2016 Sept 30^th

Today’s paper has a column by Cal Thomas who offers “A little advice for the second presidential debate.” The advice is not for Hillary Clinton but for Donald Trump whom Thomas declares scored a gentleman’s “C” in the recent debate. Scoring Trump as a “gentleman” anything means Thomas has a very low bar for the use of that term. If Thomas grades Clinton higher than a “C” he is in trouble with his conservative base; if he doesn’t he loses what little credibility he has. He wisely doesn’t grade her at all.

Thomas spends several paragraphs assuring us that he is a very knowledgeable debater. He “has taken on professors and liberal thinkers from Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth to U.C. Davis. I think I can say without too much hubris that that I know how to destroy a bad argument.” If you aren’t certain Cal, just replay Clinton’s responses to Donald Trump.

A particular favorite was Clinton’s goading Trump on his income tax returns suggesting that perhaps he was withholding the returns because he hadn’t paid any taxes. Trump finally couldn’t resist and admitted that “not paying taxes makes me smart.”  What a blunder! Cal, if you are planning to help Trump you have to convince him that what he views as “smart” is seen by many voters as simply selfish. When he makes comments like that, he provides Clinton with a wonderful series of ads in which he will not look good.

Thomas continues to insist that “real racism is refusing to let minority children… escape faiing public schools in favor of better ones…” That is nonsense because those decisions are made by each individual state. The federal government has contributed money to incentivize charter schools but much of it has been wasted by greedy “entrepreneurs” doing studies that result in nothing.

Toward the end of the debate, Clinton brought up Trump’s difficulty being civil to women. There was ample evidence, from Meghan Kelly to Carly Fiorina. He has called women fat pigs, dogs, and disgusting animals. Clinton cited the case of Alicia Machado who became Miss Universe at age 18 and subsequently gained more weight than Trump, the pageant owner, thought was appropriate. Trump appeared shocked that Ms. Machado had been found and was unhappy about Trump’s “fat shaming” her. He had even brought TV cameras into a gym to show her working out. Trump was most unhappy about Clinton bringing this episode into the news.

You would suppose that Trump would want to minimize this debate and everything about it that made him look bad. Not so. At 5:14, again at 5:19 and once more at 5:30 this morning Trump is on twitter tweeting more insults about Ms. Muchado. The debate was Monday so on Friday morning Trump takes pains to keep this issue alive. Why would he do that?

That Trump would deliberately do this gives support to Clinton’s suggestion that Trump is “unhinged.” The DSM-5, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5^th edition probably does not carry “unhinged,” but then Donald Trump is surely unique, at least we can hope so. Maybe “unhinged” will appear in the next edition.

2016 Sept 28th

Donald Trump has not helped himself with women voters given his disgusting rant against a Miss Universe winner who gained weight after winning her title. Trump felt is necessary to “fat shame” her by calling her “Miss Piggy” and even bringing TV cameras into a gym to photograph her working out. Ah, but the pro-Trump people on “Twitchy” have managed to cite various events over the last twenty years that they believe justify whatever insults Trump could possibly throw at this woman.

A poll of CNN responders show that more than 80 percent believe Trump’s comments were out of line and 17 percent believe they weren’t. The folks manning “Twitchy,” and this 17 percent, are the same people who would stay with Trump if he shot someone in front of witnesses on Fifth Avenue.

A town hall of previously undecided voters were queried after the debate. Most of them believed that Clinton was the victor but none of them had changed to become a supporter of either candidate.  So then, what’s the point of all this? Maybe as Macbeth says, “ It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”  He is right about the tale, but the idiots telling the tale are interesting. 

Governor Dean has come in for much scorn from the cognoscenti on Morning Joe. He has suggested that the Donald is showing some of the symptoms of cocaine addiction. Trump’s continual sniffing during the debate would suggest that. The Morning Joe leaders, ever looking for an opportunity for outrage, claimed he was diagnosing Trump as a cocaine addict. That is nonsense of course. Dean simply pointed out, quite correctly that Trump showed some of the symptoms associated with cocaine addiction. He was not making a diagnosis.

There is no doubt that Trump has a number of unique personality traits. He is the quintessential alpha male, no challenge, however trivial can go without a response. His response to women is more appropriate for a primitive than for a civilized male. There is no doubt that within the next twenty years he will provide ammunition for a host of dissertations from various graduate departments ranging from political science to sociology and psychology. Once the election has been decided there will also be more books analyzing this peculiar Trump phenomenon.

A self-described multi-billionaire who admits that he pays no income tax because he is just too smart to do that believes that attitude will help him become President of the United States.

2016 Sept 27^th

The first debate is over and the win goes to Hillary Clinton, unless, of course you are a Trump supporter, in which case the winner was Donald Trump.

Trump avoided making a total fool of himself, but he did come close. At one point he claimed Hillary Clinton didn’t look presidential. Then, realizing that he was already in trouble with women voters claimed that he meant that she didn’t have the stamina to be president. Clinton reminded him of the miles she had flown, the treaties she had negotiated and the eleven hours she had been forced to testify to a Republican Benghazi committee, and then she told Trump once he had done that that he could talk to her about stamina. Congressman Gowdy who led those Benghazi hearings that lasted eleven hours did not expect his posturing would supply Clinton with such a fine riposte to Trump.

The candidates performed predictably. Trump could not shut up, even talking over the moderator when he was reminded that his time was up. He had no hesitation interrupting Hillary Clinton or doing his mugging when he wasn’t talking over her.

For Clinton’s part she was well prepared, smiled pleasantly, talked about her family’s hard times when she was a child, but probably got little sympathy for that story.

This morning on Morning Joe, Kellyanne Conway was on the spot defending her employer. The duck ‘n’ dodger very cleverly attempted to turn Clinton’s preparation to her disadvantage by claiming that Clinton was over prepared and scripted while Trump was completely extemporaneous. Well, she had to say something but that was a bit lame. The debate has now been analyzed well beyond any reasonable person’s caring. For example, one analyst counted 51 interruptions of Clinton by Trump compared to 17 interruptions of Trump by Clinton. We will have to wait a few days but I don’t believe the debate, interesting as it was for the political fanatics, will change any votes.

One strange thing emerged  from Trump’s performance: Trump has a tendency to “sniff.” What’s that about? Every so often while he is talking, he snuffles as if his nasal passages are over moist, but not enough to require the use of a handkerchief. This was noticeable enough to produce a number of post-debate comments. When asked about it Trump claimed it was the fault of a poorly adjusted microphone. That is a truly silly explanation; a mic can’t pick up what isn’t there.

Another explanation offered by Howard Dean, a former DNC chairperson, Vermont governor, and a physician as well, is that Trump could be dealing with an old cocaine habit, or perhaps a current one. It’s not just the sniffing but other aspects of Trump’s behavior ads credibility to Dean’s speculation. Maureen Dowd was interviewed and asked about Dean’s speculation. She thought it was silly because Trump didn’t drink or smoke. Dowd apparently believes such abstemious behavior with alcohol and tobacco make him immune to the appeal of coke. Oh well!

2016 Sept 26^th

Today, as everyone who does not live under a bridge knows, is the day of the first of three presidential debates. (Of course, if you did live under a bridge you might not give a damn about the presidential debates.)

The very latest polls have the contestants nearly even although the average gives a slight edge to Clinton but not by enough to be encouraging. Indeed the trend is not encouraging for her at all.

There has been much debate about the role of the debate moderator: In particular should he do any “on the spot” fact checking of the candidate’s assertions. The Trump folks vigorously oppose such fact checking. Their opposition does not oppose it and that is hardly a surprise; fact checking Donald Trump would stop the debate in its tracks.

Kellyanne Conway, the Trump queen of duck ‘n’ dodge, was on Morning Joe today and it was plain to see why she is so highly touted. Trump had commented about the moderator for tonight’s debate, the black journalist, Lester Holt, whom Trump referred to as a Democrat. This reference presumably helped reinforce Trump’s complaint the he is treated “unfairly.” Mark Halperin also appearing on Morning Joe pointed out that Lester Holt was a Republican and asked Conway why Trump would lie about Holt’s party affiliation. Conway’s duck ‘n’ dodge began at once but Halperin, an unflappable presence, just persisted. Conway finally admitted that Trump simply didn’t know what party Holt belonged to and therefore wasn’t really lying. Technically, she may be right; if you assert something you know to be false, that is a lie; if you assert something about which you are ignorant, that is just typical Trump.  I wonder if he’ll try that tonight.

