Is Trump Capable of Doing the Unpopular?

Happy Hump Day, Friends,

We've hardly heard a peep from Hillary Clinton this week.

Aside from some new email revelations that could hurt her, and the announcement yesterday that the FBI will release its complete file and notes from their investigation of her private email server, news about Hillary has been virtually nil.

She was allegedly off  'fundraising'.

Allow me to repeat for the upteenth time that if Hillary Clinton is elected--and all the polls are still in her favor--we face four years of continuous scandal. It won't ever end during her tenure.

The scandal will lead to even worse government gridlock than we have now. And that will come at a time we can ill afford it.

The flipside is that Donald Trump poses a truly frightening scenario.

There is no doubt he's a racist, possibly a bigot, and has serious psychological problems. But perhaps the one thing that can hurt us most if he becomes President is his narcissism.

I don't think anyone denies that Trump is a classic example of a narcissist.

People who know him well say that his attention span is about three minutes long, if the subject isn't about him.

And as a narcissist, The Donald is extremely sensitive about being popular.

He craves adoration.

Hence, after meeting with a conference room full of Hispanic leaders some 10 days ago, he announced to the media that he could possibly "soften" his stance on rounding up and deporting some 11 million aliens who are in the U.S. illegally.

After that "softening" proclamation caused an absolute poop storm within his core of support, he promised there would be no "softening," and that his "softening" was actually a "hardening."

Sounds like what he tells Melania when the Viagra doesn't work.

He's in Mexico this morning meeting with the country's president. We'll find out later today what that's all about.

I like this guy. He's humble, thoughtful, self-deprecating, and tells
funny jokes in Spanish. Donald Trump? Not so much. 

Maybe he'll actually get President Enrique Pena Nieto to give him a check to pay for the wall he intends to build...not very likely.

My guess is that Nubbs is trying to figure a way out of the impossible situation he's made for himself, and still remain wildly popular with his base.

His situation is this: his core of support is not nearly enough votes to win him the presidency, but the additional voters he needs are repelled by his draconian immigration policies.

These policies, however, are exactly what won him the GOP nomination in the first place.

Some of Trump's most ardent supporters have already said they'd abandon the candidate if he changes his stance.

The situation is tricky enough, but he's complicating it by trying to find the sweet spot where he maintains his rabid supporters but comes across as softer and more presidential to the mainstream.

It's a balancing act that takes some real political skill.

Trump's major policy speech on immigration is scheduled for tonight in Phoenix. And his meeting in Mexico this morning is expected to have some impact on it.

We may get a really good look at whether a President Trump can make tough decisions that make some people dislike him. It's an important quality in a president.

I believe it goes against his nature.

Dems Marching Us Off a Cliff

Tip top Tuesday to you, Friends,

We are truly facing an existential threat.

From the outside, we have enemies in the Middle East that would just as soon kill us as look at us. And they pale in comparison to a belligerent nuclear-armed North Korea, and a resurgent imperialistic Russia.

But our more immediate existential threat comes from within. And it's coming from both major political parties.

I've already expressed how dangerous I believe Donald Trump would be as President. And I believe a solid plurality of people feel as strongly about that as I do.

He's shown himself to be the embodiment of every negative characteristic I could conjure up if I were trying to write a parody of the worst presidential candidate in history.

Yet, this morning's NBC/Survey Monkey poll shows him within four points of Hillary Clinton in a
four-way race, and the gap is closing.

How can this be? Trump's numbers should be crumbling.

It's because if Donald Trump were not in the race, I'd be describing Hillary Clinton the same way I just described him. She's a very close second.

Trump is a forgone conclusion in this race. He hijacked the GOP and 14 million of its extremely volatile and angry core electorate.

Nice of the Democratic party to at least let us
put on swim suits as they run us off the cliff.

There's no way the jilted Republican leadership will do anything but ride out his perfect storm of a candidacy and pray the party makes it through.

But the Democrats have options with Hillary--the most reviled candidate the blue party has ever nominated.

And it seems that with every passing day the dung she's in gets deeper.

Party leaders could  influence the moribund candidate to resign and then replace her with someone else...like Joe Biden.

So, why does the party stand by her so stubbornly?

Just follow the money.

In Mafia terms, she'd be known as an 'earner'. She's raised tens of millions for other Democratic candidates.

And in politics, especially since Citizens United, money talks.

Even a breakout candidate with popular ideas who led a formidable political movement of millions, but who had shallow pockets (aka Bernie Sanders), walks.

So, we get Hillary Clinton. And we now know, thanks to the Russian email hack of the DNC, that the party helped make it happen by putting in the fix.

Come November, we seem headed toward a sickening binary choice.

Fortunately, there is still some time. It is only August, after all, and we haven't yet reached peak political season, which typically begins on Labor Day.

The same NBC/SM survey showed Libertarian Gary Johnson holding steady at 11%. He needs just 4% more to appear on the national debate stage on September 26th, which even he says is his only chance of being a genuine option.

Will we have a three-way contest?

My gut tells me, no. And if the Democrats stick with Hillary, which I believe they will, they'll be marching us off a cliff.

That leaves you-know-who as king of the hill.

Plouffe Calls Trump a "Psychopath"

Good morning, Friends,

President Obama's former campaign manager, David Plouffe, just made me look like a genius.

Back on August 4th, I posted a link to a blog from Psych Central on my WorldsBestPundit Facebook page, which I hope you'll visit if you haven't already. And I made a pretty big deal about it in my own post that day.

The Psych Central blogpost is called "Six Reasons We Can't Spot a Psychopath in Our Midst,"  and I highly recommend reading it, especially if you're considering voting for Donald Trump.

Yesterday on "Meet the Press," Plouffe called Trump "a psychopath." When host Chuck Todd asked Plouffe on what expertise he based his opinion, Plouffe started rattling off the scientific description referenced in my post.

You're welcome.

Now, I hope the Democrats don't back down.

Psych Central didn't write their blog with regard to any political contest. It's just a completely non-biased scientific paper.

But if you read the seven-point definition of a psychopath and Donald Trump doesn't pop into your head for at least six of seven of them, you've either got a serious reading comprehension problem, or you love the guy so much you don't give a hoot about his psychological health.

Look at this face. It could NEVER be the face of a psychopath!
No wait. I'm actually being sarcastic (and using the word correctly).

I'm going to make it easy for you. You don't even have to click on the links above. Here are the seven characteristics verbatim from Psych Central:

1. Failure to obey laws and norms
2. Lying and manipulating to profit or amuse themselves
3. Impulsive behavior
4. Irritability and aggression
5. Disregard of the safety of self and others
6. A pattern of irresponsibility
7. Lack of guilt or remorse

As I said on August 4th, one of the candidates clearly fits the description, and it takes only four of the seven traits to be a psychopath.

David Plouffe was right on the money about Trump.

The problem is this: successful psychopaths are really good at what they do--manipulate.

Half of the American electorate, as I posted earlier, has an IQ of 100 or less, making that bloc of people susceptible to manipulation.

Of course, 'plain speaking' Trump panders to them.

If there is any upside to the scenario, it's this. Trump seems to resonate mainly with non-college educated white voters, and there are not enough of them to win a general election in a rapidly browning America.

