Trump

I haven't been posting much lately.  The first reason is that we were on our annual family vacation.  It's so great getting the whole family together, particularly watching the cousins reconnect.  We usually go to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina but this year decided to try something different and went to Sunriver, Oregon.  It was great!  We rented a big house and had great activities every day including biking, hiking, rafting and floating.  I highly recommend it if you have a chance to visit.

The other reason I've not posted much except for a few funny and interesting photos is that just when I feel like I've got a handle on the political goings on, something occurs to blow it up.  The conventions were crazy.  The Republicans are in clear disarray.  It was the Trump and kids show.  Not that they did bad, but it was like no other convention I've seen.  That so many died in the wool Republicans stayed away was pretty astonishing.  And that Trump has continued on as strong as he has in the face of the opposition in his own party is surprising, to say the least.  Ted Cruz came off looking pretty bad.  I hope he's done in politics but I fear that is not the case.  I was also surprised and impressed at the control that the Cleveland Police and law enforcement, in general, had at the convention site.  There were lots of predictions of violence that just didn't materialize.  

The Dems almost imploded on the first day.  Bernie totally caved.  I mean, he deserted his supporters faster than anyone could predict.  I don't know what he got, but I hope it was something for him to turn tail and kowtow to the Clinton's.  I was pretty surprised and I'm sure there were many, many of his supporters who were devastated.  Don't know if they'll stay home in Nov, but it's got to be a big problem.  And then there was the little problem of the DNC being outed on favoring Hillary.  A bunch of their emails was released and it clearly shows favoritism.  It even resulted in the resignation of Debby Wasserman-Shultz, the DNC Chairman, and several others.  But bizarrely, even this didn't get Bernie riled up.  And even more bizarrely, she was hired by Hillary as a national chairperson of her campaign.  Weird!  One of the things I noticed at the Dem convention was all the diversity.  It was to the point that it seemed just too staged.  It's obvious that Hillary has moved way left and her strategy is to win by promising people free stuff, but the cavalcade of whiners and blamers was pretty overwhelming. I admit that I couldn't stomach watching Obama's or Hillary's speech.   I would have been banging my head against the wall if I did that.  So I decided to maintain some sanity and just not watch.  I did watch Bubba because he's always a good show.  There is no denying his capability as a politician.  That he could deliver a long speech about her being the "best agent of change" he's ever known when she's essentially a third Obama term was pretty masterful.  I'm sure he could get elected easily of he could run.  

Since the conventions, things have gotten pretty strange.  Trump has opened his mouth and inserted his foot several times.  He's been unscripted and gone off message over and over again.  Some of the stuff he says are bad and misinterpreted jokes.  Some are legitimate responses to attacks but don't fly well in a general election.  He seemed to attack a Gold Star family but it's been proven that there was a nefarious motivation by the family.  In short, he's been like a bull in a china shop.  If he would focus on the economy, national security, and immigration while drawing sharp differences with Hillary, he could win.  But he doesn't seem to be able to do that.  Hillary remains a terrible candidate and campaigner.  That people like her is just beyond me.  Hillary's email troubles continue.  I think it's going to be like a slow drip over the next three months.  For guys like me, it's more grist for the mill.  I couldn't in a million years vote for her.  Her dishonesty, corruption, and lying are just too much.  And now we're seeing emails about collusion between the State Dept and the Clinton Foundation.  Surprise, surprise.  And now her physical capability is being called into question.  It will not end.

So it's a mess.  But here's the biggest and most disappointing thing, at least to me.  I honestly didn't ever think that I'd see such blatantly biased reporting in our country.  For what seems like a majority of the media, and I include supposedly neutral reporters, there is no impartiality.  They seem to be like sharks in a feeding frenzy when it comes to Trump.  Every little thing, every misspoken word, every offhand comment is interpreted in a negative light.  And the problem is that so much of our population is so used to believing what they are told  by these guys, that the false narrative is not recognized as false.  So they blindly go along repeating outlandish stories and never check the facts.  The false narrative about Trump doesn't seem to be one thing and then the other.  Rather it seems to be multiplicative.  Things pile on top of each other.  The other thing that is jaw tightening is the holier than thou attitude of some of these media types.  That they are the authority.  That they know better than the folks in the hinterlands.  To me they are repeating that old saying, "are you going to believe me or your own eyes and ears" and expecting the people to blindly believe them.  And the devastating thing is that so many are believing them.  

The other thing that is disappointing is what appears to be a relatively new phenomenon of blaming and shaming someone for who they support.  To be clear, I've found myself doing it.  But I've done it in my head or in conversation.  Not in violent protests against supporters.  It seems pretty unprecedented.  I guess it's because both candidates are so distasteful, untrustworthy, and unacceptable to so many that they start to feel passionate about it like never before.  But the thing is, that most people find them both as bad.  So it's a bit mysterious why the folks against Trump are so violently against him.  I guess it's because they want free stuff and he's not going to give it to them.  I was a great observation of a Trump rally over at Cdr Salamander.  You can read it here.  It's well worth the read.

I have told myself that I'm not going to post much about this mess because so many others are writing and I can't keep up, nor do I particularly want to.  I'll watch and listen and hope for the best.  But if you've been reading you know that I can't keep that vow.  I'll probably jump back in, sooner rather than later.  

I think Hillary will probably win just because of the false narrative that has built up on Trump.  That is unless there are enough folks like me who are so pissed off at the distortions that they will vote for Trump just out of spite.  The other scenario is that if enough folks vote for Gary Johnson the Libertarian, no one gets to 273 Electoral votes, and the election is thrown to the House of Representatives.  Then all bets are off.  Then maybe Paul Ryan could be persuaded to stand for election.  And he could win.  That might be the best outcome of a nightmare of an election.