Understanding America

 I guess I just do not understand. It seems less than a mystery to me. Donald Trump experienced six bankruptcies. Now what does that mean exactly? Well, he started in or took over six different commercial entities. He ran them for some period, and then gradually ran out of money to continue them, so he had to close them and declare bankruptcy.  Here is the fact check on his bankruptcies:

“Let’s do some fact checking about how many times Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy protection and why  there is some debate over this number.  During the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton correctly pointed out that Donald Trump had filed bankruptcy 6 times. Here is a quick breakdown of the six Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings by companies owned by Donald Trump.  All six of Donald Trump’s bankruptcy filings were prior to him becoming our current U.S. President.

1.      1991: Trump’s Taj Mahal

2.      1992: First of two Atlantic City casinos owned by Donald Trump.

3.      1992: Second of two Atlantic City casinos owned by Donald Trump.

4.      1992:  Trump’s Plaza Hotel in New York City

5.      2004:  Trump’s Hotels and Casinos Resorts

6.      2009:  Trump’s Entertainment Resorts

Since each bankruptcy case is assigned a unique case number and takes on it’s own life, there should be little disconnect between the number of filings related to any one person or entity. So Hillary Clinton claimed that Donald Trump filed for bankruptcy relief six times, while Mr. Trump rebutted with the number of four such filings.  One possible reason for such a disconnect is whether Donald Trump recognizes his 1992 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings as one, two, or three.  The correct number of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings related to Donald Trump in 1992 would be three, while Mr. Trump may perceive them as one larger event.”

So, The Donald was in bankruptcy six times, which defines just how incompetent he is as a businessman. And it’s curious. I commented recently on Facebook that Trump had experienced bankruptcy six times, and one person remarked that I obviously did not understand business. He remarked. . . . “ six bankruptcies out of how many businesses?”  It was as though, it was OK if Trump had created, say, 20 businesses and ONLY experienced bankruptcy six times.  Well, sport, that is not OK. To me, it is pretty obvious that Trump is completely incompetent at running businesses. So, why should we expect him to be able to lead our Nation as President? Is that LESS COMPLEX?

So, we know he is incompetent as a manager. Well, then, what is it he is good at that might resemble the Presidency? Oh, but before that, we also know he has failed at the marriage game two times and maybe even three times, depending on your view of his marriage to Melania.  Now, to me, that strongly suggests he is also lousy at managing personal relationships.

So remind me again why he might make a good President? Or is it the case that the folks who voted for him were actually unaware that he is incompetent as a businessman and incompetent as a husband? They didn’t know? Really? But it seems that everyone on the planet knows, just not American voters?

Well, is there something else that recommends him to be President? Well, he was good at acting out The Apprentice, right? Well, that depends on whether you ever watched it.

Oh, but then he was actually President once before right?   The Pew research Center wrote a piece examining Trumps’ first Presidency. See -- How America Changed During Trump’s Presidency | Pew Research Center. It would seem his first go was not a marvel of the universe. His presidency ended as the most unpopular in our history, Partly, I suppose, his complete incompetence at managing that nasty COVID attack that emerged in China and then arrived to kill thousands of Americans, at least in part because of Trump’s incompetence at overseeing and directing a National response.  Did he actually tell Americans to drink bleach? Well, Yes and No. Here's what he said:

"A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right?"

He continued.

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful."

Classic Trump.

But thousands of Americans died as a result of the incompetence of his Administration’s response.

So, he ended his first attempt at being President with a massive Public Health crisis wherein thousands died.

He had other questionable approaches during his Presidency, but little that he said or did should have encouraged folks to vote for him.

So, now he is appointing people to run our government who seem completely incompetent and maybe even simply dangerous—Gaetz as Attorney General springs to mind, although Rober Kennedy, Jr. seems as potentially dangerous at managing our Health Care Structure and systems.   Also, his promises to fire thousands of Federal career civil servants to replace them with Trump loyalists seems to me to be autocratic to the point that I now wonder whether he sees himself as King, rather than President.

