Clintons Just Can't Play It Straight

Good Thursday morning, Friends,

I woke up to a report on MSNBC this morning that Bill Clinton held his plane on the tarmac in Phoenix yesterday to have an impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, when he found out her plane was also there.

No one knows what they talked about, but he claimed it wasn't about the Justice Department's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server. Really? A day after Hillary's personal aide Huma Abedin was deposed by them?

Again, this is just another example of questionable Clinton behavior. How easy would it have been to avoid this meeting that reeks of impropriety?

I'd never put this past Bill Clinton, but I'm really shocked that someone as apparently brilliant as Lynch thought this would be okay.

You know, I was having a pretty crazy day and then I
get a call from Bill Clinton, and one thing led to another, and
next thing you know...I'm in big trouble!

Don't think for a moment that Donald Trump will whiff at this juicy fastball. He's absolutely going to hit it out of the ballpark.

Think about it. What if you or I were being investigated by the Justice Department? Do you think the Attorney General would agree to a private meeting with our spouse? I'm pretty sure that the answer would be...ummm, no.

We'll never know what they discussed. Believing it had nothing to do with the status of DOJ's Hillary probe, is like believing that $15 million in Wall Street campaign contributions have no effect on the way you see the world.

This is the kind of sleazy behavior we're in for under yet another Clinton administration. It'll be one thing after another for however long Hillary's tenure lasts.

As a lifelong Democrat, I'm having a really hard time dealing with what (as of now) appear to be my choices in November.

I'm not ready to tear the system to shreds by voting for Donald Trump, but supporting a candidate who I feel is morally reprehensible is a hard pill to swallow.

Please, Joe Biden, if you're physically able to handle just four years in office, not eight, please step up. Give us Democrats someone for whom we can be proud to vote.

You said you weren't in a good place to run right now. Please, Joe. Say it ain't so.

For Trump, DAESH Better Than CA$H

Good Wednesday, Friends,

The demagoguery has already begun.

It's as if on cue, ISIS (known pejoratively in the Middle East as DAESH) pulled off another horrific attack. This one killed more than 40 people and injured another 239 at Istanbul's main international airport.

Three terrorists shot their way through security and blew themselves up. By all accounts, this was not a typical soft-target attack. It was a brazen gun battle.

As I pointed out in an earlier post, ISIS's goal is to disrupt tourism, the world's largest industry. This is especially painful to economies in countries like Egypt, Turkey, and Israel.

The flag reads, "We're on a suicide mission. We're helping Donald
Trump become President of the United States."

With each jetliner brought down, each hotel bombing, each airport and train station attack, ISIS is chipping away at the number of people willing to leave the safety of their living rooms.

This is a particularly sensitive subject for you know who.

Considering his fortune is largely based on tourism, ISIS is really messing with The Donald's rice bowl.

We saw how proud Nubbs was of his golf resorts in Turnberry and Aberdeen, Scotland. It was more important for him to talk about Turnberry's amenities than comment on the Brexit vote when the shocking results were breaking.

When he did finally mention Brexit, he focused only on how Britain's exit from the E.U. would help his own profits.

I can't help but believe Trump looks at ISIS the same way, i.e., how ISIS affects his bottom line.

Trump resorts are all over Europe and the Middle East. Every attack means actual dollars fly out of his pocket. And he's notoriously 'careful' with his money.

No wonder Nubbs is so anxious to wipe out ISIS. Ironically, they may just be obliging him.

Each new incident is like depositing millions into Trump's campaign coffers. He's already riling up audiences over yesterday's atrocity and stealing the political narrative yet again.

Hillary made some nebulous statement about international cooperation over the latest egregious incident. But Trump is making the most of it, reinforcing his 'tough guy' image out on the stump,

Every additional move ISIS makes is like money in the bank for candidate Trump in terms of media. Every attack makes it less necessary for him to raise the amount of cash virtually all the experts say he needs to win the general election.

Everything about Trump's campaign has defied conventional wisdom so far, and he spent far less on the primaries than any other serious candidate on either side of the aisle.

ISIS's contribution to The Donald's campaign may be all the political and actual capital Trump needs to sweep into office. Another one or two more frightening attacks, especially if they're on the homeland, and he'll lock it up.

For Trump, DAESH is better than CASH.

Dems Have a Seminal Moment...or Two

Good morning, Friends,

I watched something happen yesterday, and I wasn't the only one to notice it. I witnessed the birth of the Democratic dream ticket, and it literally sent chills up my spine...in a good way.

The event, which I yesterday called Senator Elizabeth Warren's audition for VP, took place in Cincinnati, and it would not be hyperbole to call the moment electric.

Warren demonstrated in her verbal evisceration of Donald Trump that she was a skilled orator with gumption.

She proved every bit the attack dog that Hillary's campaign needs to keep the presumptive nominee out of the gutter with her Republican rival. Elizabeth can handle it for her.

Okay, it's not the best shot of us, but what do you want from a free publication? It was
the only royalty-free photo that showed our cute matching outfits.

But also, there was no denying that the chemistry between the two women was genuine, and they had the air of a winning team. Heck, their pant suits were even color-coordinated.

The obvious attractiveness of a Clinton/Warren ticket was not lost on many of the political pundits. Most speculated the obvious dream team would never happen for one reason or another.

If I were in the Clinton campaign, I would be pounding on Hillary to make the obvious choice.

Not only would Warren pull in many of Bernie Sanders' former supporters, but a two-woman administration would be historical on an even grander scale than Hillary making history on her own.

She may also need the help.

As I'm writing this post, the House Republicans are holding a news conference about their 800+ page Benghazi report. Hillary may have some problems.

It's clear she intended to blame the consulate attack and murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on an inflammatory YouTube video about Muhammad.

The evidence shows, however, that she knew the attack was a well-planned terrorist assault while she continued her charade for four days, until her story unraveled.

This behavior begs the same old question about Hillary, and I really don't need to repeat it.

But really, how comfortable would we be with a president who is not only casual with the truth but isn't shy about manipulating the public?

The GOP report is not going away, and it is more than just another tempest in a teapot for HRC. There are other issues the report brings up.

Even if irrefutable evidence doesn't hurt her one bit among her Democratic supporters--and it probably won't--the committee's findings will not help Hillary among Independents.

She'd generally need their support to win the general election, but I'm getting the feeling the Independent vote may not matter much in 2016.

The choices Independents face are so dismal, I predict most of them will just stay home on election day.

That is, unless Elizabeth Warren can change the whole ball game. As Hillary's running mate, I believe she would reinvigorate the Democratic party and drum up Independent votes.

Hillary really needs to show us some good judgment at this seminal moment.

Trump Needs VP, and Fast

Good Monday, Friends,

Donald Trump almost had a very good week last week. He made a scripted attack speech against Hillary Clinton that was well received and canned his contentious campaign chief Corey Lewandowski.

