Quick take: Racist Trump's birther lies were inevitable

As perhaps the easiest prediction outside of "the sun will rise tomorrow," Donald Trump has rolled out his birther lies about VP Kamala Harris (allowing his equally morally-bankrupt Conservative pals to do the heavy lifting).

Trump's not fooling anyone--the
man behind the racist mask is him

So, on X, one can find copies of Harris's birth certificate that list her parents as immigrants, accompanied by the cry that she CAN'T run for President (conveniently ignoring the part in the US Constitution that gives citizenship for all born in this country). The certificate clearly states Harris was born in California (which, at last check, is part of the US). 

I don't want to brag, but the day after Biden removed himself from the Presidential race, I wrote:

How long, for instance, before Trump amplifies another birther accusation against an opponent (especially one born of two immigrants)?

And, just like his lies against about Obama's birthplace or questioning Nikki Haley's citizenship because of immigrant parents, these birther lies are designed to diminish and derogate the qualifications and accomplishments of people of color. 

In other words, it's straight-up racism.

And Trump does that--along with purposely mispronouncing "Kamala" (or the given Indian first name of Haley), or not denouncing his GOP pals who call Harris a "DEI hire," or by saying "Harris just happened to turn Black"--for one reason, and one reason alone:

Trump's a racist.

And so are all those that join him or defend Trump and his indefensible comments.

And whether such disgusting comments are meant to gin up his rabid, immigrant-hating/fearing white base, or meant to cast aspersions on someone's racial identity in the seriously misguided belief that it will pry Black voters away from Harris, again, Trump does it for one reason:

Trump's a racist.

And I called it.

Oh, and the sun will rise tomorrow.

Um, so VP DOESN'T matter now...?

What JD Vance says about his importance as Trump's pick for VP is, well, kind of a disturbing statement, really.

"My attitude is, it doesn't really matter."

But what does Donald think
 about JD? Turns out, not much...

Um, it doesn't matter to voters who the person is that is a heartbeat away from the Presidency?

Guess not, because, fortunately, Vance's opinion of his insignificance dovetails nicely with his boss's views (from Trump's amazingly inflammatory appearance at Wednesday's NABJ conference):

"...the Vice President, in terms of the election, does not have any impact. No impact."

Well, to a VP-pick, that's certainly got to be a resoundingly reassuring kick in the crotch, huh? And, to a nation weighing the competency of the person who is next on the US chain of command, hearing both ends of the ticket say it doesn't really matter who it is, really isn't that comforting, is it? 

For some reason, Trump
admires fictional murderer and
cannibal Hannibal Lecter

(Perhaps Trump thinks he could even win with 'the late, great Hannibal Lecter?")

Nine times in the history of our country, a Vice President has had to step into the Presidency (eight were for President deaths, but the most recent, Gerald Ford, became President with the resignation of Richard Nixon, 50 years ago this week).

Trump and Vance apparently think voters don't seem to care who that "number two" (no pun intended) person is. That's a problem when "number one" is an overweight, far from beloved, fearmongering felon that is the oldest nominated Presidential candidate in the history of our country. Not exactly the poster child for a four-year term in what is ostensibly the most stressful job in the world.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, just one year ago, Republicans sang a very different tune. The GOP, in fact, was saying the exact opposite--how important Biden's second-in-command was because he was an older President. As former rival (and now-Trump-suck-up) Nikki Haley said at the time, "A vote for President Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris."

Fortunately for our democracy, Pence
 wasn't the VP Trump thought he was

To be honest, if Trump had cared enough and had vetted his 2016 Vice President to be as unprincipled as he was--and now, presumably, as JD Vance is-- Biden's victory would have likely been overturned.
Thankfully for the country, despite tremendous pressure from Trump and the Trump supporters chanting, "Hang Mike Pence!" outside the Senate chambers, Pence did not bend to Trump's twisted will, but, instead, followed the directive of the US Constitution and ratified Biden's electoral vote victory. 

So, the VP turned out to be very important to this country.

And Harris's pick may help to shore up regional outreach or offer strength regarding Harris's perceived weaknesses (I'm looking at you and immigration, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly).

But, to Trump and his pick, it doesn't matter.

I guess that really says a lot, doesn't it? 

And that is, perhaps, the most disturbing statement of all.

Quick take: Trump wouldn't REALLY ditch Vance, would he?

Donald Trump wouldn't be thinking of replacing his VP pick JD Vance, would he?

