Monthly Archives: October 2024

national news

Electoral College … explained

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A social media “friend” asked me to explain the Electoral College, so that is what I will try to do.

You ready? Here goes.

The Electoral College comprises 538 votes, the number of people elected to the US House and Senate. The electors aren’t the actual senators and reps, but they are chosen to cast votes for president.

Each state has electors equal to the number of senators and reps who represent that state in Congress. Texas has 40 electoral votes, which equals the state’s 38 House members and two senators.

We go to the polls on Election Day and whoever wins that state’s electoral votes is entitled to garnering the state’s electoral votes. Except that the electors aren’t bound to follow the will of the voters. Occasionally, we see electors casting their presidential vote for someone other than the candidate who fielded the most votes on Election Day.

Ideally, what is supposed to happen is that the candidate with the most votes wins the most Electoral College votes, which are tabulated and ratified every Jan. 6, two weeks before the president is inaugurated. So … the infamous assault on the Capitol in 2021 occurred during a “normal” transition of power.

Joe Biden won the 2020 election with 306 electoral votes compared to the 232 compiled by Donald Trump. The winner needs to earn 270 electoral votes to win the election.

I won’t venture too far into the weeds to explain why the founders set it up this way, other than to presume they intended to spread the power among all the states. It’s interesting, therefore, to realize that the “battleground states” where Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump are fighting for votes are not among largest states. Texas, New York, California and Florida are not considered battlegrounds; that title belongs to Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina … and you can throw in Arizona and Nevada as well.

Hope that explains it. Now I’ll have to shake my noggin to clear out the fog I just developed trying to make a bit of sense of it all.

national news, political news

Shut up, Mr. President

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I have a simple, straightforward and admittedly painful demand to make of President Biden.

Shut … up, Mr. President. The 2024 election no longer is your fight, as you handed the Democratic Party banner over to VP Kamala Harris.

Biden decided to weigh in with a comment on the MAGA moron who called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage floating in the ocean.” The idiot made that remark while speaking to a rally at Madison Square Garden.

However, President Biden just couldn’t keep his trap shut. He said the “only garbage I see are Trump supporters.” Do you recall Hillary Clinton’s infamous “deplorables” comment describing Trumpkins pulling for the GOP nominee in the 2016 contest?

Biden’s gratuitous cheap shot reminded me immediately of another “deplorables” moment. Biden seemingly forgot one of the cardinal rules of politics: When the other side makes a hideous error, just let ’em stew in their own juices … and allow the political gods take care of matters.

Mr. President, you aren’t in this fight. Sit down and shut the hell up!

national news, political news

October surprise explodes!

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You know, it’s not every day when we get t witness an “October surprise” explode in the face of a political candidate seeking an entirely different reaction.

Republican nominee for POTUS, Donald Trump, sought to stage a rally in Madison Square Garden. His intent, I am left to presume, was to gin up support for his cause.

It did not work!

The rally instead has mobilized a key voting bloc to oppose Trump’s election bid. It was a horrifying display of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, sexism … you name it.

We’re now hearing from Puerto Rico and other Latino leaders declare categorically that they cannot possibly vote for Trump based on the trash tossed out from the MSG podium over the weekend.

What momentum Trump might have thought he had going into the final week of his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris has been halted. Indeed, Harris appears to be reversing the tide … in her favor!

The so-called “joke” about Puerto Rico being an “island of garbage floating in the ocean” was too much for the millions of Americans of Puerto Rican descent.

Oh, and Trump, using his tired dodge about “not knowing anything” about the tirade, is paying a huge political price for the dipshit’s comments made on Trump’s behalf.

None of us should be surprised at what we heard at the MSG encounter. It is the kind of attitude and invective we have heard from Trump since the moment he entered political life in June 2015.

However, for it to be thrust on us at this stage of a political campaign on the candidacy of a man who has no business even running for this noble office.

national news

Island of garbage? Seriously?

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I cannot recall the name of the so-called MAGA comedian who spoke over the weekend at that hate rally in Madison Square Garden.

