Expect updates as they come and check for more!
Update Friday, November 1st
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Republican nominee Donald Trump faced a fresh controversy on Friday after he suggested former congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) should try staring down gun barrels of a firing squad, escalating his vilification of a prominent critic from within his party, as well as his use of violent imagery.
It should be shocking to all of us that Trump talks about anyone the way he does Liz Cheney and expects to maintain and grow his support from the American electorate. His imagery about Liz Cheney should be all that any voter needs to decide not to vote for him. He is too unpredictable, chaotic and unchecked. How is what he said presidential?? Never in the history of our country has a presidential candidate allowed and not condemned surrogates who have spoken so viciously. pejoratively and aggressively about people who do not agree with him, including minorities: Jews, Latinos, Black people and women. According to his campaign, he is gaining support from men. What men think this kind of talk is attractive and this kind of man is worth electing? Who are these men?
As the returns start coming in, the early vote numbers are very high. There are slightly more Democrats than Republicans voting early so far. But more Republicans voting early than in 2020 (when Trump told them not to vote early). We do not know if some of those early voting Republicans are crossing over to vote for Harris. And we do not know who the Independent voters are going for.
Republicans say they are certain that they are going to win this election. They point to recent prior presidential elections and compare those numbers to this election. A serious problem with that thinking is that the most recent election in 2020 was affected by the pandemic and Trump rejected vote by mail. This time Trump has given his supporters the green light to vote by mail. Another problem with that thinking is that it was before Dobbs happened. Women are angry and terrified about what Trump would do about reproductive rights if he gets elected given what he has already done to dismantle that 50 year constitutional right to control ones own body and the number of women in states with “Trump abortion bans” who are dying or losing the ability to have children in the future because doctors did not treat them in time out of fear of being prosecuted.
Given the number of Americans who do not answer their cell phones when they see a caller they do not know, it is very hard to understand how polling data can reflect the will of the electorate with any certainty at all. We are flying blind in this election. But on the ground reports are that the positive energy is on the side of Kamala Harris. Her rally at the Ellipse attracted 75,000 eager supporters which was about 22,000 more than Trump had for his rally at the Ellipse in 2021 before his followers attacked the Capitol to keep him in power after losing the election to Joe Biden. Trump’s rallies do not have the same level of energy that Harris’ do. Trump’s messages are dark, angry and aggrieved. His supporters leave early. Trump himself is rambling and goes on at his rallies for 90 minutes about whales reacting to windmills and how he could be a whale therapist and other cuckoo things.
We do not yet know who will win this election, but in the history of our country we have never been so forewarned as we are today. If the MAGA GOP wins the presidential election, it is very clear that we will lose our democracy, our stellar economy, and our chance for a better climate future. Trump has been exceedingly clear about his vendettas and his tariffs. He talks as if he is the dictator he plans to be.
He told us, for example. that he will protect women “whether they want it or not.” This is the pussy grabber-in-chief telling women he will protect them! Really? If you are a woman who thinks Trump will protect you, you need to watch the Access Hollywood tape (which has gone viral on TikTok and is shocking the next generation of young women who had not seen it before). Our form of government will not be the only thing that gets dismantled. We will lose the social safety net as well: for seniors that includes social security; that includes the ACA. According to economists including Goldman Sachs, Trump’s tariffs will kick start a recession and American families will pay about $4,000 more because of them. As Harris says, tariffs act like a sales tax on all the goods we buy. American companies are already pricing in increases if Trump wins. Trump does not believe in climate change. The investments that have already been made in climate change legislation will be scuttled to appease the fossil fuel industry barons who are supporting Trump’s re-election. Do Americans want our almost 250 year democratic experiment to be over? I don’t think so. The question is whether some Americans are informed enough to understand the danger. As Kamala Harris says, it’s time to turn the page. It does not have to be this way. We can assign Trump to the ashcan of history and move our country forward. Let’s do that!
Update: Monday, October 28th
Trump had a rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Madison Square Garden was the same site of a Nazi rally in 1939 in which the theme was “restoring America to the true Americans”. This was also the theme of Trump’s rally on Sunday. He chose Madison Square Garden to make that point which underscored Trump’s nativist and racist ideology. Sunday at Madison Square Garden Trump held his own version of a Nazi hate rally.
Tony Hinchcliffe, a podcaster who’s part of Joe Rogan’s circle, and who was the evening’s first speaker, launched into a series of nasty, hateful so-called jokes specifically insulting to Puerto Ricans.
“These Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside,” he joked. “Just like they did to our country.” A minute later: “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” It took a few more minutes before he got to the joke about Black people loving watermelons. There were also sexist jokes about Harris being a prostitute.
When Trump had his turn to speak, he vowed, “On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history.” He said some other things too, but Trump’s other statements were lost in the uproar that followed these shocking remarks that once again exposed his deep prejudices. Some Republicans running in districts or states with large Puerto Rican populations tried to distance themselves from the “jokes”. Trump’s campaign tried to claim they did not know what Hinchcliffe was going to say. But the riff must have been vetted by the Trump team because those “jokes” Hinchcliffe told the crowd were written on the teleprompter.
