Category: Politics

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Trump On The Ladies — Girls, he’ll show you how to be women

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 25th, 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

From CNN today:

“I always thought women liked me. I never thought I had a problem. But the fake news keeps saying women don’t like me,” Trump said in Indiana, Pennsylvania. “I don’t believe it.”

The former president claimed women are “less safe,” “much poorer” and are “less healthy” now compared to when he was president and vowed to end what he described as their “national nightmare.”

“Because I am your protector. I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector. I hope you don’t make too much of it. I hope the fake news doesn’t go, ‘Oh he wants to be their protector.’ Well, I am. As president, I have to be your protector,” Trump said.

Women, he added, “will be happy, healthy, confident and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”

Well, now, can you little darlings all just calm down now? Uncle Donald is here to protect you from the emotional and hysterical weight of being women, and is going to take care of you all just like your daddies did.

And stop fussing about abortion, for Pete’s sake. Half of you won’t have kids anyway, being over fifty, or under 10, or, you know, ugly. Especially you libbers. Never was such a pack of hairy, ugly wimmin like that. Donald’s gonna get you into the beauty parlor, get you fixed up, make you feel worth while as human beings.

OK. I get accused of having a sick sense of humor. And yeah, that’s true. That gets me in more trouble then just about any other facet of my generally lamentable character.

But in this Age of Trump, there’s a problem with having a sick sense of humor. Events have a way of topping even my darkest comic imaginings.

Trump says he will make women happy, healthy, confident and free. Whew! That’s genius, I couldn’t match that. Andy Kaufman couldn’t match it. Sam Kinnison couldn’t match it. George Carlin would be gobsmacked. I read that, and concluded that either I took far too many drugs in the seventies, or I didn’t take enough.

Even by the standards of Trump and the GOP, this is grotesque. Trump the rapist. Trump the serial adulterer. Trump, the bozo who delighted in humiliating his first wife with his much publicized affair with Marla Maples. Trump, who packed the Supreme Court with religious fascists and crowed loudly when they rescinded a woman’s right to an abortion. Trump, who boasted about being able to “grab them by the pussy.” Trump, who smears and insults nearly any woman who dares challenge him, whether as a political opponent or a reporter asking questions.

As gaslighting goes, it’s unparalleled in its sheer brazenness and scope. Of course, for Trump, it’s just another Monday. At other times, he’s proclaimed himself the great white hope for African Americans, saying he did more for them than any president including Abraham Lincoln. His top example of black people who support him is a howling nut who proclaimed himself “a Black NAZI” and referred to MLK Jr. as “Martin Lucifer Coon.”

Nobody stands for science more than Trump, you know. He had an uncle who attended MIT. Take that, Neil Degrasse Tyson! So when he talks about windmills causing cancer, sharks electrocuting boaters, and climate change being a hoax by AOC to force us all to live in caves, why, he’s speaking as the world’s greatest authority on African Americans, women, sharks, and pets who get eaten. Or something. It’s scientifical, you know.

I imagine that next he’ll address his expertise and compassion for the lives of Asian-Americans and point out he saw all the Charlie Chan movies as a kid.

It’s getting harder to tell how much of this stuff is dementia, and how much is just the same snake-oil bullshit that’s floated Trump through his entire wastrel life. But in the end, that doesn’t matter: Either way, he is totally unfit for office. If he was your grandad, you would be taking away his car keys by now, and keeping a discreet eye on his debit card purchases.

And if you still support Trump at this point, there is something very, very wrong with you.

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Fascism versus Nazism — Both are bad; one is worse

Fascism versus Nazism

Both are bad; one is worse

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 21st, 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

David Runciman has an article in today’s Guardian that is well worth reading: Is Donald Trump a Fascist? It’s a well written article and gives a balanced and considered analysis of where Trump stands and what he might do under a second term.

There is, however, one problem with Runciman’s analysis: like many politically-oriented writers, he conflates fascism, a fairly common form of government, with its more vicious and rarer offspring: Nazism.

Nazism is a horrific form of government, It meets Runciman’s analysis of why such regimes are rare: “Calling a 21st-century politician a fascist is so damning – so much worse than any other label – because actual fascist regimes are very rare. One reason for that is none of them ever lasted. They were catastrophic failures – catastrophes not only for their friends and enemies but for the wider world – undone by their own appetite for relentless crisis and confrontation.”

True Nazi regimes are short lived, but extremely vicious, usually leading to mass death through wars and systematic exterminations.

Fascism and Nazism aren’t the same thing. Much of Europe has had fascist regimes at one point or another; Franco in Spain, the early days of Mussolini in Italy, Putin in Russia, Salazar in Portugal. Nearly every central and south American country has been under fascism at one point or another, and many still are. Examples are rife in Asia, as well: Modi in India, Suharto in Indonesia, Shah Pahlavi in Iran, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Marcos in the Philippines, Chiang Kai-Shek in China, and so on.

I’m deliberately excluding authoritarian regimes that are either military juntas or religious theocracies. They are their own breed of political creatures, and while they share many characteristics with fascism, neither Trump nor the GOP are on a path that leads to either of those types.

Granted, fascist regimes don’t hesitate to use the military or religion to their ends. Both are valuable instruments of social control, after all.

Back in 2003 Lawrence Britt published The Fourteen Signs of Fascism. Trump and his MAGA movement check every box. Indeed, the right wing of the GOP have done so dating back to the early days of the John Birch Society and McCarthyism

A good bumper sticker definition of fascism is that it is the merging of corporate and/or aristocratic power with the power of the state. Church and the military are subordinate, but nonetheless vital.

So fascist regimes are actually all too common, and some might last for decades. Unlike Nazi regimes.