Much is made by the commentariate about the importance of this debate; well, maybe. There have been plenty of Trump gaffes and none seems to have injured his candidacy. Gary Johnson the Independent Party candidate didn’t seem to know what Aleppo was; then to demonstrate that being inarticulate wouldn’t stop him from debating effectively he stuck his tongue out at Kasie Hunt in a gesture seen by many as simply obscene, and at least temporarily startling Ms. Hunt. Johnson has also claimed that because the sun will expand in a few billion years to swallow the earth, eventual global warming is inevitable and we should restart our coal-fired generators.

Mr. Johnson still, after these gaffes, still draws about 10 to 12 percent of the vote. I doubt that anything that happens tonight will change the balance of power in the major contest.

2016 Sept 25^th

Tomorrow’s debate is moving from comedy to farce. This 90 minute debate, predicted to be viewed by 100 million people worldwide, will have commentators starting their commentating, in some cases, a full three hours prior to the debate’s starting time.

Hillary Clinton has already drawn first blood. She has said that she will give Mark Cuban a front row seat in the debate audience. Mark Cuban is a multi-billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks and various other properties and has said publicly that “Donald Trump (as president) scares the **** out of me.” Mark Cuban is no Donald Trump fan and, of course, vice versa.

Clinton’s invitation to Mark Cuban to sit in the front row of the debate was instantly accepted and it produced the hoped for eruption from Donald Trump, who, once again could not let an opportunity to act like a 10 year-old be lost. For Trump it has to be “if you do “X” then I’ll do”X+1” right back at you. To prove he hasn’t lost the capacity to be childish, Donald Trump has invited Gennifer Flowers, the erstwhile Bill Clinton paramour, to sit in the front row of the debate too, so there. It’s obvious that the Mark Cuban invitation got under Trump’s thin skin.

Does the Clinton camp now invite Marla Maples to join Gennifer Flowers? Marla would love the opportunity for a little Trump payback. To refresh your memory, Marla Maples was the primary extra-curricular activity that led to the dissolution of Trump’s first marriage to Ivana Trump. Marla was impregnated by the Donald and she gave birth to Tiffany Trump Oct 13, 1993 but no marriage occurred until December of that year and the marriage dissolved, rather acrimoniously, six years later. Misconduct was alleged by all sides.

Marla Maples has not become a Donald Trump fan. She says regarding Trump’s presidential ambitions, “I will not be silent. I will feel it is my duty as an American citizen to tell the people what he is really like.”

However, Ms. Maples sees her duty as an American citizen there must be literally dozens of other women scorned by Donald Trump who might be willing to comment on his character. He has admitted to so many bouts of venereal disease that he believes it is equivalent to service in Vet Nam. Few who served in that action would agree with him. Perhaps filling the debate seats with scorned Trump lady friends wouldn’t be all that difficult. Perhaps it would rattle the Donald but I doubt it.

If these women held up oversized Viagra advertisements that might have a different effect.

2016 Sept 23^rd

On Sept 23^rd I mislabeled that day’s blog “Sept 24^th” so now on Sept 24^th I’ll do a blog labeled Sept 23^rd. I hope that’s perfectly clear to everyone. I have no excuse for the mistake; Sept 23^rd is my 89.5 birthday but I doubt that is to blame; it’s more likely the associated cortical shrinkage.

The debate on Monday the 26^th dominates the political discussion today…at least once we leave the Tulsa/ Charlotte assassinations behind. (It is very dangerous for black men, or women, to be driving their own cars south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but then I’m not sure walking is safer. Treyvon Martin was killed while walking in the wrong neighborhood by a self-styled community guardian.)

CNN has scheduled a discussion of the debate to begin at 6 o’clock Monday evening. That’s three hours before the 90 minute long debate. What will they talk about to fill that three hour time slot? The TV moguls must be sure that there will be lots of “eyeballs” eager for three hours of commentary before the real thing begins. I’ve heard they expect close to 100 million debate watchers. That many viewers could command quite an ad premium and the money is what this is all about as far as the TV networks are concerned, so the earlier they start coverage the more money they make.

Trump has made three to four TV appearances every week for many months. The networks have been there to cover these events because Trump is sufficiently unpredictable that something newsworthy might happen; it usually does. This TV coverage of Trump’s events costs the Trump campaign nothing and on each occasion Trump vilifies Hillary Clinton; he refers to her as “Crooked” Hillary. He lies about her record and these lies are repeated every time Trump faces any sort of gathering. He also pushes the notion that the country is on the verge of collapse and that only he can save it. Both of these are lies as well.

We have known for a long time that if you hear something repeated often enough you will come to believe it.  The result is that Trump’s repeated comments about “Crooked” Hilary have had the effect of lowering the public’s perception of Clinton’s trustworthiness. This has been helped, obviously, by Clinton’s own clumsiness with her private server email problems. Fox News is also willing to hammer away at the Crooked Hillary handle. Fortunately, many voters don’t care overmuch about Clinton’s emails. The undecided voters are those who haven’t been influenced by the emails or by Benghazi and Trump is unlikely to appeal to them.  

2016 Sept 24rd

I’ll begin with a follow-up on something I wrote about yesterday. Kathy Miller, a county chairperson for Trump in Ohio said that there had been no racism before Obama became President. As I said yesterday, that was too much for even the redoubtable Kellyanne Conway to massage away so Ms. Miller had to resign. The event was described today when the Trump campaign commented that Miller’s comment was “inappropriate.” Think about that for a minute; this woman says that there was no racism in this country until Obama became president and then the Trump campaign says her comment was “inappropriate,” not that it was wrong, or that it was false, or that it was ridiculous, but that it was “inappropriate.” Now that’s being politically correct at the cost of being absurd.

Dr. Thomas Sowell, in his column this morning, tells us that deciding for whom to vote puts him in a predicament. He then outlines several common lies and misunderstandings about the Clinton/Obama record. We’ve seen these before but they keep reappearing. Consider this Sowell statement about Clinton, “The most obvious example (of catastrophic decisions) is the decision to undermine and help destroy the governments of two nations—Egypt and Libya—that were no threat whatever to America or to American interests.”

In 1986 a bomb was planted in a Berlin disco that killed two American GIs and injured over 200 other people. Once German re-unification occurred and Stasi files were opened the event was traced to a Libyan agent….but Sowell believes Libya and Khadafy posed no threat to American interests.

Two years later in December 1988 Pan Am 103 on a transatlantic flight to Detroit was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie Scotland killing 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground. A Libyan agent was convicted of planting the bomb. He was later released from prison on compassionate grounds and returned to a hero’s welcome in Libya…. but Sowell believes Libya and Khadafy posed no threat to American interests.

Then Sowell tells us that the Obama administration, “Against the advice of top military leaders, …began pulling troops out of Iraq.” Apparently Sowell has never heard of The Status of Forces Agreement (SOF). This agreement with the Iraqi government was signed by G. W. Bush in 2008, before President Obama was elected, and it committed us to withdraw all American troops by December 31, 2011. Of course President Obama could have ignored the agreement made by his predecessor, incurred another thousand or so casualties, and presumably received Thomas Sowell’s approval. I’m glad he didn’t.

Sowell also tells us that Mrs. Clinton, “Has repeatedly pushed the idea that blacks are besieged by enemies on all sides and need her to protect them…” But this line of chat is pure Trump. Surely even Sowell can recall Trump telling a black audience what awful conditions they live in, then asking for their vote by bellowing at them, “Whaddaya got to lose?

If Trump is elected we’ll all find that out.

2016 Sept 22^nd

We will soon be having a new campaign chair for Trump in an Ohio county. Kathy Miller, a former county chair, has declared that there was no racism in America before Obama became president. That was too much for even Kellyanne Conway to play duck ’n’ dodge against, so bye, bye Ms. Miller.

