August 24, 2020--Trump Keynoters

To be responsible, I've been planning to watch as much of the Republican convention as I did the Democrats. Well, almost as much. OK, half an hour a night.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I've been hoping that Clint Eastwood would return and again, as he did in 2016, talk to his chair. Anticipating that would keep me awake well into primetime.

To prevent Clint from showing up uninvited and doing something unhinged (that role is reserved exclusively for the commander in chief), a leftwing conspiracy theorist reports Eastwood is being held in a cell in Guantanamo.

My plans for this week are unravelling because of who will be on the program. Desperate to demonstrate the GOP has at least some diversity--the speakers will include six party loyalists, including presidential aspirant and former ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley (a woman); African-American South Carolina senator Tim Scott; Mike Pence; and Iowa Senator Joni Ernst who is likely to lose in November. 

Balancing the ticket will be Trump, who is planning to speak all four nights, and five other Trumps, including his adult children, from Don Jr. to the semi-estranged Tiffany.

On the other hand I was sad to hear that Trump's sister the judge will not be there nor will his niece.

You expect me to stay up to midnight with his lineup? So much for responsibility. There's a limit to what I'm willing to do for the sake of responsibility. I flunked that test long ago (car, cat, tree).

A friend said she'd watch the whole thing if they gave her the peroxide concession.

It was not disclosed if the Trump kids will be vaccinated on stage.

November 13, 2019--Vice President Nikki

I spoke too soon when I wrote snarkily last week that if Michael Bloomberg wants to enter the Democratic contest and is playing to win, running on a bipartisan ticket with someone like Nikki Haley as his Vice Presidential candidate could be a politically smart move.

But then a couple of things happened--first, I had second thoughts about Haley after a rush of friends' comments inspired me to take a closer look at her resumé. It's not that impressive. She clearly has a lot of personal sizzle but not much substance. 

And, then, in conjunction with the publication of her book, With All Due Respect, she appears to be signaling that she is available right now to run for vice president--not on a Bloomberg ticket but on Trump's, after he dumps Mike Pence.

I can only imagine her pitching Trump that if he taps her that will solve his problem with suburban women. And as a woman of color, that too would be helpful. Win, win, win.

Gossipy books such as this, for which she received at least a $2.0 million advance from Simon & Schuster, need to have enough juicy stories to generate prepublication buzz and advanced orders on Amazon. As of this morning it is 4th on Amazon'a best seller list.

In the case of Haley, the juicy stuff is her claim that in the early days of the Trump administration she was approached by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Chief of Staff John Kelly to join them in "saving the country" by "undermining Trump." 

If true, one might call this treason.

But is her revelation true?

She was asked point blank Monday night on Fox News by Sean Hannity if she told the president about this plot. She said, "absolutely."

He failed to follow up. He did not ask her why, then, she did not mention it in her book. If it happened, wouldn't she have written about alerting Trump and wouldn't he, if she brought this treasonous allegation to his attention, have had Tillerson and Kelly escorted by federal marshals to the Oval Office and fired them on the spot?

So I doubt her story and see it as fabricated for an audience of one, Trump, to maneuver him to put her on his ticket. And to sell books.

On the other hand, candidate Bloomberg with a moderate Republican as his vice president may still be a good idea.

November 8, 2019--Run, Mike, Run

I was in the middle of preparing a blog for Friday morning about how progressives shouldn't get complacent when thinking about the results of this week's elections in Virginia and Kentucky.

Yes, Democrats now control all branches of the Virginia government and the Bluegrass State again has a Democratic governor, but in Kentucky all other statewide contests were won by Republicans and Virginia has been turning blue for a number of years. 

In the middle of writing a blog about political paranoia there was dramatic Breaking News--it appears that the sixth richest American and former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, on Friday will enter the race for the Democratic nomination for president.

I have a lot to say about Mayor Mike, including a number of positive and negative things I learned about him when I worked with him on a variety of projects when I was at the Ford Foundation--speaking about this will be for another day--but, in spite of very mixed feelings about him, my first reaction was excitement.

Why excitement? Isn't he a plutocrat who at the advanced age of 77 is looking to buy his way to the White House? Yes, but why was I, in spite of this, feeling so good about his potential candidacy?

Largely because like so many other liberals I am dissatisfied with our current choices. In fact, distraught.

Biden feels over the hill, Warren just unveiled a non-starter of a multi-trillion dollar healthcare plan that will if implemented finish the job of bankrupting America. The only good thing I've thus far heard about the plan is that it has no chance of being enacted by whatever Congress emerges after the 2020 election. And, as Biden and Sanders are too old to be president, Mayor Pete, who I like, is much too young and inexperienced. 

Bloomberg could write a check for $2.0 billion and in that way fully self-finance his campaign and still have more than $50 billion. With the exception of his own big money (largely amassed by the incredible Bloomberg company he built from scratch) that would eliminate the need to raise money from the wealthy and thereby free him from their influence and control. Like Franklin Roosevelt, he could be "a traitor to his class."

