White House Race- September 21, 2024

 45 Days Until Election Day

This was another week where so many things happened in politics and world events, that it is impossible to nearly try to cover everything. There is too much to write about and if I tried, I would miss at least a couple things. All of this is occurring at a time where people are actually beginning to vote in some states. That seems ridiculous. It should not take 45 days plus to vote

Where to even begin? Last Sunday, a man, whom in this case at least seems to be very much on record in disliking Donald Trump politically, (even though he voted for him in 2016) was arrested after targeting the former President at one of his Florida golf courses. Thankfully, he did not fire a shot and was taken into custody without much incident. Based on everything we know, the man seems to be an absolute nutcase. If convicted, he should be locked away for life. All of this speaks to the ugly state of our current politics. Clearly, there is no place for violence. However, Trump backers have been going away overboard in equating this attempt to the far more serious one in Pennsylvania over the summer, which involved loss of life, and a near miss of killing Trump. Many legitimate questions remain about just how that incident went down the way it did. In this case though, at least we can say the Secret Service recognized and took care of a threat before it physically materialized. They have apparently long been concerned about the security aspects of Trump's many golf outings. 

Regardless of the apparent fact that this would be assassin opposed Trump's view on Ukraine, those who support Ukraine's efforts to survive against Russian aggression and war crimes are in no way responsible for this violent and un-American plan. The MAGA folks, who were feeling like they were about to enjoy a huge political bounce after the first Trump assassination attempt, clearly want to try to make the concept of "Trump in danger" as part of the narrative. They have blamed criticism and rhetoric against Trump for contributing to these threats. In the first case, those claims seem to be demonstrably false, and in this case, probably irrelevant. Yes, people say harsh things about Trump and the threat he poses. We have said that about political figures since the founding of the country and sadly have had assassinations and attempts as part of our history. However, no figure in American political history has ever been more threatening and more vitriolic in his rhetoric than Donald J. Trump. Of course that means nobody ever has a right to do anything illegal against him, but we need to speak the truth. He must continue to be opposed and warned about in order to spur people to act in lawful, Constitutional ways to prevent him from taking power. The Trump folks disingenuously want it both ways. They want people to treat him more deferentially than anybody else in politics ever has, while at the same time, they overlook his words and actions, which go beyond anything seen before. That very morning, when many people were still in church, he began the day by posting on Truth Social, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT." These continue to be dangerous times for our country and the Secret Service has a very tough job in protecting our leaders, past, current, and future.

Today, Kamala Harris accepted a CNN debate for October, while Trump says, "no, it's too late." Clearly, he does not want to be beaten in a debate again, or at least his staff is advising him to avoid the risk of that. There is also so much talk about what will actually happen when the votes are cast. Believe it or not, there still appears to be some effort among Nebraska Republicans, this late in the game, to change their law, and reward all Electoral Votes to the statewide winner. Right now, it looks like Harris would win one vote out of the Omaha Congressional District. In theory, every vote might count, but when one really plays around with the electoral map, it is doubtful that one vote might keep Harris from victory, if somehow it would go away. As I have said before, Pennsylvania may be the ballgame. It is also true that if Trump does not win North Carolina, he almost certainly cannot get 270 votes. No Republican has lost there since 2008. It was close before and now the situation is greatly complicated by the amazing scandal of one-time self professed "black Nazi" and "perv" Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for Governor. I wrote about that at length when I covered that race not long ago, so I really cannot get into all the sordid details here but Robinson has now pretty much been cut off by Trump and his team. Democrats will try to use Trump's past overwhelming praise of Robinson against him and that may or may not work, but none of this is good for any Republican running in North Carolina right now.

Then, there is Georgia, where legal fights are going to be occurring, including efforts by Republican statewide officials, to stop a recent 3-2 ruling by a new statewide election board, in which the three Trump allies voted that Georgia must do a hand count of all of its ballots. On the surface, that seems like a pretty dumb idea, and one can surmise that it is merely an effort to drag out a count for a state that Trump might not win and cast doubt over the entire process in the state.

