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We know Poppy, you have always been a good driver, a safe driver. But now that you’ve reached your golden years, your reflexes aren’t what they used to be, your eyesight and hearing aren’t what they used to be. Driving now can be dangerous, not just for you but for other people on the road.
We care about you and want you to be safe, so please hand over the keys. You know we are more than happy to drive you anywhere you want to go so you’ll never be stuck in the house. So please, the keys.
What’s going on with Donald Trump?
The man who not that long ago said he was unlikely to get his COVID-19 booster admitted, during an event in Dallas last week, that he indeed got his jab.
This did not sit well with some of the MAGA folks in attendance. In fact, a smattering of boos erupted after he told the event’s co-host, Bill O’Reilly, he got boosted.
Trump would later go on to laud the effectiveness of vaccines during an interview with The Daily Wires Candace Owens.
“Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get (Covid), it’s a very minor form. People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine,” Trump said.
It didn’t take long from some factions of MAGA world to condemn Trump for going against one of the main tenets of hardcore Republicanism … vaccines bad!
Conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, came out strongly against Trump’s new push for the efficacy of vaccines.
“This is an emergency Christmas Day warning to President Trump,” Jones said. “You are either completely ignorant about the so-called vaccine gene therapy that you helped ram through with Operation Warp Speed or you are one of the most evil men who ever lived, to push this toxic poison on the public and to attack your constituents when they simply try to save their lives and the lives of others.”
“Hell, we’re fighting Bill Gates and Fauci and Biden and the New World Order and Psaki and the Davos Group. And now we’ve got Trump on their team!” Jones added.
Some have suggested Trump’s touting the benefits of vaccines is all about helping his reelection bid. While he’s the clear favorite to win the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, he needs to worry about the general election.
Even though Republicans are generally opposed to vaccine mandates, most are, themselves, at least partially vaccinated. A 65% majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents report having received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, according to the most recent CNN polling.
Still, some have likened Trump’s recent public endorsement of Covid-19 vaccines and boosters to the “random foray of an unpredictable political figure.” (Rick Klein)
Then, of course, there is what some are calling the “Occam’s razor” answer to Trump’s new behavior … COVID-19 has significantly killed, and continues to kill, a disproportionate amount of the Republican base!
Is Trump turning into a Liz Cheney… who many Republicans call a RINO (Republican in name only)?
What’s next? Trump will admit that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden fair and square? Will he condemn the January 6 Capitol mob as insurrectionists?
I don’t know but I do believe there is a Republican governor in Florida who isn’t too unhappy with the new anti-Trump rumblings going on in MAGA world (along with one in Texas, and one in South Dakota.)
Politics can be a dirty business. For many officials, the number one priority once elected is to be re-elected, not policy or doing what’s best for the people who voted them in. This especially holds true for today’s Republicans.
Following the January 6 insurrection, both Republican leaders, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, harshly condemned Donald Trump for his role in fomenting the violent attack on the Capitol. McConnell said Trump is “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day, no question about it.” McCarthy joined in the condemnation by saying “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
What both McConnell and McCarthy soon discovered after their very honest assessment of the situation was that such candor did not sit well with a very important group… their voting base!
So they did what any politician would do whose number one goal is to remain in power … they pulled a huey.
The calculus for today’s Republicans is very simple … do you embrace the truth and loss the support of your base, thereby surely being kicked out of office or do you embrace Trump and “The Big Lie” and have a chance at remaining in power? If your goal is to remain in office, a chance beats no chance every day.
So enough of this Republicans are too cowardly to stand up to Trump nonsense. They’ve made a political choice that makes the most sense at the moment … the country, the Constitution and our democracy be damned.
With a riled-up base and voter suppression tactics on steroids, along with electoral history being on their side, Republicans believe they have a good chance of retaking the House in 2022, making Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the House.
It is pathetic, and sad, that today’s Republicans believe hitching their fortunes to a twice impeached, pathological liar gives them their best chance of remaining in power rather than repudiating him and trying to deprogram their cultish base… but that is the dirty business of politics.