Thank God for diversity.

Trump's Love/Hate Relationship with Jews

Happy Sunday, Friends,

The Trump campaign has been openly anti-Semitic in the past, as I've posted, with its Nazi-esque tweet of a Jewish Star over hundred dollar bills and an unflattering face shot of Hillary Clinton. You remember it.

And now, the campaign's new executive director, Steve Bannon, has been accused by one of his ex-wives of being openly anti-Jewish.

It's not enough that Bannon flirts with white supremacy as the guru of the Alt Right--a mantle he earned through his directorship of the Breitbart News Network, described by renowned political strategist David Gergen as making "FOX News look tame."

Bannon allegedly told his ex-wife on several occasions that he didn't want to send his daughter to an exclusive private school to which she'd been accepted because "too many Jews went there. And he didn't like Jews and the way raised their children."

Now, Trump can't really be anti-Semitic, can he? After all, he recently tweeted that he's so happy to have another 'Jewish' grandchild.

Sorry, Donald. You don't qualify for membership to the club on
any count. First, you really have to be a billionaire.

And indeed, his daughter Ivanka has converted to Orthodox Judaism, her husband Jared's religion. And her three children are being raised in the faith.

I'll give you a clue what The Donald is really so happy about.

What do these people have in common: Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, Michael Bloomberg, Carl Icahn, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Sergey Brin, Mark Cuban, and Charles Kushner?

Put it this way, they're all legitimate billionaires...and they're all members of another exclusive club.

Throw in the current and two former directors of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan, and you can easily see why Trump is thrilled with his grandkids' heritage.

His progeny are his proxy entry into the same club...so he thinks. It isn't.

I've compared Trump's campaign with various Seinfeld episodes in the past, and he's reminding me of another one. Bannon is actually part owner of the show, which is the height of irony.

In the episode, dentist Tim Watley (Bryan Cranston) converts to Judaism so he can tell Jewish jokes and get away with it. WRONG! It was still offensive--in the show, and in the Trump campaign.

Not only does Trump think son-in-law Jared, daughter Ivanka and the grandkids give him a pass, but he surrounds himself with other Jews to say his anti-Semitism is okay.

Icahn is his best buddy, but his lawyer Michael Cohen, his doctor Harold Bornstein, and his surrogate Boris Epshteyn are just some of the others.

Trump may have accomplished the billionaire status that's a requirement for entry into the club, but he can never attain the other membership requirement--short of conversion.

He's secured both for his legacy, but he's deeply resentful that he can't have the full membership he covets.

Hence...Steve Bannon.

I Have Three Questions for Hillary Clinton

Friday's here, Friends,

We're fewer than 75 days away from the Presidential election, and it's boiled down to a nasty personal fight between the two major party candidates with two minor party candidates quietly gaining some traction.

At 5% and slowly rising, The Green party's Jill Stein has virtually no chance.

But Libertarian Gary Johnson is now polling at a consistent 10% with about a month to gain the additional 5% he needs to appear on the national debate stage with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

This, according to the candidate, is what he needs to make his candidacy viable. Without Johnson in the three debates, he freely admits his run for President would be through.

The discourse between the two major-party nominees has settled into to a slingfest over which one is a bigot. My money is on Trump.

But that doesn't make Hillary Clinton a better candidate.

Trump frightens me more than Barry Goldwater, who I barely remember except for a few vivid images.

I do remember how terrifying it was as a second grader practicing ducking under my school desk to "protect" myself from a thermonuclear explosion.

Duck, cover, and smile while you're being  turned into a pile of cinders. I remember
well having to do this, and, 'buhlieve' me,  you don't ever want to live through it again.
Vote carefully, my Friends.

They probably should have been teaching us instead how to put our heads far enough between our knees to kiss our butts goodbye.

But I digress only because I really believe we are whistling past the graveyard as we nonchalantly face an existential choice in November--as the world literally teeters on the edge of World War III.

Trump is so unstable, he could easily get us all annihilated. He is not the steady hand we need in the Oval Office.

But is Hillary any better?

Not where things stand now.

I can't vote for Donald Trump under any circumstances. He is a virtual parody of the worst presidential candidate anyone could conjure up.

But I see a slight chance of being able to vote for Hillary Clinton--if she can give me genuine and satisfactory answers to the following three questions:

How did you get so rich as a public servant?

What did you say in your speeches to Goldman Sachs? And,

Why should I trust you?

Short of that, I'm still looking at other options. And so are millions of other Americans.

Trump and Clinton -- Pot and Kettle

Tip top Thursday to you, Friends,

Remember these two kids from every classroom in every school in every town in America?

One was the obsequious over-achiever who'd take a simple assignment and turn it into a masterpiece every time. This kid was loved by teachers and reviled by peers.

He or she took advantage of the teacher's blind adoration and was, in reality, self-serving and nefarious.

The other type would get an assignment to write five sentences and hand the teacher a rumpled piece of paper with five lines of three words each--technically acceptable, but just barely. This kid was the bane of teachers but extremely popular with peers.

We all can identify with these two types. We've got the adult versions running for president.

I don't need to tell you who's who.

Take a good look at the two worst candidates in American presidential election history.
One's a crook and the other's a cheater. Make that, both are crooks and cheaters.

Let's take a glimpse at Donald Trump. He lives his life by the letter of the law--no more.

If the law says he can take a myriad of gray-area deductions to pay no taxes on hundreds of millions in income, he'll do it. And if the law says he doesn't have to make his tax returns public, he won't.

If the law allows The Donald to walk away from a failing business and leave hundreds of small business people on the hook for the hundreds of millions of dollars he owes them, he will.

If the law allows him to pay himself back for tens of millions in campaign loans out of donor contributions, he'll do that too. And he'll charge himself exorbitant rent for office space and campaign venues, also reimbursed to him out of donors' money.

The same principle applies to his health records. He doesn't have to release them, so he won't.

Since he likes to project his flaws on anyone who happens to be convenient, and from the way he's been attacking Hillary's 'fitness and stamina', he's probably got some serious health problems of his own.

He is venerated by his supporters anyway.

Hillary is the opposite in her efforts to appear open and transparent. Her habit is to disseminate reams and reams of material.

She has already published detailed position papers on anything you can think of and posted them on her website. If it's even possible, she seems to be a bigger policy wonk than husband Bill.

She's done so much good in the world through her public works and is always juggling multiple projects to do even more.

So, why is she so disliked?

Could it be that Hillary works so compulsively to perform good deeds to compensate for how bad her behavior actually is?

I think so, and many see right through her.

She's extremely skilled at parsing words and obfuscating the truth. When she releases a thousand documents to get her out of a bind, she'll withhold the hundred that make her look culpable until ordered to release them by the court.

She and Bill have somehow pocketed more than $100 million without being employed at anything but public service. They are superstar earners in what's not supposed a lucrative profession.

They take no 'salaries' from the Clinton foundation, but a hundred million plus is an awful lot of money in speaking fees and book royalties. One has to wonder exactly how the Clintons amassed such a large fortune.

The answer: donations from the super rich. The question: at what price?

We may be about to find out, if the election goes Hillary's way.