So, that is why I keep looking at places to retreat—New Zealand anyone?  See. But I am way too old to move to New Zealand. At 90, I ain’t going anywhere. But trust me, were I 30, I would now be actively looking to move my citizenship to someplace more civilized and intelligent.

But I guess I will have to sit back and watch America disappear as a civilized society.

And if you disagree with me, well, good on you. But don’t just sit there in your comfy chair with a nice cold beer. Get off your ass and do something to defend our Democracy. Maybe impeach him??? Sure, why not?

By by . . .

Trump?

I no longer know what to say. Given what we know of Trump, that anyone actually voted for him is a total mystery. But that millions voted for him goes beyond the notion of a mystery. I wish I could blame this event on Kamala or maybe on Joe. But really, Kamala ran a pretty good campaign. She is intelligent, ethical, experienced and altogether a good candidate for the first woman president. I had really high hopes. But instead, we now have one of the worst individuals I could imagine as our next, 47^th President. His campaign was also one of the worst. At the end, he was actually threatening the life of one of his opposition folks—Liz Cheney.

Now that the American people have spoken, I wonder who he will select as his cabinet. So many people, military officials especially, spoke out against him that he may have difficulty finding intelligent people to serve under him.  On the other hand, he has promised to appoint Kennedy, Jr. as his head of the health sector. Imagine that, RFK, jr. who seems to believe in or understand almost nothing about the health sector will now run that sector.

I don’t really understand what to say. I feel like maybe moving to New Zealand is the only sensible course of action, but I’m pushing 90, and have almost no spare money.

But, seriously, how could any thinking creature actually vote for him? He lies every time he opens his mouth and words come tumbling out. He is incompetent as six bankruptcies and three failed marriages will attest.  We even know what he will be like as President, since we experienced four years of a Trump presidency.  He succeeded in overseeing the deaths of some 400,000 Americans as a result of a mismanaged COVID response.

And we now face at least two foreign crises—in Ukraine and Palestine.  Now, since Trump is favored by Vlad Putin, we can only guess what will happen in Ukraine. Putin is largely now free to do whatever he wants.  And the Middle East is a mess. HAMAS began the killing, but Bibi will oversee the final stages of killing.  He seems disinclined to cease, and there is no serious effort being made by anyone to force an ending there. HAMAS is disinclined to act ethically, and so Bibi sees his only alternative as more killing.

Trump says he will end the mess in those two places, but he has no intelligent positions to play. So the killing messes may well simply continue.

And then there is our own in-migration situation. Trump has been railing about the folks who have been arriving on our shores from afar, especially from Latin and African places.  He speaks of them all as gangsters, murderers, rapists, etc.  And he promises to deport them all.  Once again, he will build his wall, which he failed to do during his first term, But he has never really succeeded in doing anything worthwhile.

But I find myself, cringing in terror at the thought of him returning to our presidency, but no longer having any serious idea of what he may elect to actually do. I am guessing that he may well do things such as impose his tariffs, which could be awful economically, or introduce the ideas in that Project 2025 proposal, which could result in destroying the fabric of our government.

And unlike almost every other political administration I have been here to observe, I can find no room for positive thinking.  Whatever I thought of Reagan, or Nixon, or Shrub, they were not uniformly awful. Trump may well be uniformly awful. He is that incompetent. I assume his Administration will result from the ideas and proposals of the people who he allows to spin his web,  people like Elon. So we should now be looking to who he begins to include in his inner circle for ideas on how he will set about destroying America.

Ah, and folks?? Should you find yourself hoping his age and dementia state may relieve us at some early stage? Remember, JD Vance is, if anything, potentially worse than Trump. So, be careful what you wish for.