Like monarchies, theocracies, and military rule, fascist regimes are born with the seeds of their own destruction. They are authoritarian, and thus demand unquestioning obedience from the population. They offer relatively little in return: a promise of stability and a sense of glory, with lots of god- and flag-waving. But authoritarianism is power, and power inevitably corrupts. Most such governments rapidly become kleptocracies. with functionaries standing in front of every door with their palms out, and the justice system designed to protect them becoming more and more capricious and cruel.

No free person with a sane mind wants to live under a fascist regime. Or any authoritarian regime, for that matter. George Washington framed the role of government power perfectly when he said, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and fearful master.” Democracy works because it puts government on a leash.

Yes, a GOP triumph in November would almost certainly bring about a fascist regime with Trump as an ever-more unreliable figurehead. It would be run by the congregation of plutocrats and other power brokers in their panoply of think tanks, corporate empires and suborned media outlets that I refer to as the National Association of Zealots and Ideologues. But while it would be nasty and corrupt, it wouldn’t be the immediate horrorshow that Runciman has in mind when he uses the word “fascist.” My “association” isn’t a true conspiracy; it’s merely a large group of aligned but often competing interests with similar aims. The cohesion stems from marriages of convenience, and once the country is spread out on the table before them, the knives will come out.

Yes, it will be a mess, and unless you happen to be a billionaire or a nimble functionary, you will suffer.

For a true Nazi regime, you need one final element: a Strongman. Trump, for all his personal power and viciousness, has never really been suited to that role, no matter how big his ego. He’s never had the skills needed to assure the fealty and loyalty of people around him, or the discipline and steadfastness to control people under him. And now, he’s a demented shadow of himself.

However, you do need a Leader for a true nightmare regime: a Hitler, a Stalin, a Putin. It’s the element that blends power and control with paranoia and capriciousness.

There may be any number of people in Trump’s ranks willing to audition for the role of strongman, and no doubt dozens who would have the requisite cleverness and savagery to emerge as a truly fearsome leader.

But they would be competing with others both at their level and facing resistance from others in more subordinate levels. And if Trump is still inconveniently alive, they have to keep it totally out of the public eye. (A Trump administration will bring back the grand old Political Science sport of Kremlin Watching).

But a fascist regime, especially one that is fairly rudderless as this one would be, does contain in its brutality and weakness the seeds for a Hitler, and an elevated chance for the rise of such. A GOP win in six weeks would put us all on the cusp of that, at our own expense.

Trump isn’t the real threat: the money and power backing him is the real threat.


David Runciman’s article can be found here.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/21/is-donald-trump-a-fascist

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The Black Nazi — Ruckus has met his match—and more

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 19th 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

Fans of the old “Boondocks” TV animated show no doubt remember Uncle Ruckus. In a series renowned for its unblinking, razor-sharp satire of race and racial relations in America, Ruckus stood out as one of the most challenging characters. Obese, slovenly, and an absolute bigot, Ruckus was perhaps the most memorable element in a show filled with brilliant characters.

Ruckus was, to all appearances, an African American. However, he claimed (and presumably believed) that he was actually a white Irish-American who suffered from “reverse vitiligo,” which turned his skin black.

According to Wikipedia, “Ruckus constantly hurls racism at all things black. On being asked if he supports the use of the word “nigga“, he says, ‘No, I don’t think we should use the word, and I’ll tell ya why. Because niggas have gotten used to it, that’s why. Hell, they like it now. It’s like when you growin’ crops and you strip the soil of its nutrients and goodness and then you can’t grow nothin’. You gotta rotate your racist slurs. Now I know it’s hard ’cause ‘nigga’ just rolls off the tongue the way sweat rolls off a nigga’s forehead, but we cannot let that be a crutch. Especially when there are so many fine substitutes: spade, porch monkey, jiggaboo. I say the next time you gonna call a darkie a nigga, you call that coon a jungle bunny instead.’” Well, OK then.

Ruckus routinely says things about black people that most Americans haven’t heard since the 1960s.

It’s a sign of the absolute genius of show creator Aaron MacGruder that Ruckus is actually a relatable character who sometimes is even sympathetic. His mother was a severely damaged woman who internalized feeling of inferiority and self-disgust emerging as self-hating racism. His father was an violent and abusive drunk whose rampages cost a young Ruckus his eye. For all his vicious racism, he was capable of kindness and generosity, including to the protagonists in the Freeman family, all black.

I’ve referred to some African Americans in the Trump orbit as Ruckuses before: Clarence Thomas, Herschel Walker, a couple of others that Bartcop used to call “lawn jockeys.”

But none of those unworthies even came as close to Ruckus-hood like North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson has come.

Robinson not only matches Ruckus in his speech (he referred to Martin Luther King Jr as “Martin Lucifer Coon”) but actually sinks below Ruckus in his vileness and horrific self-image. CNN blew the doors off his long and extremely sordid long-lived role in the resident porn community. Starting with a grandiose claim that Ruckus, in his worst possible moment, couldn’t approach. He described himself as “a black Nazi.” It turns out that his utter hatred for transexuals and “immoral” people such as gays or liberals is an utter sham: He’s a huge fan of transexual porn.

He was already widely known as a porn-dog of long standing, and already had a long resume of dark and incendiary statements including mass killings of various groups of people. In normal times, no self respecting political party would hire him as a janitor, let alone as the candidate for governor.

But these aren’t normal times. Trump took him under his wing, once praising him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.” The GOP, having thrown away any and all pretense of integrity, ethics, common sense or patriotism, went along docilely.

Just for some perspective, Christine O’Donnell saw her political career end when she felt it necessary to deny she was a witch. Bill Clinton was impeached for fibbing about having sex with a consenting adult. Obama endured weeks of abuse for wearing a tan suit. Bush Junior had a questionable service in the Texas Air National Guard. Dennis Hastert retired in disgrace for actions that these days would put you in charge of the House Judiciary Committee.

The standards of the GOP have fallen from sleazy and contemptible to outright nihilistic and demented.

