Deep, thick and drizzly-fog this early Monday on California’s north coast, creating most-likely another gloomy, gray environment for awhile — yesterday, no substantial sunshine until way-late in the afternoon.
Cooler temperatures, too, in the forecast.
Also forecast for today, the crazed-crank-up to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland — and we’re already sick of the whole-entire shit-clown show: ‘In a recent Pew survey of 4,602 American adults, 59 percent said they feel “worn out by so much coverage of the campaign and candidates.”‘
Yet, miles to go…
(Illustration: Donald Trump, ‘Basic Shapes,‘ by caricaturist/illustrator Chong Jit Leong, found here).
A great deal of that ‘worn out’ feeling, acerbated by horrific bullshit from The Donald this morning, spinning pure trash in the wake of the police shootings, and the on-the-edge graphic of America right now (via Politico):
In an interview Monday morning on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” Trump seemed to imply that the president had sided with those attacking police officers, despite Obama’s words to the contrary.
“I mean, you know, I watched the president and sometimes the words are okay,” Trump said.
“But you just look at the body language. There’s something going on. Look, there’s something going on and the words are not often okay, by the way.”
“What does that mean, there’s something going on?” host Steve Doocy replied.
“There’s just a bad feeling, a lot of bad feeling about him,” Trump said.
“I see it too. There’s a lot of bad feeling about him. We have a country that has not been like this since I can remember it.”
‘What does that mean…?‘
Tabloid talk at the way-highest level. No wonder anyone who’s been following the presidential election this year is pretty sick of it already.
Further on that Pew survey from the Washington Post:
Majorities of every demographic group surveyed by Pew are already exhausted by the election: 54 percent of seniors and 67 percent of millennials.
Sixty-two percent of women and 56 percent of men.
Sixty-two percent of whites and 54 percent of nonwhites.
Nearly identical proportions of Republicans (54 percent) and Democrats (55 percent).
Americans aren’t exhausted because they don’t care or aren’t interested — in fact, it could be because they care about this election too much.
Pew’s polling shows that record-high numbers of Americans (80 percent) say they’ve thought about this election “a lot” — fewer than half of Americans said the same about the 2000 election, for instance.
Similarly, a record-high percentage (74 percent) of Americans say that when it comes to making progress on the important issues facing this country, it really matters who wins this election.
Again, back in 2000, just 50 percent thought that.
Yes, it really matters — the big, hard question is whether enough voters know the difference.
In the toxic world of The Donald, the thing that’s nearly-incomprehensible to me is how could anyone even-remotely consider Trump for dog catcher, much less president.
Beyond the lies, and bluster, The Donald biggest horror is he’s always-ready to jump — a really good view of this Trumpian habit comes from business writer Allan Sloan at the Washington Post last Saturday; Trump’s long-time inability to handle his crazed self — no impulse control — is woven into his business history in New York, Atlantic City and beyond for the last 30 years — a blow-harded, impetuous asshole.
Key points noted for this ‘worn out’ election:
But public concern about self-control is very relevant for a president of the United States.
Whether we’re talking about the Bay of Pigs (when John F. Kennedy resisted the hawkish instincts of his advisers who wanted to escalate) or the bugging of Democratic headquarters (which Richard Nixon could not resist) or the invasion of Iraq (need I say more?), presidents are bombarded with chances to overreact, and their overreactions can have catastrophic consequences for our country and the world.
…
Lack of impulse control has enormously benefited his presidential campaign.
It distinguished him among the 17 initial Republican candidates, allowed him to dominate cable TV news and got him massive coverage in other media as well.
There’s a lot to be said for being blunt — but Trump routinely journeys from blunt into ranting, which helped him in the Republican primaries but could pose major political and business dangers for him in the general election.
…
But there’s a downside — a huge one — to his behavior, and it’s starting to become apparent now.
He’s incredibly reckless.
He seems to sometimes license his name to questionable enterprises, without doing much (if any) research into them.
He makes enemies he doesn’t have to make because he baits people and institutions that don’t bow down to him, and he reacts badly when organizations such as The Post (which he has banned from his campaign events) challenge him by asking perfectly reasonable questions.
He put his name on Trump University, which systematically victimized middle-class and lower-middle-class people, according to an investigation by the New York attorney general and an ongoing class-action suit in California.
Those are the kind of people who are perceived to be his core constituency.
I wonder how many middle and lower-middle types had no idea about what Trump U was up to until recently and didn’t know how Trump has stiffed all sorts of contractors over the years, resulting in lots of blue-collar workers losing their jobs.
I wonder whether this knowledge will erode the faith of some Trump fans.
…
Until a year ago, Trump’s lack of impulse control was amusing (except to some of his targets) but didn’t really matter to the country at large.
Now, with him having a significant chance to become the leader of the world’s foremost country, it matters a lot.
Maybe Trump can learn to control his impulses — but there’s no sign that he has.
And, unfortunately, there’s no sign that he will.
End of story.
An end to a lot of shit — looks bad from here, but the reality is even worse…