As Doc would have said:
Would the NRA leadership really pass a background test?
Tag: Jobs
YOUR TWO CENTS VERSUS BILLIONS
Your two cents’ worth is the only way to foil the big-money campaign contributors. Vote against their corrupting influence. Enough of us together can save democracy. It really is us versus them.
Don’t be bullied.
WHERE’S THE TRADING DEADLINE?
No matter where your candidates are standing in the polls, you’re probably feeling like me. Just looking ahead to November is getting exhausting.
If this were major-league sports, there would be a trading deadline to add some excitement to the proceedings. Hopeless teams would release a few good players to franchises hoping to make a run for the championship, while perhaps positioning themselves for a better tomorrow.
In politics, that just might move folks closer to a center. Or others ever deeper into the hole.
For now, though, we’re all stuck with the players we have or the hand we’re dealt. Even when they’re all aces, we expect to do better, don’t we?
TRUMPETING ELEPHANTS IN THE MUD
Hearing the allegations flung at Hillary Clinton, I keep wanting Donald Trump and his camp to look in the mirror. So much sounds like psychological projection, where you cast your faults on others.
Remember, for instance, New York magazine has declared Donald J. Trump the most corrupt presidential nominee ever – worse than Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Richard Nixon, George W. “Halliburton” Bush, Ronald Reagan (who has the most indictments and convictions, by the way), James Garfield … what a list of Republicans! And yet they complain about Mrs. Clinton? Gimme a break!
Of course, when it comes to worst president ever, the trumpeting elephants blithely blare another name or two, ignoring the harsher reality. Eight years ago we were mired down in two wars, one of them launched with no justification, and were moments away from global financial collapse into another Great Depression … and despite unparalleled obstructionism from the GOP, we’ve had a president who has restored the economy and reduced the military burden.
Maybe that mud’s turning into quicksand. Just where are they standing, anyway?
RUSSIAN ROULETTE IN THE RACE?
One lesson we should have learned from Watergate is that inside information from a rival’s political campaign can be used to wreak havoc in the democratic process. If you know their plans, you can thwart them. It’s like knowing your opponent’s hand when you’re playing poker. The burglary, after all, stole from the Democratic Party headquarters and involved former CIA spooks. And it’s all a high-stakes game.
When the plot unraveled, it was enough to bring down a sitting president. A crooked president, at that.
The WikiLeaks thefts, by Russian spies, is far worse. No matter what they turn up, their goal is to undermine an American election in the Kremlin’s favor. You know, the kind of nightmare the right-wing used to warn us against in screaming about the threat of the Kremlin and left-wing pinkos. I just wish those folks in the Trump camp would hear that warning more clearly, rushing up behind them.
PUTTING AN INTERPRETATION TO THE ULTIMATE TEST
Here’s a proposal for those who believe unlimited, unregulated gun ownership and gun use are the sole point of the Second Amendment. If you’re so convinced that a firearm improves the safety of you and your family, please move to a neighborhood like South Los Angeles or sections of Philadelphia or Chicago where drive-by shootings are commonplace. Join a gang, if you, must, but come back in a year and a day to tell us how reality has impacted your opinions and notions. If you’ve survived. Or life even matters.
WHY DO THE RUSSIANS SO WANT TRUMP TO WIN?
The WikiLeaks releases seem to answer the question.
Apparently, the former Secretary of State is stronger than they’d like. Just how did Hillary Clinton so thoroughly best Vladimir Putin in the past? Or was it just her husband, Bill? Either way, it’s obvious the Kremlin couldn’t stand up to her.
Don’t be distracted, folks. Vote against Russian aggression, which is what these leaks are. The ones past, present, and threatened in the future.
Unlike Donald J. Trump, with his bromance with Vladimir. Even with Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort kicked out of the circle, there’s much more of this connection to make headlines.
CLEANING HOUSE
You may have guessed my reaction to those bumper stickers calling Obama the worst president in American history.
Folks who have no memory of what the poor guy inherited.
OK, his biggest mistake was thinking he could reason with two-year-olds. The ones who go “No! No! No!” with no solution in sight. Imagine the rage if they were drivers on the Interstate, the ones with their brakes locked.
The mistake of thinking them men of good will rather than ill will.
The ones who have comprised the majority of the worst House of Representatives in memory, if not American history. And then their cohorts took over the Senate.
Put the blame where it belongs, especially when they won’t clean up their own mess. How about a clean sweep?
CAN TRUMP SALVAGE HIS BRAND?
In his inflated claims to self-worth, Donald J. Trump likes to include a category of “goodwill,” meaning, well, nothing tangible. While he puts his value at $10 billion, more realistic voices put it at no more than $4 billion, and that’s assuming he’s not leveraged in debt to the hilt. After watching one after another of his enterprises go kaput – from airlines to casinos to steaks and vodka (oh, another Russian connection? gee whiz!) – he’s turned increasingly to name value alone. Many of those buildings with his name attached, it turns out, aren’t owned by him at all. The real owners just rent his name in exchange for, oh, well, something. How much longer can this game continue? Well, until the name and its sterling impression are deflated.
Believe me, more and more Trump is an elusive “brand,” based as much on his television-show posturing as anything. Successful businessman? Not as the stories of his failures, shady practices, and legal cases mount up. More and more, the question is what or who’s behind the cutout cardboard figure.
In the old days, we would have said this was nothing more than “image,” presumed status, or even a mirage in the distance. As the details pile up, a different portrait emerges. Call it showman or huckster, if you wish. It’s anything but a successful businessman whose word was good as gold. Quite the contrary.
As his bid for the White House encounters one disaster after another, and all of his brashness is returned in full measure, there’s reason to ask just where he’s heading. Where is his escape?
Or, more accurately, can he somehow salvage his brand?
I’m rather dubious. If his base turns out to be aging white males on the losing end of the spectrum, I doubt it. I just don’t see advertisers lining up for that. He’s the wrong demographic for most products. Hell, from what I’ve read, even Rush Limbaugh’s in trouble there.
One thing I’ll assume. Trump won’t believe his low ratings there any more than he trusts the polling surveys now or ballot tallies in November.
What would you do in his place?
BACK TO THAT T.P. IMPRESSION
How can I listen to a presidential nominee who more and more looks and sounds constipated?
Or is it more simply his stony, dark heart?
Either way, I wish he’d come clean. This is getting exhausting.
Jnana's Red Barn 