But today’s reports on Robinson were a bridge too far, it seems. Tonight, there are widespread demands for Robinson to drop out of the governor’s race since his very presence will damage the party in an important swing state. Without North Carolina, GOP chances of winning the White House are effectively zero.

But there’s a couple of problems as of 6:20 pm PDT. First, Robinson denies all the stories despite overwhelming evidence (he even claimed they were written by AI, which apparently has the ability to travel back in time over more than a decade to post in his identity), and refuses to leave the race. Second, the GOP face a deadline after which Robinson’s name must remain on the ballot as absentee ballots go out. That deadline is in about 158 minutes: midnight Eastern Time, 9pm here.

For the GOP, it’s pretty much an unwinnable situation. Should Robinson withdraw, they have virtually no time at all to pick a sacrificial lamb to replace him on the ballot. He would surely lose (Robinson was trailing by 18 points anyway) but it would minimize damage to the rest of the party, including Trump, in a state that should have been solid red but was teetering before this happened.

If Robinson stays, the Democrats are going to waste no time running ads showing Trump calling Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids.” Yes, Trump said that in front of cameras.

Robinson deserves what’s coming to him, and so does Trump.

But if there is anything else good coming from this, it may cause many more Republicans to realize the sick and disgusting poison that has taken over their party, and begin to resist.

I’ll hold off until 9 to finish this. I suspect it may sound the death knell for Trump. We shall see.

Whelp, the magic hour has passed, Robinson is still in the race, and both the Harris Campaign and the Lincoln Project have their first ads out.

Trump is going to be wearing Robinson as his own personal codpiece for the next seven weeks.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer pair of guys.

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“Oh Popeye! Oh Bluto!” — Fortunately, morons won’t decide the election now

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 18th 2024

The small group of voters known as “undecideds” break down into two categories. First, there’s the “What? There’s a election?” crowd. They tend to have an exaggerated impact in polls because they rarely actually vote. They need to know to register, and when, where and how to vote.

The others are the Olive Oyls. They’re the ones who are like the old Popeye cartoons character, the weak-willed and ever-vacillating female who can never decide between her two suitors, no matter how stark and obvious the difference between the two might be.

The reasoning might go something like this: “OK, Trump hates Taylor Swift, but Vance tells me Harris eats live kittens!” They can’t tell truth from falsehood, and aren’t ethically equipped to distinguish between normal and abhorrent behavior.

In a nation split almost exactly evenly by the power of propaganda, it’s horrifying to realize that these morons were likely to be the tipping point.

But the good news is that there is a new tipping point, and it lies with a group large enough to send the undecideds to the obscurity they deserve: this group is the Responsible Republicans.

They are a lot larger than most people realize. I started getting an inkling of their presence when I noticed that even in primaries where Nikki Haley wasn’t on the ballot, between 10 and 30 percent of Republican voters were NOT voting for Trump.

I looked at this, and I reasoned that as long as Biden held it together and didn’t do something utterly senile like declare hatred for Taylor Swift or childless cat ladies, and Trump went right on being Trump, these disaffected voters would become a significant factor in the election.

Biden’s withdrawal and the subsequent rise of Kamala Harris put Trump’s deficiencies in a glaring light. People immediately saw it as the Prosecutor vs. the Felon. Not Kennedy vs. Nixon, but more like Perry Mason vs. Tony Soprano. Only this “Tony” has stripped his mental gears and confuses Mason with Ironsides and mocks him for being in a wheelchair.

The exodus of Republicans choosing country over party didn’t begin with Liz Cheney and her father Dick endorsing Harris, but changed from a trickle to a landslide since. The latest round was announced by the Harris/Walz campaign today, when “more than 100 Republican former national security and foreign policy officials who served in senior roles in multiple presidential administrations and in Congress are endorsing Vice President Harris for President.” This is in addition to the hundreds of ranking Republicans—former Presidents and Vice-Presidents, former Congressionals, former members of the Trump administration, hundreds more from both Bush and Reagan administrations, who have either endorsed Harris or refused to endorse Trump.

And now we are starting to see the polls shift. And it isn’t a big increase for Harris (1 percentage point) but a significant decrease for Trump (3 percentage points). He’s bleeding support.

For Responsible Republicans, the message is clear: if you can’t bring yourself to vote for Harris, at least don’t vote for Trump. The country can survive Harris; it won’t survive Trump. They may believe the propaganda on Fox News that Biden has ruined the economy and turned the country into a Taco Stand run by the cartels, but they can see that things are actually pretty good in their town. And because things ARE actually pretty good all around the country, a lot of Republicans are noticing that.

We’re just about at the point in the campaign where Bluto has pulled a dirty trick so egregious that Olive is starting to look even more confused, and Popeye is muttering “That’s alls I can stands, I can’t stands no more” and you know the loud music is about to start.

This week’s “assassination attempt” at the golf course shows just how desperate the Trump campaign has become. The previous attempt in Bethel, Pennsylvania, which was very real, didn’t result in a boost in the polls, but it did earn Trump a certain amount of good will and he might have enjoyed a ‘honeymoon’ period after that, had he not started immediately grifting from it.

This one’s credibility didn’t even last overnight. Trump himself blew the believability of it out of the water by saying that his decision to go golfing that day was a “last minute decision” which, combined with police claims the guy with the gun was parked outside the golf course for twelve hours, added to a huge “this doesn’t add up” from everyone. Not only did the grifting begin almost immediately, but JD Vance and others instantly demanded that Democrats—commies, pet-eaters and baby-killers all—immediately tone down the “inflammatory rhetoric.” If Ashli Babbitt was the MAGA movement’s Horst Wessel, then Ryan Routh, the golf course guy, was Marinus van der Lubbe, the half-wit executed for supposedly starting the Reichstag fire.