No one should be surprised that Trump is doubling down on his hateful, racist, xenophobic attacks on Black and Brown Americans and choosing surrogates that do that too. That’s how he rolls. Trump was always a white supremacist. What’s new is that he has fully come out of the closet. Trump is our version of Hitler and you better believe him when he says he will be setting up detention camps and expelling Black and Brown people. He will do that. He will also go after his perceived enemies including Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, General Milley and others. After Trump’s hate-filled rally, Puerto Rican celebrities Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lopez immediately urged their millions of supporters to vote for Kamala Harris.
The real question now is whether Americans will vote for our version of Hitler in the next few days. Trump is wagering that Americans want the hate he is peddling. Harris is counting on Americans to reject Trump and get on board with the idea that accepting and even delighting in a multicultural, multiethnic United States is the way to a better, stronger, more successful, happier nation.
October 25, 2024
THE REAL ENEMY FROM WITHIN? DONALD TRUMP
HE DEMONIZES DEMOCRATS
Trump wants Americans to believe one of the greatest dangers our country faces is Democrats who disagree with him.
In the final days before the election Trump has threatened to use the military against American citizens who do not support him calling them the enemy from within.
With just two weeks remaining until the presidential election, former President Donald Trump has used his most recent appearances on podcast and cable interviews to escalate attacks on fellow Americans whom he calls “the enemy from within.”
In one recent interview, Trump said that if “radical left lunatics” disrupt the election, “it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”
That statement, on Fox News, was not the first time Trump has expressed support for using government force against domestic political rivals. Since 2022, when he began preparing for the presidential campaign, Trump has issued more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents, NPR has found.
HE DEMONIZES IMMIGRANTS
With language playing on fears and biases, a tactic since the first day of his 2016 presidential campaign, he escalated the dehumanizing rhetoric on Thursday in the battleground state of Arizona by calling the U.S. a “dumping ground” for refugees seeking asylum, particularly those from poorer nations.
“We’re like a garbage can for the world,” he said. “You got millions of people pouring in,” Trump added, despite the fact that illegal border crossings have been declining. “And we are just not going to let it all happen.”
He also reiterated several campaign themes, according to NBC News, including attacking the competence of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, blaming Harris for the flow of immigrants, committing to end the designation of sanctuary cities and claiming he will add 10,000 more Border Patrol agents.
In study after study, immigrants commit far fewer crimes than other Americans. For example:
An NIJ-funded study examining data from the Texas Department of Public Safety estimated the rate at which undocumented immigrants are arrested for committing crimes. The study found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.[1]
By portraying America as a dumping ground and promising to protect America from these intruders, Trump is doing what he can to create enough fear to get himself elected as the strongman who can fix everything.
WHAT TRUMP’S ATTACKS ON KAMALA HARRIS TELL YOU ABOUT HIM
Trump has taken to insulting Kamala Harris’ intelligence in his bid for re-election.
Donald J. Trump … called Kamala Harris “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled,” prompting criticism from Democrats and Republicans.
He later suggested Harris “was born that way,” prompting cheers in the crowd.
Mr. Trump renewed his insults of Ms. Harris in a meandering speech at a convention center in Erie, Pa., after several Republicans had sought to distance themselves from his earlier remarks.
TRUMP IS PROJECTING
Trump has a history of “projecting” (flipping the script) by transferring his own shortcomings onto others. Just like a kid in a school yard Trump is behaving like a juvenile in his attacks on Harris. He is saying “I’m rubber. You’re glue. Whatever I say sticks to you.” In addition, when he says Harris is mentally impaired you have to immediately wonder if Trump is thinking this about himself or being told that he has mental impairments or was born mentally disabled.
Trump may be reacting to ads that George Conway’s new PAC is airing that target Trump’s mental unfitness. As I have written in a prior blog post, Trump scores a 33 out of 40 on the Hare Scale that is used to identify psychopaths. Most incarcerated criminals who have been identified as psychopaths using the Hare scale score closer to 20 out of 40. https://markinreport.com/2024/08/03/trump-is-a-psychopath/
IS TRUMP REACTING TO ADS DONE BY GEORGE CONWAY ON TRUMP’S FAVORITE CHANNELS?
George Conway’s Anti-Psychopath PAC launched a six-figure ad campaign highlighting Donald Trump’s mental unfitness for office. The 60-second cable TV ad, plays some of Trump’s greatest hits alongside Conway saying: “Donald Trump has never, ever been right in the head.”
