New York Times Calls Trump Unfit But Misses the Larger Story

Making a point while missing the larger one.

The New York Times is out with a highly produced (perhaps over produced) editorial denouncing Donald Trump a week before he’s coronated as the Republican nominee at the GOP Convention in Milwaukee. Titled Donald Trump Is Unfit To Lead, the editorial is unequivocal and unforgiving in its damning the candidate, pointing out most of the flaws most could recite as a catechism these days. CleanShot 2024-07-11 at 08.29.30@2x.

There’s one large exception to that list of flaws. Not once in the editorial does the editorial board mention that Trump is a convicted felon running for the office of the presidency while out on bail. Call me crazy, but that does seem somewhat important.

With the focus on the candidate, the Times also completely looks away from the only reason we’re even faced with Trump still dominating our lives: that the Republican Party has either completely and cowardly surrendered to the decaying orange child rapist’s wishes hoping he’s the sign of some rapture to come, or they’ve just decided to out themselves as what they’ve always been.

There is a discussion about what the party used to stand for, but the editorial choice focuses on the candidate’s character rather than party and platform issues such as Project 2025.

Character is indeed the root of the discussion, as it always has been in most places except the pages of the New York Times. If any publication had insight into Trump’s character it would be the Times, but that’s a story constantly and consistently on their doorstep they’ve largely ignored until now. So, it’s good to see it finally have focus here. Even so, granting  a free pass to the character-less characters who’ve allowed us to reach this point after having multiple chances of preventing it the week before they convene in Milwaukee ignores the larger questions and dangers we face.

The omission is as damning as the belated slams against the candidate.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Who’s Spoofing Who In this Ron Perlman ExxonMobil Spoof?

Fun and deadly spoof. But who’s spoofing who?

Ron Perlman is the perfect voice for the oily ExxonMobil ad spokesman in this terrific spoof of an ad from YellowDot Studios. It’s one crazy spoof. 

Exxonmobil fake ad.

But then again, isn’t this just as much a spoof about us?

 Be honest. After watching this tell me there’s anything that you didn’t already know ExxonMobil, other oil companies, and politicians were doing. 

Carry on. Or as the ad says, “get off your asses and do something, you fucking peasants!”

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Aftermath: Our Frightening Future If We Don’t Work

It’s not a fantasy. It’s Trump and the MAGAts plan.

The Lincoln Project put out this ad called Aftermath. 

As the ad says, “This isn’t a fantasy. It’s Trump’s Plan. And he’s counting on you to believe it couldn’t happen.”

Believe it. Share it. 

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Sunday Morning Reading

It’s a travel day hiatus for Sunday Morning Reading

Sunday Morning Reading is on hiatus this weekend as we hit the road to return home from a visit with the grandkids.

Sunday Morning Reading will return next week.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.  You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

Clowns to the Left of Me Jokers To The Right

What a sticky mess we’re in.

Well this is a fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. The media/political party industrial complex has put us right where they want us to be. Spinning, Whirling, Scared. Confused. Befuddled. Pissed Off.

Shutterstock 1155159421.

As I watch my grandson propel himself around his surroundings this weekend with the reckless abandon of innocence, I can’t help but wonder at the wonder of it all. Watching him realize the consequences of waving an ice cream cone around in the heat of a summer night was a heartbreaking humorus lesson in beginning to see the light. The whirling and spinning only stop when gravity takes over and it all ends up a mess on the sidewalk.

Meanwhile back in the world of knowledge and supposed wisdom, it seems  those of us in the rareifed air of adulthood who know better have become unconcerned if not unmoored from the law of physics.

After Joe Biden’s interview on ABC last night it seems we’re completely at the mercy of upcoming news cycles, whether we tune in or tune out. It’s starting to feel like it’s going to be an endless summer, fall and beyond. It’s an unending episode of Lost, where confusion reigns at the expense of narrative and plot. At some point it has to end, but there doesn’t need to be an end, just an endless supply of Special Features.

Sadly, whenver this spins to an end that end that will only help the party of convicted felons and child rapists help us end it all. But that can be spun up and away too.

I’m heartsick that the Democrats have fallen into depths beyond disarray, with new depths still to be plummed apparently. I’m pissed off that what used to be the GOP is happily using this ramapaging forest fire as cover to run and hide from Project 2025, while they continue to scan for more to burn.