Trump has advocated “stop and frisk” programs to reduce the violence now present in many communities. No, wait just a minute; the backlash from this racist comment has made him declare that he meant such action to apply only to Chicago. Suggesting a racist “solution” for Chicago will not lose him black votes, which he won’t get anyway, and might nudge a few undecided bigots in his direction. Stop and frisk has a background in NYC of which he is obviously ignorant. Courts  ordered that procedure stopped.

This Trumpian comedy is now supported by Donald Trump Jr. who, not so long ago, suggested that if his people had engaged in some action similar to Clinton’s “they would be getting the gas chambers ready.” Junior hasn’t learned that the mention of gas chambers in a political context is not only politically incorrect, it is also bone stupid.

Junior has some revisionist comments to compliment daddy’s revisionist decision to announce that President Obama was born in the United States after all. Trump has to couple that change from his long held “birtherism,” with the lie that birtherism was really started by Hillary Clinton. (The Clinton campaign in 2007-8 considered presenting the fact that Obama had spent his youth out of the country as evidence that he had not developed typical American values.  They didn’t use that tack. They never claimed that he wasn’t born in this country. That was just another Trump lie.)

Junior’s latest revisionist claim involves daddy’s tax returns; up until now the reason those returns haven’t been released to the public, according to Trump, was because Trump was being audited. When the audit was finished he said he would release the returns. This became an increasingly tough sell once the IRS declared that there was absolutely no reason why a tax return currently being audited couldn’t be shared with anyone. Then Junior tells us that their tax and political advisors had told them not to release those tax returns at all.

Now Junior punts again; at this point he claims that daddy’s tax returns are so enormous, 22 thousand pages, that no one would want to plow through them. I think that is just wishful thinking. The final take here is that no one will see Trump’s tax returns. His devoted fans don’t care,  but there aren’t enough of them for him to win the election and his returns and his other skullduggeries aren’t going to attract the fence sitters.

2016 Sept 21^st

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has endorsed Donald J. Trump for president. Of course they have, but now that Trump has their endorsement he is saying critical things about the cop that killed unarmed Terrence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Mr. Crutcher, a black man, was shot dead by Officer Betty Shelby a white officer, who claimed that she “feared for her life” because Crutcher was seen “reaching into his pocket as if reaching for a weapon.”

The narrative here has changed, initially Crutcher was said to have been reaching into the window of his SUV, but the window was up and subsequently streaked with blood. The result, of course, was that the story had to be modified to Crutcher reaching into his pocket. No weapon was found either on Crutcher’s person or in his SUV.

A helicopter hovering above the scene was manned by a police officer who claimed that Crutcher who was moving slowly as if possibly drugged, looked like a “bad dude.” There were by this time at least four police officers on the scene and one fired a Taser at the same instance Officer Shelby shot Crutcher. No ambulance was called for Crutcher for several minutes after he was shot, just to be very safe of course. (The terrorist who planted bombs in NYC and New Jersey was also shot, then he was cuffed and an ambulance was called immediately.)

What will happen to Betty Shelby, the killer of Terrence Crutcher? The first thing to happen to her is a vacation with pay. This is standard procedure while the shooting is being investigated. Who does the investigating? The police and the offices of the prosecuting attorney look into the shooting to see if it was justified. Prosecuting attorney’s depend on the police to find evidence so that crimes can be prosecuted and so let prosecuting attorneys keep their jobs, so it is unlikely that they will decide to prosecute a police officer.

Between 1993 and 2011 the FBI was responsible for 150 shootings. All of these shootings were investigated by…the FBI, and every one of them was found to be justified.

Eric Garner was selling untaxed cigarettes in NYC when he was apprehended by four police officers, one of whom put him in an illegal chokehold throwing him to the ground and killing him. A Grand Jury refused to indict his killer and a court sealed the jury’s testimony.

Then we have Freddie Gray, handcuffed and thrown into the back of a police van, given a rough ride for about half an hour which resulted in a severed spine. None of the officers involved, including the driver of the police van, were convicted of any wrongdoing.

The FOP has done a great job of protecting its membership from accountability, but the ultimate result is that in some communities police officers, quite innocent of any wrongdoing, are being executed. Police in some locations must now patrol in pairs for their own safety. Recent shootings in Dallas now bring the total of murdered police officers for this year, as of mid-July, to 31 compared with 18 last year at this time.

This will get worse before it gets better unless something is done to restrict what amounts to granting police a permit to kill if they simply claim they were frightened.

2016 Sept 19^th

There has been a terrorist attack in New York City and New Jersey. One of the culprits, Ahmed Khan Rahami, has been caught and is in custody. Five other “people of interest” were apprehended in a car stop. (They’ve been let go.)

There was to have been a 5K race in New Jersey benefitting the Marine Corps. There was a glitch and the race did not come off as scheduled. The bomber had planted several explosive devices in a dumpster along the expected route and one of those did go off as planned but several other pipe bombs did not and those have provided evidence for authorities. Explosives planted in dumpsters tend to produce a force directed up and not out, perhaps indicating an inexperienced, or dare we say, stupid terrorist.

A pressure cooker bomb did go off injuring 29 people, but none of their injuries were life-threatening. Another pressure cooker bomb was recovered intact providing still more forensic evidence of who did what. A variety of unexploded devices have been recovered by the police. Indeed, it seems that there were more unexploded devices found by the police than devices that actually exploded.  New York’s street cameras have provided pictures of the suspect and these were very widely circulated. He was subsequently identified as Ahmed Khan Rahami. His picture was now available and he took refuge in the entryway of a closed bar leading passersby to assume that he was just a vagrant, so they called the police to roust him on his way. The officers recognized him from all the photos, a gun battle started; he was wounded and taken into custody.

It might be worthy of note that ISIS has not claimed credit for any of this. Frankly, I think they would be too embarrassed to be associated with such an amateurish effort. Fully half of this guy’s bombs didn’t go off. Then he puts himself in camera range without even wearing a hoodie to cover at least part of his face. He “hid” in the entryway of a bar instead of getting a room in some fleabag hotel and by hiding there  insured the police would come calling. In the last analysis, all good terrorists kill themselves to avoid capture. The only notable exception is the “shoe bomber,” Richard Reid, who couldn’t make his shoe bomb explode as the plane he was on came in for a landing in Miami. Rahami would surely be an embarrassment to the top guys. I can hear them now, “Ahmed Khan Rahani: Hey, he’s not one of our boys. Never heard of him.”

Once in a while the bad guys recruit somebody on the wrong side of the bell curve.

2016 Sept 18^th

Sept 30^th of last year, The Pope was much in the news. Patrick J. Buchanan who espouses the Catholic faith, as long as nothing in it is distasteful to him, had some comments about the Pope. Buchanan’s comments and those of some others made at the same time are worth reviewing.

2015 Buchanan and the Pope Sept 30^th

Once again Patrick J. Buchanan has put himself firmly on the side of the exclusionists. The Pope has managed to include a variety of people who had not heretofore been well regarded by the Catholic hierarchy: of homosexuals he said, “Who am I to judge?” This attitude was not at all well received by Buchanan. Now, in a somewhat different vein, Buchanan is ranting against the attempts to provide for the enormous influx of Near Eastern refugees.

Buchanan claims that, “Behind this rising resistance to illegal and mass migration is human nature—the innate desire of peoples of one tribe or nation who share a common language , history, faith, culture and identity—to live together and apart from all the rest.” Buchanan is certainly right; it is also the innate desire of people to want what their neighbor has and to take it by force if they can. This was tribalism, a primitive form of civilization that all but a very few people, and perhaps Pat Buchanan, have now outgrown. When people become civilized they control these “innate impulses” for the common good; lacking that ability a people will relapse into bigotry. It has happened in this country when we sent citizens of Japanese ancestry to concentration camps at the outbreak of WW 2; it is happening now when we demonize Muslims.

Buchanan tells us that, “In the real world, nationalism not globalism is ascendant.” It was nationalism that precipitated both world wars. Of course Buchanan would like to blame them both on Winston Churchill as he does in his curious history about “the unnecessary war.” The collapse of empires into nationalism produced a nationalistic Serbia that rebelled against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and finally assassinated the Austro-Hungarian Arch Duke, an event that began the First World War. Then there were the Poles, the Czechs and other nationalist splinters from empires that provided the tinder for WW 2.