The ad will run for two weeks on Fox News, ESPN, and the Golf Channel around Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago. It shows an image of Trump’s brain, superimposed with footage of Trump doing and saying the following:
- Praising Hannibal Lecter and calling him “a wonderful man”
- Attacking windmills and saying the noise causes cancer
- Alleging that you need to present ID to buy bread
- Saying “the kidney has a special place in the heart”
- Being unable to drink a bottle of water
- Being unable to say words like “anonymous,” “origin,” and “Venezuela”
Conway’s take is simple: Donald Trump is a psychopath. He launched the Anti-Psychopath PAC (a.k.a. Psycho PAC) this month to highlight Trump’s mental problems and remind citizens of the danger of returning such a deranged man to the White House.
By highlighting Trump’s profound lack of coherence and judgment, the campaign seeks to galvanize public opinion against him by reminding everyone he is unfit for office.
“Donald Trump wanted to make this election all about mental fitness,” said George Conway, President of Anti-Psychopath PAC. “We’re good with that. Even before he began showing age-related cognitive decline, Trump had a long history of doing and saying bizarre things. He was never right in the head. And as he’s gotten older, he’s only gotten worse. Especially now that he’s the only old guy in the race, it’s more important than ever for the public to focus on Trump’s lack of mental fitness when they make their decision this November.”
TRUMP DENIES THE REAL THREATS
Trump also fails to believe climate change is a real thing despite Hurricane Helene, the Category 4 hurricane that slammed Florida and then continued into Georgia and North Carolina and three other states resulting in over 200 deaths and billions of dollars of destruction.
As research finds that the deadly Hurricane Helene was greatly exacerbated by global warming, Donald Trump is continuing to deny the climate crisis and courts [funding] from the industry most responsible for planetary heating. Environmentalists worry that he will also gut flood protections and climate policy if he wins November’s presidential election. (The Guardian)
There is no doubt that hurricanes have become more intense due to human induced climate change. Our use of gas and oil are heating up our planet. People living in valleys or low lying areas where far greater amounts of water fall in shorter periods of time because of climate change are at risk if they are living in the bottom of the “bowl” or along the sides of the bowl because of mudslides. Few people in South Carolina, which was probably the hardest hit state, have flood insurance. Insurance is based on past trends. But climate change is creating new weather patterns and levels of precipitation.
Climate change is making hurricanes like Hurricane Helene more intense, scientific research shows.
Helene has unleashed high winds, heavy rain and a dangerous storm surge in the Southeast after making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane Thursday night. As of Friday afternoon, the estimated death toll of the storm had climbed to more than 40 across four states.
It follows roughly two and a half months after Hurricane Beryl — which peaked as a Category 5 storm — tracked destruction across the Caribbean as well as the United States, killing dozens of people.
The proportion of hurricanes that fall into these more intense categories 4 and 5 are expected to increase as the planet heats up, according to the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a well-respected climate science authority from the United Nations. Peak hurricane wind speeds are also expected to rise.
“These hurricanes are getting bigger and stronger and that is due to simple energy transfer,” said Claudia Benitez-Nelson, a climate scientist at the University of South Carolina.
Benitez-Nelson explained that a hotter planet means more energy can transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere.
WHY TRUMP IS THE REAL ENEMY FROM WITHIN
There are real world dangers that need to be dealt with. They include, for example, a planet that is overheating and producing far more devastating climate events. To combat these problems we need science, facts and a willingness to squarely face this truth, this reality. Only then can we find answers that will protect us from ever greater dangers like climate change. Trump uses denial when he doesn’t want to face a problem. That puts our country and our world in greater peril. If he is elected he will not protect us. He will make these problems worse.
We already know what happens with Trump in charge of the country. At a rally in Georgia to support Harris yesterday Barack Obama talked about Trump’s danger to America because of Trump’s inability to recognize real danger and act in a competent way.
Obama: When I was president, I had been talking to scientists for a while so during my last year in office, we put together a pandemic playbook for how to deal with the eventuality of a pandemic.. When Trump came in, we gave over this playbook and he threw it out. I want to be fair on this, no matter who was going to president, this was going to be a problem… But if you look at a country like Canada, their per capita death rate was 40% lower than here. So just do the math. That’s more than 400k people. People’s grandparents, people’s fathers, people’s moms who would’ve been alive if Trump had just paid attention and tried to follow the plan that we gave him. It might have been somebody in your family that could’ve been impacted. So, if somebody tells you that this doesn’t make a difference, having somebody competent who cares about you.. it does matter and at some point, it will make a difference to them.
OUR SAFETY RELIES ON A PRESIDENT WHO IS GROUNDED IN REALITY
We support our government because it keeps us safe. It’s a pact. We pay taxes and the government regulates corporations to keep us safe, fixes roads, repairs bridges, provides support to us as we get older, protects us from foreign adversaries, and enforces the law. We face dangers. Our president is supposed to do his or her best to protect us from them.
How can our leader protect us if he is not grounded in reality? How can we be safe if our president is unhinged and disconnected from the truth? And if Trump does know the truth but insists on denying it, then he is still a danger to all of us.
Immigrants are not the danger that Trump claims they are. Democrats are not the danger Trump says they are. Climate change is a real threat. The pandemic was a real threat. Because Trump is disconnected from reality, Trump himself is the threat from within.