I do recall what he said. He called Puerto an “island of garbage floating in the sea.” Dude was one of several pro-Donald Trump who took the mic at MSG to sing the praises of the cult leader.

I want to remind y’all of something. Residents of Puerto Rico are just as American as I am, as you are … and as the clown who denigrated them. They vote, too.

The island is home to about 4 million residents, roughly half of whom are eligible to vote. I do believe that Trump, the GOP nominee for president, can kiss most of those votes good bye.

We cannot count Puerto Rico as part of the Electoral College. The insult hurled at them on the island, though, well could splash ashore on any of the 50 states where Americans of Puerto Rican descent live.

I’m just sayin’ …

media news, national news, political news

Coverage is maddening, confusing

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The horse-race coverage of the 2024 campaign for the U.S. presidency carries many adjectives, none of which that come to mind are positive.

It is confusing, maddening, contradictory, chaotic.

I see headlines on the news services I read each day that tell me “Harris surges with new poll,” and then I see where “Trump is looking at a blowout win.” I am careful, of course, to check the source of these “news” items. Leftie organizations generally will tout Harris successes, while rightie outlets sing the praises of Trump’s efforts.

Even the mainstream outlets send confusing messages hither and yon, confusing the daylights out of folks like me.

All of this, I suppose, is to confirm that the contest is a dead heat. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump well might cross the finish line on Nov. 5 shoulder to shoulder.

Or … there’s a hidden vote out there that is waiting to awaken and put one of these candidates into the Oval Office. One theory believes that the hidden mass of voters comprises suburban women who want to protect their reproductive rights but who have been reluctant to tell pollsters of their desire. Another theory suggests another wave of Americans who aren’t yet ready to elect a woman as POTUS.

I’ll go with the former theory. That’s my hope … but you knew that.

Uncategorized

So long, political tradition

Political tradition has been tossed angrily into the crapper and, yes, this is a “both sides do it” argument.

I am going to discuss briefly one of those tradition. It’s the one in which the loser of the race places the call to the winner to concede and to pledge support for the new president’s massive undertaking.

Ten days from Election Day and we have heard some of the nastiest campaign stump rhetoric I’ve ever heard.

Who’s to blame for discarding this tradition? Why, it’s Donald John Trump, of course!

He called the 2020 election rigged. He didn’t attend President Biden’s inaugural. He has been steamed ever since at losing the Electoral College and the popular vote by 7 million ballots.

The stump-speech volume in 2024 has been even more harsh. Kamala Harris accuses Trump of being a fascist, echoing opinions expressed by many of Trump’s key military and national security advisers.

For his part, Trump calls Harris a dim bulb, “a nasty person,” and “the worst vice president in history.”

Obviously, one of these people is going to win. Will the loser be able to suck it up long enough to call the winner and resume the traditional concession call?

If Harris is the winner, don’t think for a moment that Trump will concede anything. If hell freezes over and Trump wins, I wouldn’t bet on Harris making the call, either.

media news

Profiles in cowardice!

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John F. Kennedy is doing somersaults in his grave at Arlington National Cemetery, given the news that has come out this week about the Washington Post.

The Post has declared that it will not issue an endorsement in this year’s presidential election. That’s right, the newspaper that once exposed the Watergate scandal to the world and which has prided itself on providing editorial page leadership on key issues and the people who make policy decisions has decided to sit this election out.

JFK, who wrote “Profiles in Courage” — and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his work — would be a profoundly unhappy man.

The Post has just become a poster child for a profile in cowardice.

The Post isn’t alone. The New York Times is turning its back on this formerly essential duty that print journalists used to cherish. And … I am sure that there are many others out there that have been cowed by the blathering of Donald Trump and other blowhards who have persuaded millions of gullible Americans that the free press is the “enemy of the people.”

It isn’t. A free press keeps its eye on those who make policy decisions for all Americans. It serves as a watchdog on the alert for corruption. It also helps provide leadership in recommending who it believes is best suited to seize the reins of power.