And as a genuine billionaire who not only has his own fleet of planes but also pilots them, he is just the type to get under Trump's jealous skin and take him down in the debates.

Also, as a former Republican, Independent, and Democrat, he knows everyone and where all the bodies are buried. And just think about the kind of talented and experienced people he could draw into public service.

But above all, he could win next November. More than anything, that's what I'm not proud to crave--someone, anyone who can beat Trump.

Think also about a bipartisan ticket with Bloomberg running with Nikki Haley or, think about this one, Condoleezza Rice.

This adds up to exciting to me. You?

October 11, 2018--October Surprises

In election cosmology an October Surprise is a news event deliberately created, timed, or occurring spontaneously that influences the outcome of an election, particularly for the presidency.

With the upcoming midterm elections, since Donald Trump has kidnapped them and made the hundreds of congressional contests all about him--in effect, a referendum on his presidency--by nationalizing these individual races, it would not be unexpected for him to come up with a whopper of an October Surprise. One that would underscore what he claims to be his achievements (tax cuts, renegotiating NAFTA, withdrawing from the Iran deal, a strong job market) a surprise designed to motivate his base to vote for candidates he supports. Essentially, any and all Republicans running for office.

Recent examples of October Surprises include leaking the news in 2000, when George W. Bush was locked in a tight contest with Al Gore, that some years earlier Bush had been cited in Maine for driving while under the influence.

Four years later, to undermine Bush's reelection chances, Osama bin Laden released a videotape in which he took credit for the 9/11 terrorist attack in the hope that this would remind voters of Bush's failures.

The 2008 stock market crash weakened John McCain's chances in his race against Barack Obama. Republicans in general were blamed and the onset of the Great Recession boosted the chances of all Democrats, especially Obama's. So much so that the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress.

And then most recently, in 2016, it is generally agreed that FBI director James Comey ruined Hillary Clinton's candidacy when in late October he summarily released thousands of emails of hers that, even though they contained nothing disqualifying, reminded the voting public that she was not trustworthy.

What then might Trump have in mind for us during the next few weeks? We know he shapes a daily political drama to dominate the news cycle and thus I suspect there will be at least two surprises of magnitude that will suck up all the media oxygen. I predict there will, unprecedented, be at least two such surprises since for Trump more is never enough.

One will involve foreign affairs, the other will focus on domestic theatrics.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently spent a week in Asia. In China but more interesting in North Korea. After his Korea visit he said little progress was made in denuclearization talks. I wonder.

My guess is that he brought with him for Kim Jong-un one of those love letters Trump mentioned the other day. Letters so steamy that even the exhibitionist president said they were too amorous to disclose.

Trump's to Kim likely included a plea--

"Help me out please! I'm about to get shellacked in the midterm elections and need your help. Maybe you could blow up a big missile or two on live TV. I could then say you're on track to getting rid of all your nukes. Of course that's really unnecessary. I just need a good show one of these mornings. Maybe you could time it so it could be shown on Fox & Friends. My favorite."

Then domestically, a couple of days ago, without a formal announcement, Trump launched the Month of the Woman. It began with UN ambassador Nikki Haley announcing on live TV in the Oval Office that she is resigning. 

There they were, Trump and Haley together shamelessly flirting with each other. 

The Month of the Woman will culminate with Trump appointing Dina Powell, a woman, to replace Haley. Unless Trump can convince daughter Ivanka to allow him to appoint her. One advantage for her--it would get her out of Washington (which she hates) and back to New York City.

Recognizing that the so-called "gender gap" is hovering at about 30 points, some are saying it's not a gap but a chasm, realizing that, Trump will do all sorts of things between now and November 6th to focus on how good his presidency has been for women and then will hope that at least a few will show up at the polls in November and vote for him.

If women come out in a wave of votes for Democrats, he'll need more than a couple of surprises to keep him from being impeached in January. There aren't enough angry old white guys to keep him politically safe. We'll see, then, if he can bamboozle enough women to vote for Republicans as he did in 2016.

I'm saying, more than anything else, Kim has to come through for him.

May 17, 2018--End Times Come to Jerusalem

I've written about this so often that I wouldn't blame you if you moved quickly to something else.

The subject of this is the real reason Christian Evangelicals are obsessed with Israel and the Jews. We got a glimpse of that obsession the other day when Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner presided over the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. 

The real reason this is a big deal not just for Jews but for all Americans is because Evangelicals have an inordinate amount of political power in America now that Trump is president. He shamelessly panders to them as they constitute the heart of his base.

Hint--the real reason is not because Evangelicals are concerned about anti-Semitism. Quite the contrary. One could argue that the ways in which Evangelicals view Jews is in its essence anti-Semitic.

Evidence for this is the fact that Trump arranged to have Texas televangelist John Hagee deliver one of the prayers at the embassy's dedication. 

Hagee is well known in Evangelical circles for having said that Hitler was doing "God's work" when he slaughtered six million Jews. It was God's work because to millennialist Evangelicals such as Hagee to bring about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the millennium all Jews must emigrate to Israel to participate in awaiting his return.