At this point, though, I'm not completely convinced we'll be facing a binary choice between Clinton and Trump in November. We may face a binary choice, but not between the two of them.

 

For the Country's Sake Hillary, Step Aside

It's midweek already, Friends,

The Clinton Foundation has done undeniable good for millions of people all over the world. It has and continues to save lives every day.

But the foundation has most of all benefited the Clintons themselves in so many ways, financially and especially politically.

I don't want to be so cynical as to accuse the Clintons of  setting up their foundation for the latter.

Nor do I dare imply that the former was just an anticipated beneficial side effect, which also served to shield the foundation from any serious scrutiny.

And really, the machinations of the Clinton foundation wouldn't have mattered all that much...if Hillary hadn't run for President.

I'm amazed that the Clintons wouldn't have realized by now that everything they do is under an electron microscope, whenever either Hillary or Bill runs for office.

They've managed to again give the GOP plenty of material with which to have a field day--yet another Clinton misstep for which the country will suffer if Hillary is elected.

Even if every foundation donor who got a personal sit down with the U.S. Secretary of State was totally without guile, it will take years to investigate every single incidence.

They represent fully half of Hillary's non-governmental meetings while she headed the Department of State and donations to the Clinton foundation of more than $150 million.

This is on top of more reportedly harmful emails soon to be released. We are virtually guaranteed continuous scandal for the full term of a Hillary Clinton presidency.

This is something the country cannot endure.

It takes an enormous ego to wage a successful presidential campaign. One would also hope it also takes a good measure of patriotism.

I have my doubts about what drives Donald Trump, but I believe Hillary is a patriot.

So, I appeal to that side of her now.

Please, Hillary. For the good of the country, step aside. Don't drag us through more years of scandal to assuage your ego. Be a patriot.

There is someone who can seamlessly take your place. And he'd give Donald Trump a trouncing of biblical proportions..

Hey there, Lew buddy. I think you're onto something. I've noticed myself sounding
a lot more presidential lately. How do you like how I upstaged Hillary the other day
in Scranton?

Joe Biden, step up now!
 

This Will Be the Most Unpopular Post I've Ever Written

Dear Friends,

I've determined something about the 245 million adults who live in the United States, but I think Donald Trump beat me to it.

I bet you didn't know that the average American IQ is between 90 and 100.

To put this in some perspective, a genius is someone with an IQ of at least 145, and an extraordinary genius like Albert Einstein has an IQ of at least 160. Above average intelligence begins at 115.

In a sample the size of the United States, the average or "mean" intelligence is very close to the "median." The median is the midpoint of the sample where half falls above it and half below.

This is your typical bell curve. It represents the IQ of the American people.
There are about 112 million adults on either side of the line. Most of Trump's voters
are on the left side of it. If you can't figure out what that means, you probably are too. 

Let's be generous and say the median intelligence of the U.S. is 100; the high end of the average. That means half of the adult population of the United States of America has an IQ of 100 or less. That's 112 million voters!

Here's some more perspective. What we used to call 'mental retardation' begins at an IQ of 84. That is the point where intellectual capacity is considered "borderline."

If we were to chart the American population on a graph, it would look like any other bell curve. Most Americans would fall somewhere in the middle.

But if we look to the left of '84' on the graph, we'd find nearly 50 million seriously simple-minded people. And Donald Trump has them wrapped up tight.

He speaks their language, and they WILL turn out to vote for him.

The poll numbers bear out that the mentally impaired are Trump's core constituency. Basically, he caters to the stupid, though we're all too politically correct to say it.

It's an unfortunate fact that millions of our fellow citizens are as dumb as stumps, and even more so that they are Trump's stumps. But he's been targeting this group for years.

He's cynically pandered to them since he assumed his first public position as Birther-in-Chief back in 2009. And now, as he's said, he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and he wouldn't lose one of them.

They are an extremely loyal, gullible, and large niche. And they'd consider people like me complete snobs.

Guilty!

But we can't ever afford to let dumb run us. No matter how politically incorrect it is to say it.

I'm hoping we really don't want a coalition of people of extremely low intelligence and their disingenuous manipulators ever being in charge.

They scare the hell out of me.  

Kellyanne 'Softens' Trump--Too Little, Too Late?

Back to business, Friends,

Last week was a bad one for President Obama. Not only did he get caught in a baldfaced lie in denying linkage between delivery of $400 million in cash to Iran and the release of our latest hostages, but he opted to play golf while Donald Trump visited flood-ravaged Louisiana.

Those were some seriously bad optics.

He's scheduled a trip to Louisiana for tomorrow.

Meantime in the presidential race, there were more issues with the Clinton Foundation, while Hillary was ordered by a federal judge to answer questions in writing regarding her personal email server. She'll have 30 days to respond to the court, once she gets the questions.

Hillary and her campaign would have you believe once again that this ruling is totally political. The lawsuit that brought this ruling was just a sham by a GOP watchdog group.

But the judge behind the ruling was appointed by her husband Bill and happens to be African-American. Doesn't sound political.

One wrinkle; Hillary may not actually get the questions from the court until October 14. If that happens, she won't have to answer them until well after the election.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has stayed on message for four whole days. And his message has softened dramatically, thanks to his new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.

Pssst. Keep this quiet. So, I don't know, but people are saying that Hillary puts ketchup
on her eggs. I'm just saying. That's just what I heard. I don't really know.

This morning, he seems to be backtracking on his heretofore Draconian immigration policy. He may not really form a federal deportation force after all.

He told a large group of Hispanic leaders, whom he summoned to a conference at Trump Tower in New York Saturday morning, that he wants their input into his immigration policy. He wants it to be "something fair."

This four-day period has actually been the Donald Trump 'pivot' we've been waiting for. The looming question is if he can maintain it for another 80 days.

That is yet to be seen, but perhaps the bigger question is this: At this point, is Trump too far gone for his pivot to make any difference?

The answer to this question is: maybe not, though presently he's just trying to avoid an embarrassing landslide defeat.

Without any doubt, The Donald is zeroed in on cornering the market for his next endeavor--TrumpBart.

And if you don't know what TrumpBart is, scroll down and  read yesterday's post.

The Death of FOX News

Good Sunday morning, Friends,

Last week, we witnessed the first big nail being hammered into the coffin of FOX News. The funny thing is, we may not even have realized it.

What am I talking about?

The wheels began falling off several weeks ago when the network dismissed CEO Roger Ailes for sexually harassing FOX anchor and former Miss America Gretchen Carlson. And there were others.

Despite being a sexual aggressor, Ailes is a media genius. He earned most of the credit for building FOX News into a right-wing media Goliath. It has long been the leading network on cable TV.

Live by the sword, die by it. Too bad for FOX News, but it looks like
they haven't been quite "Republican" enough for Donald Trump.

It's not Ailes' leaving FOX that will bring that network down. It's the new empire he's about to build with Donald Trump, and Trump's new campaign director Steve Bannon, that will.

And they can't wait for November 8th to come and go, Trump to lose, and Hillary Clinton open up a whole new world for them.

When I said earlier that if Hillary wins, we're in for at least four years of non-stop scandal, I had no idea what was going down behind the scenes. We're about to see the equivalent of nuclear war in the media.

And I believe that Ailes, the king of attack media, has it in for his former employer.

Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told CNN this morning that Trump's old friend Ailes is not officially advising the campaign, but he and The Donald "talk regularly."

If you're a reader, you already know about Bannon, former CEO of the Breitbart News Network. If not, let's just say you don't want him working against you.

He destroys anyone in his path, and truth is never an object.

Then, there's National Enquirer editor, and another close Trump friend, David Pecker...he of the Heide Cruz vs, Melania Trump pulchritude flap fame. among many others.

Put these great minds together and you come up with the next media empire. Let's call it: TrumpBart.

It has everything it needs to be YUGE--the celebrity, the management, connections, experience and the money, along with a built-in audience of some 14 million plus.

TrumpBart would sweep away most of FOX's viewers.

FOX has been the most friendly of the networks to our dearest Nubbs, but the news side of the operation has roughed him up some. And we know that Trump always fights back.

I truly believe he has no real desire to be President. He sees something far bigger as his legacy, and it's more YUGE than what until now has been the biggest right wing media arm in history.

TrumpBart is about to say to FOX, "Trump U!"

   

Did Kellyanne Conway Pull Off a Miracle?

Fabulous Friday, Friends,

She may have just done it. Kellyanne Conway may have pulled off the miracle Donald Trump's flagging campaign needed.

Conway is a roundly respected GOP pollster, who's a darling of the establishment.

After just two days on the job, Conway, the first woman campaign manager for a major-party presidential candidate, got Donald Trump to make his long-awaited "pivot" to the general election.

And he did it by making an apology...sort of.

Though he didn't actually say, "I'm sorry," The Donald admitted he regretted some of the things he's said, especially if his comments caused anyone pain.

"And one thing I can promise you, I will always tell you the truth.
And that's future tense, so I'm lying right now."

Hey, at least the man admitted he's not infallible. That's a start.

He also made another big pitch for inclusiveness, particularly aimed at the African American community where he's polling at 1%.

And indeed there was not one black face visible in his audience.

Critics are writing off Trump's new bigheartedness as pandering to white college graduates. They have been steadily trickling away from Trump.

The theory is that those voters are uncomfortable supporting anyone tinged by racism. Trump's comments were meant to assure them he's not a racist, not to actually get black votes.

But the speech was not typical, even of his other scripted ones. Its overall tone and language were less street-corner Queens and more eloquent and presidential. Some of the language sounded downright feminine.

Someone, and I'm guessing it was Kellyanne, influenced it 'big time'.

Trump stuck to the teleprompter, and he's beginning to improve at it. The big question is, can he stay with it for another 82 days?

One theory is, he doesn't want to.

Glenn Beck, someone I generally disagree with, is posing a plausible explanation.

Beck says Trump's goal is not to be President of the United States, it's to be King...of a new extreme right-wing movement and media dynasty.

Makes sense to me.

And Trump hiring Breitbart News Network's Steve Bannon, simultaneously to Ms. Conway, supports it.

Bannon is arguably the nastiest far-right conspiracy monger in politics. And his Breitbart News is the main influence behind Trump's Muslim ban, while #DeportAllMuslims on Twitter was started by one of Bannon's employees.

Don't be surprised if disgraced ex-FOX chief Roger Ailes and David Pecker of the National Enquirer are part of The Donald's plans.

And this just in--Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman, has resigned.

So does Trump actually want to be President, or King?

If his track record for staying on message is any gauge, we'll know shortly.

Andrew Breitbart Compares Trump to Hitler

This week is flying by, Friends,

The late Andrew Breitbart used to compare his colleague Stephen 'Steve' Bannon glowingly to Leni Riefenstahl.

Not many of you will even know who all if any of these three villains are. But you'll know one of them well very soon.

'Breitbart' is the most likely of three to ring a bell. He was the founder of the Breitbart News Network--an organization that Republican political analyst David Gergen described as making FOX News look tame.

Bannon is Donald Trump's new chief executive. He supplanted Paul Manafort, who was moved laterally within, as the new man in charge of the Trump campaign.

Leni Riefenstahl was the genius propaganda filmmaker given much of the credit for Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich's rise to power.

Here's a scene from Steve Bannon's latest film. It's a remake of
"Triumph of the Will" using a contemporary cast...kind of
like "Hamilton."

Her "Triumph of the Will" is considered one of history's most masterfully evil films. And she made dozens of other vile movies.

Riefenstahl's role in stirring up the ultra-nationalism of National Socialism and the vilification of the Jews has secured her a well-deserved place in Hell.

Bannon is described by no one as a nice guy, though he's extremely well credentialed.

He's a former naval officer, Harvard Business School MBA, and Goldman-Sachs investment banker. From a deal his own investment firm made with Ted Turner, he actually owns a piece of "Seinfeld."

This is truly ironic.

Regular readers of this blog know that in several posts I've compared Trump's campaign to Seinfeld episodes.

Calling out people for a physical feature or foible, a typical Trump tactic, came directly from a Seinfeld episode where Elaine's boyfriend left all of his exes with a gem that stuck.

He called Elaine 'Big Head' and she couldn't get over it. Sound a bit like "Little Marco?"

In another episode, nebbish George decides he would do everything opposite to what he'd normally do to see if his life could possibly change.

He became over-the-top, bombastic, argumentative, loud and brash, and all of it worked. Sound familiar?

Bannon is already deeply involved in propaganda filmmaking, all in the name of his extreme rightwing agenda.

Some of his films include 2006's "Border War: The Battle Over Illegal Immigration," 2010's "Generation Zero," and 2012's "Occupy Unmasked."

I haven't seen any of the 17 titles for which Bannon is credited, but my understanding is that they express his unapologetic point of view.

Bannon was the executive chairman of the Breitbart News Network, so if the company's founder compared the man to Leni Riefenstahl, it would be wise to take that comparison seriously.

He's a guy that loves to slash and burn anything and anyone he doesn't agree with. And he was reportedly brought into the The Donald's camp to ensure we'll be getting a double dose of the original Trump being Trump.  

It does beg the question: If Steve Bannon is the new Leni Riefenstahl, who does that make Donald Trump?

Big Daddy Has Big Lead Where Expected

Happy Wednesday, Friends,

I lived in North Carolina for 23 years. Both my sons were born and raised in Raleigh and are still there.

I anchored the state's legislative report on TV for nine sessions, covered the governor, and traveled the state for years reporting for a North Carolina news magazine show.

I know the plain folk who make up the reddest part of that purple state, and I know what makes them tick.

Long ago we referred to them as 'salt-of-the-earth' type folk; more recently as Good Ole Boys.

They liked to keep things simple. Black or white was good--gray, not so much. They were likely to have the next pig pickin' on their minds rather than the finer points of Faust.

These five states would probably be more like the rest of the country
 if they were better read than red.

Any answer you'd need to any question was surely addressed in the Bible, which was, of course, infallible.

Being so full of country wisdom, it wasn't so important to have a formal education. Their simple rural way of life worked well for them.

That lifestyle centered around the family, in which Daddy ruled. And Daddy's word trumped all but that of God, who wasn't around very often to intervene.

Having that strong voice telling you what to do made life easy, secure, and somehow comforting.

