Another Republican Newspaper endorses Hillary Clinton

Washington (CNN) The Cincinnati Enquirer, one of Ohio’s largest newspapers, is backing Hillary Clinton after supporting Republican presidential candidates for nearly a century.

“Trump brands himself as an outsider untainted by special interests, but we see a man utterly corrupted by self-interest. His narcissistic bid for the presidency is more about making himself great than America,” the Enquirer board said. “Trump tears our country and many of its people down with his words so that he can build himself up. What else are we left to believe about a man who tells the American public that he alone can fix what ails us?”
“Our country needs to seek thoughtful change, not just change for the sake of change. Four years is plenty of time to do enough damage that it could take America years to recover from, if at all,” it wrote.

Sadly newspaper endorsements do not have the influence they had in past years.  Mrs. Clinton has one serious strike against her.  Too many Americans will not vote for a woman under any circumstances.  Mrs. Clinton’s various baggage makes her an even less likely to win candidate.

The Congress May Choose the Next President of the United States

This would be a frightening situation. 270towin is a web site that provides a map where you can guess which states will be won by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. By accident I entered the states shown here as won by the two candidates. The result came out to 269 for each. The scenario I suggest is not beyond logic.

269-for-each

 

What happens if there is a tie? Congress will make the choice. The Congress meets in joint session on January 6, 2017 to count the electoral votes (this count happens whether the election is close or not). If no candidate has reached 270 Electoral Votes, then the House and Senate take over and elect the President and Vice-President, respectively. Note that the newly elected Congress will be sworn in on January 3, 2017. It is that new Congress that takes on this responsibility. If each states gets one vote the winner would be Donald Trump as more states have a majority of Republican congressional districts in the current session and that is unlikely to change.

Age and the American Presidency

 Ronald Reagan was the oldest president of the United States. He was the oldest to be inaugurated for his first term, 69 years old and consequently was the oldest when leaving the office eight years later (77 years old). It was rumored that he fell asleep during briefings in his second term.

Now we have the two oldest people who have ever run for presidency. Donald Trump is 70 years old and Hillary Clinton will be 69 in this coming October.

For the population to accept the idea that these two people, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, are as fit as Barack Obama who leaves office at a 55 is utterly ridiculous. If his hair color is any indication, Obama took a serious physical beating.

barack-obama-3

A young Barack Obama, 2008

barack-obama-august-20-2014

August 20, 2014 Barack Obama

The likelihood that Clinton or Trump could experience a serious health issue is very high. Mrs. Clinton will undoubtedly insist she has no consequential health problems. Mr. Trump will make similar comments.  The public deserves to know both Clinton’s and Trump’s health condition.

If the question of candidate health becomes a significant campaign issue I anticipate that will be a deciding factor on November 8. It shouldn’t!

Look at the vice presidential candidates. Mike Pence as president would be pushing and enforcing his conservative views that include discriminatory views against the LGBT community and his total opposition to abortion under any circumstance. Tim Kane has a record of inclusiveness. The choice between them is clear.

This is a frightening election season. We are forced to choose between a loud mouth, bully, racist, know-it-all and someone who has no other campaign slogan than “I’m with her; Stronger together.”

Maybe best not to vote for either candidate.

“What the hell have you got to lose?”

A report from the Daily Beast, September 7, 2016

Dallas Paper Backs 1st Dem Since WWII

The Dallas Morning News has endorsed Hillary Clinton—the first Democratic presidential candidate backed by the Texas daily standard in more than 75 years. “Résumé vs. résumé, judgment vs. judgment, this election is no contest,” the editorial board wrote. While the paper acknowledged that Clinton’s party, in general, is “at odds with our belief in private-sector ingenuity and innovation,” the endorsement noted that her experience and record of service outweigh those differences. Notably, the Morning News wrote, “We reject the politics of personal destruction… Trump’s values are hostile to conservatism.” The editorial reads: “He plays on fear—exploiting base instincts of xenophobia, racism, and misogyny—to bring out the worst in all of us, rather than the best. His serial shifts on fundamental issues reveal an astounding absence of preparedness. And his improvisational insults and midnight tweets exhibit a dangerous lack of judgment and impulse control.”

When a renowned Republican newspaper endorses Hillary Clinton you can only realize how flawed Donald Trump really is as a candidate for commander-in-chief of the United States.   Those of you reading this that are devoted Republicans should be evaluating your preference of Mr. Trump.

2016 Projected Electoral Votes

A poll from Quinnipiac University released on Thursday gave Hillary Clinton a massive advantage over her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump, just 75 days before November’s election.

Hillary Clinton has a 80.0% chance of winning the 2016 presidential election.

Updated 8/23/2016

Electoral Votes from Swing States: 112

 

270 Votes Needed to Win

Hillary ClintonElection Forecast 8-25-16

272

Donald Trump

154

Democrats, Don’t be too cocky!

