence. Don’t believe me? Watch what happens.

I hope I’m wrong but every signal Trump has given during his time as President is to oppose and fight his opponents. And believe might makes right. Even before his presidency he was a racist. He remains so.

The instruction got through because the Proud Boys chairman, Enrique Tarrio, said after the debate: “That’s basically what we did in (Portland). We stood back, stood by.”

Need anything clearer? Portland was besieged by protests and/or rioting for 100 days.
One question I had after the debate:

If Trump lies about everything, which he does, then why couldn’t he lie about condemning white supremacists? An easy enough lie, seems to me. He’s refused to condemn white supremacists every time he’s been asked for years. Every Time.

Who won? No one. Not Trump. Not Biden. Not the American people. And not the United States of America which is now further portrayed internationally as a country on the decline.

Seconds after the debate ended CNN’s Dana Bash, as articulate a TV person as there is, said, “That was a shit show.” Mic drop.

Trump was rude, boorish, lied, acted like a mob boss/bully. Didn’t play by any rules agreed to by his campaign.

Former Vice President Joe Biden wasn’t a paragon of virtue either but he was far less intrusive and loud than Trump. Far less. He told the President to “shush,” called him a “clown,” told him to stop “yapping.” Not exactly what we know as presidential language.

But Trump set the bar so low for Biden, claiming he is addled, dumb, old and on drugs, that Biden came out just fine. If anyone can come out fine from last night.

Trump’s strategy seemed to be: break glass and cut my opponent. Whatever Biden’s strategy going into the debate, during the debate he decided he just had to look sane. And he did. As I said, low bar.

Clearly one of Trump’s aims is to fog the election enough to do what he’s done for years after his failures: cry foul and, and go to court.

Former Republican National Chairman and chief of staff to Trump Reince Priebus was on TV this morning and said it out loud: low turnout helps Trump. He didn’t even pretend to be a diplomat and say what normal people would say about an election: Please vote. Everyone. May the best person win.

So there you go. That’s the Trump campaign strategy: Keep turnout low and challenge every vote you can. So far in the mail-in voting far more Democrats have voted than Republicans, data show. That's gotta worry Republicans, not just at the presidential level, but down ticket.

Violence may be Trump's backup plan but when you tell the Proud Boys – created four years ago to foment political violence – to “stand ready” you likely will get violence even if you didn’t want it. Clearly, though, the President wants it.

Face it. He will not only not go quietly into that good night, he will break every norm in sight. And do far worse damage to this country.

One of Biden’s best lines of the night, if anyone could hear it over the President’s bullying and shouting, was “It is what it is because you are who you are.” That covers just about everything Trump does.

But the most chilling quote of the night belonged to Trump.He said, “No, this is not going to end well.”

Can he be any clearer?

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Tonight's the night

9/29/2020

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The first, and likely most important, debate of the presidential campaign is tonight.

The stakes are high, even though most every voter seems to have made up his or her mind who they’re supporting. It could be, though, those few who haven’t decided or go back and forth will make the difference on Nov. 3. The estimates of undecided or those who can change their mind ranges from 3 percent to about 10 percent in various polls. Enough to sway what most experts expect to be a close election.

The candidates appear to have different styles for preparing. Former Vice President Joe Biden is doing traditional preparation with mock debates. President Trump is doing his unique version – no specific prep but his job, as he says, and being asked questions by staff, and media as the debate nears.

Some thoughts:

Trump’s taxes. While not listed as a topic for debate, hard to ignore the New York Times’ reporting that Trump, unsurprisingly but previously not documented, hadn’t paid taxes for many years and the last couple of tax years he paid $750. That puts his contribution to the federal government closer to the 44 percent of Americans who pay no taxes than to the average American household. The reason that 44 percent pays no taxes is because they don’t earn enough. Not so with Trump. Trump so far went from calling the reporting “fake news” to saying the Times got the paperwork illegally, which it did not. We’ll see which answer he settles on tonight.

Fact-checking. There is debate among those of us who have nothing whatsoever to do with the debates, other than to witness them, as to what each candidate’s strategy should be. Should Biden fact check Trump on the spot? Should Fox’ Chris Wallace, the moderator, fact check both candidates live? Doing that would likely eat up a lot of time and give Trump the excuse he needs to talk about anything but the pandemic. I expect that when blatant lies are told, moderator Chris Wallace will have some tactic to call it out because he is, at heart, a reporter. But overall, I think the fact-checking will be left to the post-debate shows and news articles and columns.