Absurd

I have been paying attention to US elections since the 1950s, having actually voted in 1956.  And my candidates won some (Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama, Biden) and lost some (Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Trump). I actually voted once for a republican – Ike. How could you not vote for Ike, even though his opponent, Adlai Stevenson was pretty good? Republicans, on average, have been crappy presidents and, on average, not the brightest lights on the planet, although many would argue the reverse.  I was working in government, when Reagan beat out Carter. Reagan brought in as my political boss, the dumbest man I had ever worked with or for. I was running a program evaluation office, and this dude knew almost literally nothing about the subject. Nixon was not dumb, but he bordered on being evil. Given the times, dumb or evil could have resulted in missiles flying and the world ending. I well remember retreating with some frequency, with my Tech buddies at Lockheed to a local pub and discussing where we should go when the missiles began flying—the coast or the mountains?

And then it all calmed down, and we all began growing old.

So, now I’m pushing up against 90, and we face the prospect of Donald Trump.  How did I get here for God’s sake? Well, we survived four years of Donald Trump—an inept Presidential administration such as I have never witnessed.  Happily, before he was able to destroy us, he ran out of time, and was replaced by Joe Biden.  Now, he helped to organize the January 6^th insurrection which led to the deaths of several – “According to the bipartisan House select committee that investigated the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election. Within 36 hours, six people died: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, three died of natural causes, and a police officer died after being assaulted by rioters. Many people were injured, including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. Damage caused by attackers exceeded $2.7 million.”

So we know for a fact that Trump is capable and willing to sow disorder and even destruction leading to deaths. But if one is paying attention, especially over the past 3-4 months, Trump seems to be sinking into both a world of senile dementia (he is 78 after all) and a world of 1930s Nazi Fascism. And that latter is not an exaggeration.  His normal brain seems to drift into the world of Fascism with some frequency. He talks about gathering crowds of immigrants and either locking them up or kicking them out.  But he also talks about killing his enemies, who include his political opponents, Harris, Pelosi, et al.

Maybe it is the increasing dementia, but he seems to be sinking into some world of 1930s evil.  Partly, he has a manual of almost pure evil, in the form of that Project 2025.  Common Cause outlines the document thusly:

“The extremist “Project 2025” is a blueprint for dismantling democracy on day one of a Trump presidency. It’s a nearly 1,000-page scheme that spells out the end of democracy as we know it:

·         Criminalizing voters: cracking down on simple voting mistakes using a so-called “Election Crimes Branch” – which has never been done by any president from any political party.

·         Installing partisan loyalists: Immediately firing thousands of qualified civil servants at every level of government and replacing them with ideologues willing to push a political agenda.

·         Stripping away our rights: Deploying the National Guard to crack down on protests, robbing us of fair representation by rigging the U.S. Census, and dramatically increasing the President’s power to act without Congressional oversight.

And this isn’t just talk. It’s an organized, coordinated plot concocted by the Heritage Foundation, and backed by over 80 extremist groups and hundreds of millions of dollars – much of it coming from donors who are giving this money in total secrecy.”

So, this Trump is in almost every way, different from any past presidential candidate we have ever seen in America. He resembles fascist dictators, and it is not an exaggeration to see some resemblance to Hitler, I realize that is extreme, but Trump is definitely heading in that direction.

In short, having voted in every election since 1956, and paying attention to our array of presidents and presidential hopefuls, I have never even seen anyone remotely close to Trump.  Whatever you thought of folks like Nixon, Reagan, or Bush, they were all at least American in their thinking. Trump seems some form of demented-fascist. And yet . . . and yet, the election seems close. How could that be? Why is the race not 90-10 in favor of Harris-Walz? This is what I do not understand. Americans, even undereducated Americans, want Trump as their President? Seriously?  I realize that Harris is both a woman and a woman of color. Oh, and she seems to have some Asian heritage also. But she is bright, ethical, and well educated. She is also experienced in the world of American presidential political government.  But people, you want instead this ignorant, stupid racist as your president? Surely Americans are not this stupid. Surely. Folks, Surely VOTE Harris-Walz. PLEASE!. Otherwise, America, literally, may not survive.

