Painting Lipstick on a Pig

To put “lipstick on a pig” is a rhetorical expression, used to convey the message that making superficial or cosmetic changes is a futile attempt to disguise the true nature of a product or person.

That is the job of Donald Trump’s campaign manager. Trump Replaced Brad Parscale as Campaign Manager, Elevating Bill Stepien. Both men are loyal Republican Party operatives with many years of campaign management experience.

However, Stepien will be confronted with the same issue that challenged Parscale. Trump thinks he is smarter than everyone else and he knows how to run his campaign.

A Washington Post article by Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Robert Costa summarizes the Trump campaign dilemma.
The Trump administration so far has no clear national plan to combat the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 135,000 in the United States. The president has continued to defend the Confederate flag — a symbol of slavery and racism to many Americans — and, in the wake of national protests over the death of an unarmed black man in police custody in Minneapolis, played an actively divisive role, trafficking in racist and other offensive statements.

That leaves Stepien with only one task. Make Joe Biden appear so bad that Americans will decide that no matter how bad Trump is, Biden will be worse. As a smart campaign manager Stepien will do everything he can to make the president look good. His challenge will be difficult since Trump has painted himself a victim of a media led war against him. Trump repeatedly veers from his planned presentations as he did just a few days ago when he held a press conference that was supposed to be about China.

Since Stepien has just stepped into the job yesterday, July 15, we don’t know how he will accomplish his task. It will be difficult because most people already know Biden’s life history both in politics and his personal life.

Painting lipstick on Donald Trump will not make him pretty because he won’t behave and he is a pig.

African Elephant

From Bing

If you encounter a herd of African bush elephants roaming the savanna take heed: The one in charge is likely the family’s matriarch. And it is best to get out of her 7-foot, 3-ton way. Herds, or family units, are made up of the matriarch and related females. When calves are born, they’re raised in a cooperative manner by the mother with the help of other young female elephants called allomothers.

The African bush elephant has the largest body and biggest brain of any land mammal. Scientists think the elephant’s complex brain structure is a good indicator of its intelligence—not just because of the brain’s size, but the fact that elephants in both the wild and captivity have exhibited complex and emotional behaviors, all signs of a highly intelligent species.

Incapable of Leadership

Donald Trump, “I alone can fix it.” There are two ways of reading this slightly ambiguous sentence. First, in the way that Trump presumably meant it, that he is the one uniquely capable of fixing what is broken in Washington and politics. Second, that he could fix it alone, that is, without allies and alliances.

It was so damn is easy for Donald Trump to take on the war against the coronavirus. “I view it as — in a sense — of wartime president,” Trump said in March. He followed that up saying, “I mean, that’s what we’re fighting. I mean, it’s a very tough situation here.”

However, instead of telling Americans they had to sacrifice to win the war on the virus by asking everyone to do his part by just wearing a mask and doing social distancing, he retreated and left every city and state to fend for itself.

When the public was peacefully demonstrating in Lafayette Square, Trump had the area cleared so he could stand in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church. But without words written by speechwriter Steven Miller he stood there holding up a bible and he said nothing.

Trump was reportedly briefed on the alleged bounties offered by Russia to kill American soldiers in his daily presidential intelligence document but failed to act on the info given. He did nothing about the Russian program and denied he had been briefed.

Roger Jason Stone is an American conservative political consultant, lobbyist, and convicted felon was given a pardon by Trump. That was a signal to all of his political friends. The message is stick with me and I will protect you no matter what you may have done.

Will Trump be re-elected? His faithful followers could easily make that happen. Trump is an outstanding communicator when he has a script. Joe Biden has no passionate followers.

Something to Consider and Think About!

Someone I know forwarded this article to me.

Subject: Fwd: something to consider

While waiting for life to get back to normal consider this…

If you could fit the entire population of the world into a village

consisting of 100 people, maintaining the proportions of all the

people living on Earth, that village would consist of:

57 Asians

21 Europeans

14 Americans (North, Central and South)

8 Africans

There would be:

52 women and 48 men

30 Caucasians and 70 non-Caucasians

30 Christians and 70 non-Christians

89 heterosexuals and 11 homosexuals

6 people would possess 59% of the wealth and they would all come from the USA

80 would live in poverty

70 would be illiterate

50 would suffer from hunger and malnutrition

1 would be dying

1 would be being born

1 would own a computer

1 (yes, only one) would have a university degree

If we looked at the world in this way,

the need for acceptance and understanding would be obvious.

But, consider again the following :

If you woke up this morning in good health, you have more luck than

one million people, who won’t live through the week.

If you have never experienced the horror of war, the solitude of

prison, the pain of torture, were not close to death from starvation,

then you are better off than 500 million people.

If you can go to your place of worship without fear that someone will

assault or kill you, then you are luckier than 3 billion (that’s right) people.

If you have a full fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head

and a place to sleep, you are wealthier than 75% of the world’s population.

If you currently have money in the bank, in your wallet and a few

coins in your purse, you are one of 8 of the privileged few among the

100 people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married, you’re a rare individual.

If someone sent you this message, you’re extremely lucky, because

someone is thinking of you ~ and because you don’t comprise one of

those 2 billion people who can’t read.

AND SO?

Work like you don’t need the money.

Love like nobody has ever hurt you.

Dance like nobody is watching.

Sing like nobody is listening.

and Live as if this was paradise on Earth.

I hope you Send this message to your friends.

If you don’t send it, nothing will happen….

If you do send it, someone might smile while they are reading it,

and that will be a positive.

John Wayne: The World War II Hero Who Didn’t Serve

John Wayne was a mediocre actor. Watch his movies and you will hear his stiff unemotional delivery of his lines.

No one was more a hero in World War II than John Wayne. At least that’s what the aliens will think when they view the historical footage documented in old Hollywood reels such as the Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Flying Tigers (1942), and The Longest Day (1962). Of course, we know better now. But if you’re a child of World War II, who reveled in the Duke’s onscreen heroics while welling up with pride, maybe there’s still some wiggle room to take solace in. For everyone else, fire away.

He received a 3-A deferment from the draft for family dependency since he was a father of four and had just made Stagecoach (1939) as a then unknown actor. That film also began a career of collaboration with John Ford, the iconic director who had his eye on Wayne since his days as a football player at USC and the numerous stand-in and stuntman roles he performed in previous westerns.

In real life John Wayne was no hero. He never served in the military. He was also a racist. In a 1971 Playboy interview Wayne said “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.” Also in the interview, Wayne, whose Western films like “The Searchers” were accused of perpetuating stereotypes about Native Americans, accused Native Americans of “selfishly trying to keep (North America) to themselves.”

Why the Orange County California airport changed its name to John Wayne Airport will forever be a mystery.

Independence Day

The United States Declaration of Independence is the pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776. The Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule.

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”