In a way, Republicans have simply chosen the “the lesser of two evils” when it comes to their best chance of remaining in power.
Personally, I think they are going to be losers no matter what. Republicans are really in an impossible situation. Yet we know the truth eventually wins out. So, putting all political calculations aside, for my money, it is better to go down as a patriot rather than as a traitor. But that’s just me!
Photo | politico.com
Donald Trump’s reelection chances are looking flimsier by the day.
The latest nationwide New York Times/Siena College poll has Biden ahead by 14 points. What’s even worse, the same polling has Trump losing to Biden in many of the crucial swing states … 47%-36% in Michigan, 49%-38% in Wisconsin, 50%-40% in Pennsylvania, 47%-41% in Florida, 48%-41% in Arizona and 49%-40% in North Carolina.
So, Joe Biden is a great candidate, a great campaigner, right?
No, not really. He is pretty much keeping a low profile these days, allowing Trump’s self-destructiveness to keep propelling him forward. And, most likely, Biden will stick to that strategy for a while longer. What’s the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?”
As Janet Hook and Evan Halper recently wrote in the LA Times, “Voters are not so much upbeat about him [Biden] as they are upset with Trump.”
Though Trump has tried to make the race about Biden and his faults, he has failed miserably. His campaign has already spent tens of millions on attack ads that have fizzled – tying Biden to that Trumpian concoction, “Obamagate” and, of course, to Ukraine funny business.
Finding that the right’s culture war playbook is proving less convincing against a white male target, Fox News is stepping into the breach.
As Matt Gertz writes in the National Memo, “They have started claiming that this fall’s election isn’t really about the relative merits of Trump and Biden. Instead, they have turned Biden — the septuagenarian center-left liberal who capped four decades in public service as Barack Obama’s vice president and speaks movingly about loss, grief, and the need for reconciliation on the campaign trail — into a stand-in for dark forces poised to shatter civilization.”
Here is what Fox’s Tucker Carlson said recently in one of his monologues:
“We should stop pretending that this is an election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. There is no Joe Biden; the Joe Biden you remember no longer exists. The candidate has no independent thoughts of his own. He has no core beliefs. He is empty. He’s a perfect Trojan horse.”
With his chances for November continuing to slide, like on that “slippery” West Point ramp, look for Trump to shake up his reelection team any day now. Of course, this won’t make any difference or change the dynamics of the race. Trump’s problem is Trump.
As William Galston, a Brookings Institute scholar, succinctly put it, “Right now the election is Trump versus Trump, and Trump is losing badly.”
Photo | cnn.com
After one of the biggest governmental screw-ups in the American history, the president overseeing such a fiasco would be run out of office on a rail. He certainly would have no chance at reelection … right?
But of course, we do not live in a sane world, do we?
That Trump could so mishandle the national response to the coronavirus pandemic and set the stage for an economic downturn possibly not seen since the Great Depression, and still win reelection, is mind-boggling.
Then again, in a sane world a pathological liar would never be elected to the most powerful office on Earth in the first place. In a functioning American democracy, a corrupt, incompetent leader would be removed from office as the Constitution prescribes.
Yet here we are, seven months away from the next presidential election and Donald Trump is only marginally trailing Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in some battleground states. Marginally … as within the margin of error.
Yes, the latest USA Today/Suffolk national poll has Biden with a commanding lead over Trump (50-40 percent) but national polling strength does not necessarily equate to Electoral College strength, as we so well know.
With an unemployment rate increasing by the day; with so many families unable to pay their bills; with so many of our fellow citizens needlessly stricken by the coronavirus, how could a good chunk of Americans still want four more years of Trump at the helm?
As Chauncey DeVega writes in Salon:
A culture of distraction and spectacle has rendered many Americans incapable of being responsible engaged citizens. Our public educational system does not teach critical thinking skills.