Strategies. If there are two thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he likes to call people childish names and he likes to talk about anything but what he was asked about. Biden shouldn’t get dragged into that. Biden needs to talk pandemic, the threat to Obamacare raised by Trump’s recent Supreme Court nomination, a staggering economy. Plus Biden has a built in BS response through his “C’mon, man” verbal tick. I expect we’ll hear more than one of those. It’s a little like President Reagan’s “there you go again” which poked fun/mockery and allowed him to make his points.

If there’s another thing we know about Donald Trump it’s that he never apologizes, never admits when he’s wrong and always attacks. He doesn’t prepare in any detail for such events, depending instead on his “stable genius” to get him through debates. When asked during the 2016 campaign, for example, where he gets his foreign policy advice he responded “from the (Sunday) shows.”

Trump likely will parry any attacks with offense, not defense. He also will try to bring Biden’s family into his answers, in an effort to bait Biden. I’m sure Biden’s advisors have been working with him on his knee-jerk (and understandable) reaction which is to defend his family and display honest anger. Still, Biden is the one on stage and we'll see how he reacts.

Humor. Biden likely will employ humor, it’s part of his personality. Trump never seems to joke. In fact he’s admitted “I don’t joke.” Biden must use humor sparingly, though, and constantly focus on the pandemic. Many advise Biden to use humor and ridicule to respond to Trump. Fair enough, but you can’t over do that or it loses its effect.

Outside advice. Philip Reines, who played Trump in mock debates for Hillary Clinton, suggests Biden early in the debate work in a statement such as: “C’mon, Mr. President. Everyone that knows that whatever you call fake is real. Whatever you call a lie is the truth. Whatever you accuse others of doing is what you’ve done. And whatever you make fun of me by saying by accident only services to deflect what you say on purpose.” Get out ahead of Trump, in other words. Make his responses look, as they are, non-responsive and a reflection of his lack of knowledge or admitted lack of study of the issues. He repeatedly has said his decisions are guided by “his gut.”

Questions to be asked? Only Wallace knows what questions he’ll ask. A couple I’d ask:

Mr. President, at first you said the Times’ reporting on your taxes was “fake news.” The next day you said the Times got hold of the document’s “illegally.” Which is it?
Mr. Biden, it’s said that you have wanted to be President since at least your 20s. Now, if elected you’d be the oldest person ever to serve as President. The President has accused you of being on performance-enhancing drugs and not mentally or physically up to the job. What confidence can you give the American public that you are up to the job at your age? (can't resist, Biden could paraphrase Reagan and say, "well, we've seen what youth and inexperience gives us over the last three years.")
Mr. President, you say that you and your Administration have done the best job possible in response to the pandemic. More than 200,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus. Millions more have had or have it. And the numbers are rising again. Why should Americans believe you especially when your position flies in the face of disease and vaccine expert?
Mr. Biden, if you’re son was paid billions of dollars by foreigners as Mr. Trump alleges, shouldn’t you be wearing a better suit?

Okay, I obviously am kidding about that last one.

The first in the series of presidential debates typically is the most important and the one that can move poll numbers. This year may be different because Trump’s approval rating and his position in most polls has remained basically the same throughout the campaign and, in fact, throughout his presidency.

Biden is over 50 percent in many of those polls, a difficult number to reduce.

Expect Trump to literally throw even the kitchen sink in tonight to try to crack into Biden’s lead. Expect a surprise too. Trump likes doing that. Plus, when he had his Rose Garden pandemic briefing yesterday, he took no questions. I could be wrong, but I’m thinking that’s because he has an answer to the tough questions but he’s saving it for the bigger audience tonight.

Expect Biden to be watched carefully to see if his temper gets the better of him in the face of what will be an onslaught from Trump, and if he looks fatigued by the end.

Also, expect to get to bed late tonight.

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Election night and beyond. The unknown.

9/24/2020

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The President of the United States -- our government’s top official who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution -- this week would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Again.

It’s, of course, not his first time he's refused to respond to that question. He said it in 2016 too.

Now a peaceful transition of power in this country does not mean you can’t legally challenge election results in the courts. Of course, if there is a legitimate allegation of a violation of the law, that process should play out. And/but there are deadlines. This is all laid out in our Constitution – Article II, Section 1, Clause 2, as modified by the 12th and 23rd Amendments.