It was looking like Nubbs was righting his listing campaign ship...and then he went to Scotland.

Now this could have been a very fortuitous trip for The Donald, being in the U.K. during its historic Brexit vote. But he opened his big mouth and blew it.

Instead of being statesmanlike, when asked about Britain's choice to leave the E.U., his immediate response was about how a weaker Pound Sterling would benefit his new resort at Turnberry.

I've got to think this did not sit too well with many of us commoners whose IRAs tanked.

Tomorrow, The Donald will be back in the U.S.A., and he'll be giving another scripted on-teleprompter speech, reportedly on economic policy. We'll see.

Trump's scripted speeches have shown his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to be a talented writer, and the two speeches so far have each led to a boost for Trump's campaign. Tomorrow's should be no exception.

But Trump's problem is this: he acts as if he's his own vice presidential candidate.

Let's take a look at another event; this one today in Ohio. Hillary and Senator Elizabeth Warren will be on stage together for the first time in what is largely believed to be Warren's VP audition.

Senator Warren has been very vice presidential in the past several weeks. She's been the only effective hatchet against Nubbs from either party. And she takes that necessary responsibility off of Hillary's shoulders--exactly what a good vice presidential candidate does.

It was okay for Trump to be vice-presidential while he was destroying the Republican field and only needed to appeal to a relatively small audience. Now, he needs to contain it if he really wants to be president.

He needs his own Elizabeth Warren.

His family and new campaign manager, Paul Manafort, may be able to keep Trump's mouth in check.

But he must select his running mate quickly, and it's got to be someone who can carry Trump's primary attack mantle while The Donald prevents himself from making unforced errors and tries to look presidential.

I still love you, man! I love you too, man! I'm sorry I dissed your wife. Can we make
up now so you can rip Hillary apart for me?

Trump could gain some political capital with the GOP establishment from tomorrow's speech.  If so, he should be able find a willing sharp-tongued running mate with the Washington connections he said he needs.

Word is, the Cruz camp is warming.

Why the Rage?

Welcome to the new week, Friends,

The only thing constant in life is change. If you can't accept that fact, you're probably pretty likely to vote for something like Brexit...or Donald Trump.

You've probably noticed, America is turning browner.

We were founded as a nation of immigrants, and we remain such to a lesser or greater extent. And that means our complexions will continue looking more like those of the majority of the rest of the world.

Lin Manuel Miranda describes his Tony-winning Broadway musical Hamilton like this: "It's the story of Alexander Hamilton as re-enacted by the America of today." Take a look at his cast, and it's a bit different than the bunch of pasty white middle-age men who founded us.

If Aaron Burr had been told he would be portrayed by an African-American actor in 2016, he probably wouldn't have believed that Africans could be actors.

Today, many if not most of us have become accustomed to other than white faces occupying the highest posts in our public life.

I don't know why I do this over and over. Whenever I get ticked off, I throw
all my stuff out the window. Then, I go and buy all new stuff and get ticked off
again over what it cost me. Then,  I want the old stuff back. What's wrong
with me?

The hangers on to how it used to be, however, are tenacious, loud, and politically active. Most of all they are overwhelmingly white.

They are white and don't want their dominance over American life to change.

These are the same people whose objections to the flow of brown people into the U.K. caused Brexit to happen.

They are the same people who believe that Donald Trump can "Make America Great Again."

Though Trump denies it, the word "again" of course is code for the good old days. You know, back when women couldn't vote, and everyone knew their station in life.

Losing their station of privilege is exactly what's causing Trump supporters' rage.

I don't believe there is anywhere near a majority of Americans who support going backwards, but choosing between the two presumed major-party candidates presents an ethical dilemma. Hillary Clinton has her own serious flaws.

I watched the Libertarian Town Hall on CNN the other night, and I did not see the Johnson/Weld ticket as an alternative that will inspire very many. In energy level, the Libertarians were on a par with Jeb Bush.

If the power of the minority's rage builds enough steam to carry Trump to the presidency, the America we know will be totally disrupted.

A Trump government would look far less like Lin Manuel Miranda's America and more like Andrew Jackson's.

Not only would the face of American government get whiter again, but we'd also change from a principled, policy-driven country, to a transactional one. If a deal benefits us financially, we'll take it.

International relations would be dashed--Trump claims he'd dismantle NATO and NAFTA and rewrite all other trade agreements.

Even venerable conservative columnist George Will says he's "left the Republican party," because of Trump.

Ironically, if all the rage does carry The Donald to the presidency, it could lead to more change than anyone can swallow.

We will then be asking, just as Britain is: What do we do now?

Hill'd Better Pray for Brexit Backlash

Weekend's almost here, Friends.

Much to everyone's complete surprise, angry white Britons upset the establishment and pundits and voted for Britain to exit the European Union.

We never wanted your crappy money. What's a bloody Euro, anyway?
You wankers can stay on the other side of the Channel!

Fast forward.

Much to everyone's complete surprise, angry white voters upset the establishment and pundits and elected Donald Trump President of the United States.

This what is staring at Hillary and the Democratic establishment this morning.

There is an underestimated nationalistic and xenophobic outrage sweeping through the western world and yesterday it took down its first big target.

Establishment politicians are in denial over the trend, but that denial has consequences. It brought down likes of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who staked his political fortunes on the status quo and has hence resigned.

This rising international white rage against the establishment faces off in November against Hillary Clinton, the quintessential establishment candidate.

I have to believe the 'Brexit' vote has to be a YUGE wake up call for her and the blue party.

The question is, can Hillary Clinton be reinvented as anything other than 'the same old same old' to a world demanding disruption?

That answer is a resounding NO.

What's left to the Dems, then, are several unpleasant options.  One, simply stay the course, whistle past the graveyard, and pray for a victory. Two, face up to the wave of populism and nominate a candidate who resonates with it, like Bernie Sanders. Or three, acknowledge the collective rage but fatalistically stick with Hillary to a Brexit-like result.

I predict, short of her federal indictment, the party will absolutely stick with Hillary Clinton.

Further, since no one yet has predicted how formidable a force the international wave of white populism has been, we will continue to underestimate it.

Perhaps white rage will turn out to be less of a factor in our multi-racial country. .

From my perspective, however, unless something unforeseen happens (and it probably will in this crazy race), the stars bode poorly for Hillary.

Free Media Alone Won't Cut It for Trump

Hello again, Friends,

As The Donald flies off to Scotland for a few days to attend the grand reopening of his Turnberry golf resort, he leaves on the heels of giving what NPR described as "the speech the GOP has been waiting to hear for 20 years."