Despite all the GOP lawmakers who privately say that Vance is a train wreck, Trump still backs him (well, other than publicly refusing to say if Vance would be ready to become President "on day one," and remarking that "the choice of Vice-President makes no difference").

Donald wouldn't throw JD
 under the bus, would he?

I mean, Trump wouldn't be the kind of man who would disregard his principles and his loyalties and his word to throw someone under the bus just because they make him look bad, would he?

And Trump really doesn't care that if he isn't elected, he will very likely still be facing a host of criminal indictments (which, if elected, he could order the DOJ to make them disappear), does he?

After all, JD Vance obviously checks all the boxes.

Alienating women and gays with offensive comments that the women running the country-- like (stepmother and Vice-President) Kamala Harris or even (gay dad) Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg--are "childless cat ladies."  

Check.

Alienate what polls show are a majority of women voters by saying there should be a "no-exceptions" abortion ban.

Check.

Emerge from the RNC convention with a virtually unheard of negative popularity rating for a VP candidate.

Check.

Write a forward for the ultra-conservative/radical Project 2025--which despite mentioning Trump or his administration a couple hundred times--is a plan supposedly disavowed by your boss.

Check.

Once have called your boss "an idiot," a "cynical a**hole," and compared him to Hitler.

Check.

So, will Trump replace Vance? As Melania famously said in announcing her increased campaign participation (um, which hasn't yet happened), "Stay tuned."

Read a pair of insightful, longer takes on the topic:

The Independent's Can Trump replace JD Vance as his running mate? (msn.com)

Polls Show Vance Is Deeply Unpopular — Could the RNC Remove Him From the Ticket? | Truthout

Tracking Trump's implosion

Just as Trump was smart to let Biden talk at the debate and doom himself, Harris has been letting Trump and his team do the same.

A simulation of the Trump campaign's chances
of getting necessary voter demographic groups

And it's working brilliantly. 

Every day, the Trump/Vance ticket alienates another group of swing voters they'll need to win the election.

To court Black voters, Trump sat down yesterday to answer questions at a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists. Trump's ensuing racist and lie-filled tirade was absolutely jaw-dropping. Between insulting the journalist moderators (which Trump has a rich history of doing to African-American journalists), to blowing his racist dog-whistle for his MAGA base questioning whether or not Harris is even Black, to ending his hour-long commitment after only 34 minutes, you could almost hear the campaign's hope for the Black vote crashing to the ground.

Trump's entire visit at the NABJ conference

The fact-check of his visit to the NABJ conference

Harris called it "the same old show," and said, "The American people deserve better than Donald Trump's divisiveness and disrespect."

CNN's token Republican strategist (and Trump/GOP apologist), Scott Jennings was a little less genteel in his assessment: "(Trump) did crap the bed today. My advice would be get up and change the sheets."

But Trump being Trump, he's doubled down on his pathetic Truth Social platform with rants such as "Crazy Kamala is saying she's Indian, not Black," as well as mocking a photo of Harris, with her Indian-heritage family, dressed in traditional Indian clothing.

While Trump is busy insulting American Blacks (well, and people of Asian descent), comments from his VP-pick Vance are doing the same with the women's voting bloc.

Whether saying the country is run by "childless cat ladies" like VP Harris (who, um, has two stepchildren) or calling career-focused women "sad, lonely, and pathetic," the Trump/Vance ticket's courting of women voters without children (um, 21% of women ages 18-34 say they never even want children) doesn't seem to be going well.

When you throw in Vance's previous no-exceptions abortion stance and things like his comments criticizing beloved US Olympian Simone Biles (um, who's also Black, btw) for stepping away from the last Olympics for mental health reasons, it's not clear that the Trump/Vance ticket thinks they need the votes of any women at all.

About the only group Trump makes sure he doesn't alienate is his staunch base of primarily white voters in his dwindling MAGA movement.

And that won't be nearly enough votes to win in November.

One has to wonder, which other voting demographic can the Trump/Vance ticket offend in the next 95 days?

Quick take: Trump says, "I'm rubber, you're glue!"

Donald Trump lashed back at Vice-President Harris's terming the myriad odd comments from the Trump/Vance ticket--such as Trump's rally rambling "If there's a shark about 10 yards away, 'do I get electrocuted, or do I go with the shark?' I would take electrocution all day long," and Vance's sexist and moronic belief that the country's being run by "childless cats ladies"--as "weird."