No one really believes editorial endorsements determine electoral outcomes these days … if they ever have. What they do is put newspapers’ thoughts on the record and they leaven the discourse.

This election in particular cries out for leadership and for leading newspaper editorials to forgo that responsibility is an act of cowardice.

military news

Shop for a saddle, dude

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A former colleague of mine had a number of quips he was fond of pulling out when the opportunity presented itself.

One of them was: If someone calls you an ass, hey, no worries. If two or more call you an ass, then you need to start shopping for a saddle.

So it should be for Donald Trump to start saddling up, as several distinguished military men have called him a “fascist.” They have referred to him as a man who wants to serve not as president of the USA, but as a dictator!

Retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis, retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, retired Admiral James Stavridis, retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster all speak in unison.

Donald Trump is unfit to serve as commander in chief.

That is their message. Many of them have worked directly for Trump during his 2017-2021 term as POTUS. Gens. Kelly, Mattis, Milley and McMaster all have seen him up close and personally. They have seen him demonstrate his unfathomable distaste for men and women who serve in uniform. John Kelly, a Gold Star dad, actually heard Trump refer to those who die for their country as “losers.”

They did not like what they saw. And these men of honor have spoken out on millions of Americans’ behalf.

They have performed one more stellar act of public service.

national news

Pollster surrenders

So, you may want to know: How close is the Kamala Harris-Donald Trump race for the presidency?

It is so close — drum roll! — that Nate Silver, a leading statistician who boasts an astonishingly accurate record at predicting these things, says he’s no longer going to try to predict who becomes the next president.

Silver uses all sorts of statistical probabilities to predict who wins these races. He’s been accurate — a lot. His polling firm, 538, is considered one of the premier polling outfits in the world.

This year he’s waving the white flag. He cannot predict who will be up on Election Day. So he won’t even try. He’s out of the game.

Silver does suggest that the contest might not end up as close as so many of us believe. He said there’s enough uncertainty out there on how Harris or Trump voters will react when they enter the polling booth that one of them could win going away.

I am going to stick to the photo-finish so many are predicting. At least for now.

I’m going to gnaw on my fingernails for the next few days and hope for all I can that Americans are going to wise up to what they could get if this election ends with the wrong person winning.

Let’s elect Vice President Kamala Harris to the top job … shall we?

military news

Dad would be enraged!

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Pete Kanelis is my favorite veteran … but you know that already about him.

He was my dad. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy within hours after hearing that our forces had been attacked at Pearl Harbor and, by God, he wanted to get into the fight of his life immediately.

I now am going to put words in Dad’s mouth.

He would be enraged at what we are learning about what Donald Trump has said about Adolf Hitler, about veterans, about prisoners of war, about those who were wounded — and killed — in action.

The revelations about the Republican presidential nominee’s hideous assertions come from flag officers who served in Trump’s administration. Marine Gen. John Kelly has said Trump wanted generals like those who served Adolf Hitler. Army Gen. Mark Milley has called Trump “fascist to the core.”

Trump’s response has been to denigrate these two patriots, men who have fought with valor. Gen. Kelly is a Gold Star father whose son died in combat in Afghanistan … and who heard Trump refer to KIAs as “losers.”

This latest battering of Trump is getting worldwide coverage as we enter the final two weeks of this campaign. It damn sure should get it.

Dad was not a particularly scholarly man. He wasn’t a deep thinker. However, he was the purest patriot I’ve ever seen. That he traveled to downtown Portland, Ore., on the day our forces were attacked to get into a fight to defend our nation, tells me everything I need to know about the love he had for this great nation.

And this veteran, who faced down Hitler’s forces in combat would be enraged beyond all measure at what a tinhorn GOP politician said about history’s most despicable tyrant.

I would share Dad’s rage.  To think that Donald Trump would want to take command of the world’s greatest military simply makes my blood boil. I only can imagine what my favorite veteran would be thinking today.