Climate Changing

With this last storm that battered the NC mountains, especially Asheville, I now think maybe we have passed a point of no return on Cataclysmic Climate Change. So maybe we are all looking at the end of our earthly existence. Humankind could be at its end, mainly because 50+ years ago, we ignored the signs of global climate change. And having ignored those warning signs, as Humans are wont to do, we now may be out of options to fix anything. 

I know, I know, this Administration and others past and present continue to pretend that we can still act so as to preserve the Earth. But I wonder if that moment is past.  I am not sure how close to that precipice we are, or whether we are, in fact, already over the cliff and now sailing towards our last crash. I also have no information on what steps other Nations are taking to work on this issue. This is not, after all, an American problem. It is a Global Earthly problem, and every human on the planet is or will be affected. Therefore, all Humans are involved in any solutions, to the extent any remain.

Perhaps we now need an examination of our Global status, and the probability of any solutions fixing the problem. Are we in fact, beyond solving the problem? If so, what should we be doing to ease the coming increased deaths from Climate Catastrophes?

I think maybe this topic should be Number One in any political discussion, and Number One on any upcoming United Nations summit discussions.  If this world is heading into cataclysm, then this goes well beyond America, Canada and the European advanced nations.  We need all nations participating, because all nations are affected.

And maybe this climate mess in which we find ourselves might lead the Humans of this World to at least stop killing one another in Wars of one kind or another. Thinking back to my earliest memories, when I was maybe 5 or 6, War and humans killing humans for whatever reasons seems to dominate my memories.  Maybe we should stop killing one another in order to gain some territory. Instead, we need to put our guns aside and begin thinking about our Global welfare. How can we best keep one another alive, regardless of what language we speak, or what color is our skin?  We are all Earthlings, under attack from within our own planet, but not by other Humans. We --ALL HUMANS--need to make peace with one another, and begin working seriously on solving, to the extent we can, this Global catastrophe. 

Please folks. Stop shooting one another. We need to get together and begin working in common to resolve this issue, before IT resolves us.

We are almost out of time.

Living in America

 

I am approaching 90 this December. So I may be approaching my last national election. I continue to struggle with this notion of becoming 90. Part of my problem is simply aging. But part is this truly weird election, in which we have somehow normalized Donald Trump and JD Vance, two of the slipperiest characters in America.  Trump is a convicted felon, a multi-business failure, a liar who seems not even to understand the concept of Facts or truth or honesty. He simply talks and leaves it to you to determine which part of his talking is Bullshit and which is factual.  Trump also seems not to understand normal human relationships, which explains his multiple marital failures, including his present one which seems to have failed, although no one will discuss that.

In short, we have a man running for President who seems not to understand fact and fiction, or perhaps, Truth and Lying.

Then we have his partner, JD Vance. Vance lies, but he knows he is lying. He lies simply to advance his point of view. When he chatted with us about Haitians eating peoples’ pets in Ohio, he knew he was lying, but it did not matter. He was trying to degrade some other group of people, to advance his own position.

And then, we watched Stephen Colbert last night and he had on Rachel Maddow. They talked about the recent rash of election deniers, who now work in some capacity in or around the local election stations around America. They are talking about how they plan to refuse to certify the election should Trump lose (an increasingly likely Outcome). Yeah, here is a group of American republicans who somehow know in advance that their man will lose, so they are preparing America for both inaction and potential violence after that happens.

So, what does any of that have to do with me turning 90? Well, somehow, I feel less capable of doing anything about all this mess? In days of old, when I was younger, I might have joined one of the many political entities and set about trying to ensure he loses. But now, I have begun wondering whether it matters if he loses. He has already suggested that he or his crazed friends will begin to act after the election to refuse to certify any outcome in which he is the loser.  And Me? Well, I no longer am physically fit enough to go out into our community and challenge his actions. He seems to be outright asserting that violence will occur should he lose.