Nubbs has managed once again to control the media narrative, even though he's taking an unlikely break from the campaign trail. Nothing is really surprising anymore about his unconventional strategy, or lack thereof.

But something occurred to me this morning, and it's something I've got to keep in mind to maintain my perspective.

Anyone who's followed this campaign closely, knows that Nubbs has managed to trample 16 opponents based on the YUGE amount of media attention showered on him, which was all free.

Self-funding Trump actually and legally can make a profit from his primary campaign, and most likely will.

He corralled a record number of Republican primary votes...some 14 million. That seems like a big deal, but he'll need 65 million to win the general election. To do that, he'll have to get his message out to a much larger audience.

Too bad for Nubbs. He has no money right now, unless he loans more of his own actual cash to his campaign. And pulling big cash out of his domain could cause him some genuine pain.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was sitting on more than $40 million and is bombarding the airwaves in swing states with very effective advertising.

Yes, The Donald gets most of the media's attention all day long. What dawned on me this morning, though, is that only a relative handful of people have been paying close attention to the news media.

The rest of the YUGE pool of  American voters, who didn't bother to show up for the primaries, are watching regular old TV.

And in the swing states, they're seeing one Hillary commercial after another, making her look presidential and Nubbs look like a crazy freak.

Maybe I actually do come across like this, but even if I don't, after watching thousands
of Hillary commercials, this is how you'll fondly remember me.

There is virtually no response from the Trump campaign, except in the news media, which most people aren't even watching.

Most Americans are thinking about summer vacation, so getting to them subliminally while they're relaxing is effective.

The polls already show it. All the swing states have been moving in Hillary's favor.

By the time Trump gets his act together--Eric Trump said yesterday that his dad has raised millions in the last few days--it could very well be too late.

It's going to take more than free media attention alone to wage a successful campaign against the juggernaut of the combined Democratic and Clinton political machines.

The longer Hillary can roll on against him unchecked, the less likely Trump can get up off the mat.

His speech yesterday was indeed what the GOP had been waiting to hear, but who heard it? Geeks like me.

To win, he'll need to pony up...and fast.

Let's Take Some Account

Happy hump day, Friends,

A week ago today I said this: "Watch the next seven days, Friends. It could be the biggest year in politics yet."

I was referring to the apparent implosion of the Trump campaign, what would be a pivotal week for him, and that in politics a week is equivalent to a year.

Well, Friends, with Trump's firing of longtime campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and this morning's hiring of a full-blown, experienced, professional campaign staff, I don't think my prediction let you down.

In just a matter of minutes, The Donald will deliver a major attack speech on Hillary Clinton's record, and it will dominate the political narrative for the rest of the day...or longer.

After Hill's similar speech yesterday attacking his business record, Trump's counterattack should be a real doozy.

I may like the taste of my foot every once in a while, but Hillary's
about to find out how this tastes.

For someone with virtually no money in his war chest, Trump has still managed to steal the narrative nearly every day, and the media's near-total attention.

Does he really need anywhere close to the kind of funding the media says he does? By harping on the money he needs, they're ironically giving him millions in free media.

Trump gets more free attention than any candidate could ever pay for, and he could be the first modern candidate to actually shoestring an election.

After all, he's built his whole empire on creative financing.

As former president of a commercial real estate brokerage, I can tell you from personal knowledge that creativity in The Donald's line of work is equivalent currency to cash.

By now, we should be convinced that Trump can creatively control the media without spending one lead cent.

Trump claims he's spent $55 million of his own money on his campaign so far. Truth is, he's loaned his campaign about $48 million, and more than six million of that has been paid to his own companies for the flights he's flown and the venues he's used.

So, Nubbs has actually spent $0. And he'll make money on the loan when he pays himself back out of other peoples' campaign contributions.

Pretty slick.

Get set for the fallout from Trump's dump on Hillary. His counter punches have been deadly.

Trump's Secret Puppet Master

Good Tuesday, Friends,

Yesterday's big shakeup in the Trump campaign, with the firing of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, was not the only unsettling news from the presumptive GOP nominee's camp,

As it turns out, Nubbs' war chest is virtually empty.

He has just over a million dollars in the bank, when it's a widely held axiom that he'll need at least half a billion more Washingtons to run a successful presidential campaign. That's some 'serious Tubmans'.

Even if Nubbs can finagle a way to spend just 10 percent of what a typical campaign would, he's still 49 million dollars short.

When Trump's elected president, he plans on economizing by using one of these as
Air Force One. His buddy Carl Icahn has plenty of them sitting around in the Mojave.

None of the big GOP donors, like the Koch Brothers, are coming across. The big red money that mistakenly thought it could buy Jeb Bush the GOP nod, is avoiding The Donald like a biblical leper.

Notwithstanding Trump's principle attraction was that he was self-funded and beholden to no one, to continue on, he'll likely have to walk away from that claim. It damages his candidacy.

Trump says he can fund his campaign on his own if he has to, but that belies the fact that he hasn't actually 'spent' a dime of his own money on his presidential bid.

Every bit of the "$55 million dollars" he's spent so far to fund his presidential run he "loaned" to the campaign.

No matter what he says about the arrangement, Nubbs intends to pay himself back or write off the debt so he never pays taxes again. Trump excels at leaving no money on the table.

I believe that Trump has burned through much of his liquidity already. Though he's worth billions of dollars, most of that is tied up in assets. I don't believe he has any stomach to leverage his real estate against no guarantee he'll succeed.

So what will Trump do? What does he always do?

Trump turns to his puppet master--Carl Icahn.

You've heard him mention Icahn's name. When he talks about all his brilliant billionaire friends, Icahn's name is usually the only one he drops before quickly changing the subject.

That's because Icahn actually owns Trump. Trump Resorts International is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises.

Trump doesn't have any financial stake in the company that made him famous, and from which he threatened to walk away two years ago, before Icahn came to his rescue.

If Trump is beholden to anyone, it's Carl Icahn. And Icahn has been a notorious slash and burn capitalist for decades.

Icahn has singlehandedly dismantled venerable companies like TWA back in the early 1990's, In that debacle, he sold what was left of TWA to American Airlines winding up with 190 million dollars in his pocket--a huge fortune back then.

I was in management at American Airlines and watched it all happen. TWA was consumed by AA. The brand disappeared, and many lifelong employees lost their jobs.

Trump and Icahn are brothers of a different mother and both have the dismissals of thousands on their hands over many years. Balance that against Trump's claims of creating thousands of jobs.

Watch Trump come up with the money he needs to carry on. Watch where it comes from.

 

Trump Makes Big Move to Right Ship

Happy work week, Friends,

Donald Trump learned from this blog five days ago that he had about a week to turn his flagging campaign around or face being ostracized by his own party.

This morning, we awoke to YUGE news. Corey Lewandowski, the man who steered the Trump campaign through the primaries and to the defeat of 16 opponents, got canned.