It is surprising that Buchanan does not remember the signs, “No Irish need apply” that greeted his ancestors in this country when they first came here and looked for work. Those signs were the result of the tribalism that Buchanan is now favoring.

The Pope has it right; the whole progress of civilization consists of overcoming a genetic inheritance that hundreds of centuries ago may have served us well but unless we overcome it now, it will destroy us.

2016 Sept 17^th

There are TV anchors and then there is JoyAnn Reid. Ms. Reid is unusual as a TV anchor: she is a Harvard graduate, her mother was Congolese and her father Guyanese and any interviewee should be prepared to defend any factual claims he or she makes. She anchors a weekend program on MSNBC.

This morning she was interviewing a Republican Congressman from Florida. The topic was Trump’s sudden declaration that President Obama was born in the United States and therefore might be the country’s legitimate president after all. The Congressman moved quickly to attack Hillary Clinton accusing her of beginning the birther movement herself. This narrative has been pushed by the Breitbart boys and is now the preferred talking point for those defending Trump’s dropping the birther bit.

The Congressman said something to the effect of “You know Hillary Clinton claimed Barack Obama wasn’t born in this country and she said that back in 2008, so she started it. ” Reid replied, “When did she say that? Tell me when?  You don’t get to make up your facts on this program.” Nobody talks over Joy Reid. If this politician is willing to come on her show again, which I doubt, he will have citations for any assertions he makes.

Jeffrey Lord is a prime example of a Trump TV surrogate. Mr. Lord is a usually cheerful, smiling, white haired TV guest employed when someone is needed to speak for Trump’s positions on most anything. Trump’s absurdities must be contagious for Lord has claimed that Democrats were responsible for Jim Crow and the rigid southern segregation. He does not mention that a Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson, was responsible for the civil rights act that changed all that and outraged southern Democrats so much that they all became Republicans.

This curious blindness to history was repeated in March 2016 when S. E. Cupp, a conservative columnist accused Trump of “dog whistle” comments designed to attract KKK members and other bigots. Lord claimed that the KKK, many years ago, had supported Democratic candidates and, therefore, was really a left wing organization.

Of course the first is true. After the Civil War and President Lincoln, a Republican, the entire south became Democratic until the civil rights act changed them into Republicans, That the KKK is a leftwing organization is nonsense and Jeffrey Lord knows it. Lord can say whatever silliness he cares to say and he’ll be invited back to say something similar again. If he stops being ridiculous he might stop getting invitations. He really has a great gig.

2016 Sept 16^th

Very shortly ago Donald J. Trump made news yet again; Trump, at long last has stated that he believes President Obama was born in the United States. That’s all he was willing to say on the subject, no, “I was previously mistaken,” or, “Gee, I guess I’ve been wrong all these years.” His announcement was immediately followed by a tour of Trump facilities for the assembled press, no questions please.

MSNBC and CNN eagerly showed the outraged Congressional Black Caucus members responding to Trump’s revelation. Their outrage was because they felt Trump had long attempted to delegitimize the first black president and that he should now apologize for having done so. Fox News, on the other hand, felt the big news of the moment was about the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder CO., some 20 years ago. Hey, no negative remarks about Donald Trump will be broadcast by Fox News. The Breitbart boys had a laundry list of misinformation attempting to paint Hillary Clinton as the original “birther.” The early Clinton campaign thought about ways to delegitimize Obama because of his “foreign entanglements” as a child, but birtherism and the relentless pursuit of that notion is all Donald Trump’s doing, and he owns it.

The last week or so has not been a happy time for Secretary Clinton’s campaign. Trump is catching up with her in the polls and she is neck and neck with Trump on the “untrustworthy” dimension. To be seen as untrustworthy as Donald Trump is a tribute to the Trump campaign’s propaganda machine. Trump unfailingly refers to Clinton as “Crooked Hillary.” Trump’s TV station, Fox News, never lets up on the missing emails, now available courtesy of the Russian Intelligence Service. These constant drumbeats, coupled with Clinton’s personal preference for privacy and some unwise handling of issues from failing to be forthcoming about her pneumonia to bringing General Powell into her email problems were just not smart. She surely has enough very bright advisors who can steer her away from these problems if she has the temperament to listen to them.

There are some who believe that the Trump campaign is preparing the public for the Donald’s refusal to debate. We now have Trump asserting that CNNs Anderson Cooper, who is to moderate one of the debates, is biased. Trump typically refers to CNN as the “Clinton News Network.” Trump’s concern about his perception of Cooper’s bias isn’t enough to drive him from the debate…yet, but just wait. Trump has also claimed that he would much prefer to have no moderators at all. Of course he would. With no moderators, Trump could completely dominate the airtime. He could pick his own topics and bluster as much as he liked. The “no moderator” bit won’t fly, but Trump is preparing the ground for his withdrawal. Such a debate with a moderator would be “very unfair” to him.

2016 Sept 15^th

The big news today is the revelation of the unvarnished opinions of General Colin Powell about the presidential candidates. We probably have the Russians to thank for this as they are making a national project of burrowing into the private emails of anyone whose comments might damage Hillary Clinton’s chances to be president. Guccifer 2.0 is responsible for this intrusion but in this case it might tarnish Trump more than Clinton. Guccifer takes a swipe at President Obama as well, telling us he “sold” ambassadorships. Well, I never! A president awarding ambassadorships to generous contributors.

Let’s check this out: Powell has some uncomplimentary things to say about Donald Trump. He begins by calling Trump a “national disgrace, an international pariah in the process of destroying himself so there is no need for Democrats to attack him.” General Powell is not a fan of Donald Trump. The feeling is mutual because Trump fired right back pointing to General Powell’s UN speech claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He claimed that Powell was at fault even though the Wolfowitz, Cheney, Bush cabal, intent on going to war, fed the general false intelligence data.  

General Powell is also critical of Hillary Clinton with whom he served and whom he knows well. He accuses her of “Unbridled ambition, (being) greedy and not (being) transformational.” The General is not a fan of the Secretary either although he doesn’t call her a national disgrace.

I watched a bit of Fox News this morning where an editor of the Wall Street Journal was holding forth on General Powell’s analysis of the candidates. This man said, with a perfectly straight face, that General Powell’s comments about Secretary Clinton were far more damaging to her than were his remarks about Donald Trump. His rationale for this curious comment was that such comments about Trump were old hat but Powell’s remarks about Clinton were new criticisms. We are to assume that being called a “national disgrace and an international pariah” is not nearly so damaging because many people have already made that assessment, than being declared “ambitious and greedy.” That’s how desperate this WSJ editor was to turn General Powell’s comments into something favorable for Trump.

Finally, on Guccifer 2.0’s comment about President Obama “selling” ambassadorships, our Russian friends should try to keep up with American political traditions. It is unfortunately common in all administrations for some mega-contributors to get ambassadorships whether or not they are qualified for them. This has happened in every administration at least in this century. Maybe the Russians could try something else to make Obama look bad; maybe they could claim that he wasn’t born in this country and so his presidency is illegitimate. No, wait; that’s been tried. It didn’t work.

2016 Sept 14^th

Cal Thomas must believe that he is one of Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables.” Clinton is now famous for saying, “You can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.” Thomas says, “This is the contempt with which the left holds traditional Americans.” Then Thomas continues his pity party by citing Michael Weiskopf who wrote that evangelical Christians were, “…mostly poor, uneducated and easily commanded.” Thomas tells us that this comment, “Prompted scores of evangelicals to send their resumes to the newspaper showing degrees, even doctorates, in various fields.” Thomas goes on to cite the RNC Chairman Priebus who claimed Clinton showed disrespect and condescension to her fellow Americans. Then Thomas says, “Half of them anyway…”

What a plethora of nonsense: We begin with Thomas’ comment that the half of the Trump supporters Clinton was talking about are “traditional Americans.” That would include David Duke and his KKK friends as well as other white supremacists and assorted bigots. These, according to Thomas, are traditional Americans. Thomas needs to get out and about more.