And I can’t even Up and Move to New Zealand. See, now, that’s a joke, but only because I am almost 90.  I never had thoughts before about moving to New Zealand.  And, to be fair, I don’t now, but only because I am almost 90. Were I 40, or maybe even 50, I think I might well be initiating action to begin a Citizenship run to New Zealand. Now, even though I cannot run off to Aukland, I can still encourage other youngsters to do so.  Because I am now of a mindset that America might well be OVER. So, were I talking to a friend who was say 40, my advice might well be to begin initiating steps to move, should America decide that our Nation is OVER.  See that’s the key. If, in this next election, Kamala and Walz succeed, and America says, collectively, “OK, so we have a new President. Let’s celebrate and then move on”, then we will be OK. But should Kamala win, and our Nation explodes (think January 6^th ) then my advice to that youngster would be to begin taking action to migrate out of America. I keep mentioning New Zealand, but Canada is a lovely nation with smart, civilized citizens. But, seriously, should that awful even begin unfolding, then AI think it is time to leave. Because, for some reason, America seems not to want to continue to exist as a civilized Nation.

BUT, we still do not know that. I am simply baffled quite fully about why anything more than 10-20% of Americans could possibly be seriously thinking of voting or supporting this IDIOT-MALENFANT.  How this race is even slightly close is what troubles me.  See, it’s not really Trump that is the core of my troubled thinking about America. It is the American people who support him that troubles me so greatly. I feel as though I went to sleep and then awakened in Nazi Germany 1936.  And were that accurate, I would definitely be attempting to move permanently.

So pay attention America. You may be approaching the END. Now, to help forestall that, everyone eligible needs to go out and VOTE on Election Day or earlier if you can. None of this crap about how you will skip this election. He needs to be destroyed by the power of this VOTE.

So, VOTE folks. Please VOTE!!!

Finally

 

And so the Dems concluded their convention with their nomination of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, as their President and Vice President hopefuls. There wasn’t much of a competition, since Biden basically nominated her when he stepped aside.  And she is the sitting VP, so her nomination makes eminent good sense.  Kamala has adequate experience, with her four years as VP, plus her other government experience:

·         Vice President for 3+ years

·         US Senator from California

·         California Attorney General

·         District Attorney

So, with that experience base, what will be her competition?

Donald Trump:

·         President of the United States

·         TV Actor

·         Unsuccessful Businessman

·         Unsuccessful Marital Partner

·         Demented Public Speaker

So, one assumes there will be an election leading to a solid supermajority of voting Americans who wish to elect Mrs. Harris. I mean, all one needs to do is listen once to a Trump public appearance, hear him ramble incoherently, and lie incessantly, before concluding that he is obviously unfit to hold any public office, no less the US Presidency.

And yet, and yet . . .

I have been aware of American presidents since FDR. I still remember listening to FDR on the radio during WW II.  And I have participated, VOTED, in every election since 1952.  I voted for Eisenhower over the intellectual, Adlai Stevenson.  Because, how could you not vote for the WW II Hero, Ike?

And we have had our share of losers as President.  I mean, Shrub??? Nixon, Reagan   . . . god think of that, we actually elected Ronald Reagan, a failed movie star to be President. But we have some good ones too—Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama . . . and now Joe Biden. Joe is showing some signs of aging, so it is perhaps the right thing for him to step aside, but he still joins the ranks of our Good Presidents.

So, now, perhaps, it is our opportunity to see what a bright, ethical woman can do. I assume Kamala will win, because . . . how can she not? I mean. She is running against the very worst presidential candidate our Nation has ever seen.  I mean . . . Donald Trump??? Not a serious candidate.  And Yet . . . And Yet . . .

Kamala should be leading by 70% to 30%. But is she? Nope.

So, that fact alone tells you more than you ever wanted to know about America. 

I can only hope the polls are wrong and that the American people will come to their senses and reject this amazingly inadequate pseudohuman being, Donald Trump. He has failed at virtually everything in which he has participated.   He keeps trying, I guess because his ego won’t let him bow out.