Don't you just hate it when you wake up in the morning, flick on the tube, and find
out you're out of work? Yeah, me too. 

Lewandowski was the 'genius' behind Trump's rough and tumble in-your-face campaigning style, and it worked well while he was destroying his fellow Republicans.

Once Nubbs became the presumptive nominee, it was quickly clear that Lewandowski's tactics were a general-election liability. Now, everything Trump did was under a microscope and was being parsed and picked apart. It all hurt.

Being combative and nasty was not drawing necessary new support. Additionally, Nubb's talent for eating his own foot was choking him.

A couple of months ago, Trump took a big step toward bringing his campaign into the mainstream by hiring longtime lobbyist and political operative Paul Manafort as a co-equal to Lewandowski. This was supposed to mollify the GOP establishment.

But until this morning, Manafort's influence had been all but absent. Lewandowski still seemed to be calling the shots, and Trump's poll numbers were heading steadily south.

Today's move is a signal from the Trump campaign to the GOP leadership that he's ready to take their advice. And he plans to transition his campaign to a place that he claims will bore us to tears.

Manafort has apparently convinced The Donald that the party and country need some boredom.

This is the kind of maneuver I expected, and now we'll see if Donald Trump can compete as a genuine candidate with real ideas, policies, and vision.

Since snatching the presumptive nomination in early May, we've seen that Nubbs has been a virtual empty $5,000 suit.

But during the primaries, he did prove could be an exceptionally quick study. Firing his campaign manager was Trump's message to his detractors that he hasn't stopped learning.

I give The Donald credit for at least paying attention and doing what he needed to do to right his campaign.

Now we'll see if there are two genuine mainstream party candidates in this presidential race, or if Trump will continue to be a Colbert-like parody.

I hope he shows us something new. He just bought himself another week.

Constitution Locks in Right to Bear Antiques

Good Sunday morning, Friends,

What would the founding fathers recognize if they were able to travel in time to the United States of 2016?

Let's talk about what they wouldn't recognize. First of all, they wouldn't recognize Washington, D.C. The original capital of the United States was New York City. But beyond that, they wouldn't recognize anything that was invented after 1830.

We'd probably have a hard time surviving in their world. There were no cars, trains, telephones, electricity, photographs, paved roads, or indoor plumbing. The only things flying above were birds. And high-powered assault weapons were beyond the scope of anyone's imagination.

I had an inkling to exercise my Second Amendment right to buy a musket the
other day, so I went to the local Wal-Mart. Here's what I wound up with!

Let's take a look at what "arms" were when our founders, in their not-so-infinite wisdom of what the future would look like, wrote the right to bear arms into our Bill of Rights.

In 1776, personal firearms consisted of inaccurate single-shot muzzle-loaded muskets. They took up to 30 seconds to reload and were only effective when used in conjunction with a lot of other people shooting single-shot muskets. Oh, there were also single-shot pistols, but they were equally clunky.

Although firearms had been around since the 13th century, they hadn't changed all that much in 500 years. There was no reason to assume they would.

Muskets were not that deadly, unless you were at close range and really knew what you were doing.

Firearms were what they were and would always be to our founding fathers. It's no wonder the Second Amendment didn't carry the ominous implications then that it does today. 

In the 1800's, the United States seriously considered closing its patent office because everything that could be invented already had been.

The point is, the Second Amendment was written before the simplest of things, like flush toilets, were well beyond the collective body of knowledge. The right to bear arms had a completely different meaning than it does today.

When the amendment was ratified in 1791, it would have been impossible to stage a massacre with any single firearm of the day.

I'm all for the right to bear reasonable arms. A pistol for personal protection or genuine hunting rifles have a place in our society.

Rapid-fire human assault weapons that rattle off magazines of 30 armor-piercing bullets in a matter of seconds and can be bought at the local Wal-Mart have no place,

A vote on several common-sense gun control issues comes up tomorrow in the U.S. Senate, spurred by the Orlando massacre and a subsequent Democratic filibuster.

They include creating a three-day waiting period for suspected terrorists on the FBI's no-fly list to legally buy guns,

I'm afraid that even this small step will go down to defeat at the hands of the NRA tools in the Republican party.

With Donald Trump demagoguing the Second Amendment to rile up his followers, we stand little chance of seeing any changes.

Perhaps when every single family in the United States has been touched by gun violence, we'll have the spine to bring the Second Amendment up to contemporary standards.

No POTUS Can Be a Conclusion-Jumper

Friday came quickly this week, Friends,

As we continue to mourn the victims of the Orlando massacre, we've just learned that the second of the two 'black boxes' aboard Egyptair flight 804 was recovered this morning. We'll soon learn what caused the plane to fall from the sky.

Donald Trump will be gloating again if the jetliner was brought down by a terrorist's bomb. It would validate his rush to judgment.

This would also be the second time in a week we'd hear Nubbs say "I told you so," just as he disgracefully gloated following Sunday morning's mass shooting.

The gloating may serve to stroke his immense ego, which Cher described last July as "The size of Texas." But his chest pounding is not resonating with the general public.

Here I am looking presidential. You don't think I look presidential?
Trump U!

Remember, The Donald was quick to blame the Orlando attack on foreign Islamic terrorists.

When the shooter turned out to be a sexually-conflicted, internet-inspired sociopath  from Trump's own home town of Queens, N.Y., Nubbs simply lied  to a national TV audience and doubled down on his claim that the shooter was from Afghanistan.

If it turns out that Egyptair flight 804 crashed due to a mechanical failure, what will Trump say then?

He's already jumped to his conclusion, and none of us have ever seen him back down from any false claim he's ever made. God forbid, Nubbs admits he was wrong just once.

Conversely, we'll be hearing for the next solid week or more how great and prescient Donald Trump is if the aircraft was downed by a bomb. Keep in mind, no one has yet claimed responsibility for the 'bombing', which is highly unusual.

Either way, I don't expect the GOP presumptive nominee to handle the situation very presidentially.

We'll soon see if Trump falls right into the trap Hillary set for him by proving he's not temperamentally fit for the office.

It's frightening to think that a man with the fate of the world at his fingertips could make judgments on world-altering events before all the facts have been gathered. I, for one, don't want to die from his caprice.

Jumping to conclusions has no place in the Oval Office.

Remembering Timothy McVeigh

Good Thursday morning, Friends,

It's true that the worst terrorist attack on our country was carried out by Osama bin Laden's extremely well-orchestrated and well-funded 9/11 foreign, mainly Saudi Arabian, assault teams.

It's also true that we are the target of many different groups of foreign actors whose principal goal is to cause us harm, simply because we are Americans.

Our law enforcement and intelligence agencies do a mind-boggling and amazing job keeping them in check.

