White House Race- May 11, 2024

I am really at a loss for how to try to start this entry.With each passing week, the Presidential election, and the state of American politics in general feels static and depressing. Maybe the worm that once ate part of Robert Kennedy's Jr's brain is the real hero.

Kristi Noem never met with Kim Jung Un but refuses to admit she did not or  was wrong for including it in her "book" despite reading the section for the audio recording. Tim Scott says he will accept the 2024 election results because Donald Trump will win. Apparently, there is no other alternative that someone might have to accept even if they do not like. Neither one of these people are likely to be Trump's next running-mate though. I think Trump views them as weird and more of a political problem. I think the choice will either be Ohio Senator JD Vance or North Dakota Governor (and former 2024 candidate) Doug Burgum. Perhaps the latter, because Trump views him as the subservient rich white man who will not rock any boats. Earlier today, a publication put forth a story that Nikki Haley, who has been invisible for weeks now, is very much back in the mix as a potential Trump running-mate. She continues to take a significant number of primary votes against the presumptive nominee, most recently in Indiana. This caused a firestorm among MAGA acolytes, who hate the idea of Haley running with Trump. This quickly caused the former President to issue a statement saying she was not under consideration but that he "wished her well." What, no birdbrain comment? He indeed may be worried about her supporters.

Majorie Taylor Greene did follow through on her threat to try to oust Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House. Very few Republicans went along with her and are said to be livid with her. Of course, Democrats still needed to bail Johnson out. Trump called on House Republicans to vote to support Johnson, after the vote was already held, but still praised MTG. He is definitely trying to have it both ways,

Once again, a large portion of the news media was transfixed this past week on a Manhattan courtroom. For mainstream America, this is not exactly the OJ trial or perhaps even the 2007 Anna Nicole Smith posthumous paternity legal battle. Maybe one day I will re-visit my well detailed theory about how Trump voters are like the OJ Simpson criminal jury. It did not not matter what the facts were, they just wanted to "send a message" for past grievances.

Thee days, Trump has a different jury in mind, and if many are hoping for any sort of unanimous verdict against Trump in the weeks ahead, they may be disappointed. All it takes for Trump is one juror to be a holdout. Considering the divisive nature of him and the political aspect of all of this, it is hard to see that not happening, at least on what I still consider to be a relatively weak case in New York. The other cases seem  far more cut and dry and far more serious, but none of them will actually have a verdict, or maybe not even a day of testimony before Election Day.

So, Stormy Daniels took the witness stand this past week. I take some joy into the fact that Donald Trump probably hated every minute of it. A large consensus was that either the prosecution messed up her direct testimony or that the defense overdid it on their cross-examination. She probably loved the attention. Frankly, she is a bit of a nutcase and always has been. How else can you explain her conscious decision to sleep with Trump the day she met him. Yes, she did consent, despite her attempts to try to cast doubts on that now.

On Monday, Michael Cohen is expected to take the stand, and we can expect wall to wall coverage of all the fireworks. Can Trump avoid saying anything about Cohen next week or does he risk being put in a cell? That will be the real drama. I am glad that Cohen has turned on Trump, after years of being his lapdog, but he is not exactly a savory character himself. To be certain, I will join most political junkies, (at least the anti-Trump ones) in wanting to hear all the details of this testimony, but by this time next week, Michael Cohen will probably still have a lower name identification than whomever that schmuck is on "Vanderpump Rules."

 

I have to take a moment to talk about Hillary Rodham Clinton. I know that very few people do these days. This past week she gave an interview and let me start with the positive. She said some things about Israel and the current conflict in the Middle East which are absolutely true. On this, I hope leftists would listen to her, but I know they will not. Frankly, in the arena of foreign policy, I think I would much prefer HRC as Commander in Chief to Trump, Biden, or Obama, and have felt that way for some time. Someone would just have to make sure she was not conducting the government on her own private, illegal, servers.

Then however, Clinton was asked about the Trump/Stormy Daniels thing and I could not believe my ears on the clip I heard. She seemed to indicate that Trump had broken the law by trying to cover-up this one night stand and that back in 2016, the American people had a right to know this tidbit from Trump's private life.

Who said this now? Months ahead of the Paris Games,this has to win a Gold Medal in hypocrisy. We all know who she is married to and her very active efforts, going back to 1992, to curtail "bimbo eruptions"  and to mount public campaigns against the woman who accused her husband of both wanted and unwanted advances. The Clinton Playbook for decades has been "private lives are off limits" and if anything were to be found out, it should be accepted and praised that a powerful man would lie about sex in order to protect his loved ones. Hillary is going to change her tune on this now? Beam me up. Many on both the left and right have done 180s on this topic of adultery and the Presidency, but not me. Presidents Clinton and Trump are both disgraces.

Then, there is the one man standing in the way of keeping Donald Trump out of power. Joe Biden. Does that not just inspire confidence? This week, the President spoke on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day and said some very good things, and I believe he meant them. He pointed out what happened in Israel on October 7, and that he has not forgotten. He probably could have gone further, but the words were welcomed. Then, on the very same day, his Administration says is delaying shipment of weapons the U.S. Congress has already paid for to go to Israel, The concern is that Israel will use them in Rafah, the last holdout of Hamas, and that will anger a bunch of leftists, especially in the key state of Michigan. Just look at the passion going on this week in Europe, as leftists demand that an Israeli singer be banned from taking part in the annual Eurovision song contest. The liberals in this country who rightfully complain about book-burning are largely silent on this

Whatever one thinks of Prime Minister Netanyahu personally or how he is leading Israel during wartime, this move by an American President is a profoundly bad idea and sends all the wrong messages to our allies and enemies alike.

Not long ago, Donald Trump was President and afraid of losing an election to Joe Biden. So, he abused his office by trying to use political leverage and prevent the shipment of weapons to Ukraine, even as it was being threatened by Russia. He wanted something out of Ukraine and rightfully was impeached for it, but that was after he did actually allow them to get the weapons.

Now, Biden is President and is afraid of losing an election to Donald Trump. He is trying to use the same sort of political leverage, to get an ally, who has already suffered an invasion, to do what he wants them to do for his own political benefit.

I am not saying that Biden should be impeached over this. There may be some degrees of nuance but it does feel fairly similar and Biden should definitely be called out for this. We now have Jewish-Americans, who have never voted for Trump, saying they might do so, because they are so mad at Biden over this.

A President should always do what is right, even there is less worry about Jewish Democrats than there are about the much angrier, much more lawless leftist demonstrators who hate Israel. The right thing, for any American President, will be to support Israel in doing what has to be done to wipe out Hamas. If that does not happen, there will one day be much regret in this country.