WIERD -- AND SCARY

As this campaign shifts into year high gear, it not only gets more wierd, but more scary as well. 

After Vance’s offensive remarks to the effect that women who did not have children were not true patriots, there was speculation in the press about how Vance was chosen. Was this a failure by the Trump team properly to vet prospects for the job? I especially appreciated Jamie Raskin’s line, 

"And by the way, JD Vance, do you understand why there was a sudden job opening for running mate on the GOP ticket? They tried to kill your predecessor."

For a while, there was some talk about replacing Vance after his“cat-lady” remarks, but so far he is still on the ticket. (Perhaps his survival is related to his wife's reported assurance that her husband’s remarks were meant to insult only people who chose not to have children, not people who were trying to have children but were unsuccessful.) 

Not only have Vance and his offensive remarks remained out there, Trump seems to have lost all contact with reality. While he boasts about how proud he is to have appointed the three justices responsible for Dobbs, polls consistently show that 65% of the country opposes the reversal of Roe, and yet Trump continues to make statements such as “Everyone,— Democrats, Republicans, liberals, and conservatives wanted Roe v Wade terminated.” Huh?

And the man who wants to be the president of the entire country, and occasionally talks about unifying the nation, while watching the Democratic convention, published on social media his view that Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania was a "highly overrated Jewish governor." (This from a presidential candidate who has Jewish grandchildren and invites antisemites to lunch.)

 And now we come to the king of weird, son of the former Attorney General of the United States and the nephew of the former President of the United States, enter from stage right, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who may be even weirder than JD Vance. Kennedy, who until earlier this week, was a third-party candidate, has now suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump. In a previous election, Kennedy claimed he had Trump's assurance that in a Trump administration he would have a role in healthcare and drug policy. This time around, Trump has said he will put RFK Jr. on a panel to investigate child health problems. Can you imagine this anti-VAX lunatic influencing decisions about inoculating our children against polio and measles?

Aside from the fact that he claims he has a dead worm in his brain, and admits to leaving a found road-kill bear cub carcass in Central Park, (he had been saving it to eat  the meat, but had to leave it behind to catch a plane) he favors pet emus, one of which was killed by his dog, and the second one remains in his California home with his wife. She says she carries a shovel when she goes into her backyard where the emu lives because the creature has charged her and she fears an emu attack that will lead to the need to defend herself by killing her husband’s pet.

Kennedy had spent millions of his running mate's dollars on a campaign that never got off the ground. He was struck from the ballot in New York, when a judge found his claim of state residency was a “sham”. He had been sued in several other states. Jr. has said he will now return to his wife, dogs, emu, and two pet ravens, at his home in California. He blamed his need to drop out of the race on “censorship.” Wha? Was that the worm speaking, y'think?

Oh yeah, Trump had earlier referred to his new supporter and prospective staffer as a “lunatic.”

Nevertheless, the Trump/Harris race is now rated as pretty much dead even. If you are not terrified by the prospect of a Trump/Vance/RFK Jr./ victory, you should be.

A bientot.

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‘’SUCKERS AND LOSERS”

Have the editors of the New York Times lost their journalist edge? Or have they lost their sense of decency?

I know I am repeating myself when I refer herein to Mr. Trump's disgusting and un-American remarks about the people who risk their lives so that he remains free to make nasty remarks about  political adversaries, tell thousands of lies, and compete for the presidency of this country at the risk of our losing our Constitutional democracy. 

We did not win that democracy at a Nevada casino. We won it in a Revolutionary War in which tens of thousands of freedom-loving patriots died. We maintained that democracy when thousands more lost their lives in the War of 1812, and hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives in the Civil War, the First World War, the Second World War, and in various conflicts thereafter.

Some of those later conflicts (Vietnam, Afghanistan, Libya) were, arguably, ill-conceived, but they all had one thing in common: American troops who swore on their honor to defend their country, swore to follow their commanders, swore to give their all, to risk their lives for the good of the United States of America.

Not everybody who put it all on the line for the country was a volunteer. In major conflicts, the government drafted citizens to fight to protect our liberty, and for the most part they did so whether they liked it or not. And some were heroic beyond measure, sacrificing their own safety to save and protect their brothers in arms. Their courage and sacrifice were so extraordinary that The President of the United States, representing the will of Congress, awarded them the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is the highest of military awards, and more than 3,400 were awarded since its establishment in 1861, and more than 40% of them  (including the only woman ever to get one) were awarded during the Civil War. 

The key word here is "Honor". The medalists acted with extraordinary self-sacrificing honor. That's what the award is all about – American servicemen, who honored their country by extraordinary conduct that risked their lives—and some 20% of them lost their lives in the process of doing so.

Now I come back to my lede: the unconscionable failure of the New York Times (and the other so-called establishment press organs) to run a major front page headline reporting on the unfathomable dishonor to our troops by a former president of the United States, who seeks to regain the office of Commander-in-Chief of our military.

A brief recap of the history of Mr. Trump's dishonor of the troops he seeks to command: during the Vietnam War, Trump dodged the draft via a letter from a podiatrist who was a tenant of Trump's father. The letter asserted that Mr. Trump had a bone spur in his heel that disqualified him from military duty, and apparently, the military accepted that diagnosis. 

While he was president, Trump canceled a scheduled visit to a United States military cemetery in France because of inclement weather. Numerous witnesses heard him whine: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It is filled with losers and suckers.”

On another occasion, he mocked John McCain's military service during the years he spent in North Vietnam prison camps after being shot down in a combat mission. Trump dishonored his political adversary by saying "I prefer flyers who do not get captured".

More recently he mocked a competitor for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, by suggesting her husband had left her. The fact was that Haley's husband was a Major in the United States Army and was serving a tour of duty in Africa.  As I have previously pointed out, apparently, Major Haley lacks bone spurs in his heels.

Now back to the lede: failure of the Times and so many other journalistic outlets to demand —on the front page—in inch-high headlines, the disqualification of Donald Trump from the presidential contest based on his complete dishonor of the American military.

The latest act of dishonor is almost difficult to believe but Trump cannot help but reveal his inner vacuousness. In a recent ceremony at his New Jersey Bedminster Golf Club, Trump referred to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which has nothing to do with the military, valor, or patriotism. (The 600+ recipients since Harry Truman established the award have included Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Roger Staubach, Elvis Presley, Babe Ruth, a newspaper editor, 30 U.S. Senators, etc,) 

In 2018,Trump had awarded the Medal of Freedom to Dr. Miriam Adelson, the widow of Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, the owner of Las Vegas casinos, the most prominent of which is the Sands Hotel. Between 2019 and 2020, the Adelsons reportedly gave more than $218 million to Trump, a pro-Trump super PAC, and other Republican donees.  Medal winner Adelson is reportedly the fifth wealthiest woman in the United States, with a net worth of $28 billion.

Trump's remarks? Speaking of the Medal of Freedom he had awarded to his political contributor, Trump said "It's actually much better [than the Medal of Honor] because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They are either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets or they are dead. She [Adelson] gets it and she's a healthy, beautiful woman. And they are rated equal, but she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.’’

Veterans organizations issued critical remarks and the press covered Trump's dishonorable statement but gave it less coverage than the overdose-death of Matthew Perry.

Shame on the nation’s press. Why do they tolerate even the prospect of Trump as Commander-in-Chief of those who put their life on the line to protect our freedoms?

To quote Liz Cheney: "We are the land of the free because of the brave.”

A bientot. 

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