Add to that a right-wing propaganda network, Fox News, ranked the most-watched cable news network 18 years in a row; throw in the Republican Party’s efforts to limit access to voting among predominantly Democratic folk and you have Trump with a good chance of stealing another election, pandemic or no pandemic… depression or no depression.
In politics, seven months is a lifetime. But for current polling to still have Trump with anywhere near a shot at reelection while we are in the middle of one of the worst health and economic crises in the nation’s history should scare the daylights out of us.
Photo | cnn.com
It is a rare thing for a man to give up power at the height of his career. Yet Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, has done just that.
Yesterday, the 10-term congressman from Wisconsin called it quits. He will not be seeking reelection this November.
Ryan told a group of reporters he is stepping down from his position as top Republican in the House, one that puts him second in line to the presidency, to spend more time with his kids.
Women have been facing the push-pull of career versus family ever since they entered the work place. Ryan is that exceptional male who has undoubtedly felt that same internal conflict and has decided to put the needs of his family first.
What makes Ryan’s decision so praiseworthy is that he is leaving congress before fulfilling his lifelong dream of completely dismantling the safely net put in place by the New Deal and the Great Society.
Yes, he did get passed his big tax giveaway to millionaires and corporations, but that was always secondary to eliminating Medicare and Social Security, as we know them.
Ryan is setting a good example for other powerful men to stop and smell the roses. What good is power and wealth when they come at the expense of raising great, well-adjusted kids? I’m guessing Ryan didn’t want to be a “Trump” in that regard.
Sure, Ryan may look back with regret at all he gave up after checking one too many homework assignments or one too many car pools to soccer practice.
But Ryan must know, like so many women who have sacrificed their careers to be with their children, your kids are only young once. The pride and satisfaction of raising fine upstanding citizens cannot be overstated.
So Elizabeth (16), Charles (15) and Samuel (13), count yourselves among the lucky ones who will now have their dad always around as you wade through those awkward teenage years.
Many are comparing Ryan’s incredible decision to leave politics to that of Little Richard who quit rock & roll at the height of his popularity in the late 50’s, to attend Bible school.
Sir, the country could not be happier with your decision.
Photo | celebritybabies.people.com
It’s official. Donald Trump is running for reelection.
This past Tuesday, Trump announced his pick for 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale. On Saturday, Trump is scheduled to visit his golf resort, Mar-a-Lago, for some good old-fashioned fundraising … a luncheon with tickets ranging from $2,700 all the way to a VIP package that includes a meal and photo with Trump for those who bundle $50,000 in contributions.
So, despite FBI Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller breathing down his neck, Trump is planning his next four-year term and out raising the big bucks.
Donald Trump, the former casino magnate, must not be a betting man. If he were, he’d realize the odds of his reelection aren’t very promising.
The Ireland-based gambling website Paddy Power thinks it’s highly unlikely Trump lasts his first term in office without being impeached. The odds are currently 4-7 that Trump is impeached before Inauguration Day 2021. To put that in perspective, oddsmakers at Paddy Power think it’s nearly twice as likely Trump will be impeached as it is that he will serve four years in office.
But Trump is a New Yorker. And what are New Yorkers famous for?
Chutzpah.
For you non-New Yorkers, chutzpah is a Yiddish term meaning extreme self-confidence or, as Leo Rosten in The Joys of Yiddish defines it: “gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible ‘guts’.”
One thing’s for sure, the man who doesn’t like to read, will never see the writing on the wall. It’s damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
The man whose ego is consistently stroked by Fox News believes he is the greatest president of all time. Why wouldn’t he run for, and expect to win, reelection? And the Russia thing? It’s a hoax, Sean said so.
That polls show he is the least popular first-year president in modern U.S. history doesn’t register with Trump. It’s all fake news, right?
Oh, one of the side effects of chutzpah? Severe delusions … as in the kid who is on trial for murdering his parents but begs the judge for mercy because he is now an orphan!
Photo | palmbeachdailynews.com