This will be an interesting, perhaps even terrifying several months facing us.  My last best hope is that Americans will get out and vote as they have never done in our past.  People who sigh and shrug and walk away, will now perhaps look at the future and say, I cannot allow that creature to succeed. He must fail; at this, as he fails at everything else. Send him back to his BFFs in Russia. Perhaps Vlad the Impaler will allow him to live out his fading days in Moscow.

So, Americans . . . PLEASE VOTE!

AND VOTE FOR KAMALA HARRIS AND TIM WALZ.

PLEASE!

Are We Happy?

 

So, “Are We Happy Yet?: to quote today’s NY Times. Well, today, the sun is out . . . for the time being. We seem to be moving into an era in which, like some others, perhaps we no longer need our Weathermen. We now seem to have a standard weather forecast:

“Partly cloudy, with the possibility of afternoon thundershowers, some could be severe. A tornado is possible. Avoid areas near rivers, since areal flooding is likely.”

There, that’s your standard daily forecast. So, does that make you happy? No? Well, how about this?

“Donald Trump will be giving a press conference in your neighborhood this afternoon, and he plans to inform you why a vote for his opponent is a vote to destroy America.”

There, now you feel great, right?

Yeah, so between the Climate Change daily forecast and our pseudopolitical climate, life has become Yuck. Or maybe AAARRRGGGHHH! Remember those political battles in the 70s, 80s and 90s? They were tough, huh? It was always tough listening to Nixon, or Shrub, or, for God’s sake, Reagan.  But today, listening to Trump, or the Trump MAGACultists? We are now in a different universe altogether. Having grown up listening to FDR, during and just after WW II, I grew used to having sanity on the air. 

Are you aware that, during the 1950s, the tax rates on high incomes reached over 90%? Yeah, and they complained. But can you imagine Elon Musk paying a 95% tax rate on his top income? He would be exploding.  I mean, Musk is donating $45 million/month to Trump’s campaign, because he knows, if Trump is elected, that his tax rates will go down even more than they are now.  I believe Musk now pays somewhere in the vicinity of 53%, so some 40% less than in days of old.

But even beyond taxes, our political system has, on one side, the Democrats who are trying to pass legislation to help combat the Climate Catastrophe in which we reside, to better regulate our border immigration policies, to help moderate  the Israeli-Hamas mess, to bring greater pressure on Russia to back off in Ukraine, and to induce more growth in industry, so as to create more jobs.

On the other hand, the Trump MAGACult wants to cut taxes on the wealthy, reduce Social Security payments, reduce Medicare/Medicaid expenses, prevent any abortions in the country, regardless of the health of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest, and rein in or perhaps even eliminate regulatory programs such as EPA, or FDA.  Any Federal agencies that regulate the private sector are suspect and could be eliminated under Trump. He also, per the Project 2025 agenda, would get rid of many current Federal civil service employees, and replace them with staff answerable only to the President.

So, America under Trump would move to something closer to a monarchy, or maybe just a dictatorship, as we can observe in today’s Russia under Trump’s BFF, Vlad the Impaler Putin.

Yeah, why do we need this Democracy anywise? With Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, and JD, and Johnson, we would have a perfect combination of skills and attitude.

So, see what we have to look forward to, if we can only elect The Donald? Now, to be fair, The Donald is getting a bit creaky, and his brain seems a little less than perfect.  But he’s never been classed as brainy anyways, right? And, were he younger and brainier, he might not listen to Musk and his rich friends. Right? So, this is probably better for America. You can’t have a Dictatorship and still have a brainy, ethical president, right?

Hey Neil deGrasse Tyson, what do you think? Does all this presidential messiness make you think more about running? No? OK, then I guess we will just have to stick with Kamala and her BFF Tim Walz.

Oh well, maybe my approaching 90 this December is making me a little fussy. Crap weather, and crap Presidential messiness (think MAGACult) is depressing me perhaps more than it should, or would, were I younger. So, the 50s, 60s and 70s really were just more fun? Huh!

Ah well, life goes on .