[ Posted Friday, October 4th, 2024 – 17:49 UTC ]
There were two major events in the presidential race this week, but we are left wondering if either one of them is going to make much of a difference one way or the other. Perhaps we're getting a bit jaded by it all....
The first was the one-and-only vice-presidential debate, held on CBS this Tuesday. Republican JD Vance faced off with Democrat Tim Walz, and it was watched by 43 million people as it aired. The second was the public release of a document prosecutor Jack Smith had previously filed with the court in Donald Trump's January 6th case. It laid out Smith's basic case, in great detail (165 pages' worth).
In a normal campaign season, either one of these would have been impactful, perhaps shifting the polling in significant ways. But in our hunkered-down tribalistic politics, the needle barely quivered. Maybe we're all getting a bit jaded?
There were two other rather large events that could affect politics this week: the massive damage Hurricane Helene did -- especially in the Appalachian Mountain region -- and an East Coast dockworkers' strike. The first shouldn't really have been political, and the second was over almost before anyone was aware it was happening.
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[ Posted Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024 – 16:06 UTC ]
After what were arguably the two most consequential presidential debates since at least the Nixon-Kennedy debate (which launched the era of televised debates), last night's vice-presidential debate was pretty... well, normal. It harkened back to the age before Donald Trump entered the political scene, when two candidates would debate political issues without getting overly vicious or personal in their attacks, in the hopes of presenting themselves to the public as acceptable leaders of the country. That was really the striking takeaway from last night -- a return to normalcy, in the midst of yet another Trumpian rollercoaster of a presidential campaign. In fact, this normalcy stuck out as completely abnormal to the bizarre political landscape Trump has dragged us all into for the past nine years.
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[ Posted Friday, September 27th, 2024 – 17:31 UTC ]
Donald Trump got his start in politics by infamously pushing the "birtherism" lie about Barack Obama. Now he's pushing what might be called a "burgerism" lie about Kamala Harris -- that she somehow just made up the fact that she worked at McDonald's back when she was a student. It's all a measure of the desperation Trump finds himself now wallowing in, since to date none of his attacks against Harris have even come close to landing.
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[ Posted Thursday, September 26th, 2024 – 15:57 UTC ]
In a surprise turn of events, the mayor of New York City will not now go on to run for president. Or maybe that should read: In a surprise turn of events, this time it wasn't the governor of New York caught in a career-ending scandal, but instead just the mayor of New York City.
That's the way I reacted to hearing the breaking news that New York City Mayor Eric Adams had been indicted on five federal charges, including bribery and money-laundering: "Wait... the mayor? Shouldn't that be the governor?!?" I apologize to Governor Kathy Hochul for this knee-jerk reaction, since (as of yet) she has not been implicated in any career-ending scandal. But it should be a forgivable reaction, after reviewing the recent history of both offices.
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[ Posted Wednesday, September 25th, 2024 – 15:44 UTC ]
Republicans have a problem with women. Their problem is basically that more and more women don't want to vote for them. By increasingly-wide margins, in fact. Some Republicans have now begun to realize this, and they are desperately trying to woo these women back to their side of the aisle. This is not going well, to put it mildly.
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[ Posted Friday, September 20th, 2024 – 17:17 UTC ]
Donald Trump (rather infamously) never admits he's wrong. Even on things that are easy to disprove with incontrovertible evidence, Trump will still insist he is right. He will construct an alternate reality inside his own head where he is proven to be right and all those who disagree are proven to be in some giant conspiracy against him, and he will go right on insisting that up is down, or that night is actually day. He never backs down and certainly never apologizes -- no matter how much harm his lies may cause.
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[ Posted Thursday, September 19th, 2024 – 15:27 UTC ]
CNN just published a bombshell report with details of the online past of the Republican gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina, the current Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. Much of their reporting dealt with Robinson's history on a pornographic site, which is in keeping with previous reports that Robinson was a regular at video porn shops in the town where he lived in the 1990s and 2000s. But what's much more concerning than his apparent sexual tastes and habits is what he had to say on plenty of other subjects. An argument can be made that a person's private sexual habits aren't really germane to their fitness for office, but it's a whole lot harder to say the same thing about someone who openly supports bringing slavery back.
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[ Posted Wednesday, September 18th, 2024 – 15:09 UTC ]
Sadly, that is not the title of an upcoming episode of The Simpsons. Instead, it is how the citizens of an Ohio town are now feeling, due to the stochastic terrorism coming from the very top of the Republican presidential ticket. People in Springfield are scared because these nationally-known politicians are lying about them, demonizing them, scapegoating them, and dehumanizing them. This is a perfect recipe for some hotheaded deranged individual to commit a random act of violence against them, which is precisely why they are so scared right now.
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[ Posted Tuesday, September 17th, 2024 – 15:41 UTC ]
In the political debate over abortion, people like Donald Trump (and plenty of others) like to use a dodge, when talking about what they support. They say they are in favor of three exceptions to abortion bans: rape, incest, and "the life of the mother." But what does that last one mean, on a practical basis? It means needless suffering, pain, risk, and in some cases the actual death of the mother -- all because doctors are scared of being thrown in jail for providing necessary medical services on a timely basis. This is beyond tragic and completely unnecessary, and yet it is no mere hypothetical -- it is happening right here in the United States of America in the twenty-first century.
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[ Posted Friday, September 13th, 2024 – 16:30 UTC ]
This week, millions of Americans tuned in to politics only to make an astonishing discovery: Donald Trump is still exactly who he always was! He opens his mouth, and lies and crazy talk pour forth. Same as it ever was... what a surprise!
Now, normal people can be excused for being surprised that Trump is still Trump. Most people have lives to lead and plenty of other things to do, so they simply don't pay much attention to politics. But tens of millions of them made the time this week to tune in to the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. And it was like going to a family Thanksgiving dinner and once again having to put up with your crazy uncle -- because you had somehow forgotten just how bad he truly was. And still is.
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