For the record, this election cycle that means that:

By December 8 any election results must be resolved.
December 14, electors meet in the states to vote.
December 23 is the deadline for elector votes to be submitted to the President of the U.S. Senate.
January 6, those ballots are counted
January 20, whoever was elected is sworn into office.

In 2000, the Year of the Hanging Chads Election, former Vice President Al Gore conceded before the deadline to resolve all results, and after the Supreme Court ruled for George W. Bush in the Florida contest. For the good of the county. Gore said:

"I accept the finality of the outcome which will be ratified next Monday in the Elector College. And tonight, for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession."

Words unlikely to ever come out of Donald Trump's lips if he should lose the election.

Trump did not officially challenge the 2016 results because he won the Electoral College. He still maintains he also won the popular vote, which he lost by about 3 million votes. He didn’t win the popular vote. And it doesn’t matter. We elect via the Electoral College. He is the duly elected President.

If you want to be totally terrified by all the scenarios experts and lawyers for both candidates are reviewing, read this piece in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/

What does Trump mean when he says he won’t commit to a peaceful transfer of power? I don’t know. That question hasn’t been put to him that I know of. We do know, though, how loyal his supporters are. So you can let your imagination run wild. And that, too, is frightening.

If you read The Atlantic piece, you’ll see that at the end of the day – if things play out in their worst-case scenario – lawyers literally will decide the election in one way or another. You’ll also see more clearly why filling that vacant Supreme Court seat is imperative in Trump’s mind.

This all could come about because the President for months has laid out his “belief” that this election is being rigged by the Democrats because of the unusually high number of mail-in ballots expected because of the coronavirus.

There is no way he will concede this election. And, in fact, based on the article, he’s the one who could steal it. Joe Biden is more likely to accept a clear enough loss. Trump will not even accept a landslide against him, I expect. And, there's likely no landslide coming.

Trump accused Hillary Clinton of being crooked but if she were totally crooked and devious enough (and one would assume with the presidency at stake she would be) why didn’t she rig the Electoral College instead of the popular vote? “Crooked” but not smart? Highly unlikely in her case.

Trump has never indicated anything but that he believes this election is “rigged.” There is no reason to doubt that he will maintain that view until his dying day. In his mind, he can never be a "loser."

The question is, even if election night is not a landslide, will Trump ever concede the election? The answer likely is no.

And that’s when his loyalists could make sure there is not a peaceful transition.

I have no big concerns that if Biden wins, there will be a transfer of power in January. There are protocols to remove a former president from the White House.

I also believe anything is possible with Donald Trump -- except him accepting he lost an election.

If the election for some reason (laid out in that article) is not resolved by Inauguration Day, the Speaker of the House will be sworn in, as the second in line in the succession. There is no doubt in the Constitution that a presidential term expires on January 20.

Still, I do worry about what happens to our democracy over the next few months. No matter who you are supporting, you should too.

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It isn't rigged

9/17/2020

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I’m seeing and hearing a lot of angst lately about Joe Biden.

He’s not active enough on the campaign trail.
His surrogates aren’t being seen enough.
He’s not as strong on Issue A or B as I’d like.

I have something for those folks to think about:

Who do you want in the Oval Office? A man with experience, common sense, and empathy? Or Donald Trump?

It truly is that phrase that’s become trite: “a binary choice.” It’s one or the other. Aren’t getting everything you want from Biden? He’s not “progressive” enough? He’s too old? Then vote for Donald Trump, if that’s what you want.

I have a Facebook friend who posted the other day, “Defeating Donald Trump is the most important political objective of my lifetime. Yet Joe Biden looks like he may not be up to the job.” He then solicited suggestions by saying: “Substantive strategies to ensure that Biden beats Trump and secures the presidency?”

I responded, “Vote.”

That’s it. Just vote. Once.

To my Trump-supporting friends, I hear you. I don’t get it but I hear you. You think he’s kept his promises. That he’s good at speaking his mind. That he’s giving the middle finger to the establishment. That he is doing something about those people who have been taking your jobs away. I understand all that.

We just disagree.

And you know something? That’s okay. That’s what this country is all about. I’m just hoping there are more of me than you. Just as you're hoping the opposite.