The past week continued to see much discussion of Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio who are most certainly not eating household dogs or cats or even hunting geese from public areas. Vice Presidential runningmate JD Vance, who represents Ohio in the Senate actually said this week that he will "make up" stories in order to get the media to pay attention to issues. In this case, it is the campaign strategy that non-white immigrants are taking over America and threatening our way of life. Basically, it is a version of "white replacement theory" and if this is what has become of today's Republican Party, you can count me out. These claims have caused there to be numerous bomb threats into the town, some perhaps from malignant foreign actors and some from Americans who believe the Trump/Vance rhetoric. Trump, the guy who complains that attacks against him are causing him to get shot, refused to denounce the bomb threats. He pulled out his old line that he knows "nothing about them", the same thing he was saying recently about Laura Loomer, and probably the same thing he would now say about Mark Robinson.

There were two sit-down interviews this week in front of audiences among the candidates. Kamala Harris sat down with Oprah Winfrey and was typically vague on issues and prescriptions, which continues to not speak well about her candidacy (although it is almost certainly a deliberate strategy.) Harris also said she owns a gun and if anybody breaks into her house, "they are getting shot." That is almost certainly true, and the Secret Service will likely be the ones firing the shot. However, what she was trying to say, and then seemingly instantly regretted, was that homeowners have the right to take severe action to protect their lives and property against criminals. I regret that she expressed regret. It is too bad she immediately started worrying about left-wing backlash and laughed that her campaign staff would have to "clean up" what she just said.

A couple days before, Trump sat down on a stage with Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former White House Press Secretary (and like Oprah, someone who used to weigh a lot more) and at some point in the evening, Sanders made very controversial remarks in which she said her young children "keep her humble" and that Kamala (mispronounced intentionally) Harris has nobody to keep her humble. This was a clear dig at a woman who was a step-mother but has never had biological children. Would they prefer if she had gotten pregnant out of wedlock since she did not get married until later in life? There was much backlash, including among some Republicans, against those remarks. I had some thoughts also. For one thing, Sanders is in her 40s, while Harris is about to turn 60. Who will keep the Governor "humble" when her young children grow up and move out? Also, I would like to know which of the five biological children Donald Trump had (with three different women) keep him humble? What absolute chutzpah for someone to advocate on behalf of Trump to claim his opponent is not humble enough.

Two days ago, Donald Trump, speaking at an event designed to combat anti-Semitism engaged in some major anti-Semitism himself. The irony is not lost on his supporters, including his Jewish-American supporters. The majority of American Jews will vote Democrat this November for President, as they have for generations, but I do think, for some major reasons, that Trump will do better among this group than he or other Republicans have in decades. Mostly, that is about an element within the Democrat Party that scares Jews and not for illegitimate reasons. However, Trump seems upset that he is not getting more Jewish votes. Everything is always transactional with him and always about him.so he directly warned that if he loses (which is something he normally does not allow for publicly) that it will be largely the fault of the Jews. What a despicably ugly thing to say. At a time when Jews around the world, including in the United States, are facing unprecedented threats, this will make things worse. No, if Trump loses, it will not be the fault of the Jews, but this particular Jew is looking forward to helping him lose.

On the topic of Jews, Israel had a very impressive week. The typical left-wing idiots such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have attacked Israel for their strategy in combating the Iranian-sponsored terrorism of Hezbollah, when of course they should be celebrating it. Basically, Hezbollah has ditched high-tech cellphones, knowing they can be compromised, in favor of low-tech and much harder to trace pagers. These days, people either brag or complain about their phones "blowing up" but this week, in Lebanon, thousands of pagers were literally blowing up. Israel had engaged in a complicated but brilliant covert action of implanting miniature bombs in these pagers, which then got into the hands of Hezbollah terrorists, and detonating them at the same time. Scores of terrorists were killed, many were injured, and many of both will be unable to do much with the 72 virgins they believe are waiting for them, because of the location on the person of where these explosions occurred. Talk about a surgical strike! This was an attack on specific, designated, dangerous threats, in which not a bullet or missile was fired and while of course no innocent lives can be totally prevented from being lost, the risk was immensely mitigated. The very next day, Israel did a bit of an encore by causing a lot of walkie-talkies to then explode in the hands of Hezbollah terrorists, eliminating even more of them. Needless to say, this was a huge blow to Hezbollah, who is vowing retaliation, but will find it much harder to do so now. They also have to be besides themselves in knowing that Israel is so many steps ahead of them and their leadership and that they are literally never safe.

Mazel Tov, Israel.