This won’t be lost on the remaining responsible Republicans who hadn’t quite decided to break the bond with Trump. What was a trickle of Republicans abandoning him will become a flood.

It doesn’t translate to down-ticket votes necessarily, although candidates firmly aligned with Trump will suffer from it. If you’re a sane Republican in North Carolina, you not only won’t vote for Trump, but you won’t vote for that nutball Mark Robinson, either.

Republicans in the House especially may find themselves vulnerable.

But a lot of those Republicans who see the dangers of Trump may decide Harris is nearly as bad, and vote Republican down ticket to keep the country paralyzed. This could still happen.

Less than seven weeks to go, now. Stay focused.

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“I Hate Taylor Swift” — Don Coyote tilts at windmills

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 15th 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” – posted on Truth Social by you know who.

There are several things about Taylor Swift that Donald Trump failed to notice. She’s richer than him. She’s more popular. Her fan base is more committed. She’s better looking. And she’s a lot smarter.

So sure, Donnie, pick a fight with her. What could go wrong?

Taylor Swift was always pretty apolitical up until this year. I won’t speculate on what her private thoughts on this are except to note that she seems quite sane, which pretty much guarantees that she would take a dim view of our Donald. But just guessing, I would reckon the final straw was when Donald reposted a fake meme claiming that Taylor Swift had endorsed him. That’s damn near defamation, and I would want to set the record straight right away if I was her.

A lot of Donald’s followers are over-the-top assholes, like the person who made up the fake meme, but Donald is just big enough a fool to think that these crazy morons are working to do what’s best for Donald. You just have to look at his inner circle—Laura Loomer, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Chris LaCivita, Steven Miller…to know that these are not “the best people.” Even supporters like Ann Coulter and Marjorie Taylor-Greene are backing away in disgust now. It takes some doing to disgust Coulter and MTG, you know?

I’m guessing he’ll go right on attacking Taylor Swift because it’s perfectly normal for a presidential candidate to attack people for supporting the other candidate, right?

Horrible to say, I’m almost certain Swift is already getting bomb threats from Donald’s gestapitos already. Springfield, Ohio hospitals, the city hall, and police have been getting bomb threats for having the temerity to say there’s no evidence that any residents in that town have been eating anyones’ pets.

I had one Trumpkin on Facebook accuse me of “making democrat spin” for stating that inflation had come to an effective halt over the past three months and manufacturing jobs were on the rise. I asked him to identify anything I said that was untrue, but then added: “First let me know if you think immigrants are eating people’s pets in Springfield. I want to know if I’m wasting my time or not.”

Granted, when I respond with facts and figures, usually I just get something along the lines of “No! You’re lying!” and then I never hear from them again. So I probably won’t hear back anyway. But I’m mindful of the dictum attributed to Mark Twain: “Never argue with a fool. People might not be able to tell the difference.” Robert Heinlein said something along the lines of “Never get in a mud-slinging contest with a pig. You just get dirty and the pig enjoys it.”

The latest “eaten cats in Springfield” moral panic is part of a list of red flags that cause me to turn around and walk away from a fool. “Litter boxes in school bathrooms” is another, along with “The election was stolen” and “People have always loved Trump.” Some opinions are so incredibly stupid it’s an utter waste of time to argue them.

This is the Age of Trump where no conspiracy theory is too absurd, no lie too egregious, and no pandering to utter morons more obvious. Donald had been hooting that he WON the debate, and of course his followers are chanting it. Yeah, he won the debate in much the same way that Cumberland beat Georgia Tech (look it up). And the conspiracy theories immediately began: Harris was given the questions in advance, she had an ear device for answers from her aides, a special camera lens made Trump look older and Harris younger.

And of course, Harris did cheat, you know. Unbeknownst to Trump, she sneaked the following qualities to the podium: intelligence, experience, wit, wisdom and assertiveness. If she hadn’t brought those advantages along, she would have…well, broken even with Trump. Yeah, let’s put it that way.

She baited Trump, of course, most notably with the remark that people were leaving his rallies. Trump’s monkeys think that’s unfair. It’s nobody’s business if a future President of the United States is easily thrown off his game and manipulated. Besides, all of democracy’s enemies—Putin, Xi, Kim Jong Un, Victor Orbán and Modi—all love Trump, and would never take advantage of him, right?

Republicans Against Trump is growing into a significant segment of the Republican electorate, with some of the strongest voices against Trump coming from the politically conservative portion. While some will support Harris, most will simply not vote for Trump, and it’s important to remember that while they are our allies against Trump, they still have their own agenda. They’ll still be voting down ticket for Republicans who aren’t Trump stooges, so don’t make the mistake of believing Harris’ increasing lead in the polls translates to a blue wave.

Although even there, Trump is doing the GOP real harm. He’s gleefully accepting huge donations for his PACs from every vicious fascist plutocrat in the country (but noticeably, not from business leaders!), but he’s not sharing the wealth down-ticket. Quite a few GOP state parties, especially in swing states, are dying on the vine from lack of funding. Yes, even in states where childless cat ladies and Swifties don’t dominate, and the landscape is studded with morons who believe [whichever] immigrant group eats pets and/or drinks the blood of Christian babies.

Some day, America will look back on the Age of Trump with pity and disgust. But we aren’t there yet.

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Harris Brought The Mop — Trump can try claiming he cleaned the floor…

Harris Brought The Mop

Trump can try claiming he cleaned the floor…

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 10th, 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

That had to be the most one-sided debate I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been watching debates since 1960.

Kamala Harris took control quite literally in the first seconds by striding across the stage, past the traditional half-way mark right up to Trump’s podium and Trump himself and stuck out her hand for the traditional handshake. A very reluctant Trump returned the shake, his normal physical dominance lost to her assertive pose.