The world feels like it’s caught in a lyric somewhere between Tommy Roe’s Dizzy and Stealers Wheel’s Stuck in the Middle With You, with some sort of AI generated click track back beat played by a boy band wearing Supreme Court robes, pretending they understand Hip Hop.

Goodness knows when this will all fall down. But then goodness has nothing much to do with any of it.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Why I Fight

Fighting for the future.

I get asked often why I fight so fiercely about the detestable and dangerous  turn our country has taken. Yes, it’s about the larger ramifications of our country now subject to the character and whims of an elected king. Ironically in the week we celebrate our American independence from a king. It’s certainly about that. 

Selfishly though, it’s really about the future of my two gandkids. Spending time with them this 4th of July and I fear for their future. I fear for the moments when their small world innocence is lost and I have to tell them how things used to be.

There were joys to hold on to:

Watching my grandson dance with abandon in the middle of a crowd listening to the Detroit Symphony while waiting for fireworks to begin. 

 Giving my granddaughter her first taste of ice cream and watching her face light up the same way I watched my Dad give her mother, my daughter, her first taste and then try to devour everyone else’s ice cream the same why my granddaughter did.

Watching my wife teach my grandson how to make a wish by tossing a coin in a fountain. 

I’m fighting for all of that in hopes one day they will only have to read about what we’re living through as a sad piece of history and not the moment when irreversible change happened. 

That’s my wish and my fight.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Great 4th of July or Any Day Message About the US

Send this to your friends, your enemies, and anyone else who needs some sense knocked into their heads.

If you’re struggling like I am with the fundamental changes happening in this country as we hit the 4th of July, play this ad from John Cena about what it means to be an American. 

 

Don’t just play it, send it around. Every day. Each and every day. Especially to those who’ve lost the plot.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Pay Attention Damnit!

Pay attention! The time is now. Not November.

Pay attention!

Below are three links to articles I saw upon waking this morning. If these don’t wake you up inject some damn caffeine into your veins.

First up. Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, not yet clothed in a brown shirt, tells us “that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Pay attention!!

Next up. Phillip Bump gives us The Perfectly Valid Presidential-Immunity Murder Hypothetical. This should be a gift link, but if it’s not or doesn’t work, it might be time for you to learn that there are a million ways to get around paywalls on the Internet. At the moment.

Pay attention!!!

And finally (for this post at least) Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes take on the SCOTUS decision in A Decision of Surpassing Recklessness in Dangerous Times. 

Pay attention!!!!

And if you think the political cartoon by Bruce MacKinnon above might be too much, I’ll just say again

Pay attention!!!!

The time to act, the time to work is now. While we must vote, if you wait until it’s time to vote, you’re already losing more than we’ve already lost.

Pay attention!!!!!

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

The Sad Irony of Our Political Fireworks

Going to be surreal celebrating USA independence from a king after the Supreme Court ruling.

I’m struggling through this political mess we’re in and shared some of my thoughts in Rome Magazine on Medium. I hope you take a minute of your time to read it. 

Shutterstock 125620817.

The irony of the Supreme Court giving the president immunity most monarchs would die for may be rich, but it’s also extremely sad, given the timing. Yes, I’m still in a state of profound disillusionment and yes, I’m working to figure out how to change that, but I’ve got to be honest. There are moments when I’m not sure if it’s worth the candle, much less lighting up some fireworks this 4th of July.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Turn Out The Lights. The USA is Done.

Now we pick kings and queens and not presidents.

It’s over folks. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that we elect kings and queens and not presidents who are subject to the law. We now live in an autocracy, or a dictatorship, or perhaps it’s just an unreal reality show.

Designer (1).

It’s a byzantine ruling picking the nits between personal and official acts in the way only lawyers can pick nits, but the essence of it is this: Given how our legal system is what it is, a president can act, stall for time and never be held accountable for it legally. Sure, Congress can impeach (this will ratchet up that clown show), but that only removes someone from office. Legally a president can do whatever they want as long as they can use the legal system to mask personal actions as official acts. I hate to tell you, that’s easy to do. Nixon is rolling over in his grave.

Folks will call it a mixed bag. Folks will debate the what if’s. There are no what if’s. The Supreme Court of the United States just told any president, including Donald Trump that they can grab the country by the pussy. Just declare it official.

Turn out the lights. The party’s over. The world and the history of humanity just changed.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.