I tell ya, I don't get no respect

Donald Trump can't seem to get any break these days.  You can visualize him loosening his tie as he complains about there being no bump in the polls after all the news channels ran with the story of the second assassination attempt all week.  He vented on Truth Social, hoping to boost its plummeting stock value, but it too hit a record low of $13.55 on Friday.  Meanwhile, the Dow hit a new high of 42,000 on news that the Fed is lowering interest rates.  Here again, Donald bemoaned that it was a political move that favored Kamala Harris, even though the Fed had been talking about this for months.

Donald isn't the only one having problems.  The man he called  "Martin Luther King on steroids" turns out to be a "Black Nazi" in disguise.  CNN uncovered Mark Robinson's screen avatar on a porn site from some years ago where he went off on a number of vile tangents, including one where he preferred Hitler to Obama.  He also praised slavery and wished it would come back so that he could buy a few.   I suppose he could have said it was all part of an elaborate ruse, like Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman, but instead vehemently denies the allegations.  Trump got the "steroids" part right.

Robinson had been running for governor of North Carolina but now many Republicans are urging him to drop out.  He already trails Josh Stein by as much as 13 points in the polls.  This brutal revelation not only threatens to take him down but Donald as well in a state Trump desperately needs if he has any chance of winning the electoral college vote in November. 

Not that Trump hasn't done a good job of undermining himself, spouting all sorts of wild hair notions like turning on a giant water faucet that would immediately have water pouring down from the Columbia River to feed drought-ridden California.  He seemed to mistake the border of Washington with that of British Columbia but no matter.   

Joe Rogan recently said Trump is "funny like a comic," but no one thought he was funny at the Israeli-American Council national summit, where he openly chastised Jews for not voting for him and said that they were putting themselves in "great danger" by not doing so.  He left it open as to where this danger was coming from but strongly implied "Comrade Kamala."  This after he got such "nice" phone calls from Harris and Biden after the foiled assassination attempt.

He now wants to visit Springfield in the next two weeks and see for himself that migrants are eating dogs and cats.  The mayor of the small town, which has become a home for Haitian temporary residents, pleads with Trump and Vance to go anywhere else, maybe Aurora, Colorado, as the town tries to come to terms with all the bomb threats that followed his infamous statement at the debate.  It forced the mayor to cancel school and temporarily shut down local businesses. Trump of course remains unapologetic.

He still insists he won the debate.  Only losers want a rematch.  This despite virtually every media outlet and social media influencer scoring it for Kamala.  Even Joe Rogan thought Kamala got the best of him, although he claimed it was better coaching.  Others thought she had audio earrings that allowed Pete Buttigieg to feed her lines backstage.  Even Trump repeated this false claim in Las Vegas, which further showed how good he was, as he overcame the ABC moderators, who had the audacity to fact check him, and Kamala's hi-tech ear pieces.

The hyperbolic rants are not only costing him in the polls but Republicans down ticket as well. Mitch thought he had the Senate in the bag with Republicans leading in Montana and West Virginia, but now the GOP finds itself having to actively defend seats in Texas and Florida where Democrats are challenging Republican incumbents.  Colin Allred and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell are giving Ted Cruz and Rick Scott a run for their money, forcing Republicans to throw more cash at these campaigns than they wanted to.  Rick was so sure he was cruising to a victory in his adopted state that he had his eyes set on Senate majority leader in the next term, with Mitch now retired.

Thinking that it still might be a close election, Lindsey Graham traveled to Nebraska to try to convince the Republican legislature to quit splitting their electoral votes so that wayward Omaha can't cast its lone electoral vote for Kamala.  It doesn't matter that Maine also splits its votes, and that the Republicans usually pick up one there.  Every electoral vote counts.

Meanwhile, Trump has all but given up on many battleground states with his dwindling campaign resources, putting all his chips on Pennsylvania.  Where's that $45 million per month you promised, Elon?  Donald had a golden opportunity to attend the unveiling of a Polish-Catholic shrine with Polish President Andrzej Duda, but cancelled at the last minute.  The Polish vote in Pennsylvania is yuge!  Kamala told him so at the debate when he refused to declare his support for Ukraine.

"Why don't you tell the 800,000 Polish-Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up," as Trump feebly said he just wants the war to end.

