"Putin? Never heard of him." - Donald Trump

I am a Bernie supporter, and I admire the man greatly, up to and including his support for Hillary Clinton. To young Bernie idealists/zealots - I know you are disappointed. The accomodations of politics brings many disappointments, but it's a long road with many twists and turns, includes dazzling moments such as one of the best Presidents in our history, Barack Obama. An old saw is that the perfect is the enemy of the good. The 2000 election of GWB and all the disasters that ensued is an example of that in my mind. But for a few thousand Nader/Green Party zealots in Florida and perhaps another state or two, Al Gore might have been elected and an alternate history of our country might have been written. Donald Trump is a dangerous fascist lying narcissist con-man who must not be elected........That's my story and I'm sticking to it. * * * * * * * * * * God weighed in on the US Presidential race last week and released a statement of support for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. "Although I personally liked the Jewish guy better, Hillary is still pretty good," God said. " Tim too. And Lord knows, being married to Bill was no picnic. But I can't stand that orange haired pompous know-nothing blowhard. Didn't like him when he was stealing that woman's home in New York City to build a parking garage. Didn't like him then; don't like him now." * * * * * * * * * * * Donald Trump's Russia connections were in the news this week. Early in his campaign Trump claimed to have a "relationship" with Putin. Uh huh. Trump is apparently deep in debt to Russian banks to the tune of several hundred million; his campaign manager has ties to Russia oligarchs in Ukraine. Trump said he'd "take a look" at legitimizing the Russian takeover of Crimean. And Vladimir Putin made Donald Trump an "honorary Russian" today. "He's my kind of guy," Putin said at the ceremony, seated on a horse, flexing his bare-chested muscles from his Crimean vacation compound. "With enemies like him, who needs friends?" Putin joked. Smarting from criticism of his Russia connections and for his call for Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton's email, Donald Trump now claims he never met Putin.* * * * * * * * * * * Melania Trump is still reeling from plagiarism charges about her inclusion of portions of Michele Obama's speech in 2008. Her old website in which she claimed to have a University Degree was taken down and a new one put in place which documents her 3 PHDs, her 19 books on topics as diverse as 14th century Prussian ceramic art, 18th century Maldovian history, philosophical discourses Vol. 1 - 9, and thousands of her scholarly journal articles on topics such as nuclear power in the modern age, nucleotide formation in salt water marshes, hermaneutics, maritime imagery in New England Renaissance poetry, and many more. . Other notable additions included The Congressional Medal of Honor, information about her 5 Nobel Peace Prizes, 9 Pultizer Prizes, 12 Peabody Awards, and numerous other prizes and awards all of which prize money is donated to the Mother Theresa Foundation. * * * * * * * * ** * There were so many good lines at the Democratic convention but one that stands out for me is this one: "A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons." ~ Hillary Clinton

Retrumplican Convention

Thoughts on the Republican Convention: Watching the Republicans nominate Donald Trump was like watching a cat cough up a hairball. The convention started out with delegates yelling Dump Trump and ended with a rousing endorsement from the KKK. It included a virtual Who's Not of the Republican Party. Scott Baio? Who wasn't there was bigger news than who was. The new official Trump/Pence logo lasted one day. Cleveland authorities successfully kept toy guns away from the convention hall. Real guns were allowed. It was clear to me that no one in the hall had read a single one of the eight separate Republican Congressional investigation reports on Benghazi. Donald Trump's third wife said he is intensely loyal (let that sink in for a moment) in the same speech in which she plagiarized significant portions of, wait for it, wait for it, Michele Obama's speech from 2008. It must be that the university she attended did not cover plagiarism until their sophomore year. Remember when Republicans were demanding Barack Obama's college transcripts? Trump advisors publicly called for the execution by firing squad of Hillary Clinton. Donald freaked out NATO. Neither Ted Cruz of John Kasich endorsed Trump. Ted Cruz gave a speech though. The next day he said, "I am not a servile puppy dog." John Kasich refused to even show up and he's the Governor of Ohio. Governor Mike Pence is the best pick for vice president since Spiro Agnew. The Republican convention may have set the record for number of prime-time speakers not to endorse their own candidate. Trump's speech was about 20% true according to fact checkers. He seemed to think that if you angrily yell something twice it becomes more true. It was pretty heavy on the what. Nothing on the how. Of his evangelical support, he said he didn't deserve it (likely true). Of them he said: "and has had such a big reason for me being here tonight." KKK former grand wizard David Duke gave Trump's speech rave reviews. "I alone can fix it." - Donald Trump. None of that silly touchy feely liberal we can do this together crap. The only thing I agreed in the entire speech with was that we should try to protect the LGBTQ community from terrorist attacks. And you could tell he rehearsed the LGBTQ part. Best comment I saw on fb was from my friend Inge Strack: "I'm confused...usually when I get into a discussion with a Right Winger they tell me the US is the greatest country in the world and if I don't like it here I should leave. Now I find out that this country is a hell hole that only Orange Mussolini can fix!"* * * * * * * * * * * * Ann Coulter is said to be depressed and near suicidal that Roger Ailes never hit on her. "Why not me? Why not me? Is it my Adam's apple?" she was heard to say, slumped over a bar table, with a bottle of Jim Beam Black half empty in front of her. * * * * * * * * * Other items this week: worst explanation of shooting unarmed black man this week - "The cop was trying to shoot the autistic guy with the toy truck and missed."

