Thanks for the note about Michale. Hope he's OK. Might email him to see how he's doing.

You thinking about doing a fall fundraiser? Maybe after the election.

-David

I still think Trump wants to go down swinging.

The last thing he wants to have to do is lead the free world, despite his ironic choice of music to open up his presidential campaign.

I think that Trump had so altered the mood for all in attendance that It was probably the reason Hillary didn't get at least "courtesy laughs" on some of her jokes. He'd turned a really nice event into something ugly.

I tip my cap to you. That was beautifully stated.

Russ

Does it count if you get knocked out by a girl?

Who you calling "girl"? #NastyWoman ;)

You are an enigma wrapped in a fortune cookie.

I love fortune cookies.
Sweet (not necessarily to me all the time, but you obviously care a great deal about humanity) and crunchy (as in determined and intelligent) on the outside, and often a source of wisdom on the inside.

I occasionally find you puzzling, but you have earned my respect.

My favorite fortune from a cookie was an aphorism from Confucius-

"The person who knows everything has a lot to learn".

Don't for a second think my resolve and strong opinions mean that I think I know everything... because I've learned a lot from you.

A

The Trumpon will lose.
I doubt his cohort of whiners will turn to violence, but they aren't going anywhere either.

Unfortunately, I fully expect Hillary to provide her critics on the left and right with ammunition that will show voters that her high unfavorable numbers are justified.
Nothing can redeem Trump, but anybody expecting an era of progress will be disappointed.

It may take two years for this to become apparent (midterms), but her actions and those of her fellow neoliberal corporatist warmongers will do more damage to the Democratic party than Trump ever imagined he could.

Hillary's gung ho support for an illegal war, starting with a no-fly zone in Syria has impending disaster written all over it.

The Wall Street friendly TPP may pass in the lame duck session, supposedly insulating Hillary from any fallout, but Obama and her biggest allies and supporters in Congress and the corporate establishment will be responsible, and most will see she shares the blame too.

Senator Schumer came out the other day saying a massive corporate tax cut for the two and a half trillion in corporate profits stashed overseas will be a top priority... something Hillary's secret speeches revealed she too supports.
The corporate media will spin the issue for our tax evaders and ignore that a huge chunk of those profits were actually earned on sales made in the US that were channeled through overseas offices... thus enabling the loophole abusing tax evaders to keep avoiding paying their fair share.

The fatal flaws in the corporate subsidy scheme known as Obamacare will become more apparent, and Hillary's "fixes" will do nothing (assuming she even tries to get them passed in Congress).
The only effective fixes require actions to prevent the price gouging by insurers and drug manufacturers, and Hillary is in bed with them.

The violations of our Constitution will continue.
The fossil fuel industry will remain subsidized and coddled.
The guilty elite criminals will remain unprosecuted.
And on and on.

Onwards to "victory".

A

I don't take Trump's threat all that seriously. The guy is exhausted, shell shocked, demoralized. He BELIEVES he is going to lose the election.

In the end, Trump will look at his business prospects, which is his brand, which is in big trouble. Stoking a genuine civil war would be very bad for his brand, which will ultimately require some discreet burnishing, with power tools and a lot of solvents. It will never be the brand it was, and never the titan claimed by Trump.

A Twitter War Between the States seems to me Trump's best way out. He can Twitter his way to something approaching mental health again. The guy is a showman, showman bounce back.

The Confederacy was an Establishment Insurrection led by politicians of long experience with access to well regulated militia. Trump is an upstart with access to nothing equivalent. He has matches, but damp fuel.

Didn't you like his 'Pardon me' joke? That was hilarious!

I keep imagining a post election meme of that almost final scene of the movie, Trading Places. Billy Ray Valentine is handing a dollar to Louis Winthorpe III but with Trump's head replacing Valentine's and Hillary's head replacing Winthorpe's. Trump's line:

Oh, see, I made Hillary a bet here. See, Hillary bet me that we couldn't both get her elected and destroy the Republican party at the same time. She didn't think we could do it. I won.

The more that I've watched the Great Pumpkin in these last few weeks the more that I'm reminded of the quote from Will that practically kicked off this campaign, when people were still accusing Bill Clinton of having encouraged Trump to run in the first place with the aim of disrupting the primaries. Will replied (to Brit Hume, I think):

"If Donald Trump were a Democratic mole placed in the Republican Party to disrupt things, how would his behavior be any different?"

http://cjonline.com/opinion/2016-10-18/george-will-donald-trump-gops-chemotherapy

"You've been hearing me say it's a rigged system, but now I don't say it anymore because I won. It's true. Now I don't care. I don't care and the only way I won was I won by such big margins because it is a rigged system. But the only way you can do it, it's like a boxer, you got to knock them out then you don't got to worry about the judges."

Does it count if you get knocked out by a girl?

I'd give Hillary a 6/10, and Trump a 2/10.

Trump did have one great joke:

Michelle gives a speech and everybody loves it, Melania gives the exact same speech and everybody gets on her case."

Welcome back! We've been missing your presence!

Also, Michale is busy recovering from the hurricane, so the comments threads have been rather subdued of late...

:-)

-CW

Anyways, loved the article. Sorry haven't been around here much lately. New job has kicked my butt over the last 6 months.

-David

P.s. Can we just vote on this thing already? :)