"It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. He has proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks.
Those disqualifying characteristics are compounded by everything else that limits his ability to fulfill the duties of the president: his many criminal charges, his advancing age, his fundamental lack of interest in policy and his increasingly bizarre cast of associates.
This unequivocal, dispiriting truth — Donald Trump is not fit to be president — should be enough for any voter who cares about the health of our country and the stability of our democracy to deny him re-election.
For this reason, regardless of any political disagreements voters might have with her, Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president.
Most presidential elections are, at their core, about two different visions of America that emerge from competing policies and principles. This one is about something more foundational. It is about whether we invite into the highest office in the land a man who has revealed, unmistakably, that he will degrade the values, defy the norms and dismantle the institutions that have made our country strong."- NY Times Endorsement of Kamala Harris
"Something is wrong with this split-screen picture. On one side, former president Donald Trump rants about mass deportations and claims to have stopped “wars with France,” after being described by his longest-serving White House chief of staff as a literal fascist. On the other side, commentators debate whether Vice President Kamala Harris performed well enough at a CNN town hall to “close the deal.....Let’s review: First, Harris was criticized for not doing enough interviews — so she did multiple interviews, including with nontraditional media. She was criticized for not doing hostile interviews — so she went toe to toe with Bret Baier of Fox News. She was criticized as being comfortable only at scripted rallies — so she did unscripted events, such as the town hall on Wednesday. Along the way, she wiped the floor with Trump during their one televised debate.
Trump, meanwhile, stands before his MAGA crowds and spews
nonstop lies, ominous threats, impossible promises and utter gibberish. His
rhetoric is dismissed, or looked past, without first being interrogated.”- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, '
Last night Kamala Harris attended a CNN Town Hall with undecided voters in Pennsylvania that captivated us from beginning to the end. Meanwhile, her opponent Donald Trump held a rally in Georgia after rejecting an offer to participate in the town hall. Why?, these undecideds should be asking themselves, did their presumed alternate choice for President dodge the chance to take on their questions? Why indeed, did too many seem to make more of Kamala either changing her past positions, or fretting over how immigrants would be handled with taxpayer money, or how much their grocery bills would come down under her plans.
Or even given over to some outlandish questions, i.e. 'How can you ensure that not one more Palestinian is killed in Gaza?' or: "Give me one single policy position above all that you would favor getting done?" - unaware any and all positions are in congress' hands, not Kamala's.
All missing the point that their transient worries are neither here nor
there when the choice is between decency, moral character and the narcissistic whims of a madman who’s vowed
to ‘burn the Constitution’ on getting in power again – and who wants “generals
like Hitler had.”
As Ms. Harris bluntly put it:
“The bottom line is
this: We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question
in 13 days will be: What do the American people want?”
What do they want indeed? Another Trump reign which may never end this time around? Retribution run amok directed at his “enemies within”? Mass deportations of all immigrants under military force and using detention camps? Use of military (in violation of Posse Comitatus Act) to fire freely at protesters he doesn’t like? Tariffs to help with inflation? Don’t make me laugh on that one!
This is why at the Town Hall it was heartening to see Harris repeatedly returning to the news that Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly claimed his one-time boss “falls into the general definition of fascist”. Harris herself- in reply to Anderson Cooper putting her on the spot - then called Trump a fascist when asked if she believed the ex-president qualifies as one during the same Town Hall. Speaking from her residence earlier in the day, in Washington DC, Harris accused Trump of seeking to subvert the independence of the military.
These are the core issues all voters should be worried about,
not how fast to lower their grocery bills, or whether Kamala will still build a part of the wall, or what
she will do about protecting Palestinians in Gaza. NONE of that matters if Trump
is voted back in because all the problems occurring now will be rendered a
hundred times worse. Gaza? Trump will help ensure fellow autocrat Bibi Netanyahu’s plan
to occupy the Gaza strip and kick all the remaining Palestinians out. Grocery
bills? They will shoot through the roof after he imposes his 20% tariffs across
the board.
Discussing voters concerned about the war in Gaza, the vice president said:
“I also do know that for many people who care about this issue, they also care about bringing down the price of groceries. They also care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
In fact, they should care first and foremost about that and not whether the price of eggs is going up.
Harris’s comments came a day after a statement by Trump’s former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly that Trump meets the definition of a fascist. This had been openly voiced in a Times interview, e.g.
John Kelly says Donald Trump meets the definition of a 'fascist'
Among other remarks - including Trump dissing American soldiers who were killed in WW I at Belleau Wood as "losers". Kelly's openly voiced exposure of Trump basically scuttled the question of whether he has authoritarian tendencies and would abuse governmental power in a second term. Of course he would, and only a confirmed dummy or total ignoramus would make a bet with his vote (including voting 3rd party) that he wouldn't. Kelly, a retired Marine general, told the New York Times Michael Schmidt that Trump’s desire for unfettered power and other qualities fit the fascist label.
The cascade of alarms from a host of former Trump administration
officials has created the unprecedented spectacle. That is, we now behold a series of
high-ranking military leaders - who by
tradition are nonpolitical - warning
voters that a major presidential nominee is a potential dictator, underlining
that message with a label that has traditionally been reserved for such figures
as Italy’s Benito Mussolini rather than American political leaders.
