It is time!
Four years ago, #45 and his MAGA followers referred to Joe Biden as Sleepy Joe and much more because of his age of seventy-seven. #45 questioned Biden’s ability to carry out the duties of the president at that age.
Four years later, Biden after a poor performance in the June presidential debate, pulled out of the race. Biden’s performance overshadowed the ever-increasing tell-tale signs that #45, who is 78, is showing deterioration in cognitive skills.
#45’s behavior is becoming increasingly alarming. His recent behavior at a rally where he played music and swayed/moved/shuffled (but definitely did not dance) for 38 minutes set off alarms for me. It was supposed to be a town hall question and answer session, but #45 decided to change everything on the fly. He did this even though the temperature in the venue was so warm, two people feinted and were removed by stretcher.
Nolan Finley, conservative editorial page editor for the Detroit News, described it this way in his Nolan Out Loud blog today.
Kamala Harris has shifted to putting Donald Trump in the same category as her boss, Joe Biden. She’s challenging Trump’s mental acuity, asking “Is he OK?” And again, Trump is giving her an assist with a strange campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where he paused for nearly 40 minutes to play DJ and sway along with the music while a South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem watched awkwardly. Expect the Democrats’ media allies to quickly pick up the theme.
This leads to my Quote of the Day. “And if Trump can’t find more discipline, his campaign should keep him in the basement and off stages.” Nolan Finley.
I am now convinced that #45 is not only not fit for the presidency because of his threat to our democracy, he is now not fit for the presidency because of his deteriorating cognitive capacity. We are at the point in the election where a vote for Trump is a vote for Vance and that should scare the bejesus out of everyone.
There is more
From Heather Cox Richardsons’ Letters from an American.
After Trump’s bizarre performance last night in Oaks, Pennsylvania, when he stopped taking questions and just swayed to his self-curated playlist for 39 minutes, his campaign this morning canceled a scheduled interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, according to co-host of the show Joe Kernen. The campaign did not, though, cancel a scheduled live interview today with Bloomberg News and the Economic Club of Chicago. That interview echoed last night’s train wreck.
Trump showed up almost an hour late to the event with moderator John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News… Micklethwait asked real questions about Trump’s approach to the economy, but the former president answered with aimless rants and campaign slogans that Micklethwait corrected, repeatedly redirecting Trump back to his actual questions. Trump quickly grew angry and combative.
When Micklethwait corrected Trump’s misunderstanding of the way tariffs work, Trump replied in front of a room full of people who understand the economy: “It must be hard for you to, you know, spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong.” Referring to analysis that his plans would explode the national debt, including analysis by the Wall Street Journal—hardly a left-wing outlet, as Mickelthwait pointed out—Trump replied: “What does the Wall Street Journal know? They’ve been wrong about everything. So have you, by the way….. You’ve been wrong about everything…. You’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff.”
The economy is supposed to be Trump’s strong suit.
He is not qualified to be the president.
It is the economy!!!
A report from the Labor Department last week showed that inflation has dropped again, falling back to 2.4%, the same rate as it was just before the coronavirus pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped to a record high, while the S&P 500 closed above 5,800 for the first time.
Washington Post economics columnist Heather Long noted that “[b]y just about every measure, the U.S. economy is in good shape.” Inflation is back down, growth remains strong at 3%, unemployment is low at 4.1% with the U.S. having created almost 7 million more jobs than it had before the pandemic. The stock market is hitting all-time high. Long adds that “many Americans are getting sizable pay raises, and middle-class wealth has surged to record levels.”
The economy is just one more example of #45 never letting the facts get in the way of his lies and rhetoric. It is a shame so many of his followers believe his every word. The facts are there for everyone to see if they are willing to look.
It is about time
Per the NY Times, the Biden administration warned Israel over the weekend that a failure to allow the delivery of more humanitarian aid within 30 days to the nearly two million people trapped in Gaza could trigger a cutoff of military aid, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
The sharply worded warning was sent on Sunday in a letter signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, rather than President Biden. It was addressed to Israel’s minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, and its minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer.
…. U.S. and United Nations officials have warned in recent weeks that conditions are deteriorating further in Gaza, particularly in the territory’s north, as Israel’s military has focused operations against what it calls Hamas holdouts in the area.
“What we have seen over the past few months is that the level of humanitarian assistance has not been sustained” in Gaza, Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, told reporters at a news briefing. “In fact, it has fallen by over 50 percent from where it was at its peak.”
He added that Mr. Blinken and Mr. Austin “thought it was appropriate to make clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make” to increase aid deliveries “from the very, very low levels” of the current moment. Aid shipments into Gaza in September reached their lowest level at any time since the Hamas-led attacks in Israel a little over a year ago, he said.
Mr. Miller would not specify the possible consequences if Israel did not comply.
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Quote of the Day: See above from Nolan Finley.
Orchid of the Day: Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter, 100, cast his ballot in the 2024 election Wednesday. The former president voted by mail.
His son Chip Carter said before the family gathering that his father had this election very much in mind. “He’s plugged in,” Chip Carter told The Associated Press. “I asked him two months ago if he was trying to live to be 100, and he said, ‘No, I’m trying to live to vote for Kamala Harris.’”
Onion of the Day: The Republican Party for not dealing with their “age” problem. They were quick to criticize the Democrats four years ago, but now the Republicans have their beer goggles on and are not seeing what everyone else is seeing.
Question of the Day: Why did it take so long for the U.S. to threaten the withholding of aid to Israel?
Image of the Day: Some pictures I cannot pass up. I took this on my way to Boyne Mountain yesterday