A strong Daddy was the way of the rural South. And it still is in much of it, even as the South begrudgingly transitions into the 21st century.

Take this morning's Magellan poll, measuring the presidential race in Mississippi--perennially mired at the bottom of the 50 states in education.

It shows that Donald Trump is leading the presidential race by 13 points.

No great surprise, 65% of the respondents were white. That's about their same percentage of the state's population. And almost half of them were registered Republicans.

The Old South still loves a strong man, even one like Donald Trump who couldn't care less about them.

This means that he could take the deepest parts of the South by biblical proportions in the general election.

Let's hope a Trump landslide there doesn't spark anything outside the immediate region. It should hopefully have as little influence as it deserves.

Evidence Points to Trump Treason

Dear Friends,

What kind of candidate calls on his country's chief rival to conduct cyber espionage against his political opponent?

Who openly praises the duplicitous leader of that rival country, knowing full well that he murders his rivals and journalists, opposes human rights for his citizens, and invades his neighbors with impunity?

Who hires the former campaign manager for a Ukrainian despot who was violently overthrown by his people for forcing them to pull away from Western Europe and align with Russia?

Who surreptitiously changed his party's platform to no longer support arms shipments to help the Ukraine defend itself from Russia?

Whose public spokesperson is a Russian national who emigrated to the United States in 1993 from Moscow, and whose history is a complete mystery up until that time?

A traitor. A traitor named Donald Trump.

Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, is a scoundrel who's been involved in bolstering Russia in the Ukraine since 2004. He was hired to run the presidential campaign for the roundly despised Putin puppet Viktor Yanukovych.

Manafort's efforts ran contrary to U.S. policy, and he was criticized by Senator John McCain and Ambassador William Taylor. Eventually Yanukovych was narrowly elected in 2010 but was overthrown by force in 2014.

This was the Ukraine in 2014. None of it would have happened if not for Donald
Trump's campaign manager. Next stop, Washington, D.C.

In that year, Manafort was hired by pro-Putin interests to organize the opposition to Ukraine's newly elected pro-western government.

On the record, Manafort's company received less than $64,000 for his efforts.

Yesterday, The New York Times revealed that Manafort is being investigated by the Ukrainian government for receiving $12.7 million in illicit cash payments from his Putin backers.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is on the stump making every effort to convert the party that once feared commies under every bed and lurking in every shadow to the party that loves Vladimir Putin.

What could be The Donald's motive?

Perhaps it's this. It's been widely reported that Trump turned to the Russian banks when he ran into trouble for over-leveraging his casinos in Atlantic City. They bailed him out, and he owes them much of his fortune.

Think of how beneficial it would be for Vladimir Putin to have that big carrot hanging over the American President's head.

Wouldn't it be nice for a President Trump if his millions in Russian debt were suddenly forgiven?

Perhaps this YUGE Russian debt is THE reason Trump doesn't want his tax returns revealed.

Many think so. Believe me.

Now we find Boris Epshteyn, the Russian national, investment banker, and Trump spokesman, showing up on every TV network singing Trump's praises and spinning his missteps.

I say Epshteyn looks an awful lot like Putin's planted 'controller' inside the Trump campaign, and I challenge the campaign to prove otherwise.

The more one looks at Trump's bromance with Putin, the more evidence of their sickening relationship turns up.

Only the Democratic party's computers were hacked by the Russian, not the Republicans party's? Really?

It's gotten to the point that Trump, who stated years ago on video that he had a cordial personal relationship with Putin, claims he doesn't remember ever talking to the man. He's lying.

What 'many' want to know now is: how much more evidence does the FBI need to open an investigation into this scandalous behavior and expose Trump as a traitor?

I believe it's already begun.
 

This Poll Could Be an Outlier

Good Monday morning, Friends,

This just in. A Siena College Research Institute poll of 717 registered voters gives Hillary Clinton a 30 point lead in a head-to-head race for president against Donald Trump.

These kind of numbers, if they're right, are walk away numbers for The Donald.

In presidential election history, no major-party candidate ever has been behind by such a large margin in mid August, much less overcome it.

And the likelihood of this poll being accurate is extremely high.

There is a slight isuue with it, however. All of the registered voters polled were in New York State.

And the Empire State is hardly representative of the country as a whole.

With extremely liberal, multi-cultural and populous New York City overwhelming the conservative Upstate, Democrats generally prevail in New York. So it's no surprise that its former popular senator leads its GOP native son.

But the size of Hillary's lead is astounding.

As a major builder, Trump has arguably been a YUGE factor in New York City's comeback from its days in the 1970's as the nation's violent crime capital, teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.

His lack of support in his home state is a surprise.

But the Siena poll is the first one out this week, and I assume other polls that follow will be more in line with the six to eight point Hillary lead we've been seeing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the lines be going the other way this late into
the presidential race?

Subsequent polls should also indicate if the Clinton campaign is suffering at all from Hillary's latest, and possibly most serious but extremely complicated, email scandal.

These emails seem to show a cozy relationship between the U.S. Department of State and her and Bill's private foundation, from which The Clintons have personally netted $100 million dollars over the past 10 years. I had no idea that former elected officials could make that much money!

Once again, bad optics (at very least).

One thing for certain, another Clinton presidency will be scandal-ridden and distracting.

A Trump presidency poses an existential threat.

Do you see where I'm headed here?

Here's a hint: I'm leaning toward the candidate whose nickname has the word "honest' in it.

Quit Peeing on My Leg and Telling Me It's Raining

Dear Friends,

I am sick and tired of these two major party candidates telling me that I didn't see and hear what I just saw and heard.

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump do it all the time.

I know what I heard from FBI Director James Comey. He didn't say that Hillary was being honest with the American people. He didn't say that she was just doing what all other secretaries of state had done.

But Donald Trump absolutely takes the cake.

This morning, his campaign manager Paul Manafort had the unmitigated chutzpah to double down that his boss never implied, at a Wilmington, N.C. rally last week, that 2nd Amendment supporters use their guns to take out Hillary. And there was something wrong with anyone who heard The Donald's remarks that way.

This, despite the fact that even ardent supporters in attendance, who still plan on voting for Trump, say that's what they heard.

This, despite the fact that I was watching the speech myself, and my jaw positively dropped when I heard his dangerous remarks.

But this was not even the Trump campaign's biggest lie last week. Trump started out the week calling President Obama the founder of ISIS and Hillary the co-founder. This went on  at Trump rallies for two days.

Does anyone doubt that if this were 1816 rather than 2016, this is what a Donald
Trump rally would look like?

He refused to take several lifelines offered to him by conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, who gave him ample opportunity to say he was being metaphorical.

Instead, Trump said he meant what he said literally.

No he didn't. The very next day, he backed off the claim and said he was being "sarcastic." and anyone could tell that. More pee on my leg.

I suggest Mr. Trump look up the definition of sarcasm. Here's an example: "Donald Trump would be a PHENOMENAL president,

That's sarcasm.

If Trump meant he was being 'facetious', here's something he needs to know. The President of the United States of America can't be facetious or sarcastic. It could get us all incinerated.

How can this man, who is supposed to "tell it like it is," keep spreading complete crap around, then backtrack on it and maintain any support?

He's allegedly such a straight shooter.