After that, the debate was along the lines of Abraham Lincoln versus a speak-n’spell toy. It was well-known that Trump did little or no debate prep, instead preferring to keep to the salesman’s patter that he uses in lieu of campaign speeches. The result was the same lies, absurdities, and utter lack of focus that has been the hallmark of his efforts to stay out of jail.

Earlier today, I had suggested that Kamala Harris mug for the camera at his responses, and she did, with a devastating effectiveness. She’s a master-class prosecutor, and knows exactly how much a lifted eyebrow or a head tilt can do during defense’s closing argument to sway a jury without getting called out by the judge or opposing lawyer.

Trump did a fantastic job of self-destroying. When challenged by the surprisingly competent moderators on his claim that the world laughed at the US under Biden (and he seemed confused about who he was running against) to name an example, he could only come up with…Victor Orbán. Ouch.

He tried claiming that John McCain voted against continuing the ACA (Obamacare) when it was his very famous thumbs-down at midnight in the Senate that scuttled Trump’s scheme to end it.

He challenged Harris to go to the White House to “fix the border crisis,” saying, “She’s been there for three-and-a-half years. They’ve had three-and-a-half years to fix the border. They’ve had three-and-a-half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasn’t she done it? She should leave right now, go down to that beautiful White House, go to the Capitol, get everyone together and do the things you want to do, but you haven’t done it and you won’t do it because you believe in things that the American people don’t believe in.”

Well, maybe he thought she was Joe Biden, or in Congress, since only Congress can pass bills, and only a President can sign a bill into law. Trump, of course, returned over and over to immigration for purposes of hate mongering. And finally, he went there: the most absurd right wing moral panic since litter boxes in school bathrooms: immigrants in Springfield eating ducks and cats.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats … they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame,” The moderators called him out on that, leaving him sputtering.

He bombed on abortion, first repeating his utterly false claim that nearly everyone wanted Roe V. Wade “returned to the states,” waffled hopelessly on his own stance on abortion, and repeated his favorite blood libel, that women were aborting babies that were already born.

He ranted about NATO, and Harris deftly laid a trap for him, saying that if he was in office, Putin would be in Kiev, eyeing the rest of Europe. Including Poland. Harris sweetly added the 800,000 Polish American voters in Pennsylvania would be interested to hear that.

Meanwhile, Harris was pitch perfect: knowledgeable, unflappable, confident. She dominated Trump from the get-go and never let up. All the shouts and all the lies couldn’t save him. “I have talked to many military leaders, many of whom worked under you, and they say you are a disgrace.” Strong words, and Trump had no response.

“I have to tell you, if it weren’t so dangerous, it reminds you of an old man yelling at the clouds. That was his thing: ‘Get off my yard,’” said Tim Walz, the vice-presidential candidate. Grandpa Simpson was definitely in the house, with Trump repeating himself obsessively and with a total lack of self-awareness.

I will say to Trump supporters that after tonight’s performance, and if you watched it, and you still support Trump, There. Is. Something. Very. Wrong. With. You. No reasonable or fair minded person could support enabling that shambling psychotic ruin of a human being to have the nuclear codes.

Moments after the debate, in an unexpected coda, Taylor Swift posted her unalloyed support for Kamala Harris, pointedly including a photo of herself holding her lovely cat. Swift is childless, of course, and I doubt she’s planning to serve her cat to the local immigrant family.

Now there’s a paragraph I didn’t envision myself writing on any of the previous debates I’ve seen. The wonder of it all.

Still a long way to election night, and many efforts to undermine and defray the vote await us. But tonight, in a no-doubt-about-it way, was Harris’ night. She has a plan. Trump, in his words, “has the concept of a plan.”

Trump utterly disgraced himself.

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Tonight’s Debate — Hero versus Zero

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 10th 2024

Tonight’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will probably decide who the next president will be. For Trump fans, there is hope: if he wins, you’ll never have to endure another presidential campaign again. People like Leonard Leo, Elon Musk and Jared Kushner will be deciding your rulers from now on. No more silly elections where weak and foolish nobodies can push the movers and shakers of society around.

That, in a nutshell, is what is at stake here. Do you want to keep your country, or turn it over to people who have no problem with turning Donald Trump loose on you? Plutocrats in Germany faced a similar situation in the early ‘30s. It didn’t end well. Nor would it end well here.

So here’s what Harris needs to do tonight. Don’t attack Trump personally other than to call out his lies. Start the debate by pointing out that every lie Trump tells will be listed and refuted by her campaign the following morning. Every single one. Feel free to needle him: mention his criminal convictions and policy failures.

Second: refute the right wing talking points, rather than Trump’s inevitable lies. The border is not in crisis. Immigrants aren’t creating a crime wave of any sort. Inflation has halted. Unemployment is good. The military is strong. Energy production is the highest it’s ever been, including oil. Oh, and as a personal favor, could you assure people that Canadians aren’t sneaking over the border to eat your cats? I would like to be able to order cat food online without getting a visit from the FBI.

Hammer policies, but don’t drown the viewers in details. There’s only a half dozen that really matter to voters. Tell them that on immigration, you will ask the new Congress to take up the border bill that Trump scuttled. On the economy, talk about jobs. You’re in great shape there. Mention the number of jobs—millions–created by the Inflation Reduction Act. Assure people you will submit a national reproductive freedom act to get the zealots out of our beds. Press for an end to the slaughter in Gaza. Remind people that in a situation very similar to America’s, Netanyahu stays out of prison only for as long as he is conducting his ‘war.’ Let people know that Netanyahu no more represents the spirits and ethics of Israel than Trump does America. Both are criminals willing to sacrifice country for personal gain.

Promise to move forward on global warming. It’s too late to avoid serious damage, but it’s not too late to avoid self-annihilation. Although you’ll probably want to give that a more positive framing.