But Donald Trump wants to give them some unrequested help.

He's doubling down on his Muslim ban, and now would ban entry into the United States by entire countries of people he'd have us fear.

This is not sitting well with the Republican leadership. We haven't heard anything but words that distance them from Trump since his sickening response to the Orlando massacre.

Though it is true that radical Islamic terrorism is a genuine threat, a far bigger threat is terrorism from within.

I could be your son. I could be your next door neighbor. Heck, I could have babysat your
kids. What I am is the face of terror. Look familiar?

The next two worst terrorist attacks on American soil were carried out by Americans, not foreigners, and a ban on Muslims would have done nothing to stop them.

The Orlando massacre, no matter how much The Donald would deny it, was perpetrated by one of his fellow natives of Queens, New York.

He was as American as any other citizen born here.

I'll just mention how slippery the slope is for Herr Drumpf to make any implications about others' ethnic heritage.

And like any other very large country, we grow plenty of our own sickos. Case in point.

The more heinous of the two attacks, an act even more horrendous than 9/11 because of the number of small children who lost their lives or were maimed, was perpetrated by someone just like Donald Trump...ethnicity-wise.

Timothy McVeigh, who in 1995 bombed the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City, killing and wounding 848 people, was your average angry white Christian male.

It's a good thing white people still maintain a slim majority in the United States. Who knows who might be prevented from entering the country if that majority ever slips away? Turnabout is fair play.

Before we ban people with brown skin who worship the same God as most of us do, albeit a little differently, we ought to take a close look at ourselves in the mirror.

The enemy is looking back at us.

GOP Abandoning Trump

We've made it to mid week, Friends,

The old adage is proving true, "a week is a year in politics." Think about it. Just a few short weeks ago, Donald Trump was riding an incredible wave of popularity.

That's now vanished. Not one important Republican is standing by his side.

In a matter of days, Nubbs has become an embarrassment to the likes of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and virtually every other elected GOP official.

We haven't even heard a peep from moribund Governor Chris Christie in days.

A poll released this morning shows Trump's negatives are back to the highest they've ever been. But this time they're moving in the wrong direction.

It seems like years ago that The Donald had any of that all-important momentum.

I refer back to this post and prediction of May24th: WorldsBestPundit.blogspot.com/2016/05/give-him-enough-rope.html,

He's self destructing.

In my entire career, which began in 1974, I've never seen anyone in politics continually throw curve balls at himself. Trump manages this easily.

No one provoked his racist attack on Judge Gonzalo Curiel. And he absolutely blew his chance to look presidential in his speech following the Orlando massacre by politicizing it and looking small.

He used the opportunity to make more insulting remarks, summoning up a tired old wingnut accusation that our president has a secret pro-Muslim agenda.

Please.

It's no wonder the Republican party leadership is wringing its hands.

You think it might be too late to save her? Hey, isn't that Donald Trump in that other life boat?

I give Trump about a week to right his campaign's ship. If he can't manage it, he'll have virtually no chance of getting the party's support...or their money.

Major GOP donors are already reportedly backing away from his campaign.

The likelihood of Nubbs pulling the cash he needs to wage a successful presidential campaign out of his own pocket is non-existent. Without the GOP's financial backing, he's through.

I also believe that a significant chunk of Trump supporters have already abandoned him. They are not racist, and they don't want to be associated with anything that would suggest it.

This may explain Hillary's sudden double-digit lead in the polls.

Watch the next seven days, Friends. It could be the biggest year in politics yet.

Glimpse of Next Prez--Comforting vs. Disturbing

Good morning, Friends,

Today is the official end of the primary season with the Washington, D.C. contest, and the nation is hardly in the mood for politics. Our hearts have been broken by the tragedy in Orlando.

The presumptive nominees are already determined, and I expect a low turnout as we mourn the deaths of 49 innocents from another horrendous act of gun violence.

Later today, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will meet privately in Washington, D.C., to discuss their future collaboration.

Yesterday, both she and Donald Trump addressed the nation in response to the country's worst shooting attack in our history.

Hillary looked and sounded presidential. She had words of comfort. She struck exactly the right tone for the moment, and she showed she can handle crisis.

At least one of the presumptive nominees knows what
to do when the country's heart is breaking.

Trump took advantage of the tragedy and politicized it. He blamed the attack on the administration's lenient immigration policy toward Middle Eastern refugees, which he said is ultimately anti-gay--since they "want to kill gays."

He knowingly and wrongly claimed the Orlando shooter was an Afghan, when the entire nation already knew he was an American born in New York.

Trump claimed to be a better friend to the gay community than Hillary and the Democrats, which is beyond laughable.

Trump showed us how he'd handle such a moment as president, and it was disturbing.

He later repeated to FOX News a tired old wingnut coded claim that President Obama is a secret Muslim. This is wrong on so many levels, not the least of which is its backhanded slur of Islam.

We now know it's okay for Nubbs to insult the Islamic faith, Native Americans (using Pocahontas as a pejorative), African Americans, the handicapped, and women with no repercussions. Where does it end?

I really don't know how the Republican party can hang with this kind of loose cannon much longer. I, for one, will never respect Paul Ryan again.

As I write this, Ryan is trying to quash a Democratic move in the House to vote on an assault weapons ban . I guess old Paul is also compromised by the NRA.

I say we give it a rest for today and just think about how we can love each other a little more.

Orlando Shooter's Secret Too Ugly to Mention

A somber start to the week, Friends,

Omar Mateen was different than other radical Islamic terrorists who've attacked our homeland, and no one really wants to talk about it much because the difference is so profoundly painful.

This one-ton elephant in the room plays right into Donald Trump's narrative. It even gives some credence in a perverted way to his disgusting attack on federal judge Gonzalo Curiel, a true American hero.

Like Judge Curiel, Mateen is a first-generation native-born American.

Take a look at me. I could be the idiot who changed the whole world
'cause I got pissed off.

According to Trump's very-public opinion on the matter, this would give him more bona fides than either Ted Cruz or Barack Obama to be president of our country.

The fact that we were attacked yesterday by a fellow American who'd been radicalized by ISIS should be absolutely chilling to us.

Two other radical Islamic attacks on our soil have been carried out by a native-born Americans.

The Fort Hood shooter was born in Virginia.

Syed Farook, the male half of the San Bernardino husband/wife terrorist team, was born in Chicago.

This has become an  issue that needs to be openly discussed, not dismissed.

Trump will likely co-opt this as another reason to suspect first-generation Americans, especially those of ethnicity with which he has some gripe.

I guarantee it won't take him very long to seize on this act of national betrayal, since it supports his outlandish anti-Islamic vitriol.

He now has the worst mass-shooting in U.S. history to demagogue, and he's already jumped on it.