The stupid is strong in this one.

Latest on the Presidential race: Cleveland city officials are banning toy guns from the demonstrations outside the Republican Convention next week. But real guns are okay. * * * * * * * * Michelle Bachmann longs for the day when Jews can say Merry Christmas in America. The stupid is strong in this one. * * * * * * * * * * The Republican convention will have a Benghazi night and a Monica Lewinsky night. * * * * * * * * * Donald Trump is expected to announce Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate. Who'd have thought the Republicans would nominate two old white guys ?* * * * * * * * *Donald Trump's list of speakers at the Republican convention is a virtual Who's Not of the Republican party. * * * * * * * * * * * Donald Trump says he understand what it's like to be black in America because of all the stuff he's been through. * * * * * * * * * Ruth Bader Ginsburg criticized a racist fascist con-man fraud and people are upset at her? Give me a break. I say thank her for her powers of observation. I'm guessing she's not on his short list for veep. * * * * * * * * You can now add Pokeman-Go to the list of things I don't understand. According to one end-times preacher though, “They’re spawning demons inside your church,” he said. “They’re targeting your church with demonic activity. This technology will be used by the enemies of the cross to target, locate and execute Christians.” I don't know about that but a guy ran into a tree. * * * * * * * *** President Obama urged Americans this week to unite and reject despair; outraged Republicans vow to fight.* * * * * * ** * Dallas police, who pride themselves on their ability to deescalate, blew up the shooter last week with a remotely controlled bomb. I'm just saying............There was another terrorist attack in France.

"F*** this sh**." - Reince Priebus, Republican National Chairman

Donald Trump today pledged that if he is elected, he will actually read the US Constitution. "I've always thought it was a great book. Right after the Bible, Mein Kampf, and The Art of the Deal," he said. He would not, however, confirm that he would actually serve as President if he won. Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus threw in the towel today adding his name to a long list of Republicans: "Fu** this sh**. I'm not going to the Republican convention. Donald Trump? Are you kidding me? Nobody even wants to be his vice president except New Gingrich. We might as well run Satan and Hitler on the ticket." * * * * * ** * Trying to put the Star of David controversy behind him, Donald Trump announced that they would from here on use swastikas on all their advertising instead. Donald Trump also announced that the prime time speakers for the convention would be that weird guy from Duck Dynasty who thinks a calendar proves Jesus was the Christ, David Dukes from the KKK, Governor Scott Walker from Wisconsin, and the corpse of Saddam Hussein. "He was great at killing terrorists," Trump said. * * * * * * * * For a fifth day in a row now, Republicans continue to be in shock that Hillary Clinton will not be indicted on charges for crimes they imagined she committed. "Everybody knows she eats live babies for breakfast, for heaven's sake," one Congressional staffer said, "and we can't even get her on emails." * * * * * * * Disappointed that they found no wrongdoing by Secretary Hillary Clinton in the Benghazi investigations, Congressional Republicans announced today they will launch an investigation into why their previous eight Benghazi investigations failed to find Hillary Clinton guilty of any wrongdoing. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * And the spacecraft Juno that traveled 5 years and two billion miles to orbit Jupiter was one second off schedule. Can't these people do anything right? * * * * * * * * Given the police murders of two unarmed black men this week, and then the murders of 5 police in Dallas, I am deeply saddened. We are a nation awash in ignorance, racism, hatred, anger, injustice, violence, and guns. A Shining City on a Hill? Not today. Like Reince said, f*** this sh**.