Is the election rigged? No, it isn’t. The President can say it every day from now to November 3, and I expect he will, but it isn’t rigged. It wasn’t rigged four years ago when he won, and it isn’t being rigged now.

People who believe in democracy don’t rig elections.

I not only don’t like most of the policies the President has adopted (and they are adopted, he doesn’t truly agree with them), I really don’t like a lot of the people in his Administration.

Forget about the Cabinet members, they sold their souls a long time ago or they got out of the Cabinet. Even the staff people. And this is personal to a degree, I’ll admit. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said this yesterday to a reporter asking a legitimate question which was something like: what’s the status of the health plan the President’s been promising and who’s working on it?

McEnany’s answer: “I’m not going to give you a readout of what our health care plan looks like and who’s working on it. If you want to know, come work here at the White House.”

I know it’s trite to say, but the taxpayers pay her salary. She is the spokesman for the White House, not Donald Trump the man, but Donald Trump the President.

I know, it’s a subtle line to walk. But I can speak from some experience because I’ve walked that line. Her answer was arrogant and total BS. She either has an audience of one she’s playing to or she’s auditioning for her own show on a friendly cable network.

That, though, is not the answer to the reporter’s question. There are many other ways to say it, if she is going to even come close to telling the truth. Her problem is the truth isn’t available to her because there is no big Administration health plan being drafted or already drafted, as the President has said. (And, if there were, it needs to be passed into law.) And if there is, that Miller guy is probably drafting it along with that new coronavirus advisor who is feeding Trump his lines.

Another way to answer the question, “We have some of the world’s leading experts in our Administration and departments. They are working on it under the leadership of (and here she can make one of two choices -– an appropriate Cabinet member or, less believable in any Administration, the President).” Bingo. Answered.

But, it’s more important as a Trump re-election strategy to point the finger at the media. Simple as that. No need to sweat the details. No need to have any specifics. Just say to a reporter as McEnany did yesterday, “If you want to know, come work here at the White House.” (A three year old’s “na-na-na-na” is optional.)

Or, when she said “come work here at the White House,” the reporter maybe should have said “OK, I’ll do that. Point me to the HR department.”

The electorate is plenty locked in on who it’s voting for at the moment. We are truly a blue/red country. The undecideds vary depending on the poll you read but it’s safe to say that fewer than 10 percent are undecided at this juncture and it’s more likely half of that. Those are the voters being fought over basically.

They skew, from the polls I’ve seen, more women than men, more people who think the country’s off track than on track. But, as the old song goes, “but that was yesterday and yesterday’s gone.” That poll is no longer operative now.

No one knows who’s going to win this election. Biden’s the betting favorite but, as we saw reinforced four years ago, it’s the Electoral College, stupid. And Trump is betting heavy on Republican states and pushing away Democratic states with his claiming the GOP did a better job than Democrats on the coronavirus. I’ll resist a snarky – “well, except for one Republican we all know who lives in the White House.” But I’ll resist.

If you watch the news, Secretaries of the State, the ultimate state official responsible for elections, whether Democrat or Republican, say their state isn’t rigged and you can tell they truly mean it.

Election officials tend to be more straightforward than other “political” people in my experience. They also usually have clearer laws and legal guidance to work from.

This election will not be rigged. I’m not sure how one would rig it, honestly.

The media and the politicians should be preparing the voters on why it isn’t rigged. The time for that education is now. We have always trusted our elections and now is no time to change that.

The President is laying out that “rigged” marker to either try to steal the election after Election Day (unlikely) or to set up an excuse as to why losing wasn’t his fault.

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We the People, deserve the truth. We're the ones dying.

9/10/2020

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It is well past time that the men and women who work for President Trump, as political appointees especially, speak publicly and with their names attached, about what has really been happening the last nearly four years.

They each took an oath. Here it is:

“I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Nowhere does that oath say the appointee must be loyal to whoever the President may be. It says he or she is pledging to support and defend the U.S. Constitution "...against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC (emphasis mine).” It is a pledge to we, the people, not he, The Donald.

Nearly 200,000 of our fellow citizens – grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, black, white, brown, gay, straight – are dead because of the coronavirus. A good portion of those deaths could have been avoided if Donald J. Trump (who also swore an oath to the Constitution, but we know that his word means nothing) spoke the truth to America and the world.

He says he didn’t because he didn’t want to cause a “panic.” Fair enough, but an experienced leader like Mr. Trump claims to be knows there are ways to tell the truth without giving away the store. And without lying.

