Archives for October 2024

Friday, October 18, 2024

I saw an interesting fact the other day – Presidential Approval Ratings.

When Trump left office his approval ratings were the lowest of any modern President.

But now compared to Biden he’s got a higher approval rating.

Why is that?

The explanation is that people forget. They forget how bad it was.

This is backed up by recollections of people in terrible times. They forget how bad it was.

Perhaps, that’s part of the human condition. Forget or minimize the pain so one can move forward.

When Bret Baier of Fox interviewed Kamala Harris he asked her why a high percentage of people think the country is going in the wrong direction. I wish she had said that perhaps it is because people forget how bad it was and because various news outlets downplay how good the Biden administration has done. Maybe throw in a few economic facts like the speed of the recovery and the U.S. economy compared to any other. And finish with a question to Bret like, “Don’t you think it is the responsibility of journalists to point this out?”

A follow up analysis of how Baier treated Harris versus when he had Trump on was indicative of his bias. He let Trump ramble on. He interrupted Harris almost twice as much and much sooner (11 seconds the first time versus 45 for Trump.)

The immediate Fox analysts’ opinion of Harris was her answers were “thin.” They never got specific about that. Of course, they didn’t because her answers were really good, especially considering that Baier was trying to trap her – repeatedly. 

I wonder how old Donald feels about the audience size? 7.1 million versus his 3.2 million?

Ah yes, but the gaslighting started as soon as the interview was over. The analysts on Fox were desperately trying to tell their audience that what they saw wasn’t what they saw. That is a competent candidate answering silly gotcha questions in a serious and professional way. Hey Bret, Don’t you think your questions were a bit thin?

Moving on, I have heard an alternate explanation as to why the buses didn’t pick up the crowd from the Trump rally in the desert. It was asserted that team Trump didn’t pay the bus company. But I have now been informed that some of the bus drivers stopped picking up the folks because they were being attacked. One driver was punched in the face and another was spat upon. Hum? Well, which is true? Maybe, both.

Then, then – we get to The Disco Donnie rally. Trump stood on stage for 39 minutes listening to music. I gotta ask my Trump supporting folks which move by Donald did you like best?

– The semi Saturday Night Live fist bump? (by semi I mean he only got his fist half way up.)

–  The boiled potato move? (That’s where you stand there and let your bowels do the moving.)

– The point at a person in the crowd while twitching move?

In the 39 (THIRTY NINE!) minute performance there was a lot to pick from. Donald has ducked every question, refused most interviews, his rally count is one quarter of what it was before. It was so weird that I actually felt sorry for Kristi Noem who was standing on stage with him. Maybe, it’s time Kristi take Donald to the gravel pit?

But, why are we here? Why are we at this inflection point? Because Senators did not do their job – twice. Because people forget. Because people are willing to let themselves be deluded. Because our media has been bought up by a few who force commentators to not tell the truth, to not report the news, to lie and fib instead – to gaslight.

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

I saw a post recently that said, “Anyone who thinks the economy is doing well hasn’t bought groceries recently.”

Hum. This from a Republican. Interesting. I mean that is the party that had a President that was amazed by a bar code scanner a decade after it was introduced. Currently, their VP pick claimed a dozen eggs at the store he was at cost four dollars. This while standing in front of an egg display with a sign two dozen was four dollars. Maybe, he didn’t know what two times two was? Or even two plus two? (Hint: it’s the same answer:) 

But this from the party who thinks the government controls the weather.

While the Republicans bitch the Democrats have actually done stuff to reduce costs at the counter.

It’s funny that on the day this complaint about the economy was posted the Dow Jones hit the highest it had ever been. 

Yeah. So tell me how will Trump bring down prices? I mean he has a record to run on. He had the worst econonmy of any President in modern times and that was after inheriting one of the best economies that came from a guy who cleaned up the last mess left by a Republican who also inherited a great economy only to run it into the ground.

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Time Magazine came the other day. J. D. Vance was on the cover with the headline “The New Right.”

I had an immediate visceral reaction. “What’s New?” I thought of Newt Gingrich when he was the poster boy for this kind of “movement.” It’s the same old stuff. Maybe, there’s a new face, but it’s the same kind of denial, and lies. The same blame game. Oh, the object of the blame may be different, but it’s really blaming “the other.” There’s always this call to patriotism and the sweeping statements of there having solves to complicated issues without ever stating their fixes.Sometimes they do state a solution, and it doesn’t make sense. 

