Posted on

A third-party vote this year is essentially a vote for Trump

This has been a very unusual presidential election period, to say the very least.

We have the two most disliked major party candidates in recent history and one of those candidates is kind of nuts. The kind who is nuts. There are two so-called “third-party” candidates.

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate, was a two-time governor of New Mexico. Green Party candidate Jill Stein is a habitual also-ran candidate who failed in bids for Congress, Massachusetts governor, Massachusetts House and for the commonwealth’s Secretary. Stein won only half of one percent of the votes in the 2012 election for president.

Since the presidential campaigns largely developed into two-party ones, many of the third party candidates largely ran to advance certain political beliefs and points of view. Some candidates actually thought they could win. Those campaigns are filed in history under “D” for delusional.

Today’s deep-down political narrative is not the the early morning Tweet-orgy from Donald Trump, who took to cyberspace to whine about the former Miss Universe whom he supposedly called her Miss Piggy, as well an ethnic slur. No, that narrative is the growing number of newspaper editorial boards that are making history by endorsing Hillary Clinton, or just making a stand against Trump.

Today, the nationwide USA Today released its first voting recommendation in its more than three-decades history. The Gannett publication noted its editorial board unanimous consensus that Trump was not fit for the presidency.

 “From the day he declared his candidacy 15 months ago through this week’s first presidential debate, Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he lacks the temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents,” the editorial stated.

The publication stopped short of recommending a presidential candidate, a move that many journalists, former journalists and semi-former journalists such as myself see as a lily-livered exercise.

More politicians and publications favoring Hillary Clinton for president have been out today on the stump telling the electorate that a vote for a third party candidate is essentially a vote for Trump.

Libertarian candidate Johnson and his Green Party counterpart have some decent attributes that I find agreeable.

Johnson’s “Allepo Moments” have become a running joke except to those of us getting up there in age whose every little forgetfulness is a concern.

Likewise, Stein has some positive ideas with which I agree. But she has others I cannot get behind.

And the major problems I have with the third-party candidates — Oh, I also think Libertarian VP candidate Bill Weld was a good choice — is they have an  ice cube’s chance in hell in making any substantial showing.

I have previously mentioned here that I fear a 1998-like election rerun in which the outcome will have an extension such as Gore v. Bush. I hope not. I hope with all I can hope with and hope a little more. Because I am ready to get this election in our rear-view mirror. Unfortunately for me, the driver’s side-door mirror is my favored mirror and it got shattered yesterday when my little truck sideswiped a big truck. I’m just saying.

Posted on

Here now …

I spent two hours crafting today’s post. I couldn’t finish it. What a lazy old man I have become. Of course, my job is no longer one of deadline writing. I was good at that. I don’t do it any longer. But, I can put off today what I cannot do tomorrow. Okay doke?

Posted on

Vet this, Mr. GOP presidential candidate!

Here is something to think about: The Republican presidential candidate, whose name I will not name because he already gets enough free print, says he will be tough on terrorism.

He says he will make sure those who come from places where terror is a problem receive “extreme vetting” before these immigrants are allowed to enter the United States. Whatever the term “extreme vetting” might mean. The term sounds like “extreme colonoscopy.” I mean, how extreme can a colonoscopy be. I am just being rhetorical here. Please don’t tell me.

The GOP candidate had, during his primary campaign, said that he would ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. “until our country’s representatives can find out what the hell is going on.”

But the latest terror attacks, I suppose that is what they are, seem to have been committed by American citizens. So how will this orange-colored fool tackle these problems, meaning how would vetting of citizens — presumably Muslim but people of other hues than white — not orange — be handled under this maniac?

Given the off-the-chart radical right-wing crap the Republican nominee said to beat his primary foes, his earlier statements should be as examined as closely as his recent one. What a piece of work this candidate is, this nominee from the “Party of Lincoln.”

Although I have grown way too tired during this campaign, it will be interesting to watch the first Presidential Debate next week. That is, whatever incarnation of this Republican candidate will we see, maniacal bully or toned-down demagogue?. In fact, whether the GOP candidate even shows up at all will be worth watching.

Posted on

Hillary apologize? What about the orangutan apologizing?

The GOP candidate for president, whose name I will not mention, wants an apology from Hillary Clinton for saying half of his supporters were a “basket of deplorables” during a weekend fund-raisers, CNN reports.