Kelly’s warning has given Harris new ammunition for her
assertion that Trump cannot be trusted with the powers of the presidency, and
it has ensured that the question of Trump’s purported dictatorial character
would be at the center of the campaign’s final days.
Harris in a watershed moment at the Town Hall basically cut through all the minor distractions of lesser issues to point out, in respect of Kelly's interview".
“He’s just putting out a 911 call to the American people. Understand what could happen if Donald Trump were back
in the White House. And this time we must take very seriously [that] those
folks who knew him best and who were career people are not going to be there to
hold him back.”
See Also:
"It’s Not the Economy; it’s the Constitution!'
And:
Opinion | Donald Trump rants gibberish while Kamala Harris has to be perfect - The Washington Post
And:
Some of Trump’s most senior former advisers warn he could deploy troops against Americans
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | October 25, 2024 - 5:32am | permalink
Donald Trump hopes he can confuse people about Vice President Kamala Harris's intelligence through sheer force of racism and repetition. "She’s lazy as hell," the GOP candidate said during a fundraiser held at his own golf resort in Florida. Trump, who has canceled multiple interviews outside of his own home, due to "exhaustion," falsely claimed Harris has a "reputation" and accused her of being "on drugs." The Associated Press classified this as part of the "overtly racist rhetoric" that has been "fixtures of Trump’s public life." Ironically, the reliance on silly racist stereotypes is a sign of Trump's own laziness, as he can't be bothered to come up with something more original.
He's also been using one of his most tired insults for Black people and women: "low IQ," which is rooted in his lifelong obsession with the racist pseudo-science of eugenics. As he becomes even more disinhibited with age, Trump has been less capable of wrapping these white supremacist views in terms of plausible deniability, instead raving about his utterly false belief that people from non-European nations have "bad genes."
And:
Newsflash, Media! It's Kamala Who Carries the Banner As The Only Pro-Democracy Candidate.
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by Heather Digby Parton | October 24, 2024 - 5:52am | permalink
Before Donald Trump was considered nothing more than a circus sideshow, some of us noted during the 2015 GOP presidential primaries that his rhetoric and agenda bore all the hallmarks of the "f" word: fascism. Historian Rick Perlstein wrestled with it as early as September of that year. I wrote about it just a couple of months later. At the time, Trump was extolling the virtues of torture, talking about a massive surveillance program to be used against American Muslims and promising to send Syrian refugees, including children, back to their war-torn country. He hadn't yet declared his intention to ban all Muslims from coming to the U.S. but it was easy to see the writing on the wall. It was also very easy to see that fascism was on the menu in the United States of America if Trump won the election.
That was nine years ago and a zillions of words have since been written about Trump's dishonesty, corruption, unfitness and authoritarian philosophy. We've learned over the years, through many reports, memoirs and tell-all books that Trump tried to govern in a dictatorial fashion at every turn but was either too mentally undisciplined to follow through or was held back by people around him who kept him from acting on his worst impulses.
And:
by Carl Gibson | October 23, 2024 - 6:00am | permalink
A new bombshell report describes how, during his first administration, former President Donald Trump longed for the same kind of absolute dictatorial power that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler enjoyed.
In a Tuesday report, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote about his conversations with General John Kelly (Trump's former Department of Homeland Security secretary and ex-White House chief of staff) who described how Trump harbored a peculiarly disdain for the military. He specifically lamented that he lacked the same kind of unwavering support from American military leadership that Hitler had during his reign.
"I need the kind of generals that Hitler had," Trump said, according to unnamed White House aides speaking confidentially to the Atlantic. "People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders."
And:
by Harvey Wasserman | October 23, 2024 - 5:12am | permalink
J.D. Vance once called Donald Trump “America’s Hitler.” Now it’s become a MAGA/Nazi call to arms.
Vance’s billionaire tech bros have made him their digital messiah, ready to run the world for Musk, Thiel and Gates…with Trump as their stooge.
But even they can’t hide der would-be Fuhrer’s festering dementia.
So here are three ways you can help stop the Trump/Vance fascist takeover:
1. Go to Center for Common Ground and sign up to make phone calls to potential voters in crucial swing states;
And:
by Thom Hartmann | October 24, 2024 - 4:50am | permalink
America’s morbidly rich billionaires are at it again, this time screwing the average family’s ability to have decent, affordable housing in their never-ending quest for more, more, more. Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and Denmark have had enough and done something about it: we should, too.
There are a few things that are essential to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” that should never be purely left to the marketplace; these are the most important sectors where government intervention, regulation, and even subsidy are not just appropriate but essential. Housing is at the top of that list.
A few days ago I noted how, since the Reagan Revolution, the cost of housing has exploded in America, relative to working class income.
When my dad bought his home in the 1950s, for example, the median price of a single-family house was around 2.2 times the median American family income. Today the St. Louis Fed says the median house sells for $417,700 while the median American income is $40,480—a ratio of more than 10 to 1 between housing costs and annual income.
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