Michael Dukakis is here to remind you why to stop overreacting to the recent election polls.  Flying high out of the 1988 Democratic National Convention, the forecast looked sunny for the then-Massachusetts governor. A Gallup general election poll released July 26, 1988 gave Dukakis a 17-point lead over George H.W. Bush, the Republican nominee.

“When I was allegedly 15 points ahead, I never was really. It was because I had come off a pretty impressive primary victory,” the 82-year-old former governor said, adding, “You’re obviously going to get a bit of a bounce if you win, and I’m sure [Trump]’s getting that kind of a bounce, since he’s won the thing.”

The Dukakis/Bentsen ticket lost the election by a decisive margin in the Electoral College to George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle, carrying only 10 states and the District of Columbia.

We Didn’t Get the Sarcasm

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 05: Donald Trump attends the "Celebrity Apprentice" Red Carpet Event at Trump Tower on January 5, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Pont/FilmMagic)
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 05: Donald Trump attends the “Celebrity Apprentice” Red Carpet Event at Trump Tower on January 5, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Pont/FilmMagic)

It was all a big joke.

Donald Trump didn’t really mean he would build the greatest wall along the Mexican border.

Mexicans aren’t all thieves and rapists.

Trump doesn’t really want to stop all Muslim immigration.

Trump doesn’t really want to renegotiate NAFTA.

Trump doesn’t really intend to deport all illegal aliens.

Trump actually thinks TPP is a great idea.

NATO is an important treaty.

Putin is not our friend. He has never met him.

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.

Trump really does not want to be president of the United States.

You are all fired for believing his sarcasm.

“Why the hell can’t you take a joke?”

Two Political Parties – One Ruling Class

From THE SPARK, August 8, 2016. It is an opinion letter distributed from Studio City, California (Studio City is a district of Los Angeles). THE SPARK web site: “We want an end to capitalism. We want revolution made by the working class. We want socialism, we want communism.”

The following column was handed to me as I entered the Red Line subway in North Hollywood, California.  There is no reference to socialism or communism in this article.  It is a blast at the Ruling Class.  The two lines BOLDED by me are the critical and the two most important sentences in my opinion.

Donald Trump is everything the Democrats say he is: anti-worker, misogynist, and racist.  He’s vile in the way he maligns whole groups of people; repellant in his pretense to “defend the people who cannot defend themselves”; offensive in his contempt for women; and a ruthless businessman whose history is littered with people he exploited, harmed and cheated.

He claims that he is the only one who can fix the system because “nobody knows it better” than he does. Yes, he knows it – and has used it his whole life, just as the whole capitalist class has used it, to accumulate wealth at the expense of the vast majority of the population, all of us who must work for our living.

This multi-billionaire has spent the last year roaming the country, playing on and reinforcing racist attitudes in the population. He blamed immigrants for the unemployment in this country – in a ploy to hide the truth, that joblessness is created by bosses like Trump who push to squeeze more work out of fewer workers. He blames society’s victims for crime, rather than the system he knows so well and has benefitted from so much, which has impoverished large layers of the population, driving young people who cannot find work into crime. He blames the people in other countries for the wars that ravage the earth, rather than the American capitalist class, of which he is a prize member, a class that exploits people in sweatshops around the world and steals the wealth of other countries.

Trump is a real enemy of working people.

But if anyone believes that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats are our friends, they are living in a dream world.

The Democrats may have a “kinder” language than Trump – but that language is a lie. And behind the lie is a party that turned law and order into a recipe for jailing two generations of young people for whom this system would not provide jobs. Bill Clinton’s administration, supported by both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, pushed through two “anti-crime” laws in the 1990s, which contributed to the shocking 800% increase in the number of people locked away since 1980 – the vast majority for “crimes” that harmed no one, destroyed nothing and took nothing.

The Democrats may pretend to be shocked at Trump’s bellicose language, but the Democrats eagerly joined Republicans to take us into wars that still ravage a large part of the Middle East, wars that have provoked the growth and bitterness of many who flock to ISIS.

At the Democratic Convention Bernie Sanders did what he has always done: talk radical, then fall in line. After calling Clinton the candidate of Wall Street – which she is – he called on his supporters to work for her election! Just like when he spoke against the wars in Iraq and Syria, but then voted the money needed to carry them out.

People worry that if Trump gets in office there may be an increase in overt acts of violence targeting immigrants or black people – and there may well be. But not because of Trump himself, but because behind Trump is a ruling class that has long tried to divide the working class, pitting one part against the other. And the Democrats have played that game as often as the Republicans: divide in order to rule.

This overheated election campaign presents us with the spectacle of two parties competing with each other, both of which are defenders of big business, of the banks, of big property owners and financial speculators.

The only ones not represented in this electoral farce, the ones who will have no voice are working people – that is, the big majority of the population. Voting for either of these two parties simply means we give a stamp of approval to our class enemies.