His official statement takes a shot at both POTUS and Hillary Clinton for not calling out radical Islam by name.

Hillary put that to rest this morning by calling out radical Islam by name on national TV and making a very cogent argument on how she would fight it. She actually does show she's had some experience at being diplomatic.

As far as yesterday's attack goes, the FBI made it impossible to prevent. That happened when it determined that Mateen was no threat--after interviewing him three separate times over 10 months.

He did nothing that any other licensed security guard wouldn't do. He didn't break any laws, and he'd be expected to have a licensed weapon.

In a security-conscious country like Israel, Mateen would have been profiled to the max. Here, we don't do that.

Donald Trump has already told us that as president he'd be surveilling American Muslims.

We have to determine as a nation if this is what we want.

How Will Trump Exploit Orlando?

Good morning, Friends,

We awoke to a another tragedy. An Islamic terrorist attacked a popular gay nightclub in Orlando at 2 this morning, slaughtering 50 people and wounding many others before being killed by police.

Apparently, the suspect, Omar Mateen, was already on the authorities' radar, and there is no question about his motive.

Now the investigation begins into who else might be connected to this horrendous attack, which is still an active crime scene as I write this.

Our hearts go out to the victims and their families who are gathering right now to learn the fate of their loved ones. And the country will now go into another period of shock and mourning.

Around the world, we are witnessing a surge in radical Islamic terrorist attacks on tourist-related targets--just two days ago in Tel Aviv, potentially Egyptair Flight 804, The Bataclan, etc., etc. The list seems endless. And all of them have an impact on the collective psyche.

The accruing fear engendered by each soft-target attack has a devastating effect on the tourism industry--the world's largest business.

Two summers ago, living in Israel I personally experienced the summer that never happened. Thanks to the horrific war with Gaza, there were virtually no tourists in Israel.

Enough said.

Think of Orlando without  tourists.

I now live in Las Vegas. What would happen if, say...well it would be irresponsible of me to even suggest it.

Now comes the exploitation.

I'm guessing that Nubbs is thanking his lucky stars this morning. He's had a bad two weeks, and this morning's attack turns that right around.

The only question is when the demagoguery will start.

I can just hear Donald Trump pounding his 'Muslim ban' to screaming crowds for the next solid week--until a subsequent attack supplants the current one and gives him even more fuel.

It reminds me of a surfer having the conditions of a lifetime with one dream wave coming right on the heals of another.

Trump's been hoping for some terror, and now he has it.

God help us.

Trump Slurs Native Americans Again - No Protests

It's Friday, Friends,

And as we end the week, everything has flip flopped in the presidential race.

The contentious Democrats chose their presumptive nominee and quickly started their unification process. But after seeming to coalesce around Donald Trump nearly five weeks ago, thanks to his big mouth the GOP is quickly falling to pieces.

Nubbs has shown himself to be a true racist if not an actual bigot. When I say racist, I mean someone who filters his world by skin tone. Trump is guilty of this.

To me, a bigot is a racist whose behavior is guided by his prejudice.

That's right. I'm a Cleveland Indian. Guess what I'm going to
do to Donald Trump when he comes here in July?

Trump may or may not be there yet.

But there's one simply awful racial slur that Trump has used for weeks that's been glossed over, though it deserves as much indignation as anything else he's said lately.

Is anyone but me wondering how Nubbs calls Senator Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" with impunity?

It's as bad a slur of Native Americans as anything else he's said about Mexicans, blacks, and women. I'm surprised anyone has hardly raised an eyebrow over this.

There have been major protests over nicknames like the 'Redskins' for Washington, D.C.'s NFL team, and this is a term of endearment to most Washingtonians.

But no one's saying boo over Trump's use of Pocahontas as a pejorative.

Come on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX! Have some Native American spokespeople on, talking about what they think of Nubbs slamming them, and how denigrating Indians still gets a pass in this country.

That would make some interesting TV.

Meanwhile, Trump needs to be held accountable for every racial slur he uses, and he called Sen. Warren Pocahontas again on Twitter this morning.

Let me be the first to call him a RACIST for this.

News networks to follow.

All Prompter, No Quips Make Nubbs a Dull Boy

Good Thursday, Friends,

A funny thing happened on the way to the Republican nomination. The presumptive nominee was begged to stop being exactly what got him there.

The (ex)stablishment is so afraid of yet another offensive and indefensible 'off the cuff' remark emanating from the most popular candidate in the GOP's history by any measure, that they're pleading with him to stick to the teleprompter.

He says he'll consider it, but he's been merciless in criticizing other candidates for relying on the device. He's also convinced that reading from a teleprompter makes him "boring."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he told Donald Trump to try more boring.

But the problem is Trump's right. The teleprompter does make him boring.

Compared to say, Barack Obama, he's horrible at it. No matter how he tries, Nubbs can't be his blusterous self when reading from it and comes across as stiff and stilted.

The Donald is completely aware of how the prompter sucks up his personality, and there's no way he's going to stick with it. The next big embarrassment, therefore, is just around the corner.

I don't get it. Why would this be offensive?

Not that he doesn't already have his hands full over his public skewering of federal judge Gonzalo Curiel for alleged bias in the Trump U. fraud case. The 'Mason in Chief'  claims his border wall somehow offends Curiel because "he's a Mexican."

By now, you surely know the story and that Judge Curiel is an American who was born in Indiana to hard-working immigrant parents.

Nubbs is also trying to explain away his "Look at my African American" remark from a rally in California last week.

Trump's next offensive flurry will come soon, I believe, because he filters things differently than most of us. He doesn't actually grasp what offends us.

We should probably keep in mind that although he may look somewhat youthful, Nubbs will be 70 years old next week, He was born on the cusp of the Baby Boom, and his values and world view are different than those born after the Korean War and who grew up in the 1960's.

The Donald has the white man's sense of entitlement and wants to "Make America Great Again" by bringing back the days when people still knew their 'proper place'. He wants to be our country's patriarch, not its president.

All of this shapes what comes out of his mouth, and what comes out of Trump's mouth is what makes this race so interesting.

I'm betting that sooner than later The Donald tells his teleprompter, "Trump U!"

Nubbs' Racism Trumps Everything

Here comes the fallout, Friends,

Bernie Sanders put up a good fight, but in the end, he didn't do the two things he needed to do yesterday to stay in the race.

The Bern was beaten soundly in California and did not close the gap in the overall popular vote.

He also lost three of the other six contests yesterday, giving Hillary Clinton the indisputable presumptive Democratic nomination.

Hillary ran a solid and clean primary campaign and deserves respect for that and our congratulations for making history as the first female presidential nominee of a major political party.

Bernie and wife Jane are returning to Vermont to "take a few days." When they emerge again, I believe they'll be bearing a message of conciliation, party unity and healing, and a new focus on helping Hillary defeat Donald Trump.