Point out that much of the GOP leadership of former years have endorsed you, or at the very least refused to endorse Trump. You have people like Liz and Dick Cheney who realize that you are better than Trump. He is not a Republican, he is not a conservative. He is a fascist. Much of the GOP leadership, including a huge swath of Trump’s administration, prefer you to more of him. And no, that is not normal. It’s a sign that every responsible and patriotic conservative, no matter how different their policies, put America ahead of Trump and what he represents. The Guardian just reported that “Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Donald Trump’s White House communications director, and Olivia Troye, who was homeland security adviser to Mike Pence and a top aide on the Trump White House’s coronavirus task force, will speak out against Donald Trump and for Harris ahead of the debate, the campaign said.” Nobody has ever heard of defections like those before, ever. Trump is widely hated within his own party.

Even though your mike will be muted as he speaks, don’t be afraid to mug for the camera. He’s going to say some ridiculous things. Don’t hesitate to laugh, roll your eyes, and make “what-in-the-fuck-is-he-talking-about?” gestures. Don’t make the mistake of taking him seriously. He hasn’t earned it, and never will. Let America know you don’t see him as a worthy opponent, because he is not.

There’s a lot riding on this. You can do it.

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Home Stretch — Putting on the afterburners

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

August 26th 2024

David McAfee at Raw Story noticed a seminal remark posted by Adam Kinzinger, former Republican Congressman that utterly captures the deep change in the political landscape that we’ve seen over the past six weeks or so.

“‘Something happened at the DNC that will be written about for years.” the ex-lawmaker said. ‘Donald Trump has given up traditional Republican ground, and the Democrats and Kamala snatched it up. Trump gave up being the defense candidate by becoming weak and panicked, and embracing Russia.’

“Kinzinger went on to say that that Harris ‘said she wants to make the most lethal military ever and stand up to dictators. Trump gave up being the proud American party. They hate America which is obvious to all but the most loyal MAGA. Kamala showed her pride in the country AS IT IS TODAY, not pining for the 1950s. Trump gave up being the border hawk. While this will take time to recognize, I believe cracks have started. Kamala reminded everyone that Trump tanked the hawkish border bill, and committed to signing it (in front of a loudly cheering crowd).

‘Trump ceded the ground of opportunity and vision. His constant whining and focus on the past. Kamala showed a forward looking vision. Trump gave up law and order. Not just on Jan 6, but attacking The FBI, questioning the CIA, and calling for violence. And now an awards ceremony for Jan 6 criminals. Kamala showed appreciation for police and stressed her role as a prosecutor. The Dems are now on their way to being the Patriotic, USA chanting, America loving party, and the Republicans look like the bitter old men who are angry that the country is vibrant and dynamic.;”

I had noticed that even with the joy and inclusiveness and cheers, a lot of what Democrats had to say reminded me of some of the speeches we would hear at RNC conventions in 2004 or 2008. It was an era where Republicans hadn’t embraced meanness, cruelty, exclusiveness and bigotry as their standards.

The horrific thing is that this is about all that the GOP have remaining. They’ve lost all the “issues” they hoped to run on: Biden’s age, the economy, inflation, national pride, abortion, crime. Everything improved under Biden except his age. And most Republicans are coming to realize that the golden apple of tearing down Roe v. Wade in fact was a poisoned apple, turning most of the country against them.

My friend Isaac Peterson of the Weasels wrote me, saying, “It doesn’t help matters that Trump is incapable of even giving the appearance of being able to accommodate anybody outside of his base. He just doesn’t give a shit about anybody else and it shows. I still believe his NABJ BS was intended to appeal to them rather than black voters.

“He can’t appeal to anybody else because he doesn’t care about anybody else and his lack of empathy means he just cannot relate to anybody else. Definitely not enough to try to communicate on their (our) terms or to even acknowledge their (our) concerns. His contempt comes through loud and clear.

“His flocks of howler monkeys can’t recognize he doesn’t even actually care about them either.”

If Trump didn’t have enough problems, a fair chunk of his base are furious because he isn’t vicious and fascistic enough. The zealots are mad because he backed away from a pledge to make abortion illegal in all states. The National Association of Zealots and Ideologues are mad because he backed away from their treasured Project 2025. And the bigots are furious because he suggested the US should allow aliens with college degrees in and even give them green cards.

Bad enough that with this lot, Trump gets up with fleas, but they all growl loudly when he tries to brush the fleas off.

As a result, Trump is floundering in a no-mans’-land between MAGA and the rest of America, and he’s bleeding support from both sides.

The DNC and Kamala Harris (her campaign has blue hats emblazoned with “ , la “) came out of the convention with a three point lead nationally over Trump, and small leads in most of the battleground states. The convention “bounce” (which Trump didn’t get) will show up in next week’s polls, and I expect to see her leading by five to seven points, and nearly all of the battleground states. That will fade as the warm glow from the convention dies.

But not fade away. We’re in the final stretch now, ten weeks left, and it’s going to be one furious fight.

There’s already speculation about “October surprises.” Which is shorthand for dirty tricks, and by no means limited to October. The allegations and rumors will get more and more lurid. I already heard one today that had Trump dumping JD Vance as his running mate and selecting Robert Kennedy Junior. That one’s so crazy I suspect it may have come from the Democrats. Trump tried snarling that Tim Walz was only an ASSISTANT coach, and in a brilliant riposte, the Dems replied, “Maybe that’s why he’s running for VICE president.”

I feel disquiet about the flag waving and bellows of “USA! USA!” Pep rally patriotism is a dark lake a thousand miles wide and an inch deep, and can turn toxic with the slightest change in the wind. I’m hoping that once clear of the convention, the flag-waving will subside to thoughtful patriotism.

