Author: oldned

Deportation: Joe v Don

On the heels of the House’s bogus impeachment and Senate’s refusal to convict Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of failing to secure America’s borders, the fact is, yearly and in-total, Joe Biden’s Administration has deported tens-of-thousands more who do not meet America’s residency statutes than Donald Trump’s Administration deported.

Karl Rove on January 6

At the January 31–February 2, 2024, Rancho Mirage Writers Festival, archconservative Karl Rove voiced thought about the January 6, 2021, assault on America’s Capitol, Congress, and Constitution.  Donald Trump’s fans might find the Republican icon’s transcribed comments instructive:

“If (Biden’s campaign) were smart, they would take the January 6 and go hard at it.  And they would say, ‘He wants to pardon the people who attacked our Capitol.’

“I worked in that building as a young man.  To me the Congress of the United States is one of the great examples of the strength of our democracy and a jewel of the Constitution.  And what those people did when they violently attacked the Capitol in order to stop a Constitutionally mandated meeting of the Congress to accept the results of the Electoral College is a stain on our history, and every one of those sons-of-bitches who did that, we ought to find them and send them to jail.

“And one of the critical mistakes made in this campaign is that Donald Trump has now said, ‘I’m going to pardon those people because they’re “hostages.”’  No they’re not!  They’re thugs!  Those people, some of them had automatic weapons at a hotel in Virginia hoping to  be called up.  We had people saying, ‘Where is Nancy Pelosi?’  We had people who were, you know, taking desks and siting at the desk of the Speaker of the House, and attempting to find people to bring them to justice, and saying, yelling at the police, saying, ‘Kill them.  Kill them all!’

“And so, what Trump has done is beyond me.  He could have said, ‘You know what?  I trust our jury system.  I trust law enforcement.  Anybody who assaulted the capital ought to be’—I mean he said it once or twice—but now he’s got, he’s appearing in a venue with people who assaulted police officers with an intent to take the Capitol by force.

“So, you know what?  I‘m a Republican.  I don’t want a Democrat President.  I want to have a Republican President.  But, we’re facing as a country and as citizens.  And you know what?  Everybody gets to make it, as to what kind of leadership we’re going to have, and to me it is a mistake on the part of the Trump campaign to allow the President’s impulses to identify himself with the people or assaulted the Capitol rather than people who stand for law and order.”

Behind Karl’s sincere and high-minded respect for America’s Capitol and Institutions, and his puzzlement at Trump’s failure to call for the rule of law to hold the rioters accountable—the cockroach in Rove’s rational soup—is his failure to appreciate that President Donald J.  Trump orchestrated and ordered the “sons-of-bitches” to attack our Capitol, Congress, and Constitution!

Footnote: Every January 6 “hostage” was tried in a court of law and found guilty by a jury of their peers. 

On Easter

Along with millions of Christians, on Easter Sunday President Joe and First Lady Jill attended church.

Bible peddler Donald celebrated the Resurrection with 77 tortured, hate-filled, online screeds.

What a poor, sad mind.

Gaming the System

To forestall chaos and controversy, football, baseball, basketball, and other “games” are played according to mutually accepted rules.  Umpires, referees, and other “officials” ensure the rules are enforced.  On and off the court or field, contestants never resort to character assassination, name-calling, slandering, and threatening an umpire, referee, or other official.

Likewise, cultures function according to mutually accepted rules or “laws.”  Magistrates, judges, and justices ensure the laws are enforced.  In and outside the courtroom, citizens never resorted to character assassination, name-calling, slandering, and threatening magistrates, judges, or justices—before Donald John Trump!

I am puzzled by the motive behind Donald’s egregious, outlandish, assaults on judges, their family, and staff.  By intimidating and threatening umpires and referees a rogue coach might seek to ensure his team’s infractions are ignored.  By intimidating and threatening judges and jurors a rogue ex-President seeks to ensure that judges rule in his favor and jurors absolve his of alleged crimes. 

Until now, witness intimidation, jury tampering, and judge bribing were perhaps more common than we like to believe, but clandestine.  Today, Donald’s blatant attempts to game the system are open and notorious!