She now can shift her total attention to facing off against him.

Hillary proved she could wound Trump with her 'foreign policy' speech six days ago. He did her a big favor by wounding himself even more severely.

Though Nubbs said he won't talk about it anymore, his unprovoked and flagrantly racist attack on federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel--and continued refusal to apologize for it--deeply wounded him and is not going away.

Being a political neophyte, Trump may have may have been forgiven for committing this cardinal sin of American politics--making an even remotely racist remark.

Oh, and by the by, have you seen my African American? He's the latest in my
collection, don't you know?

But for The Donald, it wasn't a one off, likely not his last, and continues to freak out important members of the GOP. Not to mention, no Democrat running for any national office is going to let it slide.

With her equally egregious negatives and his potty mouth, the Hill vs. Nubbs slugfest is going to be five months of pure nastiness. I hope we can stomach what we're in for.

In a vacuum, Hillary would seem to have every advantage needed to wipe the floor with Donald Trump. But not much in this race has gone as expected. Reality, as we all know, hasn't exactly been happening in a laboratory.

Trump can't really control himself and doesn't actually grasp why what he says is racist, e.g. "Look at my African American."

He doesn't get that each faux pas slipping through his loose lips is another little torpedo aimed directly at his own campaign.

Ultimately, Trump's inability to see the world through anything but patriarchal white man's lenses will do him in.

Two Things Bernie Must Do Today

It's all the marbles day, Friends,

With the country's biggest primary and six other contests to go, what happens today will determine the course of the presidential election and the Democratic landscape over next two months.

The news media is already calling Hillary Clinton the presumptive nominee. It's annoying.

Do I really need to tell you why my picture's here today?
Alright then, here's a message from the other side. It ain't over 'til it's
OVER!

They've been wrong a good 80 percent of the time in this presidential race, and there's nothing to indicate they've gotten any better.

Unfortunately, their rush to judgment has the negative impact of keeping people away from the polls in the seven remaining contests. Why waste time waiting on line when it's hopeless?

I have news for the media: you're not the story. You're supposed to be reporting the story, not directing the story.

That said, Bernie Sanders is not out of the race yet. Though he's down for the count and close to having his lights put out, there are two things that he can and must do today to stay viable.

First, Bernie must win big in California. Despite the discouraging news about Hillary's anointment coming from all major media outlets (but interestingly not from Hillary herself), her presumptive nomination assumes she'll have at least a respectable showing there.

A decisive win for Bernie in  the country's largest and most diverse state will give him half the ammunition he needs to contest Hillary at the Philadelphia convention.

The other thing Bernie must do is find a way to make up the three million popular vote gap between him and Mrs. Clinton.

As of this morning, Bernie trails by that many popular votes and also by nearly 300 pledged delegates.

Both these deficits can be made up entirely today, but the likelihood is extremely low.

As I see it, however, it's Bernie's only chance to stake any legitimate claim to the Democratic nomination. Even though his popularity is evident, without the majority of  actual votes, Bernie doesn't earn or deserve a victory in our political system.

Tonight we'll see how anxious Californians are to hand Hillary a defeat and watch the media spin their way out of another bad prediction.

I have faith in California.

Dem Picture Will Remain Clouded

Happy super primary eve, Friends,

We're on the verge of the final of five Super Tuesdays, and this one will be the most important yet for the blue party.

No matter how steadfastly the media has been promoting the coronation of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee, Bernie Sanders will not roll over and play dead for them. And he's right not to.

Yeah, I may be down for the count, and I'm getting
the media's 'Big Chill'. But when I win California
tomorrow, I'll be back in your living room again.

It's time for the Dems to drop their denial and examine their potential candidate under a decent microscope.

Not only would they finally see how crippled she is from decades of serial scandals and lies piled upon lies, but she's also been totally unable to win the youth,
Independent, and white vote anywhere in the country.

That's not likely to change between now and November.

Meanwhile, the results of an FBI investigation into her private email server and mishandling of state secrets hangs over her head.

Hillary did chink Donald Trump's armor with her 'foreign policy' speech last week, but from what we know about Nubbs, he won't ever let that happen again.

In tomorrow's six contests, I'm predicting that Bernie Sanders will win all but New Jersey. That means he'll take both Dakotas, Montana, New Mexico, and the giant prize of momentum-shifting California.

True, Hillary will have attained the requisite number of delegates to be the presumptive nominee--if you include her 'Super' delegates, who basically consist of Democratic officials.

But with a big win in California, Bernie can still actually finish with more pledged delegates and popular votes nationwide than Hillary.

If that happens, The Bern has reason to go into the July convention arguing that he has the momentum and legitimacy to be the party's nominee. Polls consistently show he's the stronger candidate against Trump.

The only way the Democratic race ends tomorrow is if Sanders loses California. At that point, he will need to reassess how he'll wield his considerable influence at the convention.

But I don't believe we'll see that scenario because Bernie will win California tomorrow by a wider margin than anyone else in the media has been willing to predict, for fear of upsetting the current narrative.

Young Independents of every ethnicity and ilk will turn out in droves for Bernie Sanders.

The media has basically written him off and given him the 'Gilmore freeze' for weeks now, but The Bern is about to come roaring back.

The Democratic skies are about to get cloudier.

Hill's Anti-Trump Rant Clinches Her Nomination

Good Sunday morning, Friends,

If there was any doubt that Hillary would officially win enough delegates under well-known party rules to clinch the nomination this coming Tuesday, it should be completely gone now.

Mrs. Clinton is now just 60 votes shy of the 2,383 she needs..

She swept her first contest yesterday in the Virgin Islands' caucus, taking all the delegates there by preventing Bernie Sanders from getting 15% of the vote.

Today, she'll inch even closer with 60 delegates at stake in Puerto Rico's primary, and she's expected to win there. With six states voting Tuesday, it's mathematically impossible for her not to get enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

Barring the very real possibility of criminal indictment, Hillary is the Democratic nominee plain and simple. The math don't lie.

California will have a YUGE say in which way this thing is going. A Sanders win in the country's biggest state will cloud the picture.

Bernie is smart to stick around as a candidate until the convention, just in case. And he and his followers will determine the course of this election in any event.

This looks like Hillary's campaign. It finally came together, but it's
still in a bit of chaos.

Regardless of what now happens in the remaining primaries, I think that Hillary had a turning point last week, a defining moment to which the historians will point and say that's where her campaign gelled.

She came across as the party's presumptive nominee, and pulled it off.

It was supposed to have been a foreign policy speech but was really a point-by-point skillfully-constructed analysis of how Donald Trump is thin-skinned and dangerous.

She said, he should never be allowed to have his finger on the nuclear trigger. I've said it myself before in several posts.