I'M not weird! SHE'S weird!

In an interview with Fox News's Laura Ingraham, Trump set the record straight.

In a move appreciated and applauded by five-year-olds everywhere, Trump responded to Harris having called his campaign's comments "weird."

His insightful retort?

"Do you know who is plain weird? She's plain weird. She's a weird person."

That, my friends, is a man who is flailing in the water. Now that he can't decry Biden's age and related issues, he can't swim, and he doesn't know what to do. 

That who he thought would be his life preserver, his (seriously) weird choice for VP, JD Vance, is, instead, wrapped around the legs of the flailing candidate, pulling him further down into the abyss.

To extend (belabor?) the metaphor, the sharks are circling, Donald, and it doesn't look like electrocution is an option...

I'm sick of the deplorable GOP

 A couple elections ago, the Democratic candidate for President termed some of Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorables."

Now, in 2024, it has encompassed the entire party.

And I'm sick of them.

Back during Covid, when science said to wear masks (which, research shows, works to inhibit virus dispersal--despite what your MAGA uncle says), GOP supporters in my community chose not to. They didn't care about possibly infecting the elderly or the immunocompromised. They didn't care about stopping Covid completely by reducing the possibility of variants created as it spread.

They just didn't want to wear a mask. So, they didn't.

As the GOP President spread lies and misinformation about an election that was "stollen" (as Trump spelled it), his gullible believers--despite copious mountains of debunking evidence and testimony from his own administration and daughter, Ivanka--continued to push the lie. Many shameless GOP officials suggested the election was not legitimate. Only a handful of principled GOP members called out Trump and his baseless accusations.

Trump and the GOP now celebrate
those that attacked police and tried
 to thwart the Constitution

And when Trump's supporters, on January 6, 2021, attacked and injured Capitol police, ransacked the US Capitol, and chanted to hang the GOP Vice-President because of Trump's GOP-backed lies, the GOP President watched it unfold on television for 187 minutes, before he finally told these violent domestic terrorists that he agreed with them and that he loved them.

Many GOP members blamed Trump directly for, what some principled GOP leaders termed, the insurrection. Senator Mitch McConnell had a particularly powerful such opinion here.

But within months, when it became apparent that Trump still had his rabid, gullible base, the GOP tried to rewrite history, whitewash the day's violence and intent, and now GOP members call these perpetrators of horrendous violence (designed to thwart the Constitution) "patriots" and "political prisoners." 

The GOP chose the criminal
over the people

And when juries of citizens--selected, in part, by Trump's own lawyers, for goodness sakes--heard evidence, and in the face of possible retaliation from Trump's basket of deplorables (as many had previously threatened judges, court officials, their families, and witnesses), rendered guilty verdicts on 34 (THIRTY-FOUR!) felony counts, and also civil liabilities in the hundreds of millions of dollars, GOP leaders took the side of the duly-found criminal, and called these proceedings a sham.

Amazingly, the GOP then made this deplorable man their candidate for President. All of the sudden, the few, remaining, principled GOP backers, it seems, have turned their backs on morality, and decency, and what is right, just to kowtow to Donald Trump--to get his tax breaks, or to confirm they can vilify and call other people names, or whatever they--and his supporters--get from this deplorable act of hypocrisy and cowardice.

And now, GOP members use racist tactics to attack Trump's opponent, the Vice-President of the United States--by Trump purposely mispronouncing her name, or others shouting "She's a DEI hire!" or claiming Democrats back Harris because of "her ethnic background."

They call migrants "trash," "rapists," "convicts." 

They demonize gays and Muslims, and call cities run by Democrats "horrible."

And I'm just sick of them.

Let me say that a little louder:

I'M SICK OF THEM!

It's time to vote them out for the good of our country--

the whole deplorable basketful of them.

.

Quick Take: Buttigieg skewers Fox News

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared today on Fox News with Shannon Bream. 

To Bream's credit, she let Buttigieg talk.

But, in retrospect, she--and the Trump campaign--probably wishes she hadn't.

Buttigieg proceeded to factually and systematically dismantle the right's negative talking points about Vice-President (and likely Presidential nominee) Kamala Harris.

It's a lot of fun to watch, actually (well, unless you're a Trump fan...).

Democratic support for Kamala Harris is ‘coming from the ground up’: Pete Buttigieg | Watch (msn.com)