Priebus says that Clinton “disrespects” fellow citizens to which Thomas adds “Half of them anyway…” Cal seems to have a problem with fractions: Clinton specifically said “half” of Trump supporters were deplorable until she corrected herself suggesting that figure was too high. Half, or less, of Trump supporters are surely not half our citizens. Maybe a quarter of our citizens are Trump supporters.

Weiskopf’s analysis that evangelical Christians, “…are mostly poor, uneducated…” is not contradicted by a few self-selected, furious evangelicals sending their resumes to the local paper. Trump has hoodwinked Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, our most famous evangelical. Dobson is convinced that Trump is “a baby Christian” who can sometimes be “obscure” when he answers questions about his religion. That’s probably when he receives the sacrament and says that he feels “cleansed” after, “I drink my  little bit of wine (that’s the only wine I drink by the way) and eat my little cracker.” …Isn’t it curious that Cal Thomas, late of the Moral Majority, has absolutely nothing to say about that Trump comment? What an interesting “baby Christian” is Donald Trump.

An interesting note in all of Cal Thomas’ writings is the term “secular progressives.” That term occurs in the very first sentence of this piece. Perhaps Thomas only has a beef with “secular” progressives, not so much with Christian progressives…or maybe he doesn’t believe there are any Christian progressives.

2016 Sept 13^th

On Saturday afternoons in the fall, we are treated to a national pastime, college football. Then after watching college football players get their brains scrambled and their joints dislocated on Saturday, we can watch enormously more talented football professionals do the same thing for enormous amounts of money on Sunday.

There are two big differences between college and the pros: one is talent and the second is money. Your rookie year as a professional football player will pay you not less than 450 thousand dollars and possibly a great deal more if you were an outstanding college player. Your last year as a college player got you room and board. It was important that you keep your amateur standing, meaning that you could not get paid; only coaches get paid in college football. If college players got paid footfall would be a lot less lucrative for colleges. So colleges make sure that doesn’t happen.

College coaches make a lot of money and they are expected to win football games; not just win them but humiliate the opposing team if they can. They often arrange to play very weak teams early in the season so they can run up the score, thus convincing the administrators that “coach” is worth his inflated salary. This last Saturday Boston College beat Howard University 76 to 0, Closer to home, University of Michigan beat University of Hawaii 63 to 3, the next week they beat  University of Central Florida 51 to 14. Hey, is Jim Harbaugh a great coach or what. Harbaugh makes 7 million dollars a year from the University but adds to that income from various coach’s clinics, speaking fees and endorsements. Harbaugh is as well paid as any NFL coach. The University of Hawaii coach earns 400 thousand dollars a year, less than the lowest paid NFL rookie does.

There are handicaps in horseracing. Some horses must carry more weight than others. Why not have a handicap in college football? Base it on the difference in the coaches’ salaries. If the difference in salaries is less than two million dollars, normal rules apply. If there is more than a two million dollar difference then the team with the lower paid coach gets to add a man and continues to add a man for each million-dollar difference in coaches’ salary up to an additional four players. Under this rule Hawaii could field fifteen players and that might even the score a bit. Of course it’s silly; what isn’t silly about college football?

Why would the University of Hawaii agree to let its football team get beaten up and humiliated by the U. of Michigan team, one of the top ranked teams in the country? It is the same reason other outclassed football teams agree to play teams that will probably humiliate them in front of millions of TV viewers. Money. There is usually a guarantee of 500 thousand dollars for the outclassed team if they will agree to let the stronger team rub their noses in the dirt. The players don’t object because they will appear on national television and forever after be able to talk about the Saturday afternoon they played mighty Michigan; they don’t have to mention the score. Any concussions will probably wear off in time. If they don’t it won’t make a difference to the concussed although it might to his friends.

2016 Sept 12^th

As most people know, our country is faced with many very serious problems: Our economy, while improving, is not robust (nor is anyone’s), portions of our armed forces are at serious risk, North Korea is on the verge of the ability to use nuclear weapons against us and Russia is likely interfering in our national election. The list is not exhaustive.

Now comes George Will, a newly minted political independent (formerly known as a Republican) to write a column recommending the impeachment of the IRS commissioner. Will sees the problem as several years in the making. Indeed going back three years to when Lois Lerner was Director of Tax Exempt Organizations for the IRS. Lerner was mortally slow to grant exemptions to some organizations she considered sketchy and at the outcry from tea party types, resigned almost exactly three years ago on Sept. 23 2016.

Republicans, not entirely happy that Lerner had left without leaving behind a pound of flesh, insisted on an investigation. The FBI did the job and their report found that Lerner had committed no crimes but was guilty of poor management, which is not a crime (For which the Congress can be grateful.). This was most unsatisfactory to the many congressional investigating committees.

On December 23 2013, John Koskinen was sworn in as director of the IRS and then he was responsible for all the email requests from all of the investigating committees. According to Will, John Koskinen, “…failed to disclose the disappearance of emails germane to a congressional investigation of IRS misbehavior. Under his leadership the IRS failed to comply with a preservation  order pertaining to the investigation.” …Or, one could say John Koskinen, graduate of Yale Law, Duke University Phi Beta Kappa, and previous holder of many executive positions, failed utterly to waste his time on a witch hunt. Because of that George Will believes the House of Representative should take time from their critically busy schedules of continuing to push bills to resend The Affordable Care Act (50 so far) and vote for impeachment. Of course voting to impeach the head of the IRS might finally give them something they could agree on.

I like my version better than George Will’s. Why do Republicans, even after they leave their party, seem to return if the issue is about money or about entities connected to money? We shouldn’t be too hard on Mr. Will; he left the Republican Party only because Donald Trump had joined it.

2016 Sept 11^th

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the attack on the twin towers. This was the worst attack in our history and with more casualties than we endured at Pearl Harbor. There were 2403 Pearl Harbor casualties and 2990 immediate casualties from the 9/11 attacks. Many people died from the effects of the 9/11 attacks who were not killed on 9/11.

The attack had some beneficial effects: NYC became a different and more helpful place. That still exists in some quarters but not in all sections. Mayor Giuliani’s actions on the following few days from 9/11 earned him the title “America’s Mayor;” watch him on TV now and he has become a loud-mouthed thug.

The enemy attacking Pearl Harbor was obvious; after the attack on 9/11, they weren't nearly as clear. There were 19 attackers on 9/11 and 15 of them were Saudi citizens. Was the Saudi government behind the attack? Perhaps not directly in the sense that they provided financing for it, although whether they did that or not remains problematical. They were certainly responsible indirectly by creating Madrassa promoting Wahhabism. Wahhabism is an extreme form of Islam and devoted to Sharia law. That’s the code that require mutilation as the punishment for various offense and is the law of the land in Saudi Arabia. Schooling the 9/11 attackers in Saudi Madrassa guarantees that they will want to destroy Christians and that is just what they did… and they destroyed some moderate Muslims as well.

The irony here is that westerners, Christians, have been buying the Saudi oil and their purchases then fund the Madrassa that have as their purpose the killing of Christians as well as moderate Muslims.

The Saudis are starting Wahhabi Madrassa in Pakistan too. In 1956 there were 240 Madrassa in Pakistan; now, thanks to Saudi money from their oil sales, there are 24 thousand Madrassa in Pakistan, a hundred fold increase. We put in soldiers and they put in Madrassa; who do you think will win?

The Saudi’s don’t stop with Pakistan. They are funding their schools in Bosnia as well. There is the “King Fahd Cultural Center” designed to bring the delights of extreme Sharia law to Sarajevo in Bosnia. Hey folks your oil dollars are hard at work and their influence is spreading.

2016 Sept 9^th

This is a curious time; the bizarre has become the ordinary and we are falling down the rabbit hole. Now we have the moderator of the third debate, Chris Wallace, telling everyone, “I do not believe it’s my job to be a ‘Truth Squad.’” This is a clear message to Donald Trump that any exaggerations or outright lies (My tax return is under audit and I can’t release it until the audit is finished.) will be ignored by the Foxy Wallace. Mr. Wallace is already in the news because of his avowed reverence for Roger Ailes, former Fox News head, now removed from that job accused of soliciting sex from women employees and now attached to the Trump group as an advisor. Good luck to anyone who expects a neutral moderator in the third debate.