Hillary proved to the world she could take Nubbs on. And she now has him totally rattled.

While she's in the race, Hillary will be effective at knocking Trump off his game. And she's the first of his 18 opponents to prove able to do so without damaging herself. That's pretty significant.

There are many twists and turns we will see between now and this summer's nominating conventions. And this race has proven extremely hard (but at least for one pundit not impossible) to predict.

Any of the candidates could self destruct between now and then.

It won't be completely certain, even after all the votes are cast on this last 'Super" Tuesday, who the Democratic nominee will ultimately be.

Hillary's legal situation is serious, even though most of the easily-led media is ignoring it.

Meanwhile, Hillary will be effective in taking Nubbs down a few notches.

If she can avoid prison, we can look back to last week as the pivotal moment in Hillary's campaign.

Trump Takes Ryan's Integrity

It's been a trying week, Friends,

With the battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton ramping up, getting more personal and pretty nasty on at least one side, the week wound up laying bare some landmines facing both major candidates.

For Nubbs, the goings on at Trump U. are a lot more serious than he's admitting. Bilking vulnerable people out of tens of thousands of dollars they could not afford in exchange for information of dubious worth is not good business. It's predatory.

For Hillary, her email crisis is the gift that keeps on giving.

These are topics for many future discussions. But something happened this week that to me was both saddening and chilling. And it made me lose respect for someone of whom I thought a great deal.

I don't usually agree with his policies, but House Speaker Paul Ryan was a man who I held above most politicians.

So you thought I was the one politician you could trust to uphold principle, stand up for
American ideals, and support like-minded conservatives. That's pretty funny.

I respected his intellect, his well thought-out ideas, but most of all, i respected his integrity.

Paul Ryan was a man of beliefs and someone who lived by them...until yesterday.

Simultaneously to Nubbs publicly lambasting the judge in the Trump U. class action suit for bias because he's a Mexican, Mr. Ryan endorsed him.

Paul Ryan, man of integrity, endorsed a raging bigot simply because he's the GOP nominee.

Where's your integrity now, Paul Ryan?

Nubbs has even played you, and you've sold the country down the river.

You, a man of principle, giving your support to a nominee who behaves like a psychopathic bully-- someone who could literally destroy the world if he gets too pissed off. WTF, Paul Ryan?

Look, if we can't trust our most-principled leaders to do the right thing for our country, call demagoguery and bigotry what it is, and rise above party politics, we're on our way down. And we'll drag the rest of the world down with us.

I'm ashamed of you, Paul Ryan.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Neither Candidate Should Be President

Troubling Thursday, Friends,

We are in a real pickle, Friends. Neither of the two presumptive major-party nominees should ever be allowed to get anywhere near the Oval Office.

Donald Trump is flat-out frightening. The way he eviscerates anyone who doesn't agree with him is a quality not suited for American politics. Our democracy is built on compromise, but Trump doesn't even know the meaning of the word.

What's worse is that he has absolutely no experience in government or diplomacy, and it's a complete fantasy to believe that this benefits him.

Hillary is exactly what Nubbs calls her. She lies to us unflinchingly and says things that are so insulting to our intelligence, I can't imagine what she really thinks about the American electorate.

There is no doubt that her email problems are much bigger than she's admitting, and the list of her other dubious activities is nearly as long as her achievements.

In an attempt to be pithy, I'm using this photo as a metaphor. So, the guy in the middle
of the crossroads is the people of the United States, and he's facing three choices, and...
Alright, alright, so i can't always be funny.

No one can name one accomplishment of Hillary's during her tenure as Secretary of State, but most people can cite at least one of her debacles. The fallout from her Libya and Middle East policies is still raining down on us.

Domestically, no matter what she says, Hillary is beholden to the big banks and Wall Street. She claims she's never changed a policy or vote because of her indebtedness.

Really? Why then, as a U.S. Senator, did she support the devastating Bush bankruptcy 'reform' bill pushed by the big banks, and which fell squarely on a middle class already reeling from the recession?

Multiple reports came out last week implying Hillary is also in bed with Big Pharma. That industry has contributed $589,344 to her 2016 campaign so far.

And because they're completely against it since it undermines them financially, Hillary quietly opposes marijuana reform. No wonder young voters aren't catching her vibe.

So where does that leave us? In a bit of a lurch, I'd say.

On the GOP side, short of not being physically able to continue, Nubbs will certainly be the nominee.

The Democratic situation is not as certain, and we can pray for either Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden to be eventually chosen by the party instead of Mrs. Clinton.

Perhaps by their Philadelphia convention at the end of July, Hillary will be under federal indictment-- forcing her out of the race.

Stranger things have already happened in this campaign,  though currently, barring a minor miracle, it looks a lot like we're going to get Hillary.

So, we are truly facing a dilemma with no viable candidate to choose.

Fortunately, there is a serious option. Libertarians Gary Johnson and Bill Weld (both successful former governors and Weld also a former ambassador) are the most formidable third-party ticket ever fielded and could actually be a factor in this election.

It's guaranteed we'll be seeing a lot more of them.      

I Would Vote for Trump - If This Were 1992

Happy middle of the week, Friends,

I watched some amazing footage yesterday.

It was an interview between NBC's Chris Matthews and Donald Trump from 1992. Back then, another Clinton was running for the presidency and was fending off some very nasty personal attacks from the GOP.

Matthews was interviewing Trump about his personal goals and ambitions and asked if he would ever consider running for president.

After having already adamantly defended Bill Clinton's personal life, Trump admitted he would be interested in being president, and he had the perfect running mate.

Now, who do you think that might have been?

No, it wasn't some high-profile Republican of the day. It wasn't even someone from the business world.

Trump's perfect choice for vice president was none other than Oprah Winfrey (perhaps, not a bad choice for him now).

That was not the only surprise.

Trump said he'd run on a platform of taxing the super rich to stimulate the economy. Not only that, he had specific numbers on how much money his plan would inject into the economy and numbers on its ultimate impact.

Specifics from Trump--it was almost surreal!

Other views he expressed were well to the left of where he stands now.

Has anybody seen this guy? He disappeared some time during the last eight years and
hasn't been seen since. Rumor has it that his evil Doppelganger is running for President.

Nubbs of 1992 actually came across as a serious individual who had studied the issues and had carefully considered some genuine solutions.

What happened to that guy? I could actually vote for that guy!

The Trump we have now is a caricature of a presidential candidate, who has taken a sacred institution and made a mockery of it. I know it's because he senses that this is his path to victory.

But what Nubbs should understand is that his means--the total disruption of our political establishment and system--are taking us down to a level of civility from which American politics will struggle to ever recover. The ends don't justify them.

Is Trump's the kind of nastiness we want in our politics permanently?

I say that after several more months of it, we'll be looking for a different option.