Simple. He makes eager loyalists believe they didn't hear what they heard. Just what Paul Manafort was doing this morning on CNN.

And The Donald has succeeded in doing that with millions of voters who'd almost rather die than back away from this snake oil salesman, along with those who are more tepid but would never vote anything but Republican...period.

I'm afraid the former group is hopeless. They're hardcore.

I have two words for the latter: Gary Johnson.

President Johnson III, The Only Honest Option

It's Friday, Friends,

Another poll this morning corroborates that Hillary Clinton has squandered her convention bounce, and the presidential race is in a dead heat.

The Los Angeles Times shows Hillary with a mere one-point lead in the general election. This confirms yesterday's Rasmussen Reports poll results that also indicated a statistical dead heat.

The American public is facing an impossible binary choice between a narcissistic lying psychopath and a smooth lying manipulator. You can determine who's who.

If there ever was a situation you could call deep doo doo, this is it.

My 21-year-old son asked me a couple of days ago why we are so dead set on just two parties in this country.

You know what? The only thing I could come up with was that people are creatures of habit, and change is uncomfortable.

And when big groups of people get together, they can raise YUGE amounts of money. The money serves to sustain the status quo.

But if ever there was a reason to break a bad habit, it's now. And there is an option--a refreshingly honest one.

I've never heard a politician answer reporters' questions more directly, openly or honestly as former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson does.

I hate writing serious captions, but I feel like I have to today. These two are asking for
individual contributions of $15 to help get them to 15% in the polls.
If you love this country, find the money.

He and his running mate, former two-term GOP governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld, believe in smaller government and liberal social policy. I'm for that.

But Johnson's quite open that he and Weld must achieve 15% support in an average of five national polls,or they won't be on the debate stage with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

If they can't achieve that modest goal, their candidacy is over.

How many pols would tell you that?

Ask Gary Johnson a question and he gives you a straight answer. In fact, he's known in New Mexico as 'Honest Gary', and that reputation is starting to gain some national traction.

Interestingly, Bill Weld became the unexpected popular Republican governor of very blue Massachusetts by standing up to a bully--Democratic demagogue John Silber, who was an awful lot like Donald Trump.

There are only 88 days until the general election, and time is precious.

Johnson and Weld have been mired in the polls at between eight and nine percent for the past several days, with no clear movement upward.

They are trying to raise the money needed to propel them to 15% by soliciting individual contributions of $15 in a  '#15 for 15' fundraising campaign.

The big question is, can they move the needle enough to make our only honest option a genuine one?

Clinton's Convention Bounce Evaporates

Terrific Thursday to you, Friends,

This election defies convention. It is truly changing the face of American presidential politics and not for the better.

Despite Michelle Obama's sage advice, "When they go low, we go high," it's virtually been impossible to keep this race out of the gutter.

Donald Trump's strategy is to say something completely outrageous, unpresidential, and false, steal the news cycle, and then double down on his remarks until he makes his next outrageous statement.

It's worked for him so far. He's virtually all we talk about.

This is where I get my campaign advice. You laugh? Well, look where it got me. 

We even talk about Trump when we talk about his opponent. And much of what we say about Hillary Clinton is infected by her own questionable track record.

With her, it seems that every few days another scandal pokes one more hole in her leaky bucket of a campaign.

Yesterday's release of  40 "personal" emails, under court order, seemed to show a pattern of quid pro quo between the Clinton Foundation and Hillary's Department of State.

Trump called it "pay to play" yesterday, and I think it's going to stick. Reportedly, there will be more damaging emails coming.

This morning's Rasmussen Reports general election poll shows the race back within the margin of error at a three-point Clinton lead. It seems to show that she's blown an up to 15-point bounce from July's Democratic Convention.

This poll could be an outlier, and we'll probably know by tomorrow if Hillary's latest emails are impacting what was a double-digit lead over Trump.

I suspect she's in trouble again with Independents and undecideds.

In the meantime, the third-party option of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld is getting a bit more media attention, but it seems mired at between 8 to 9 percent in the national polls.

The ticket needs a 15 percent average in five selected national polls to appear in the presidential debates. But it's not looking promising.

Governor Johnson admits that he and Governor Weld's presidential bid is finished, if  he doesn't appear on the debate stage with Trump and Clinton.

So, we may face a horrible binary choice in November. Neither candidate is fit to be president.

Wouldn't it be nice if Hillary did the right thing for the country, said that her campaign's problems were too distracting, dropped out of the race...and the Democrats drafted Joe Biden?
  

Trump Suggests Gun Supporters Kill Hillary -- Then Lies Again

Good morning, Friends,

The man sitting a couple of rows behind Donald Trump's left shoulder yesterday afternoon at UNCW's Trask Coliseum in Wilmington, N,C., reacted instantly, and that reaction was a moment that spoke truth.

No spin, no lie, no explanation can change that moment of purity.

Trump was doubling down on his false claim, saying that Hillary Clinton "...essentially wants to abolish the Second Amendment."

He then went on, "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know. But I tell you what. That'll be a horrible day."

The implication was immediately clear to me as I watched his speech. And it was equally clear to his typical white middle-aged supporter sitting behind him.

The grey-bearded man's eyes went wide, and you could see him clearly say very much out loud, "Whoa!"

Hello Mr. Trump. Take a good look. I'm your worst nightmare.

Trump actually suggested that a gun supporter kill Hillary Clinton. And he had painted a scenario in which she'd already be a sitting president picking judges.

So, The Donald was suggesting that someone assassinate the President of the United States!

He was immediately called on his outrageous remark by Robby Mook, Hillary's campaign manager.

The Trump campaign's response was some ridiculous spin that he was referring to Second Amendment political unity. No one's buying.

Today, The Donald's wasting more precious hours rationalizing, while digging an ever deeper hole for himself.

That one moment of honesty, caught on camera, belies everything he or any one of his surrogates can concoct about what Nubbs "meant."

Instead of spending the day capitalizing on some serious Hillary missteps of the last 24 hours, Trump will spend an unknown number of days defending his arguably worst gaffe yet.

His dangerous words are a dog whistle to any of his more off-balance followers (and there are more than a handful of them) that they have Trump's approval to take out Hillary Clinton violently.

If he had not incited his sycophants to violence in the past, we might have just let this serious incident slide. But it's been a nasty pattern for him.

And what makes matters worse is his denial of what was obvious to even his most ardent followers, who are vetted by Trump's advance team before they are seated on camera behind the candidate.

That one instant reaction spoke the whole truth.

If you or I had said publicly what Trump had, guess who'd come knocking on our door.

Enough is enough. They need to be knocking on his.

GOP Exit Bus Fills Up

Tip top Tuesday, Friends,

Back on July 20, I said the GOP would throw Donald Trump under the bus. That was nearly three weeks ago, and you've seen what's happened.

Yesterday, 50 high-profile Republican national security experts signed an open letter saying that a Trump presidency would be the "most reckless in American history." People like this don't say things like that lightly.

He's been abandoned by several sitting GOP congressmen including Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Representative Scott Rigell of Virginia.

Many more will follow.

Take your pick Donald. Any one of these would be more than willing
to run you over.  Oh, and they're all loaded with Republicans.

