The Trumpf*ckery of it all!

This guy sure has a nasty habit of sticking his foot in his mouth.  His latest plea to religious conservatives implied that November will be the last election necessary.  Afterward "it'll be fixed."  An off the cuff statement like this would be enough to bury a presidential candidate, but not Trump.  He seems to be given an inordinate amount of leeway in the media, as if to say, "what do you expect from a man off his rocker?"

Nevertheless, his campaign team tried to rephrase that statement into a call for "unity and prosperity," but Trump has a hard time hiding his authoritarian streak.  After all, he is "great friends" with authoritarian leaders around the world, and doesn't think much of democratic alliances like NATO and the EU.

The Kamala Harris campaign is jumping all over his latest statement as proof positive that Trump is a serious threat to democracy.  Not that we really needed it, but every self-inflicted wound helps.  This missive should be placed on billboards all over the country.

It's hard to fathom that so many persons still worship and adore this false prophet.  They like to think of themselves as "Old Testament Christians," an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, no holds barred in their eternal war on an ever growing secular society that doesn't prescribe to their point of view.  Just look at them fume over the opening ceremony of the Olympics, where the French supposedly mocked The Last Supper.  However, they are a minority in this country.  Most people don't adhere to such a rigid point of view, even among Republicans, so why do these more moderate Americans still intend to vote for this charlatan?

I suppose the thought of our first black woman president scares them even more than Donald Trump.  This is going to be a pretty tough hurdle for Kamala to overcome.  Racism and misogyny walk hand in hand, although most of these Republicans and conservative Independents are loath to admit it, which is why it is so difficult to assess which way the electorate will turn in November.

For her part, Kamala needs to be herself, not get baited by all the "DEI" comments that have surfaced in the week since she became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President.  DEI is shorthand for "diversity, equity and inclusion" and has become a code word among conservatives for a non-white Democrat, man or woman, who has risen to a high position.  It doesn't apply to their own non-white leaders, who claim to have gotten where they are by their own determination.  In this way, they blame affirmative action for the "sudden rise" of Kamala Harris, whereas Nikki Haley did it on her own.  

It doesn't have to make any sense because conservative spin doctors don't rely on truth or reason.  They figure if they pound a theme hard enough and long enough, a gullible public will eventually accept it.  Kamala's approval rating sits at 38.5 percent, according to 538.  Like Trump, it has never risen above 50% during her years as Vice-President, so many think she isn't up to the challenge of being President.  But, these polls are less a reflection of her abilities as they are a public that knows very little about her, and is allowing the media to shape their views.

So far, the mainstream media has been kind to Kamala.  They haven't gone after her yet, but they will. They will dig up every bit of dirt they can find between now and November.  Journalism, or rather what passes for journalism, is all about getting dirt.  Jake Tapper, who has risen to the top of the CNN broadcast pyramid, scored his first big news story by dishing on a date he had with Monica Lewinsky after her infamous tryst with Bill Clinton.  

Throughout the mainstream media today we see similar figures.  They don't really care about what is going on.  They deal mostly in public perception.  This was the case when George Stephanopoulos interviewed Joe Biden shortly after his disastrous debate.  George literally said he didn't care about Joe's record as president.  He wanted to know whether he would take a cognitive test or not.  When Joe said he takes a cognitive test everyday in the decisions he has to make, George was unimpressed, insisting on a cognitive test for dementia.  While George has better credentials than Jake Tapper, he hasn't shown much journalistic integrity by dishing on his backstage impressions of Biden.  He apologized afterward, but the damage was done.

Yet, we see an orange-faced Donald reminding us daily of how out of touch he is with reality and will literally say anything to appease his religious conservative base.  The most Jake or George do is shrug.  The entire media for that matter.  It has become a matter of course for Trump, which is why it is so hard to make these mad ravings stick, not to mention the endless stream of lies and mischaracterizations, which should be enough for any reasonable person to shun this guy.

Unfortunately, there are very few within the Republican Party willing to challenge him.  Whatever disgruntlement expressed in the past is over.  Even Nikki Haley has become a vocal supporter in recent weeks, maybe still eyeing a VP spot, as JD Vance hasn't exactly measured up to expectations.  However, Trump would be loath to admit he needs a woman on the ticket to bolster his support in the suburbs.  He thinks he has this final election well in hand.  

If we do see a change in the Republican ticket it will come after the Democratic convention, which is shaping up to be a raucous affair.  While the media still hints there might be a move to put someone else in place of Kamala, most of the focus is on who she will pick as Vice-President.  Does she go for the popular astronaut from Arizona or the popular Jewish governor of Pennsylvania or the popular homeboy from Kentucky?  Mark Kelly, Josh Shapiro and Andy Beshear are the front runners for the number two spot because everyone is convinced Kamala's only chance of winning this election is if she has a white man by her side.  Her husband doesn't count.  

Kamala would really make things interesting if she picked a Latino Veep.  After all, it was a record number of Latinos turning out for the Arizona general election that won the state for Biden in 2020, not Mark Kelly.  One of the substories that has emerged in this election cycle is the dissatisfaction among Latinos for how the Biden administration has addressed their broad community.  So far, Latino support for Kamala has been lukewarm at best.  She has to find some way to reach out to Latino voters if she expects to pull off a victory in November.

Trump has exploited bigotry throughout the past three election cycles, whether it is identifying violent crime with illegal immigrants or recently claiming that the majority of new jobs are "black jobs" and therefor shouldn't be counted.  Yet, he has no problem surrounding himself with dubious rappers at a rally in the Bronx during his "hush money" trial in New York.  Oddly enough, it took Charlamagne Tha God to point out to Jake Tapper what the media gets wrong about Kamala's "electability."  Jake tried to use a code word of his own, rhetorically asking if America is ready for a "prosecutor?"  Charlamagne asked is America ready for a "criminal" in the White House, noting Trump's 34 convictions?

Yep, it is going to be a very nasty election.  We all knew that going in.  Republicans could have pushed an alternative to Trump back in the primaries but instead split over a handful of candidates so that none of them gathered the necessary momentum to unseat Trump.  Yet, somehow they still make this election about Biden and how dare he cede his nomination to Kamala after the primaries are over.  This is what they wish they could do with Trump, but fat boy isn't budging.  Oh, the Trumpf*ckery of it all!