Remember, trickle down economics? It didn’t make sense when Reagan proposed it and it still doesn’t make sense. We have decades of data to back it up. 

How about tax and spend Democrats? The data is clear Republicans spend more than Democrats and do nothing to pay for their spending. As Bill Clinton said of the Republicans – their biggest complaint is we don’t clean up their messes quick enough. Republicans talk about being responsible yet they aren’t, and when Democrats try to pay for things via taxes they complain. So yeah, Democrats spend, and Democrats tax, but what about Republicans? Based on looney and false economic principles and theories they spend and spend, put us further in debt and then complain when someone comes along and is responsible.

Remember when W came into office? Clinton left him a $254Billion surplus, which could have gone toward funding Social Security and setting it up to not run out of money. Instead, Bush gave the money away under the false idea that it would stimulate the economy or some such thing. Maybe it did, a little, but not much.

So we’re back int he perennial borrowing to meet Social Security obligations. What’s the Republican solution? Cut Social Security. Maybe get rid of it all together. This is stupid. But like most of the Republican economic plans and certainly The Right’s plans be they New, Old, or Same-O they don’t make sense. They are false narratives. In other words lies. Yet they are believed by huge swaths of the population because they are repeated endlessly on various media outlets. The leader in this disinformation campaign is Fox.

Fox and other Republicans when faced with the stunning economic numbers, numbers they wished they could have had any of the Republican Presidents of the last 50 years, is to say, “What about the price of eggs? And gas?” Yet, the price of eggs is constant and the price of gas is down. I now regularly see gas at or below $3.00. 

And then there are the crisis and the diplomatic victories:

– Remember the Trump Admin roll out plan for Covid vaccine?

The incoming Biden team kept asking and they never got an answer. The reason? There was no plan.

And besides Trump said it would go away on its own. It wouldn’t and it didn’t. It took concerted scientific effort and political administrative will to do the job.

– Remember the port crisis after Covid?

It was going to take months to get all the containers shipped out. What happened? Biden sent a team out to work on it and the stuff started getting out. Crisis over.

– How about the big strike by the port workers earlier this past week? Biden’s team and Biden resolved it. Done. No crisis.

– How about Brittney Griner? She was jailed in Putin’s Russia. It was unjust and Biden’s team got her out. Various people complained that we gave away too much and what about the others being held like Paul Whelan? Why wasn’t he released instead of Griner? Answer from Biden, “That wasn’t the offer on the table.”

– Remember Paul Whelan? Yeah, Biden got him out too. And in that same deal he got out the young woman who put little protest price tags on aisle shelves in Russia. 

– What about the turn around in our economy from Covid? We keep getting reports that show how well the economy is doing. This to the consternation of people like Laura Ingraham and whomever the replacement was for Tucker Carlson. At least the Fox Business folks are truthful enough to say, “If I had these numbers I’d run on them too.” 

– Then there is the mess left by Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. Pull out for no reason and get nothing. Great work (you idiot.)

– Let’s not forget giving Northern Syria to Putin. This allowed both Turkey and Assad to go in and kill our allies. The ones who actually did the fighting to defeat the Caliphate. We had like fifty people providing air support and guaranteeing the freedom to those people and Trump handed it to Putin. Even Putin  was smiling when it happened.

– There was the deal to hand over Afghanistan to the Taliban. Something orchestrated by Trump. He got the head of the Taliban out of jail. Wanted to bring him to Camp David. Told him when we were pulling out. Drew down the troop levels to almost nothing just before leaving office and then complained when the withdrawal didn’t go smoothly under Biden, who was left with little or no choice. Trump bragged about doing that.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Last night Kathy Hutchinson was on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show. She’s the lady who at twenty six testified at the first impeahment inquiiry what she had witnessed as the aid to Mark Meadows then Chief of Staff to Donald Trump. She spoke about her conservative principles. I’ve always wondered what that meant. I looked it up by googling it. Lo and behold one of the first hits was Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, espousing his conservative principles. They are:

1. Individual Freedom,

2. Limited Government,

3. The Rule of Law,

4. Peace Through Strength,

5. Fiscal Responsibility,

6. Free Markets,

7. Human Dignity.

That’s it. As I read this all I could think about was, “Then why?”