Well, she was calling ’em like she sees ’em. But not half.

But wait. For the big orange orangutan’s apologies (I am not running for president), the line for that, begins down the road.

Did the Republican candidate apologize for:

  • Mocking disabled NY Times reporter Serge F. Kovaleski?
  • Calling Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas?”**
  • Calling the federal judge in the candidate’s alleged fraudulent university a “Mexican?”
  • For calling Hillary Clinton “Lying Hillary?”
  • Saying Ted Cruz’ father was involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination?
  • Calling Ted Cruz “Lying Ted?”
  • Calling Marco Rubio “Little Marco?”

Oh, one could go on and on and on …

**The only thing that could have been worse would be for the candidate to follow that remark by repeatedly tapping his mouth with his hand, dancing around, and uttering “Whooop-whoop-whoop-whoop.”

Posted on

GOP candidate and Putin sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G …

Well, the GOP presidential candidate managed to draw the ire of one of the most editorially conservative newspapers in the United States. The day after its editorial dissed the GOP-candidate, The Dallas Morning News, today, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. This is the first time in 75 years that the News endorsed a Democrat.

The Republican candidate also flip-flopped on some outrageous utterings he made back during the primary elections. He said today that, upon entering office, he will give the Joint Chiefs of Staff 30 days to come up with a plan to defeat ISIS. As one TV general said this morning: “That is what (the generals) have been doing for the last eight years.”

Anyone following the Republican presidential campaign might remember the candidate saying “I know more about ISIS than the generals do.”

Another mouth-shooting-off memory of this candidate is when he said that he had a plan to defeat ISIS, although it was secret, as he wants to keep the enemy guessing.

The candidate, whom I refuse to name due to his previous media over-exposure, also threw out the traditional Republican red meat. He wants to increase the military, build more ships, and more fighter planes. In other words, he wants to toss more money to the military-industrial complex that President and former 5-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the nation of before leaving the presidency.

That candidate may have sounded “more presidential” during much of his bullshit speech this morning. He still used words to insult Clinton and President Obama.

In looking into the defense industry pandering today, the candidate tosses aside the reality of modern warfare, nasty as it is.

Look throughout history. Once a war is done and won (that not always being the case) a military establishment shrinks. That is the nature of wars and the economy.

People who weren’t born before WWII and do not study history, are doomed to repeat it. But those who don’t study history should do so. There are those who think the nation was just asleep at the switch in 1941 Pearl Harbor. But, as was the case leading up to the previous “war to end all wars,” the U.S. was about the last nation to get involved.

My parents and other elders talked of the great 1940 Army Maneuvers, a.k.a. the “Louisiana Maneuvers,” held in western Louisiana and across the border in the East Texas Pineywoods. Stories abound of George Patton, Omar Bradley and even Eisenhower — setting up commands in the local towns. About 400,000 soldiers participated and some two dozen soldiers died in the exercise, most from drowning in the Sabine River between Texas and Louisiana.

Look, even my four years of Navy active duty will attest to the fact that the military never stops preparing for war. The U.S. military has reserve and National Guard troops who have all been involved in our perpetual war in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is difficult to see these days where the active service members begin and the reserve and Guard, end.

The GOP candidate is a military faker and he thinks his private military school is similar to military service. Real military service was not even a thought with his deferments during Vietnam. None of his offspring, despite their love of guns, served in the military.

Today there was news of a Russian fighter jet making what was described by U.S. defense officials as an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept of a U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare plane. This is nothing new. Such games have been played since we were in the “Cold War.” I even remember our destroyer being tailed by a Soviet freighter while we headed to Subic Bay, only for our ship to turn around and follow the USSR ship for awhile.

The problem is that today, these ships and planes are a whole lot faster and powerful. One of these days a Russian plane or an Iranian patrol boat or North Korean, whatever, will screw with the wrong ship or plane on the wrong day. Someone needs to be steady at the ship of state to ensure such things do not happen. Also,  that the GOP candidate seems to continually play up his bro-mance with Russian President Vladimir Putin is concerning. If something makes us uncomfortable about the GOP candidate, it should be this relationship with Putin.

Perhaps the candidate has in his IRS return that he refuses to release some actual financial link with Putin. But who knows, the GOP candidate is the first since Richard Nixon to not release his tax returns..