Donald Trump now stars on Russian state controlled television. I doubt that he knew it would happen this way, but Trump was interviewed by Larry King and the interview was aired on Russian TV. King asked Trump what he thought of the charges that the Russians had hacked, or tried to hack, into the DNC files. Trump claimed (falsely) that there was no evidence of that and besides, he said, it is probably something put forward by the Democrats. The Putin controlled press ate it up. Trump will probably ask for royalties.

Trump believes that Putin called him “brilliant” and so Trump has become fond of Putin. But Putin’s comment was mistranslated. The word in Russian translates as “colorful” not brilliant in the intellectual sense. But of course Trump, if there is any doubt, always assumes he is being complimented.

Trump’s intelligence briefing did not go without controversy. Trump has asserted that the official briefing him was very unhappy with the White House because they were not following the intelligence briefings. How did Trump know this? He knew it not because of anything the agent said but because of the agent’s body language. Trump claims to be an expert at reading body language. (Are we getting to the bottom of the rabbit hole yet?)

Retired General Flynn, a truly rabid Trump supporter, kept interrupting the intelligence agent doing the briefing until Governor Christie finally told him to shut up. Naturally, all the Trumpians involved deny that happened but it was leaked by four people in the room. Whatever virus is infecting Trump seems to be contagious.

Trump’s affinity for Russia and Putin is curious. Trump says that if Putin says nice things about him, he will say nice things about Putin. Now we are back in the fourth grade. Trump and his fans, including his son, have all pointed out that Putin is a much stronger leader then President Obama. Trump admits that he “doesn’t agree with the system” however. The system gives this former KGB agent control of state television. Putin determines what you see on TV in Russia. Journalists who write unflattering pieces about Putin wind up dead. There is no effective counter to him in Russia. If Trump lived in Russia and ran for office against Putin with the lies and viciousness he shows against President Obama and Hillary Clinton, he would be dead within a month and his children with him.

Originally, a plank in the Republican platform called for sending arms to Ukraine to help them defend themselves against a Russian invasion. Although Trump’s people deny it, that plank was removed from the Republican party’s platform once Trump became the nominee.

Frankly, I have no idea how we get out of this rabbit hole.

2016 Sept 10^th

What little news has happened today hardly deserves a comment. Trump continues his lies about being opposed to the Iraq War before it began; a couple of his surrogates now tell us that they believe that President Obama was, really and truly, born in the united States. Trump has not agreed with them and still claims he “doesn’t want to discuss it.”

Trumpeters believe unanimously that Putin is a stronger leader than President Obama; they would agree that Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin were also “stronger” leaders. None of them, including Putin, had to deal with a hostile Congress.

Obama’s hostile Congress was confronted with “Executive Actions” so at least some things the government was responsible for could be accomplished. This irritated Mona Charen all to pieces and, in response to her column about it, here is my blog.

Mona Charen, 2015, Sept 2^nd

Mona is just beside herself (whatever that means) today about the utter, complete and unmitigated lawlessness of President Obama. She has many, many complaints and any of them could lead to impeachment except that “impeachment would tear the country apart” not that this possibility has previously concerned any conservatives. What is she so upset about? Her major complaint is President Obama granting legal status to 4 million, plus or minus, undocumented aliens. (It happens that SCOTUS invalidated this attept.)

What’s the background here? A comprehensive immigration reform bill had passed the Senate 68 to 32 with 14 Republicans crossing party line to vote with the Democrats. Then the bill went to the Republican-dominated House which refused to take it up and there it languished. These undocumented people were in limbo because any employer could take advantage of them and they couldn’t complain for fear of deportation, so President Obama granted them “Green Cards” which meant that they were now here legally.

The President did this by executive action, another very sore point for Charen. She believes that using executive action is very naughty. During his Presidency Ronald Reagan used executive action 381 times; President Obama in six years has used it 191 times. He’ll have to hurry to catch up with Reagan. Then President Reagan used executive action to defer the deporting of 100 thousand undocumented aliens; this isn’t mentioned by Charen. President G.H.W. Bush used executive orders to defer the deporting of 1.5 million undocumented aliens; this isn’t mentioned by Charen. Perhaps it isn’t so much what the President does but the party the President belongs to that influences Charen? Surely not!

President Obama has had to deal with a recalcitrant Congress ever since he took office. Most recently we have the case of the Attorney General Loretta Lynch. This woman’s appointment was held up for 166 days for purely political reasons. Her qualifications were never in dispute. Finally an embarrassed Senate managed to approve her. The Republican leadership opposed anything President Obama wanted to do and they opposed it even before he became President.

What follows is an excerpt from Robert Draper’s book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the House of Representatives.”

“It reveals some of my reporting on the Republican plot to obstruct President Obama before he even took office, including secret meetings led by House whip Eric Cantor (in December 2008) and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (in early January 2009) in which they laid out their daring (though cynical and political) no-honeymoon strategy of all-out resistance to a popular President-elect during an economic emergency. “If he was for it,” former Ohio Senator George Voinovich explained, “we had to be against it.”

It is obvious that for this President to accomplish anything he would have to control Congress or he would have to bypass it. He did what he had to do and Republicans and their crony columnists can’t stop screaming about it.

2016 Sept 8^th

Some interesting news today comes from “Morning Joe.” The Libertarian Party presidential candidate, Governor Gary Johnson, was being interviewed, and Mike Barnacle, a regular and more liberal commentator, asked Johnson if he were elected president what would he do about Aleppo.  Johnson’s response stunned the assembly; he said, “What is Aleppo.” Barnacle, taken off balance said, “You’re kidding.” Johnson said, “No,” and then Barnacle told him that Aleppo, which had dominated the news for days because of the enormous humanitarian toll there, instructed this former governor of New Mexico about this ancient city in Syria and the role it was playing in the news…all of it apparently news to Johnson. Subsequently, with further questioning, it was apparent that Johnson really had heard of Aleppo but this gaffe will not get him to the 15 percent he needs to get into the debates. He got rich from running a big construction company in New Mexico but thinking under pressure is not a strong point for him.

The evening’s entertainment was provided by Matt Lauer interviewing Trump and Clinton, ostensibly to determine which candidate was more fit to command our military; it was an amateurish mess.  This is not my opinion alone but seems to be the consensus for those observing this event.

Lauer concentrated on questions about Clinton’s emails for nearly half the time he had for her questioning. Then, when the remaining time was short, he kept preceding the meat of his questions with “As briefly as you can…” Clinton could not respond “briefly” to many of the complex policy questions she was asked, so she didn’t look good.

Lauer simply couldn’t handle Trump. He would ask Trump a question, on one occasion it was on the order of “What do you read to prepare for the debates?” Trump “answered” by pointing to some retired generals in the audience and saying that he talks to them. There was no insistence from Lauer, “But I asked you what you read.” When asked about his admiration for Putin, Trump claimed that the Russian was a much better leader than President Obama. Then he said that Putin had said nice things about him and so he would say nice things about Putin. This is Trumps view of diplomacy and its methods.

Hillary Clinton has maintained that her reluctance to hold press conferences is because she is not treated fairly by the press. Anyone who watched Matt Lauer’s performance with its enormous gap between his treatments of these two candidates would have to agree with her. We must hope that the debate moderator will be more professional. That’s not likely, at least it isn’t for the third debate for which the moderator is Fox News’ Chris Wallace. Wallace has been very unhappy with the exit of Roger Aisles from Fox News. Wallace’s praise of Aisles is beyond glowing, “He was the best boss I had in all my years in this business.” Now Aisles is a Trump adviser and Wallace is moderating a debate between Clinton and Trump.

I watched a bit of Trump’s subsequent analysis of the night’s activities. It was simply a litany of self-justification; he said that he had opposed from the war from the very beginning, Hillary Clinton had done a very poor job, and on and on. When Trump holds forth like this, there is no countervailing voice, so he can tell all the lies he pleases. We can be sure there will be many more of his unopposed eruptions, usually unscripted speeches and always to the faithful.