If you’re for Individual Freedom then why do you want to restrict women’s freedom?

If you’re for Limited Government then why do you want to regulate what people do?

If you’re for The Rule of Law then why do you back a criminal?

If you’re for Peace Through Strength why do you hold up funds for Ukraine?

If you’re for Fiscal Responcibility why do Republicans always outspend Democrats and don’t pay for it.

If you’re for Free Markets why did you allow your Republican president to muck up the American farmers’ grain deals with China? Why are you letting your nominee espoiuse 100% tariffs on all imported goods?

If your for Human Dignity why are you letting women bleed out in prking lots and refusing them medical care?

I don’t understand the Core Values that are espoused. Is this what Ms Hutchinson is for? I don’t know. I mean it sounds good. In theory. But their actions are quite different.

It seems to me that their values are more: My Way or The Highway:

A. Women need to shut up and have babies.

B. We want to limit government helping people and let business scres over the people.

C. Rule of Law for you, We do what we want.

D. Let’s start wars on “the others.”

E. Fiscal Responsibility means you don’t spend money. We do.

F. Free markets means we want unregulated buisness to once again screw over people and give us kick backs.

G. Human Dignity – that’s White Christian Nationalism. Otherwise forget it.

Oh yeah. In other news there’s a 165 page complaint released by the judge that the Special Counsel had submitted outlining Trump’s criminal attempts to stay in office. There is now direct evidence that Trump directed and participated in these efforts. 

Hey Mike! Talk to me about The Rule of Law.

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

So there was a debate last night between the two VP candidates.

It was said that debating was not Tim Waltz’s strong suit, and that JD Vance was really good at it.

That came across.

However, there was that last question the one Tim asked JD about who won the 2020 election. Vance did not answer it. The expression on Tim’s face said it all.

In the follow up analysis several points were made I thought worth noting:

– Vance did not answer any of the questions he was asked. Wait, maybe he answered one, but it was a minor point. He was given credit for being smooth, a smooth liar. His statement about not being for a national abortion ban was contradicted by an earlier statement that said he was for a national abortion ban.

– Waltz was nervous early on. He was considered by some as being too nice, too congenial. But that’s who he is. I had the feeling that if he was in charge of something and had to work with Vance that he would be able to do it. I mean by the end of the debate he had Vance working with him, and this was a debate. The toughest thing Waltz said was that Vance’s answer to who won 2020 was the biggest non answer he had ever heard.

In one of the follow ups I watched a reporter was with some high school students and asked their reaction. It had to be one of the students who pointed out that vice presidents don’t set the agenda or the policy. Yet, the talk by Vance was all about “the failed policies of Kamala Harris.” Seems Vance needs to take civics again. 

It was also said this morning that Vance was much better than Trump on the debate stage. I think that should be repeated over and over again along with a “Maybe Vance should be on the top of the ticket?” stuff. I can’t think of anything that would get under Donnie’s skin more.

Other remarkable lies were that Trump was the one who saved Obama care. (Really? What about all those votes to try and get rid of it?) That the economy was terrific under Trump and Biden/Harris ruined it with their failed policies. (Again. Really? That’s why the stock market is at an all time high now?)

There was much dismissive hand waving (and lying) by Mr. Vance: Women (puff), the Trump debt (puff puff), Covid (pff), manufacturing jobs (pfff…).

Meanwhile, Tim gave real answers to solving problems. Well, he’s a governor. As such you have to solve problems. Vance? He described his experience as a politician and what he had done. Well, some charts were put up showing in his looooong two year career how many things he had vetoed. Maybe, he forgot all about that stuff when he walked on stage?

Waltz’s favorability ratings went up to 59% after the debate. Vance was in the mid 40s, up from one of the worst VP’s ratings ever. But he beat out Dan Quayle (2nd term) and Ross Perot’s independent running mate. Other than that he was at the bottom of the barrel. Tim was near the top.

Overall the debate did little to change people’s opinions, which is a shame, because the choice is between democracy and dictatorship.