The big issue this election year, like so many years before, is that the working class does not have a party of its own. We need our own party, a working class party that will be built by all parts of our class: Black, White, Latino and immigrant.

Loose Lips Sink Ships

Loose lips sink ships is an American English idiom meaning “beware of unguarded talk”.

Quite arguably one of the most famous and effective propaganda posters, “Loose Lips Might Sink Ships” links sharing war secrets with the loss of American life and attacks on the Navy. This slogan, created by the War Advertising Council, quite literally meant that citizens should avoid talking about ship movements, destinations and deployments because that information could easily be intercepted by the enemy at a grave cost. This propaganda poster is a prime example of how a simple, clear and memorable slogan can convey the severity of an issue and influence public behavior.

In an interview Donald Trump did with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday morning, in which Hewitt attempted multiple times to get Trump to say he was being metaphorical or hyperbolic, Trump repeatedly refused — and insisted he really meant Obama was a founder of ISIS.

Hewitt prodded Trump, suggesting the GOP nominee meant that Obama “created the vacuum, he lost the peace,” and was not to be taken literally. But Trump objected.

“No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton,” Trump said.

Hewitt tried again, saying: “But he’s not sympathetic to them. He hates them. He’s trying to kill them.”

“I don’t care,” Trump replied. “He was the founder. His, the way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding of ISIS, okay?”

Today, Friday, Trump attempted to walk back tweeting “”Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) “the founder” of ISIS, & MVP. THEY DON’T GET SARCASM?”

Did Hewitt take Trump’s words as sarcasm? I don’t think so. Hewitt is a very serious guy. He made every effort to obtain a clarification from Trump.

As president would he be threatening sanctions, tariff imposition, or war and then say “Oh, I was joking” or “That was sarcasm. I really didn’t mean what I said.”

You want this man as commander-in-chief of the United States?

Deciding Who would be the Worst of the Candidates for President

My family says I am obsessed with the campaign for president. I admit they are correct. I want a president who really can lead a unified nation. That is not the situation today. Sadly Barack Obama’s speech about the United States: “there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America there’s the United States of America.” did not enable him to create his dream. Instead there has been gridlock for most of his presidency.

Consequently Hillary Clinton, who says she supports most of the Obama presidency, is not a choice America wants to make. Additionally she continues to avoid telling the truth about Benghazi, the Clinton Global Initiative, and her email carelessness.

The problem is that Donald Trump is so extreme in his ideas and lacks the experience in government that is needed makes Clinton look like the better choice in November.

 The Muslim ban, the David Duke denial, the “Mexican” judge flap, the draft dodger denigrating John McCain’s military service, the son of privilege attacking an immigrant Gold Star mother and the constant revisionism and lying about past political positions taken are but a few of the lowlights that have punctuated Donald Trump’s chaotic chase for the presidency.” Joe Scarborough

Trump:

  1. Said he would considering withdrawing from NATO and other similar agreements such as our promise to help Japan and South Korea in the event of an attack.
  2. Suggested that nuclear weapons in the hands of more countries would be a good thing.
  3. Said he might abrogate many of the trade pacts that the United States has negotiated.
  4. Said he would stop Muslims entering the country from any country with an Islamic terrorist problem.
  5. Suggested that libel laws be changed that would enable him to sue the media.
  6. Will lower the income taxes for the wealthy and end inheritance taxes.
  7. Deport all illegal aliens.
  8. Willing to invite Russia to hack Clinton email.
  9. Suggested the use of guns to protect 2nd Amendment rights.
  10. Said there is no drought in California.

Personally I cannot support either of these candidates for president. Unless one of them offers some new wise words to justify my vote, I will be supporting a third party candidate. You should too!

Is Donald Trump a serious candidate for president of the United States?

When Peggy Noonan thinks the GOP candidate is crazy it really is time for Republicans to re-think their support for the unhinged Donald Trump.

At a CNN Libertarian Party town hall hosted by Anderson Cooper on Wednesday (August 3), Bill Weld outright mocked Trump — saying he has “a screw loose.”

Charles Krauthammer in his latest column: “It’s that he can’t help himself. His governing rule in life is to strike back when attacked, disrespected or even slighted. To understand Trump, you have to grasp the General Theory: He judges every action, every pronouncement, every person by a single criterion — whether or not it/he is “nice” to Trump.” Krauthammer’s contentions do support the screw loose contention of Bill Weld.

 David Axelrod said that if Donald Trump were trying to lose this election, he would not behave any differently than he has in the last few days.Source: CNN

There have been more than a few commentaries suggesting that Trump really does not want the presidency and is intentionally saying things that would make him unacceptable to most Americans. Of course there is also his own contention that the elections are rigged, If that was a true “fact” it would give him a way to say he can’t win and rather than going through the humiliation of a loss he has decided to withdraw from the campaign.

The Libertarian ticket is looking more appealing by the day. With 94 more days until election day we all have plenty of time to change our minds multiple times.