3016 Sept 7^th

Today we have a column from Patrick J. Buchanan. From my perspective, it is lovely to have a well that never runs dry. Buchanan memorializes the late Phyllis Schlafly whose most recent book appeared in bookstores the day after she died. The title of Ms. Schlafly’s book was “The Conservative Case for Trump.”  The book, published by Regnery a publisher noted for supporting conservative rants, has a tough sell if it wishes to convert many conservatives into believing that Donald Trump is a conservative.

Schlafly’s first book, a self-published work backing Barry Goldwater for president, sold 3 million copies, largely as a result of Schlafly’s personal efforts. Goldwater carried only six states in the election of 1964, but Schlafly was encouraged enough to persist in her activities to keep women in their traditional rolls and thus to enthusiastically oppose the equal rights amendment, which Buchanan is convinced, she singlehandedly defeated. (The Dallas Morning News, an ultra-conservative newspaper has refused to back Trump for president and has encouraged its readers to vote for Clinton. The last time the Dallas Morning News refuse to back a Republican presidential nominee was when Goldwater ran against President Johnson.)

Trump’s position on many issues dear to conservatives is unclear. But then most of Trump’s positions on issues he has addressed are unclear, or if they are clear they are subject to change depending upon his audience and the phase of the moon.

Consider global warming: The conservative’s position on this issue is very clear; it is a hoax. Dr. Carson, the noted neurosurgeon and Trump supporter thinks it is a hoax and so does Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma who brought a snowball into the senate chamber to provide definitive proof that global warming didn’t exist.  Who says you can’t be a senator and a scientist at the same time?

Trump agrees; he has called global warming “bullshit” and a hoax. On the other hand he wants to build a seawall to protect parts of his Scottish golf course from the rising North Sea water level and the erosion caused by … guess what, global warming! He specifically mentions global warming as the reason his petition to build a protective seawall should be approved.

Buchanan tells us that, “Free trade dogma comes out of the party of Wilson and FDR not the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.” Pat must know that that Republican champion Ronald Reagan was all for free trade and all for open borders. But of course Pat won’t admit it.

Here is a Reagan eulogy by Daniel Griswold of the Atlantic in 2004:

“In the many eulogies to Ronald Reagan since his passing, virtually all acknowledge his role in defeating Soviet communism and reviving America’s self-confidence. But another aspect of Reagan’s record that should not be forgotten was his commitment to keeping America open to trade and immigration.

Reagan’s vision of an America open to commerce and peaceful, hardworking immigrants contradicts the anti-trade and anti-immigration views espoused by Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, and many others who claim to speak for the conservative causes Reagan largely defined.

Reagan’s heart and head were clearly on the side of free trade. While president, he declared in 1986: ‘Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets. I recognize … the inescapable conclusion that all of history has taught: The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations.’”

This doesn’t fit at all with Buchanan’s view of conservatism so of course he refuses to acknowledge it.

2016 Sept 6^th

Thomas Sowell instructs us today about statistics; although perhaps it would be better to say he warns us about statistics. He begins by citing Mark Twain’s well-worn warning that there are lies, damned lies and statistics. There is also the equally well-worn comment that you can prove anything with statistics. That’s true, but only if you are directing your argument at someone who knows nothing about statistics.

Sowell begins with examples of what he considers misleading data using household statistics. He points out, correctly, that the top  20 percent of households have more income than the bottom 20 percent of households, Then goes on to claim, again accurately, that there are many more people in the top ten percent of households than in the bottom ten percent. The implication, of course, is that this increased income in the top ten percent is due to the increase in the number of people in the top households.

It is true that household incomes increase with the number of household inhabitants but the relationship is certainly not linear. Once households get above six members the total household income goes down, hardly a surprise.

Sowell writes, “A little over half of the households in the bottom20 percent have nobody working. You don’t usually get a lot of income for doing nothing. In 2010 there were more people working fulltime in the top 5 percent of households than in the bottom 20 percent.”

That “over half of households in the bottom 20 percent have nobody working” might possibly be due to the fact that these households consist of single retirees living on Social Security and some savings. Other households in this group might be physically incapacitated and living on Supplemental Social Security. Sowell cannot imagine any such thing. From his comments, it is clear that he believes households in the bottom 20 percent are there due to laziness. He suggests no other reason.

Twenty-seven percent of all households in this country are one-person households. Their median income is just over 27 thousand dollars; for two person households the income is just over 58 thousand dollars. The median household income in this country is 51 thousand dollars but the median family income, which eliminates one-person households, is 62 thousand dollars.

Should Sowell be interested, these data were provided by Danielle Hale, Director of Housing Statistics, Economists Outlook.

2016 Sept 5^th

This is Labor Day and is the usual date given for the beginning of the presidential campaign. Isn’t that silly? Many are now claiming that it is already too late for Donald Trump to turn around his insults and make nice to minorities. In this case the “many” are probably right. The polls are tightening and the Trumpian surrogates are picking from among the polls for those showing the biggest gains for “Mr. Trump.” Alex Castellanos has even found one where Trump is ahead in Ohio. I’ll bet he gets a bonus for that finding. The Trump plane and the Clinton plane were parked on the same tarmac in Ohio. I don’t think they spoke or acknowledged each other in any way. So sad!

Trump has become quite agitated by Arizona’s Senator Flake, even to the point of sending off belittling tweets with the usual name calling that for Trump passes for substantive criticism. Flake hasn’t endorsed Trump and for Trump that is a casus belli. Let’s face it, if your last name is Flake and you can get still elected to the US senate you have some considerable political smarts. Arizona has a sizable Latino population and Donald Trump does not favorably impress them, nor are they likely to be impressed by anyone supporting him. Moreover, Senator Flake was one of that infamous “Gang of Eight,” a bipartisan group of eight senators who tried to find a way to citizenship for undocumented residents. You can see why there would be sparks between Trump and Flake. In this contretemps Flake has much to gain and Trump has nothing to gain except, possibly, some salve for his easily bruised ego. Trump wasting his time on this pettiness surely delights the Clinton people.

Trump must feel that if Senator Flake of Arizona, a state where he made a major address on immigration, does not support him then to ignore that slight is to admit to being a “loser.” For Donald Trump being a loser is the worst condition imaginable, and he should know because he has been a loser often enough.

We begin with the Central Park Five, a group of hoodlums who terrorized people in central park and were arrested for the murder of a woman jogger.  Trump paid over 80 thousand dollars for a full page ad claiming that they were guilty of that murder and they should be executed. While they had much to answer for, it was proved that they were not guilty of that murder. Trump was a loser.

Then his Atlantic City gambling empire was Trump Plaza and Resort. It has closed and was a business failure. Trump was a loser again.

Trump University, is now closed and those students are suing Trump for fraud. Trump was a loser there too.

Other examples can easily be found. The biggie is the money Trump owes to China. One of his properties is financed in part by a loan from the Bank of China to the tune of 950 million dollars.  Oh dear, is Trump a loser to China too?

2016 Sept 4^th

I begin today with a question; it’s rhetorical so do know this is not a quiz. How much money do you suppose someone requires as compensation for going in front of cameras on national television and making a fool of themselves?...Professional comics excepted.

Governor Pence is one of those who has the job of cleaning up after Trump and Pence is still paid by the state of Indiana whose governor he is. How much of Indiana’s business do you suppose he has conducted in the last six months? Just this morning on Meet the Press, the man, when asked about Trump’s obvious switcheroos on his immigration position said, with a perfectly straight face, “I think Donald Trump has been completely consistent.” When a candidate for the vice presidency says that, he winds up with the credibility of Spiro T. Agnew, another famous con artist and a Republican to boot, who actually got elected to the vice presidency.

We wait to see if Trump finds the debate moderators satisfactory. If he doesn’t like them, or if he believes they will treat him “unfairly,” or if he simply needs an excuse to avoid debating Hillary Clinton, he will not debate. He also has no intention of releasing his income tax records before the election. His excuse that he is being audited and that he can’t release his returns until the audit is finished is bogus and has been so declared by the IRS.

Pence has put his congressional papers into “hiding” not to be available until after his death. Now we have both Trump and his VP concealing stuff. Pence is a tea party stalwart who supports a bill to change the 14^th Amendment that grants citizenship to anyone born in this country. He is on record claiming that restricting Muslim immigration would be unconstitutional. Trump’s change to banning immigration from “unsettled” countries with rebellious Muslim populations would keep out all of those awful French, but that might not be unconstitutional according to Pence.