The GOP exit bus will be completely full by Labor Day, and the driver will be looking to flatten The Donald with it.

Yesterday's speech on economics, billed as Donald Trump's long-awaited 'pivot', got decent marks.

But that was simply because he stuck to the text, reading it amateurishly from the teleprompter and not going off on a wild tangent. The bar for Nubbs is astonishingly low.

He was the most specific he's ever been insofar as actually giving us some policy.

But we learned that while he talks a good game as champion of the little guy, his policies basically help his rich buddies. They're just 'trickle down' redux.

Trickle Down or Supply Side Economics, originally hatched by Ronald Reagan, says that making the rich even richer through YUGE tax cuts encourages them to spread their additional wealth  in creating industry and jobs, thereby stimulating the economy.

It simply doesn't work. Most of the rich just hold on to their windfall.

The only trickle down for the middle and fast-growing lower classes offered by Supply Side Economics is the rich pissing on them.

Trump's first major policy speech is getting scant attention. It's been overshadowed by the open letter and GOP defections.

Senator Susan Collins said it best with regard to Trump's so-called pivot, "There is no other Donald Trump." One speech doesn't change the man.

Trump dismissed  the security experts and congressional desertions as sour grapes by the effete establishment. He'll run without the party if he has to.

Big talk. He really can't go it alone.

And as the exit bus fills up with most of the GOP stalwarts, and leaves The Donald to virtually fend for himself, I'm keeping an eye on his business 'empire'.

I've already mentioned how foot traffic at Trump properties around the world is down by a significant 14% year over year. And Trump keeps calling the election process rigged. I sense he's setting us up for a midnight surprise.

If the polls, which he venerates, and his business keep heading south, I give Trump three more weeks in the race at most.

Trump Sons Not So Swell

Good Monday morning, Friends,

When it comes to guns and hunting, I'm no shrinking violet. I've been quail hunting with Nolan Ryan, and even with J.R. Ewing himself, the late Larry Hagman, and believe me it was way cool.

But the thing is this. The event was for charity, and we ate every quail we killed, which wasn't many. In fact, the caterer had to supplement the banquet that followed our hunt with store-bought birds.

The point is; hunting defenseless animals is okay if you're going to eat what you kill.

But anyone who hunts simply for the pleasure of stalking and murdering one of God's most spectacular and rare creations, just to have a trophy, is sick. And that's what we see in the spit-polished Trump boys, Eric and Donald, Jr.

Woot! Woot!Woot! Glad this crap is finally over. Now we can go shoot some big cats.
And we don't even have to take our stinky sister. 

In fact, they were reportedly on another big game hunt last week. Click on the link and see one of their kills.

There's been a lot made of how wonderful The Donald's children are, and how he himself must be okay if they're so outstanding.

In math, they call it the 'transitive property'.

Okay, I'll buy it.

His adult sons' unusual need to kill big animals for fun bespeaks the family's pathology. They are sickos, and they are their father's sons. Therefore, he's a sicko. Transitive property.

So now we know what "down-to-earth" rich kids do for fun. Just like what every other red-blooded American fella out there does: goes on African safari and kills him some close-to-endangered species in a virtual shooting gallery. Noble.

If anyone thinks these two kids have a clue about what it's like to live like you, or can relate in any way to what you're going through, go ahead and vote for their dad. He's what you deserve.

I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid, and neither is any more than 35% of the American electorate-- including some very well-respected Republicans.

The 14 million votes that Donald Trump got in the primary will grow to no more than 24 million in the general election--a landslide thumping.  And that's if he even makes it that far.

I'm betting he won't.

Hillary--Repeat After Me...

Happy Sunday, Friends,

Can you say this? "I made a bad mistake. I'm sorry, and I won't do it again.'

Twelve words. That's it.

The future of the world may depend on these twelve simple words, and Hillary Clinton is incapable of saying them.

It's all she would have to do to put her email crisis to bed, but it seems that whenever she gets to the very edge of saying them, just like her opponent, she can't keep her ego from taking over her mouth.

The potent weapon that has taken her to the political heights could bring her all the way back down.

I've been hearing the following a lot from Hillary's critics, and I firmly believe that it's true. Hillary Clinton is having an "it depends on what the definition of 'is' is," moment.

Sure. It is no problem for me to swear to tell the truth on a stack
of  these, cause I control what the definition of  'is' is.

I think this family trait deserves a name. It should go down in the annals as 'Clintonitis'.

Whenever the Clintons, Hillary or Bill, are confronted with an inconvenient truth, their mouths involuntarily lawyer up,

Even though they inherently know that a simple admission and apology would be far less painless and generally diffuse the issue, Clintonitis forces them to prevaricate and make a relatively small issue a YUGE one.

Clintonitis blinds its victims to the simple path, and like any virulent syndrome, eventually destroys its host.

Hillary is not able to apologize for her email debacle, just as an alcoholic can't simply stop drinking. She's got an untreated disease.

Sadly, there is no known treatment or cure for Clintonitis.

We've either got to accept it, and live with it in another Clinton presidency, or vote for the alternative. The alternative is guaranteed to be worse.

Donald Trump fits the clinical description of a psychopath, and if you don't believe it, click this link and read it for yourself.

I'm looking at the Johnson/Weld ticket, and I like what I see. But as of yet, the Libertarian ticket doesn't seem to be a viable option. Neither does Green party candidate Jill Stein.

We got through eight years of Clintonitis without imploding. Maybe we can eke out another four.

Trump Brand Getting Hit By Prez Race

We've reached Friday, Friends,

A report got scant mention this morning on MSNBC that will have a huge impact on this presidential race.

As the only pundit who correctly predicted that Hillary Clinton would get at least a 15-point convention bounce (based on yesterday's McClatchy/Marist poll), I now make another prediction, which I proffer with the utmost confidence.

Donald Trump will drop out of the presidential race before the November 8th election.

I premise this on the above-mentioned report, from Foursquare, which was comprised of cell phone data that tracked where the phones had traveled. Based on where phones had been in the last year, the report showed that traffic at all Trump properties was down 14%...and dropping.

This is happening at Trump resorts not only in the United States, but worldwide, and it's hitting The Donald in his only vulnerable spot--his wallet.

Unfortunately for Donald, his constituency is mainly non-college educated middle class, middle-aged white men.

His customers are upper-middle-class-to-wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They look at his constituents and his vulgar campaign with disdain.

If YOU build it, they won't come.

So they're starting to stay away from his properties in droves. And that impacts the largest part of Trump's bottom line.

Now, I suspect Trump got into the presidential race perhaps to be commander-in-chief, but definitely to improve his brand, and thus, his fortune.

That plan has gone south because of the nominee's uncontrollable mouth.

And if his business, which obviously supercedes his country in importance to him, continues to suffer, he'll walk away from what's quickly becoming a bad deal.

What may tip the scales in favor of his exit is a brewing Trump family scandal broken by Politico yesterday.

Wife Melania may have worked in the United States as a nude girl-on-girl model illegally in 1995, while on a tourist visa. The photos from this session were re-published in the New York Post earlier in the week.

So much for Trump's tough stance on illegal aliens coming here taking our jobs and "raping our women."