Mr. X got him in a bit of trouble with the Teamsters.  Donald almost had their endorsement until he praised Musk for all the layoffs he made at his companies in an exclusive X interview.  This led the hapless Teamsters boss Sean O'Brien to call Musk an "economic terrorist" and put his endorsement on hold.  Meanwhile, the Teamsters national black caucus endorsed Kamala.  Feeling he had to do something, Sean held a straw ballot and claimed the majority of his truckers' union sided with Trump but that he wasn't going to endorse anyone this election cycle.  Trump called it a "win" just the same, only for a whole bunch of local caucuses in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada to publicly endorse Kamala.  Is that still a win, Donald?

It seems like Donald doesn't know if he is coming or going these days.  He confused Nevada with Pennsylvania at a rally in Las Vegas.  He hoped to bring out a very special guest. "She's a hot one," he exclaimed to the crowd, which he estimated in the millions.  He seemed to think he had Nicki Minaj backstage.  However, it turned out to be Reggaeton star Nicky Jam, and the rapper was none too happy about being "misgendered."  Nicky was mercilessly mocked the next day on social media and pulled his support for Trump.  Damn, you could almost hear Trump say, I thought I had someone to counter Taylor Swift.

He's still smarting from losing this endorsement too.  Not that he ever had it to begin with.  He still thought he had Brittany Mahomes in his back pocket until he said a whole bunch of nasty things about Taylor.  Come on, Donald, don't you know they are BFF?  Now, Brittany is also rethinking her support.

Once again, we have mainstream Republicans distancing themselves from Trump.  Who needs an incendiary figure like this guy?  He will send the whole GOP up in flames.  More than 90% of his former cabinet officers and advisors have spoken out against him.  That's right, 90 percent!  Many have expressed their support for Kamala, as they feel he would be an absolute menace if given a second term.  No red flag here.  

There remains plenty of fence-sitters like Bret Stephens, a former Trumper, now uncommitted, who writes for the New York Times.  He can't quite bring himself to support Kamala despite the best efforts of Bill Maher and Stepanie Ruhle.  Maher likened Stephens to a dog they were trying to get into a car to go to a vet.  Needless to say, Donald was unhappy.  He called them all losers, his favorite epithet.  

Trump has expressed a vendetta against all comics and the liberal media who belittle him.  It's worse than libel, he exclaimed, echoing his sentiments from his term as president when he couldn't stand being mocked on SNL and other late night programs.  Trump has long been unable to take a joke.  It actually seems to be part of his appeal, as it has made him the patron saint of all those who have been ridiculed in public life. He says he will take action through his Department of Justice if elected.  Talk about weaponizing the DOJ!

Fearless prognosticator Nate Silver warns that Kamala might win the popular vote but lose the electoral college to Trump just like Hillary did in 2016.  Why?  Well, his algorithms tell him so.  More to the point, it seems most of Donald's supporters get their news from Truth Social and other conservative social media sites.  Their own "Private Idaho."  I'm surprised Donald hasn't used this song yet at his rallies.  Electric Avenue has now been forbidden.

It doesn't matter that the economy seems in pretty good shape, there's always Jamie Dimon to cast doubts.  However, most economists praised the Fed's move to lower interest rates this past week despite Trump's angry protests.  Donald wanted the Fed to hold off until after the election and claim any bump in the stock market as his own, like he did back in July when the Dow last crested 40,000.  Trump seems to think he's the only one who can manage the economy.  If his plunging social network stock and his recent foray into cryptocurrency are any gauge, we would be doomed under another Trump administration.

Oh, and his wife wants you to know she's still hot and very proud of her nude photos, rhetorically asking in her thick Slovenian accent, "are we no longer able to appreciate the beauty of the human body?"  Most of the photos were semi-nude anyway and made her look like a cheap Russian agent.  Be best, Melania! 

I can only hope that Americans are ready to cancel this reality show once and for all this Fall.  Even when he wasn't president, he managed to keep himself in the news with all his indictments.  The problem is that Americans can't bring themselves to let go of Trump.  He is a bit like Rodney Dangerfield in that he is able to generate laughs mostly at his own expense, albeit unintentionally.  

If nothing else, he has managed to distract media attention away from his abysmal debate performance.  It's not the type of distractions most politicians would want to have but for Donald it is par for the course.  Fore!