Some Unanswered Questions From The NABJ Convention

Since Trumpie had to leave--abruptly and in a big hurry, with not even enough time to raise his tiny fist and shout "Fight!" (probably because his hamburger was getting cold in the Green Room), there were a number of questions that the NABJ folks never got the chance to ask him. 

As if by magic, I happen to have some of them:

"A lot of people are saying that you act like a lapdog to Putin, Xi, in fact any dictator who crosses your path. Why do you suppose that is?"

"Is there anything, anything at all, that you won't lie about?"

"In 2017, you had both houses of Congress, and yet the only thing you got done was a big tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. Can we expect more of the same if you're re-elected?"

"As a follow up, since you don't really take any interest in governing, possibly because it cuts into the time you have for grifting, and are led around by the nose by Leonard Leo and the Heritage Foundation, do you regret that they had you name the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade--despite lying in their confirmation hearings that they wouldn't--and unleashed a huge blow back from women who don't think of themselves as strictly breeding stock?"

"Presidents are judged by their decisions. Your first decision this election was to pick J.D. Vance as your running mate. How's that working out for you?"

"Do you really believe, in 2024, that there are enough racists in the U.S. to carry you to victory in November?"

"Do you think it was a good idea to come to a room full of Black people and attempt to slander a Black woman?"

"Since the Project 2025 was written by people who wholeheartedly support you, including some who served in your administration, how can you, with a straight face, say that you've never heard of it and have no idea what's in it?"

"You've been found guilty of sexual assault in a civil court. You've publicly lusted for your eldest daughter. Your name pops up all over the Jeffrey Epstein documents. And you allegedly raped at least one minor--and then threatened her into silence. Care to comment?"

"Seriously, is there anything you won't lie about?"

See? You Piss Off The Billionaires And Bad Stuff Happens To You

So...good bye to Joe and hello to Kamala.

The reality of our politics at this particular moment is that MONEY is much more important than mere competence. In fact, money is much more important than ANYTHING.

This probably wasn't what the Founders had in mind, but Citizens United has made it the one constancy in American politics.

You need a lot of dough to run for, well, anything.

And who has a lot of dough? Billionaires have a lot of dough.

Sure, those 5 and 10 dollar donations from "the little people'" are cute. Touching even. But come on!

So the question is "how do you appeal to billionaires?"

Why, you promise them that you'll cut their already relatively insignificant taxes.

It's just that easy! 

On the other hand, if you talk about raising their taxes, if you fund the IRS to look for wealthy tax cheats, if you encourage strong unions, if you hint that maybe the welfare of the rest of our citizens is more important than the welfare of the Forbes 500, then the billionaire class gets a sad. A BIG SAD.

It certainly isn't a coincidence that almost all of our major media corporations are controlled by very wealthy Trump supporters. If that isn't obvious after the constant harping on President Biden's age, and his "disastrous" debate showing, and his various verbal stumbles, coupled with their complete avoidance of Trump's descent into something that looks very much like dementia and a serious discussion of ALL of his crimes, foreign and domestic, then you really should start to pay a little attention as our democracy slowly slips away.

Throw in those Silicon Valley Libertarian Bros and their ridiculous belief that they are all self made men who benefited not at all from any government help, and you have a recipe for the mess we find ourselves in.

Here's the deal: if the billionaires get their wish, which is quite apparently another Trump administration, all the bad that will happen to the rest of us Will Not Affect Them In The Least. They don't need Social Security, they don't need Medicare/Medicaid, their wives, daughters, girlfriends, and mistresses will still have access to abortions and birth control, the water and air they use will still be clean, they secretly (sometimes not so secretly) admire dictators, so they're cool with whatever Putin does, a competent federal government only gets in their way, so the less of that the better, and perhaps most importantly, the supply of cheap, desperate labor will be greatly increased.

In November vote like your life depends on it. Because it may.

Compare And Contrast The Candidates

This isn't nearly as hard as some people insist on making it, so here goes:

Joe Biden: well, he is old. And he does stutter from time to time.

Donald J. Trump: rapist. traitor. pathological liar. traitor. tax cheat. traitor. adulterer. traitor. incompetent businessman as evidenced by all those bankruptcies and all of those failed businesses. traitor. fraud. traitor. sexual predator--including, allegedly, with very young girls. traitor. seemingly slipping into some form of dementia as evidenced by his every public utterance. traitor. lap dog to Putin. Did I mention that he's a traitor?

Biden, despite having to work around shit stains like Mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson, faux Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, mainstream Media that doesn't care what happens to democracy as long as they have a close "horse race" to blather about, and a Supreme Court overrun with medieval Corporate Whore Catholics, has managed to get passed more positive legislation than any President since FDR. But no tax cuts for the rich, so...

And Trump? Well, to be fair, Trump did manage to squeeze 3, count 'em 3, more turds onto the Supreme Court, and a tax cut that almost entirely benefits the richest American. Oh yeah, let's not forget that his son-in-law walked away with 2 billion dollars of Saudi money.

Hmm.  That's a tough choice.