July 10^th

Big news today! No I don’t mean the lowering of the Army of Northern Virginia battle flag that had been South Carolina’s adopted apartheid symbol, although that’s a good thing. The flag in question was never flown over any South Carolina troops and it was only rediscovered by the Dixiecrats as a symbol of their anger at Harry Truman for integrating the armed services. General Robert E. Lee told his troops at his surrender to furl their battle flags and put them in their closets. It’s taken 150 years for South Carolinians to get the word and if it weren’t for nine murdered black church-goers that flag would still be up.

OK, so I buried the news! The big news is that the Democrat’s darling Donald Trump is now leading all other Republican candidates in new polls. You know the bit about “yellow dog” Democrats; these are people who would vote for a yellow dog if it ran on the Democratic ticket. Well if “The Donald” continues to improve his position a yellow dog could win the Presidency on the Democratic ticket; it would be no contest.

It isn’t necessary for Trump to win the nomination; it is only necessary for the Republican field to continue to humor him, or in some cases, like Ted Cruz, agree with him. When you have a firebrand Latina Republican like Ana Navarro heading a “Dump Trump” movement he will not capture many Latino votes for the Republicans and without them they have no chance at all. Oh Pshaw!

“The Donald” comes with a ton of baggage; you think Hilary has baggage, and she does, but Trump will need a mule train to transport his. First, consider his comments about the Iranians: He insists that he will force them to accede to our demands and he will do it within a few days. He might not know that we are joined by other members of the Security Council plus Germany in sanctioning Iran and that this coalition is not very firm. His bombast could easily blow it apart. He does sound sure of himself though but that’s not likely to scare the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Then there are his comments about the national debt: he’ll get rid of it before we become another Greece. His track record here isn’t very good. His companies have gone bankrupt four times. This doesn’t mean that he has gone personally bankrupt; he’s too clever, or his lawyers are, for that to happen. The difference is that Trump has a company but the company is so structured that his personal wealth cannot be attached by creditors. If the company cannot pay its bills Trump is home free and clear. The company’s creditors get stiffed but why should Trump care about them? Hey, it’s just the way business works, use other people’s money. Doesn’t Trump make a great Republican Presidential candidate?