Working while on a tourist visa generally bars violators from even applying for re-entry into the U.S. for 10 years. And though she's now a U.S. citizen, the penalties may still apply.

This is exactly what happened to the Israeli wife of an American colleague of mine. As a student on holiday, she was caught illegally working part-time in the U.S. to fund her travel.

She was barred from re-entering the country for a decade.

The couple met abroad, fell in love and got engaged, She then filled him in on her problem
with U.S. immigration.

Bottom line; the two of them decided to stay together and live abroad for another four years. That's when she can re-apply for entry.  He's had to travel alone to visit family in his native Maryland.

Scandal on top of flagging business is a bad deal for Trump. And he has shown little patience for bad deals.

The Donald's candidacy has turned out to be a bad deal for all parties involved and has taken the American political discourse to its lowest level in modern history. The country would be better off with Trump out of the race.

For the GOP's sake, he needs to move sooner than later. They need to draft a real candidate.

Johnson/Weld -- A Genuine Option

Dear Friends,

I watched the Libertarian Town Hall on CNN with great interest last night.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I'm having real problems supporting either of the major party presidential candidates.

I got a really good look at the Gary Johnson/Bill Weld Libertarian team last night, and I didn't hear one thing from either of them that I disliked or simply couldn't live with.

Basically, the Libertarians are fiscal conservatives who favor smaller government and oppose foreign interventions to effect regime change. They are social liberals who believe that we should completely control the domain of our own bodies. And they would eliminate 'victimless' crimes.

I favor those positions.

They are much weaker on health care and the social safety net than I'd prefer, but I don't believe that two successful former mainstream Republican governors would do anything to really upset the apple cart. These two are far from suggesting any radical changes to our system.

Don't write us off yet. Between the two of us, we have four terms as
Republican governors of  two very blue states. We had to be doing
something right.

Johnson is well known for his support of marijuana legalization and the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education in favor of state control; two of his more controversial stances.

But he startled Town Hall moderator Anderson Cooper, when he made the statement that his opinions on how to fix the world could actually be wrong.

Johnson freely admits he makes mistakes. He said he likes to admit when he's wrong, learn from his mistake, and move on.

Cooper did a noticeable double take and called Johnson's admission to being fallible surprising, refreshing. and not something he was used to hearing from a politician.

Indeed, extreme athlete and former two-term governor of New Mexico, Johnson isn't what you'd expect.

He's a competition mountain biker and has actually climbed the tallest mountain on every continent, including Mount Everest.

Bill Weld, who would be less of a vice president and more of a co-president in a Johnson administration, has an equally impressive resume as a former prosecutor and popular former two-term governor of Massachusetts.

I don't know about any of you, Friends, but I'm going to watch these two more closely.

One poll has them at 12% this morning. Three more points and we'll see them in the national debates this fall. That will change the whole ballgame.

Trump--A Vulgarian Married to a Slovenian Pin Up

Happy Wednesday, Friends,

Donald Trump told FOX News recently, "I have a great temperament to be President, because I know how to win."

Hold on there a second, buddy.

That's almost like saying that you've sacrificed a lot in your life because you've hired "tens of thousands of people."

Are you making up your own definitions?

You did the polar opposite of sacrifice. You claimed your service to the country during the Vietnam war, which you dodged with most other rich kids, was to sleep around and not get a venereal disease.

Dear Donald, I know you said you don't read books, but you might just
want to take a look at this one. First, try looking up the word "sacrifice."

The way you win doesn't say anything positive about the presidential suitability of your general demeanor.

Anyone can win the way you do, Nubbs. You play dirty. You go where no one else is willing to tread because it's so distasteful...no, disgusting.

Most of us comport ourselves in a manner that supports a civilized society. You exploit that weakness in us mercilessly and do what you accuse Hillary Clinton of doing--play by your own rules.

And the complete crap that comes out of your mouth is not befitting of the esteemed office you seek.

You denigrate its 240-year history of being respected around the world. You would end that legacy the moment you stepped across the Oval Office threshold.

You are a Vulgarian.

And if your true purpose is to improve your brand awareness while you tear apart the party of Lincoln, then you do know how to win. You've succeeded.

Oh, and about those nude woman-on-woman modeling shots of your Slovenian (not American) wife, that appeared in the New York Post: she was really hot.

I can only imagine what men all over the world have done to themselves while looking at them..

But when Melania chose to walk that career path, she automatically and permanently took herself out of consideration for First Lady of the United States.

That's just the way it is and will always be. Right, all you GOP Evangelicals?

Look what the same infraction did to Miss America, Vanessa Williams. She was forced to abdicate.

And I think I'd put First Lady a bit above Miss America in terms of world importance.

As I keep saying, the GOP will for all intents and purposes abandon Donald Trump. The movement to throw him under the bus and hyper focus on down ballot races is quickly building.

If Trump is actually trying to alienate all but the extreme wingnuts of the GOP, he's doing an incredibly thorough and methodical job of it.

The next influential Republicans to write him off--Paul Ryan and John McCain.

A Gaffe a Day Keeps GOP at Bay

Tip top Tuesday to you, Friends,

Conservative columnist George Will said the other day that Donald Trump's attack on a Gold Star family could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

The straw itself couldn't break the back of the camel, but after piling straw upon straw, this will be the final one that makes the sum of the straws too much for the beast to bear.

It's a very old adage, but one that means nothing to the GOP nominee. He keeps piling on offenses, day after day, defying the law of gravity in how little damage each seemingly fatal gaffe costs him.

When he declared that his fellow Republican, Senator John McCain, wasn't really a Vietnam war hero because he'd been captured, the media said Trump was through.

Here we are are nearly a year later. Trump has beaten 16 opponents, and last week managed to insult war heroes even more egregiously. He took a shot at the parents of a combat hero killed in action.

This would normally be beyond the pale for any American who wanted to be this country's president, That candidate would be repudiated by his party and likely be shown the exit.

But Trump must be some sort of Svengali with some magical sway, judging by the way the GOP leadership repudiates his actions but still endorses him.

Yeah. I'm feeling this way too about the two major party nominees.

There are signs, though, that George Will was absolutely right. As I said a few days ago, the party will soon throw Trump under the bus. And I stand by it.

Party leaders are noticeably pulling back from their nominee. Senator McCain issued a statement strongly condemning The Donald's disrespect of the Khizr Khan family.

He stopped just short of withdrawing his endorsement of Trump, and so did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

That will happen after the nominee's next big gaffe, which will certainly occur within the next few days if not sooner.

In the midst of Trump's fiasco, Hillary Clinton was trying to float another big lie about her email debacle.

Hillary tried to sell us on interpreting what FBI Director James Comey said about her, precisely the opposite way to what he actually said.

She said that he said that she told the truth. Everyone else heard Comey say that Hillary told the FBI the truth, but he couldn't comment on what she told the public. And that, as we all know, was a pack of lies.

In fact, Hillary got four Pinnochio's from The Washington Post yesterday for the whopper she continues to spin, which would mostly exonerate her for having a clandestine email server.

She's a lot like her presidential opponent--unable to simply apologize for a mistake and move on.

I hate to say it again, but neither nominee should be president.

I do like the Democratic party platform, but I'm not sure I can trust Hillary to back it.