Alex Castellanos participated in Chuck Todd’s ‘Meet the Press’ this morning. Alex is a right wing advisor and seems to be willing to do a bit of distorting if it serves the purpose of his employer.

Castellanos says in describing the Clinton Foundation, “Because that idea that somehow the Clinton Foundation is this wonderful thing that helps people, most charities give 75 percent of their money in direct aid. The Clinton Foundation gives less than ten. In 2013, they raised 140 million bucks, gave 9 million to people in direct aid. It's a slush fund for the Clintons.”

Castellanos provides not a shred of evidence that the Clintons have ever taken a penny from the Clinton Foundation. Note also the weasel word “..given to people in direct aid…” Why not tell us the total disbursements? (FactCheck gives the total charitable disbursements as about 85 percent.) This 6 percent figure paints an unfavorable picture of the Clintons and that is Castellanos goal. Castellanos is right up there with Steve Bannon, ex-Mayor Giuliani and other truth tellers helping Donald Trump.

2016 Sept 3^rd

Donald Trump was in church today, not just any church but an African American church in the heart of black Detroit. I watched a very little of the action; there was clapping and rhythmic body movements all of which Trump did his best to join. I have never seen a man look more uncomfortable or more out of place. He gave a short, low-volume, low bluster, attempt to win hearts and minds. I doubt that it worked with his immediate audience and that probably wasn’t his target audience anyway. His appearance in Detroit made him look less like a bigot but only to people with very short memories. The image he projects of blacks is that of a monolithic community living in poverty and in fear of their lives if they step off their porches. This is inaccurate and is insulting to many black listeners. His polls among black voters are abysmal.

Trump’s problems with all minorities are well known. He also has a significant problem with the truth, particularly when he describes his opponent’s positions. There are several examples of his truth-stretching and truth-ignoring provided by FactCheck.org. Here is a Trump quote, “Hillary Clinton has pledged amnesty in her first 100 days, and her plan will provide Obamacare, Social Security, and Medicare for illegal immigrants, breaking the federal budget.”

Illegal immigrants cannot collect Social Security benefits, so Trump gets four Pinocchios for that one. Once immigrants become lawful permanent residents and have a ten-year history of paying all taxes, they become eligible for SS retirement benefits.

Clinton does support a plan for comprehensive immigration reform leading to full citizenship. Trump says her plan would “break the budget” but the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says the immigration reform portion of Clinton’s plan would save the budget 100 billion dollars over ten years.

Trump claims Clinton would bring in 620 thousand refugees from Syria. She never said any such thing, but Trump has multiplied the 55 thousand Clinton has suggested should be admitted and added that to the  100 thousand Obama has called for and then multiplied that total by four years to get the 620 thousand figure. I mean is this guy great at arithmetic or what? It must be that Wharton School education.

Trump is also confused about how many illegal aliens are in this country…and he assumes that everyone else’s is confused too. They aren’t. Trump claims the number of undocumented aliens in this country could be anywhere from 3 million to 30 million “Our government has no idea what the number is.” Census agencies have pegged the number at 11 million with an expected error of plus or minus one million. Trump’s numbers are much better because they let him disparage the government as a bunch of know-nothings.

Trump hammers away at the problem of visitors who overstay their visas. Just how big a problem is that? There were 45 million visitors to this country in fiscal 2015. Just slightly over 1 percent of those overstayed their visas. For all of our national problems, why does Trump make this a priority? You might be living next door to someone here on an expired visa; what a horror!

2016 Sept 2^nd

Public officials, governors, attorney generals, vice presidents and even presidents are sometimes venal. This ethical fault is understandable in a society such as ours, which equates worth with money. A big league pitcher’s contract pays him over 16 thousand dollars a pitch. He might be worth it and his negotiating to get that income doesn’t mean the man is venal. Venality happens when people are bribable, when they accept money for favors.  Consider that four of the last seven governors of Illinois, three of them Democrats, are in prison for various felonies. Rod Blagojevich, the most recently incarcerated, was apparently trying to sell President Obama’s old senate seat. Mr. Blagojevich has started a rock band in prison. Perhaps he is preparing for a new career.

President Nixon’s Vice Presidential selection, Spiro T. Agnew, resigned his office rather than face charges for taking bribes. The current Attorney General of Florida, Pamela Bondi, accepted a 25 thousand dollar campaign “gift” from Donald Trump and then declined to push for his prosecution on fraud charges in the case of “Trump University.” Ms. Bondi is outraged that anyone should imply a connection between these events and, of course, it’ quite possible there wasn’t any.

Not all the actions of public officials are controlled by greed, some are simply to increase their status and stifle dissent. Richard Nixon is the prime example. His “enemies list” and Trump’s angry tweeting at anyone whose comments offend him have much in common. Neither man could handle anyone who disagreed with them without becoming irrational.

The case of Florida’s Governor Rick Scott is curious. Several politicians are in denial about global warming. Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma has gone so far as to write a book calling global warming a hoax. (The Senator’s background in the physics of climatology is obscure… no, it’s not obscure, it is nonexistent.)

Governor Rick Scott is fighting global warming in a unique way; he has decreed that the phrase “global warming” and the phrase “climate change” are not allowed to appear in any government material. I assume that Governor Scott believes that this will make the reality of global warming and the attendant rise of the sea levels in Florida moot. It won’t. What it does is to make any attempt to compensate for the problem incredibly difficult.

This is a kind of magical thinking not uncommon in pathology. Some mental patients have been known to write “Bed” on a slip of paper, place the paper on the floor and then lie down on it and go to sleep.

The Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, has presented his constituents with a dilemma. LePage has challenged a legislator to a duel and said he hoped to shoot the man “between the eyes.’ Then he said that he would resign as governor; then he said he would never again speak to the press. So where has this stopped? It hasn’t stopped; LePage has anger issues now that cannot be addressed outside of a mental institution. It seems unlikely that LePage will see the inside of any such establishment, and so good luck to the people of Maine.

2016 Sept 1^st

Cal Thomas, in his column today, takes serious issue with Secretary Clinton’s comment about activities now called “pay for play” when she was Secretary of State. Thomas writes, “She added, ‘I know there‘s a lot of smoke, and there’s no fire.’” In response to Clinton’s comment about there being just smoke and no fire, Cal Thomas presents us with no less an authority on fire than his firefighter son who assures us that if there is smoke there is, or there has been, a fire of some kind.

It is not surprising that Cal Thomas, past vice president of the Moral Majority, would take a metaphor like, “Where there’s smoke there’s fire,” literally. The Bible is chock full of metaphors all of which our fundamentalist friends believe are literally true, even to the point of searching about on Mt. Ararat for the remains of the mythical ark.

So far there is no evidence that Mrs. Clinton provided any benefit, except introductions, to those who donated to her foundation. Keep in mind that since the founding of the Republic those who donated to successful Presidential candidates have enjoyed ambassadorial appointments with all of the splendid amenities associated with those posts; now that’s really “pay for play.” None of that was mentioned on Fox. President Bush appointed 50 friends and supporters to ambassadorships. I wonder what they paid. We’ll never know.

Trump managed to look presidential in Mexico when he shared the stage with Mexican President Pena Nieto. Trump has been criticized for not insisting on camera that Mexico would have to pay for his wall. Unfortunately, we weren’t privy to the discussion between the two men off camera, before their joint statement. While there was no discussion of the wall in the joint statement, President Pena Nieto insisted that there had been a statement by him refusing to pay for the wall when the two were talking privately. Who knows?

Later in the evening, in his Arizona speech, Trump managed to mend his sagging immigration fences at least with Ann Coulter. His previous immigration softening had dampened her new book’s coming out party. Ann had been quite vocal in her unhappiness about that perceived change on immigration. Now with Trump’s return to his familiar attack persona, Ms. Coulter is once again a happy camper. Ms. Coulter’s TV appearances convince all who hear her that she firmly believes aggressive loudness trumps logic. It’s not surprising that she is a Trump fan.