About Energy

At ages 81 and 77, do Joe Biden or Donald Trump possess the mental acuity to lead America, indeed the Free World?  Proponents and opponents point to candidates’ pronouncements seeming to reflect a grasp of the facts or delusions and lies. 

In less than a month I will have ridden Ol’ Earth around Ol’ Sol 87 times.  I like to believe my blog demonstrates that octogenarians are not always doddering old fools.  Some exhibit the cognitive dexterity to tackle and express reasoned consideration of thorny issues. 

For me the larger challenge posed by being President of the United States of America is having the energy, the physical strength, to perform its day-to-day tasks: the meetings, travel, speeches, rallies!

I am awed by Joe’s and Donald’s apparent stamina!  Their exertions appear to flow from a gut-level determination which very few of us, certainly I do not, possess.   

Justice

For falsifying a single document, a man who could not afford an attorney spent over two years in federal prison.  In a truly fair justice system, Donald Trump would long since have been locked up.

Injustice bought is justice denied.

An Enigma

Donald J. Trump is an enigma: a brilliant Grifter and astonishingly ignorant!  The plethora of instances supporting this hypothesis makes selecting a few akin to sampling dirty bath water with a thimble:

  • Like a Prima Ballerina, Donald pirouettes through litigious minefields, making bonehead assertions that intravenous toxins might combat COVID-19 virus, wind turbines kill millions of birds and whales, and wet magnets don’t work.  
  • In 2015 Trump labeled McCain “not a war hero.  He’s a war hero because he got captured.  I like people who weren’t captured.”  By extension, Donald views all Prisoners of War as not heroes.  In a The Atlantic article, September 3, 2020, entitled “Trump: Americans Who Died in War are ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’” Jeffrey Goldberg detailed numerous derogatory remarks by Trump regarding members of our armed forces, calling John McCain “a f****** loser.” 
  • In a speech conflating America’s Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, July 4, 2019, Donald said, “Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory.”  Manning “the air” and taking “over the airports” predates Orville and Wilbur by a century!
  • Despite incontrovertible proof he lost America’s 2020 Presidential election, Donald insisting he won.  
  • After, orchestrating an attack on the Capitol, Congress, and Constitution, pressuring State officials to overthrow valid 2020 election results, and absconding with thousands of official documents, Donald insists, “I did nothing wrong.”
  • While hundreds who he ordered to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are indicted or in prison, Donald roams free to spew lies and vilifications.
  • He repeatedly brags about beating “Obama” in 2016.
  • Non-Caucasians are, “poisoning the blood of our county.”
  • President Biden might lead us into World War II !

On and on and on  .  .  . 

According to my go-to source Wikipedia, “The Washington Post’s fact-checker documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during (Trump’s) presidential term.  .  .  .  The Toronto Star tallied 5,276 false claims from January 2017 to June 2019.”  The monthly graphs of these data are instructive.

If they were not so ominous, Donald’s pronouncements may be viewed as humorous.

Should this man to represent the United States of America?  Does he represent you?

Sixth-Grade Bullies

Donald Trump is a Bully: “a blustering, browbeating person, especially .  .  .  who is habitually cruel, insulting, or threatening to others who are weaker, smaller, or in some way vulnerable.” (Merriam-Webster)  Moreover, the ex-President is a Sixth-Grade Bully.

Our world is a playground.  Most of us play nice, take turns, don’t lie, or cheat.  We don’t push, hit, or taunt our playmates with insults and derogatory names.  When a more vulnerable child is being picked on, we step up to defend her or him.  Sixth-Grade Bully Donald would “encourage” his Sixth-Grade Bully Pal Vladimir to “do whatever the hell (he) wants” to our less fortunate playmates.

How stupid and crazy is that?

NATO is American’s front-line against Donald’s Sixth-Grade Bully Pal, Vlad.  We must fulfill our pledge to stand up and protect smaller European allies.  We must tell the Sixth-Grad Bullies to grow up, think and behave like civilized adults, and back the hell off!