In the meantime, keep an eye on Joe Biden. Yes, he’s a lame duck, but he IS still the president, and he still has the acumen and abilities that made him the most successful one-term president in American history. He may have an October surprise or two up his sleeve, and it won’t be the sort of nasty ones like sabotaging the Vietnam Paris talks or the hostage release with Iran or the email like we’ve seen in years past. Biden has a “Nuthin’ up my sleeve, Rocky” air about him. He’s up to something. Whatever it is, I suspect we’ll like it.

So. Off to the races. And may the best woman win!

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Fifty-to-One Odds and Ends — Did Bill Clinton give Harris the election?

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

August 22nd, 2024

Vivek Ramaswamy was on CNN yesterday bemoaning the fact that Kamala Harris was smearing seventy million GOP voters as ‘weird.’ Even CNN has to fact-check that, noting that Harris had called Trump and Vance weird, which they are. For that matter, Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t exactly a poster boy for normal himself, but moving on…

I spoke to a Trump supporter yesterday who ranted about how Democrats were taking adrenochrome from the bodies of dying babies to keep Biden and the rest young. I pointed out that Biden didn’t look particularly young, and he retorted that Biden would be dead if he wasn’t taking the stuff. Branes. Smart. Logically he runs circles around us all.

Now, adrenochrome actually does exist. Its a result of oxidized adrenaline; 3-hydroxy-1-methyl-2,3-dihydroindole-5,6-dione C9H9NO3). It doesn’t come from the blood of babies, Christian or otherwise.

And as far as prolonging life goes, it’s kinda the opposite: it’s rated extremely toxic, and if taken orally will make you very, very sick and in all likelihood kill you. It would explain why you never hear of Qanon types, who believe morals are something to be inflicted upon others, actually taking the stuff themselves. Ivermectin is safer, but drinking or injecting bleach and shining black lights up your ass are still bad ideas. Add adrenochrome to that list under “Evolution in Action.”

The adrenochrome conspiracy theory came from the bowels of the Qanon conspiracists, and it is nothing more than an update of the Blood Libel. They’ve updated the villains of the piece (elites, Democrats, international bankers) but they mean “Jews.” “Drinking the blood of Christian babies” sounded a bit medieval for their tastes, so they took a sinister-looking chemical name (and one not usually found in babies) and made it generic babies, and sat back and waited for the pogroms to resume.

Yes, Harris was calling Trump and Vance weird, and not Republican voters in general weird. But there’s a lot of them that fit that description. Not seventy million, but millions, at least. There are tens of millions of normal decent Republicans. They’re pretty easy to spot these days: they’re either already ‘never-Trumpers’ or they are openly expressing doubts about Trump and his policies.

Last night the Democratic convention finished its third night with the formal selection of Tim Walz as the vice presidential nominee. Coach Walz is almost ridiculously homespun middle American, straight out of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon days. Last night may just be the night that Democrats took “real America” back from the Republicans. Only with the Republicans the down-home pose was a vulture capitalist trying to sound like a hillbilly, but with Walz, it’s the real deal. He really is the local coach, the guy who helps change your tires and pulls you out of a snow bank, the neighborhood “Good Sam.”

In the meantime, Trump was snarling to aides that he “hates all of them” – Harris, Walz, the Clintons, and Biden. Ann Coulter, who for some reason doesn’t live north of the wall in Game of Thrones, made a spectacularly pathetic effort to smear Walz’s kids, calling them ‘weird’ for crying with pride at the convention last night.

Even the entertainment showed the richness of the Democrats versus the paucity of the Republicans. “Rocking in the Free World”, a favorite of Walz’s, was played with the full blessing of Neil Young, who has stridently complained about Trump’s appropriation of the song. Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Sheila E and Maren Morris all brought the house down. Oprah spoke to loud cheers. Compare with the RNC, which had a couple of D-listers and played music over the vociferous objections and cease-and-desist orders from the creators of said music. Not just weird—sad.

But it was Bill Clinton, at 78 obviously not drinking many babies but still strident and clear, who came up with the most stunning stat of all, one that will outlive the warm glow of the convention and change the political and economic landscape of the campaign over the next ten weeks.

Donald Trump back about 15 years ago said “I don’t know why, but the economy always does better under the Democrats than it does the Republicans.” It was one of those extremely rare instances where he was describing an irrefutable fact accurately.

It’s true. Wages go up, production goes up, and for America’s plutocrats who have more money than they do common sense, yes, the markets go up as well. Everyone benefits under Democratic economic policies. It’s been that way since 1933. Even government spending is better—the last two presidents to produce a balanced budget were Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton. Over nine out of every ten dollars in the national debt come from Republican policies and misadventures.

There aren’t many politicians around who understand economic matters better than Bill Clinton. He is arguably the smartest president we’ve had—not the best judgment, perhaps, but definitely smart.

In his speech, he said he encountered a stat that he couldn’t believe. He had to double check it. He had to triple check it. He was absolutely stunned.

When he recited it, I was equally stunned. I’m nowhere near Clinton’s level of knowledge and expertise, but I read and I pay attention. This was something that floored me.

Clinton said, “Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs. I swear, I checked this three times; even I couldn’t believe it. What’s the score? Democrats 50, Republicans 1.”

Over 98% of all new jobs were created under Democratic administrations. That is extraordinary.

The Democrats have almost all the major issues on their side—abortion, individual freedom, reining in corporate greed, supporting the workers and the poor. But if they want to make serious inroads into the decaying support Republicans get, they need to recite this fact—50 out of 51 million jobs—over and over. Nothing demolishes the myth that Republicans are better for the economy more thoroughly than that one.

Tonight: Harris accepts the nomination. If the evening goes as well as the first three have, this election is hers to lose.

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Biden’s Big Night — As Kamala tans the hide of Trump

Biden’s Big Night

As Kamala tans the hide of Trump

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

August 20th 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

Political conventions after the last contested convention in 1980 have tended to be yawn fests, in particular those where the nominee is already the incumbent president. Everyone marvels at the (largely imaginary) accomplishments of the administration, chant ‘four more years,’ dutifully vote, and then go back to the hotel to schmooze and get laid.