According to Hagee and his millions of followers, when the Messiah appears, Jews will be given one final opportunity to convert to Christianity. All those who do not will be killed and relegated to an eternity in Hell.

In this mad scenario Jews who go along with Evangelicals' apocalyptic assignment for them will be the ultimate dupes. According to the Hagee crowd millions of Jews needed to be murdered during the Holocaust to motivate or scare the rest of us to flee to the safety of the Promised Land. Safety only if we convert to Christianity. 

What an unholy bargain.

At the very hour the embassy was being dedicated, those watching on live TV, via split screen, could witness another slaughter taking place just a few miles away--Israeli solders killing scores of protesting Palestinians and wounded well over a thousand more.

On the left side of the screen, at the new embassy, glamed-up yiddisher maidella Ivanka Trump was unveiling a plaque on the wall by the entrance, a plaque on which Trump's name was emblazoned in typeface at least as large as that identifying the embassy itself. In effect--not unlike Trump Tower, The Donald J. Trump Embassy in Jerusalem.

And on the right side of the screen we could watch young people from Gaza, living in apartheid Israel, being murdered by the dozens in cold blood by Israeli security forces using live ammunition.

Meanwhile, U.S. ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said those killed and wounded along the walled border between Gaza and Israel brought it on themselves. They deserved what they got. 

What they got was killed and wounded.

Then there was Evangelical minister Robert Jeffress, head of one of the largest megachurches in the South, who delivered the opening prayer at the opening of the new embassy. He is highly regarded among Evangelical for having said repeatedly that unconverted Jews cannot be saved. He claims that this is confirmed by the words of Jesus, Peter, and Paul, who he misquotes as saying, "Judaism won't do it." Only faith in Christ.  

This is why for all Americans, not just Jews, this is a very big deal.

June 24, 2105--Republican Demons

Republican politicians are struggling now with demons of their own arousing--the demons of white supremacy and racism.

Here's the problem--

Until 1963-64 when the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were passed by Congress and signed into law by Lyndon Johnson, politically, the South was the "Solid South" with all offices from dog catcher to sheriff to governor and senator totally in the hands of Democrats. Republicans were seen as the party of Lincoln, the president who pressed the Civil War.

That all began to change as Richard Nixon, seeing an opportunity for the GOP, implemented his Southern Strategy, a blatant appeal to white southerners to switch their allegiance to Republicans who, in spite of the law, would not put pressure on them to integrate, act affirmatively in regard to college admissions and employment, or encourage black people to register or turn out to vote.

In fact, with GOP leadership, the opposite happened, including supporting elaborate schemes to suppress minority-voter turnout and pressing for cutbacks in federal programs that served many people of color--food stamps, Medicaid, public housing, welfare.

And so by the 1980s, schools in the South remained largely segregated, laws remained on the books that did not allow whites and blacks to marry, and with the exception of gerrymandered congressional districts that were carved out to create a few with black voter majorities, virtually all elected officials were white and Republican.

Now, the Republican electoral base, especially party activists who through their engagement during primary campaigns, that base which disproportionately determines who will be nominated for gubernatorial, congressional, and national office, is largely made up of aging white men.

And sad to say, since a large part of that base harbors anti-minority, even racist views, to attract their support it is necessary for candidates to pander to their prejudices.

Even now, after the massacre in the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, GOP aspirants to the presidency are speaking equivocally about what happened (Rick Perry called it an "accident") and dodging the controversy surrounding the Confederate flag that flies on the grounds of the state legislature.

With the notable exceptions of thus-far non-candidate Mitt Romney, who immediately called for it to be removed, and just yesterday South Carolina governor Nikki Haley's call for it to be taken down, all other Republican candidates have spoken out of both sides of their mouths.

For example, both Jeb Bush and his estranged mentee, Marco Rubio punted questions about the flag by saying they felt "confident that the state will do the right thing."

More troubling, more toxic, as a way to cozy up to racists and cater at the party's bigoted base, many of the current Republican candidates have accepted campaign contributions from white-supremasist organizations that the church shooter followed and to whose websites he contributed comments and manifestos.

One stands out--

The Council of Conservative Citizens, which, according to the New York Times, in the council's words, opposes "all efforts to mix the races" and calls for the dismantling of the "imperial judiciary" that  in 1954 required the desegregation of the nation's public schools.

The council as well has been a generous funder of many of the current GOP nomination seekers. Though as the result of the murders in Charleston, some of the candidates last weekend returned the money or contributed what they received to charity, one wonders what Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, and even Nikki Haley were thinking when they accepted council support.

It is actually clear what they were thinking and attempting to say by their tacit involvement with this hate group--

Wink, wink--you know we're with you. In spite of what we may have to say to appear tolerant, we stand with you, share your views, and won't cause you any pain. We'll make sure you can keep your guns, even of the same type that kid used in Charleston. And again, in spite of what we may have to say, we won't take away the flag you so passionately choose to salute.