Donald Doesn’t . . . November 2, 2016 Pay taxes — free rides off yours. Give to charity — yet shows up to take credit! Release his returns (and no, his 2015 return can’t possibly be under audit; not that it would matter if it were). Tell the truth. He will “absolutely” release his returns (didn’t); saw thousands of Muslims cheering (didn’t); had foolproof plan to defeat ISIS (didn’t); sent birther investigators to Hawaii (didn’t) and “can’t believe what they’re finding” (nothing); climate change is a hoax (isn’t) and he never said that it was (did). There’s so much more. . . he tells 71 lies per hour (and has become party to a new legal action over the last 30 years at the rate of more than one every three days, including weekends and holidays) . . . but perhaps best of all, if you had to pick, is his repeated assertion that “no one” has more respect for women than he. OK? Meanwhile, not one of the 45,000 Hillary emails thus far examined (including 15,000 discovered elsewhere) contained a Secret or Top Secret communication. Not one. All the Secret and Top Secret emails were handled properly on separate government servers in secure facilities. Three did have little “c’s” (for confidential) buried in the text . . . so let’s hand over leadership of the world – and the nuclear codes — to “a national disgrace” (Colin Powell’s words) so unprecedentedly unqualified that not a single editorial board in the country, save the National Enquirer, has endorsed him. The last Clinton Administration brought us 23 million new jobs, rising prosperity at all levels, a budget surplus, and not a single American killed in combat. This Clinton is considered by some to be even smarter – and would indisputably be entering office with vastly more experience at home and abroad. So compelling is the case not to vote for Trump — or the libertarian ticket of Gary Johnson/Bill Weld — that even one of Hillary’s opponents makes it. Here is Bill Weld on Rachel Maddow last night: “I fear for the country if Mr. Trump should be elected. It’s a candidacy without any parallel that I can recall. It’s content-free and very much given to stirring up envy and resentment and even hatred. And I think it would be a threat to the conduct of our foreign policy and our position in the world at large.” He calls Trump unstable and incapable of a competent presidency. Do you hear that, Johnson/Weld voters? Even Gary Johnson’s running mate wants you to vote for Hillary if you live in a battleground state. Sound the alarm, boys and girls. We have six days to keep our country from going off a cliff. Click here to vote, here to volunteer, here to contribute.
The Demagogue November 1, 2016November 1, 2016 I listened to one of Trump’s speeches broadcast in full on MSNBC Saturday. Powerful! His oratory “stirs hatred and feeds self-vindication, and whether on paper it bears inspection for consistency, logic or soundness is immaterial.” For example: He says we have absolutely no idea who is coming in from Syria. That “60 Minutes” has shown this to be utterly false is immaterial. For example: He says Hillary will raise your taxes. That she won’t — unless you make more than $250,000 a year — is immaterial. For example: He promises the largest tax cut in history even as he decries our $20 trillion debt. That cutting taxes for the rich is inconsistent with curbing deficits — as George W. Bush so painfully proved in a real-world test — is immaterial. (That his heirs would get a $4 billion tax break, if his net worth is really $10 billion, goes unmentioned.) For example: He says he’ll bring back millions of high-paying jobs from China and Mexico. That this defies logic — because these are no longer high-paying jobs, they pay a dollar an hour, and if the Chinese and Mexicans don’t do them for us they’ll do them for our competitors and consumers will buy their products instead of ours — is immaterial. For example: He says “believe me” and “100 percent” and “if you want to know the truth” — yet rarely tells it. That he said he would “absolutely” release his tax returns if he ran but hasn’t; that he would release them if they weren’t under audit when, in fact, his 2015 return can’t possibly have yet been selected for audit — it’s all immaterial. And the list goes on. And on. He spews falsehood after falsehood, but has learned he could “go into the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot people” and his supporters would stand firmly behind him. Donald Trump is the wrong answer to the right question. Tens of millions of us are right to be frustrated and angry. But it’s not “the government” that should be blamed, it’s the Republicans who’ve determinedly prevented it from confronting our problems. You want change? You want to break the gridlock? Just give us two years. Two years of a Democratic Congress and we’ll put Americans to work revitalizing our infrastructure – the Republicans blocked that. We’ll boost the economy and cut government subsidies by hiking the minimum wage – the Republicans blocked that. We’ll let you refinance your federal student loans at today’s low rates – the Republicans blocked that. We’ll enact the comprehensive immigration reform Marco Rubio crafted that passed the Senate 68-32 and that economists say would boost the economy – the Republicans blocked that. Just give us two years to get America really rocking! Just give us two years. By the way — that highlighted quote I led off with? As regular readers of this column will recognize, it comes from the introduction to a 1941 book of Hitler’s speeches Trump long kept by his bedside. It continues: To use constantly and untiringly the same arguments, and to pound into the heads of his listeners the same formulas, is part of Hitler’s oratorical technique. . . . [He] is past master at throwing up verbal smoke screens . . . He knows equally well the effectiveness of massive oratorical assaults that shake the nerves of his victims or opponents . . . he knows how to give pledges that will be broken later . . . he uses insults and lies in the same manner as his generals use Stuka planes and tanks to break through the respectable but often weak front of his adversaries. . . . His crudity frequently borders on downright vulgarity. Click here to vote, here to volunteer, here to contribute.