“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
- “Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True.” Now it’s official: The vote, including Trump’s mail-in, won’t be rigged in Florida.
- When it comes to uncertainties over mail-in votes, it would be more than helpful if the U.S. president were to advocate for a geared-up U.S. Postal Service—given the reality of an increased volume of mail during a pandemic. But, alas, the president is Donald Trump and Louis DeJoy, the big-dollar donor he appointed to run the USPS, has followed Trump’s instructions to eliminate overtime for postal workers—thus virtually guaranteeing delivery delays during the election period. And it hardly helped that Ronald Stroman, the Postal Service Board of Governors member who oversaw mail-in voting, recently resigned. Prior to that, the other five board members had been replaced by Trump. And, BTW, there’s another agenda afoot. DeJoy’s cost-cutting is also being seen as a preliminary move toward the privatization of the Postal Service.
- While presidential elections are partisan political events, not everyone with a stake in the outcome is home grown. Foreign countries—allies and adversaries—are calculating the outcome. Chances are Russia, Brazil, Turkey and The Philippines are rooting for a fellow-authoritarian to win re-election. Iran, for sure, isn’t. It’s expanding its nuclear program and won’t negotiate with Trump, who pulled America out of the multi-national, Iranian nuclear deal. “He is going to benefit from negotiations,” said Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who knows how Trump vainly sought to leverage his center-stage, North Korean negotiations.
- Speaking of Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign-policy priorities: Keep Trump in the White House and keep Turkey in NATO.
- “Pathetic.” That’s how Trump labeled (White House coronavirus task force coordinator) Dr. Deborah Birx’s characterization of the virus as “extraordinarily widespread.” He also criticized her “taking the bait” from Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Indeed, pathetic.
- “He’s against God.” The morally-challenged hypocrite-in-chief referring to Joe Biden.
- Here’s what’s really, really embarrassing: That all Americans aren’t, well, embarrassed by the aforementioned avatar of immorality, incompetence, ignorance and narcissism.
- So why sit down with Axios’ Jonathan Swan for a predictably embarrassing interview–that highlighted, so to speak, Trump’s clueless, classless and prevaricating nature–on Russian bounties, John Lewis’ legacy and the coronavirus? Was the only other choice Rachel Maddow? Yet another reminder that the uninformed, unhinged Trump is not advised, to the degree he is advisable, by the best and brightest.
- No, Kanye West running for president isnot the same as Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, Jill Stein or even George Wallace making a run. Sure their votes had impact, but their campaigns were never directly abetted by agenda-driven, other-party operatives. Not the case here. Exhibit A: Wisconsin, a key swing state, where at least a half dozen individuals—GOP activists and Trump supporters—are helping West get on the ballot of a state that Trump won by less than 23,000 votes—and now trails Joe Biden. Among those Trump supporters: Lane Ruhland, an attorney who has worked for the Trump campaign and has been representing it in a lawsuit filed this year against a Wisconsin TV station for airing an ad critical of Trump’s coronavirus response. This is about a blatant effort—formerly known as “dirty tricks”–to try and siphon off a few African-American votes to possibly make a difference in another election that could come down to a handful of votes in key states. One other thing: This is a gross insult to African-American voters: As if having a bizarre, black celebrity for a candidate were sufficient reason to vote for West.
- No, it won’t go on a hat or a bumper sticker, but it does unmask and reflect the Trump-cult mentality: “Don’t Tread on Me, but I Can Breathe on You.”
- “I think (Trump’s) crazy. I think he’s unfit for office.”—Remember that? Lindsey Graham wishes you didn’t.
- Still in the running for Trump’s acceptance speech site: The White House, Gettysburg, Tulsa, The Villages.
- Mt. Flushmore: “Never suggested it although … (it) sounds like a good idea.”—Trump on the possibility of being chiseled onto a monument.
- “Yo-Seminite” NationalPark. “Thigh-land.” Whatever.
- “It is what it is.” May it be: It was what it was.