He clearly was more worried about sending the stock market into free fall. He keeps talking about 401k’s and IRAs tanking if it wasn’t for him.

Fact is, the market will do what the market will do.

The market is not the economy. It doesn’t matter what the President does really. The markets discount for bad news and plan for good news. Hell, look at the market yesterday and today – days it was confirmed the President of the United States withheld information that could have saved thousands of lives.

The market is up as of this writing.

But back to those people appointed to political jobs. Let me speak to them:

Are you proud of what you’re doing?

Do you go home at night and call your parents to tell them the amazing things you're doing? Or brag to you spouse or partner?

You may be proud of your work at Labor or Commerce or other agencies especially if it has nothing to do with Donald Trump. But everything you do accrues to Donald Trump’s legacy. Do you enjoy working for a man who withheld information – and lied about other information – that could have saved lives?

You all, if you have any conscience at all, should resign in mass and talk to the world about what you know about the corrupt operation of government under Donald Trump.

If you’re in your 20s or 30s you should know: You have to earn a living when this President is out of office. And your resume will show that you worked for the man who, among other things, stood by while thousands of the folks he was sworn to protect and defend died. And you chose to work for him. Honestly, I wouldn’t hire you. But I guess OAN or Fox or a right-wing billionaire might.

Now you can say it’s easy for me to say that since my career is behind me and I don’t need another job. Let me tell you something, I’m no saint, but I could not continue working for this man, and convince myself that I’m not doing anything wrong. I would be contributing to so many wrongs. And you know something, it was easy for me to say. It just takes a little character (and I do have a little character, I like to think).

Donald Trump is big on saying anyone who committed what he thinks is a criticism or affront to him commits “treason.” Fact is, there is no treason if we’re not at war…but let’s assume he’s right that acts against the people of America are treasonous even if we're not at war. He’s as guilty of it as anyone in history. And so are you if you continue working for him and keep your mouth shut.

History will record other horrible things we don't yet know about that he has done as President, I have no doubt. It will come out -- tomorrow next week, next year, in 10 years. But hard to imagine too many things more deadly than his decision to keep quiet about what he knew about the virus.

This man is smiling right now because he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. If you read the criteria for who can nominate someone – here if you’re interested. (https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/) you will see that the nominators are a large group of people throughout the world. Truth is, almost anyone can be nominated if you grease the right palm. Not that I’m suggesting Donald Trump would do that. No man who stood by while his fellow citizens die from a virus that he knew was deadly but said the opposite would do that, right?

I don’t read a lot of “political” books figuring if tell me the author’s name and I can predict what he’ll write (as can most of you). But I am reading Michael Cohen’s book right now -- the former fixer for Donald Trump, the man convicted of lying and sent to jail for it. I get all the reasons you may not think him credible, that’s up to you.

But in reading his book so far two things stand out to me: One, his wife and children never wanted him to work for Donald Trump. He did anyway. They wanted him to quit, and he didn’t. And, he admits in this book what a failure of character that was. He went in knowing what he was buying into. He admits lots of things that would take most of us years of therapy to admit. He did it in his prison cell.

Two, he says those who won’t speak out against Trump, including himself once upon a time, are not loyalists. They are cultists. Not unlike those cultists that drank the “Kool Aid” when Jim Jones told them to, knowing they would die because he said it was time. And they died freely.

House and Senate Republicans, and other elected Republicans, are Trump cultists. They fear his tweet, or his base abandoning them or just the attention he would give them they don’t want.

They are cowards. We know that. And history will record them as such.

But, too, are his appointees cowards. The active service military folks I can understand because he is the commander in chief. Still they, too, have stood against some of his worst inclinations, like invoking the Insurrection Act so he could send our troops into “Democrat cities” clearly to help his re-election campaign.

The retired folks though I expect more from. Anytime I see a Gen. James Mattis, Trump’s former secretary of defense, say something that Trump would prefer him not to say, my respect for Mattis increases. The same would be true if Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, spoke up – now. It would be an act of patriotism, no question in my mind. As long as it’s truth. And, whatever it is they have to say, it should be before the election.

We, the people, deserve the truth. It is our lives that are at stake.

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Face it, Trump is what he is. Pathetic

Tonight's the night

Election night and beyond. The unknown.

It isn't rigged

We the People, deserve the truth. We're the ones dying.

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