[ Posted Wednesday, September 9th, 2020 – 16:20 UTC ]
It's now official: Trump lied, people died.
Bob Woodward is out with a new book, and today he released some excerpts -- with some tapes to back them up. The most damning revelation is that President Donald Trump knew full well -- in early February -- that COVID-19 was a very serious threat and much more dangerous than the flu. But that was in private conversation with Woodward. Publicly, Trump kept right on downplaying the threat for approximately the next five weeks. If America had moved more quickly during this period, tens of thousands of Americans would still be alive today. Quod Erat Demonstrandum: Trump lied, people died.
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[ Posted Monday, August 31st, 2020 – 16:41 UTC ]
Today, I am going to let Joe Biden speak for himself. In past election cycles, I have printed transcripts of speeches from Democratic candidates, but I don't believe I've ever done so during the general election.
I felt it was worth it today, because I just read the speech Joe Biden just gave in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is the kickoff to the traditional general election season, and Biden makes his case in such strong and forceful language that, rather than just running excerpts and commenting on them, I felt the entire speech deserved to be presented. It really is that good.
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[ Posted Friday, August 28th, 2020 – 17:52 UTC ]
Is it over yet?
No, really, this has to be it... it's gotta be over now... right?
Not unlike experiencing the end of The Lord Of The Rings for the first time, last night I watched President Donald Trump give the longest convention acceptance speech in modern history (with the only possible other contender being Trump's 2016 speech) while continually wondering (from about ten past the hour onwards) when he would begin to wrap it up. Several times I was convinced he had done so... but then he just kept on talking. I mean, Frodo's safely back in the Shire, so it's got to be the end, right?
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[ Posted Thursday, August 27th, 2020 – 16:36 UTC ]
Last night, while watching the continuing study in contradiction that is the Republican National Convention, I had to wonder at several points who, exactly, is president right now? After all, the campaign for Donald Trump seems to be operating from the point of view that if only Trump were president then he could solve America's massive current problems. On subject after subject, we were told that things out there are really, really scary and that the only response to this dystopian world was to elect a savior who would deliver us from all the frightfulness.
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[ Posted Wednesday, August 26th, 2020 – 16:41 UTC ]
When reading other reviews of the Republican National Convention today, many seemed to me to be making the mistake of proclaiming: "Trump is preaching to the choir, he's only interested in firing up his base." There is indeed a lot of this sort of thing, but there is also a sustained effort at pandering to distinct voter demographics where Trump is either performing weakly or worse. The two efforts -- fire up the base and reach out to possible "persuadable" voters -- set up another disjointed disconnect of epic proportions, to be sure, but as Trump says, it is what it is.
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[ Posted Tuesday, August 25th, 2020 – 16:50 UTC ]
Republicans promised they'd put on an uplifting convention. To say they failed to reach this goal on their first night is a vast understatement. What we got instead was fear, on steroids.
Granted, their job was a tough one from the get-go. During the Democratic convention, there was a mix of (as Joe Biden framed it) the light and the dark. But the Democrats' message was pretty clear: we're in a dark period right now, and we can move towards the light with the repudiation of Donald Trump and all his enablers. The Republican message was the opposite, which is a pretty hard case to make, considering the current state of affairs. According to the Republicans, everything is just peachy right now, but if Biden wins, things will become apocalyptically bad overnight. There's just one problem with this formulation, however, and that is that we are hardly experiencing Utopia right now, as the COVID-19 deaths climb towards 180,000, unemployment is still in double digits -- higher than at any point during the Great Recession -- and the economy looks like it is now stalling due to the Republicans refusing to pass another pandemic stimulus bill. In other words, the American public is fully capable of looking around at their own lives and seeing that Utopia is far from what they're experiencing right now.
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[ Posted Tuesday, August 4th, 2020 – 16:38 UTC ]
President Donald Trump seems to be shooting himself in the foot in Florida, one of the key states necessary for his own re-election prospects. Or, as he recently called it on Twitter, "Frorida." That'll surely win him some votes in the Sunshine State!
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[ Posted Thursday, July 23rd, 2020 – 16:34 UTC ]
That's a fun headline to write, mostly because the flip side of: "Democrats In Disarray" has now become an actual cliché, due to its overuse by the media (especially when the facts don't actually justify its use). But at this point, even just calling what the Grand Old Party is going through "disarray" is being polite. "Meltdown" might come closer to the truth.
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[ Posted Friday, July 17th, 2020 – 17:58 UTC ]
At this point, one has to wonder: is President Donald Trump intentionally trying to commit political suicide?
This would certainly make a lot of sense, given his recent actions. Perhaps he's tired of attempting to do a job he is so obviously underqualified for, and perhaps he just wants to return to private life. To do so, Joe Biden has to win, meaning Trump has to guarantee this outcome. So he goes about actively destroying any possibility that he'll win re-election.
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[ Posted Thursday, July 16th, 2020 – 16:36 UTC ]
That headline is meant in an ironic way, not a literal one -- since Donald Trump literally "getting schooled" on anything would be impossible, considering his almost-complete lack of the ability to learn new things. Instead, I refer to the president deciding to pick a battle on yet another losing field for him, this time fighting to force school districts to open up in-person classes in a few weeks. Trump would like to get all America's schools back to normal. That's a goal shared by just about everyone, but the problem with Trump's approach is that it comes with a rather large disclaimer at the end: "...whether it is safe to do so or not." This is the bridge that is proving to be too far for America's mothers and fathers.
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