And in this century, if something does happen that’s unusual or vivid, I can just go watch the video on YouTube and get caught up.

I’ll often have a convention on the screen but in the background, since there are often people I want to listen to, either because I respect them or I’m at least curious (one young black senate hopeful in 2004 caught my attention, fellow named Barack Obama).

This year I didn’t turn on the GOP cult fest at all, figuring that Trump and his stooges gaslight, lie to and lie about me and everyone else enough as it is, and I don’t need the aggravation. I wasn’t even curious about Vance, figuring (correctly) that he was just a corrupt creep. Even if I had never heard of him before, anyone wanting the job as Trump’s mini-me had to have something seriously wrong with them. I expected a dishonest hatefest, and that’s exactly what they delivered.

With the Democratic convention, I figured to pay attention when Joe Biden spoke. I’d heard the rumors swirling around, mostly from the right, that Biden was forced out of the race very much against his will. Some of the crazier members of the GOP whispered that Biden being ousted was somehow unconstitutional. Like the GOP has any respect for the Constitution.

Certainly the Democratic Party would put on a show, mostly heartfelt, honoring Biden as a revered party elder and an unusually effective president. They wouldn’t have to fake that at all.

I’ve been watching Biden since about 1980, and my take is that he’s a good actor with an excellent poker face (both very nearly prequisites for a political career) but essentially honest. His only real scandal was the plagiarism flap in 1980, and he dealt with that by dropping out of the race and apologizing. At the time I felt it spoke well of the man; he admitted his wrong doing and atoned.

He was too centrist for me politically (a view I still held in 2020) but all in all, a decent man. I supported Sanders in 2020, but had no trouble switching to Biden, especially given the vile alternative.

So my main reason to tune in was to catch the Biden speech.

Somewhat to our surprise, we found ourselves riveted from the opening gavel. The Guardian’s Sam Levin described it thusly: “Speakers from red states gave personal accounts of the impacts of abortion bans. Hadley Duvall, from Kentucky, described how she was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant at age 12: ‘I can’t imagine not having a choice. But today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans.’ She noted Trump’s previous remarks calling abortion bans a ‘beautiful thing’: ‘What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?’

“Speakers also repeatedly tied the Trump and the Republican agenda to Project 2025, the roadmap for a second Trump administration crafted by former Trump officials. Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan, held a copy of the Project 2025 document and assailed the plan to ‘turn Donald Trump into a dictator’. Congressman Jim Clyburn called Project 2025 ‘Jim Crow 2.0’. Biden noted that the project calls for the dismantling of the US department of education.”

David Smith and Kira Lerner reported, “Jamie Raskin, a representative from Maryland who served on the January 6 committee and led Trump’s second impeachment, said reelecting Trump would bring America ‘back to the days of election suppression and violent insurrection’. He suggested making Harris’ victory so large that even Trump and his allies can’t try to steal the election.

“Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky who was a vice-presidential contender, focused his speech on Harris and Tim Walz’ support for reproductive rights. Republican abortion ‘policies give rapists more rights than their victims’, he said. And Senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia spoke about the need to protect democracy, invoking his faith to denounce Trump.

“I saw him holding the Bible, and endorsing a Bible, as if it needed his endorsement. He should try reading it,” Warnock said. ‘It says, do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. He should try reading it. It says, love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Kamala Harris showed up unexpectedly and said, “Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do, we are forever grateful to you. Thank you, Joe!” She wore a tan suit, notoriously a red flag to the professional scandal-mongers of the GOP.

Hilary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave vivid barn-burner speeches, a women of the party’s recent past passing a torch to a woman of the party’s future and both lavishing praise on the woman of the moment, Kamala Harris.

Then it was Biden time. His daughter, Ashley, took center stage and gave a moving account of the life with her father and expressing her deep pride, leaving the place (including Joe Biden) in tears. Then first lady Doctor Jill Biden, in an amazing silver dress, orated, praising her husband and his work.

Then it was Biden’s turn. He gave the speech of his life! There was nothing of the tired and sick old man who failed to shut down the psychopathic Trump in the debate. He expressed his deep pride in his accomplishments, his faith in Kamala Harris, and his love and respect of country. There was nothing defensive in how he described his record, and his support of Harris was full-throated and enthusiasic. He seems to like the role of honored elder who is stepping back for the good of the country and feels he has left it to capable hands. He blistered the liar Trump and his cultish followers, and told America to vote or lose everything.

He may have needed persuasion to drop out of the race, but he wasn’t forced. He did it, just as he did in 1980, because it was the right thing to do and for the good of the country. It cemented his legacy of being one of the American greats.

Meanwhile, he is still president, and will be until January of next year. He negotiated a complex six way prisoner swap with Russia, and is actively involved in a possible ceasefire in the Gaza genocide, and helping Ukraine’s efforts to drive out the invading Russians. The economy, the best one in over 50 years, is running smoothly, a result of his efforts to rein in predatory capitalists and encourage domestic investment and manufacturing.

I don’t know if Republicans were thinking of digging up that 44 year old scandal about plagiarism. It would be moot now, I suppose. But Trump ruined that approach for them anyway, posting a faked video of Taylor Swift seemingly endorsing Trump. What he hoped to gain from it other than being cruel is a mystery, but it’s a far worse dishonest theft than Biden’s scandal. Swift is probably furious, and her millions of fans are ready to ride Trump out of town on a rail. In a campaign marked by endless stupid and nasty moves, this one of Trump’s hits a new low in the sewer pipes of his mind.

So: the party is united, Joe has been honored and will keep on working, and tonight should be fascinating as hell.”

It’s “Republicans for Harris” night, staring members of the Trump administration and former leaders of Congress.

This will be fun.

 

 

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