At the RNC convention, Trump recounts the assassination attempt and talks about his feeling of serenity as the bullets flew, while the mass of toadies eating it up is moved to heil Hitler.

And it’s sounding more like Joe Biden is on his way out.

I hope the Dems know what they’re doing. They have to be looking at poll numbers, doing the math, looking at the calendar, reaching consensus on who the replacement will be. A ticket change seems almost inevitable at this point, but also rash and panicky and ill-advised. The pressure will be on when the DNC meets in Chicago in a month.

Trump is beginning to seem like the sure thing, sadly, at least at the moment. If this actually happens, I hope someone is able to get to the bottom of how it’s happening and who’s involved. Billionaires, heads of state in certain eastern bloc countries and Iran, a crack team of hackers—all the usual suspects, I suppose.

This is getting crazy (duh). If Trump prevails, things are not going to be OK. He’s not a changed man. He’s not even a good man, or a reasonable one. He’s just been handed a lifeline, God knows why (if God knows anything). He’s not a savior, he’s not a hero. He’s just a crook riding a wave, perfectly OK with his own incompetence and deceit, probably orchestrating still more election interference we’ll find out about after the fact, perfectly OK with spreading ugliness and rumors and playing dirty if it helps him “win.”

I’ll never understand what people saw in him. It’s beyond a mystery, destined to become a tragedy, played out over another four years. Or more.

Unless the Dems can avoid self-immolation and get their act together.

The uniting theme was destined to be short lived. Shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. From Ron Johnson’s teleprompter malfunction (he went ahead and read it anyway…) to Kari Lake being her predictable miserable self, there’s about as much desire for uniting, apart from synchronized lockstep behind Trump, as there is for paying Joe Biden a compliment.

So, thankfully, the RNC convention will be over in a few hours. Trump may attempt to measure his words and tell everyone that he himself has had a come-to-Jesus moment (too late), the Republicans will most likely enjoy a bump in the polls, and then it will be the Democrats’ turn. They have some work to do, but I hope that the tenor and vibe at their convention will be less volume– as in loudness– and more substance, as in spending less time spreading a dystopian pall, and instead telling America about more hopeful things, a more hopeful vision and realistic plans.

They don’t need to promise the world. They just need to sound coherent and sensible. More stable, less angry and paranoid.

For all the Trump bad-mouthing J.D. Vance has done, it’s, well, not at all unusual that he’s the VP choice. He must have had his own “come to (orange) Jesus” moment at some point.

He’s only 39, MAGA through and through, somehow, and apparently willing and able to carry the tainted banner into battle. What a weird thing.

The Republican Party has morphed into a weird, delusional, angry cult. It’s a sad time for America. It’s as if we’re all witnessing our unmaking in real time. The DJIA reaches new heights because the Fed may lower interest rates, and all the while our backbone crumbles. 

One can be forgiven for thinking that our shallowness and the ease with which we can be distracted is going to catch up with us sooner or later.

There’s no “taking the country back.” How presumptuous and arrogant! That’s not the way to talk about your platform, such as it is– with the spoken assumption being that the country’s condition is such that it needs only what you’re offering: a makeover in an extreme conservative image.

No. They’ve turned conservatism into a dangerous, fearsome word. They want to turn the clocks back, act like a regime instead of elected representatives. They may claim that the American people want what they’re selling, but that’s their first overstep. The American people is a catch-all term, an unwarranted assumption, because Republicans speak for not even half of the country’s voters. They don’t speak for me, and haven’t for a while.

And their Christian Nationalism fetish is maybe the most concerning piece of all. Their refusal to ignore the intent of separation of church and state will simply continue to give religious beliefs a black eye. They will bend and twist and unduly coerce the tenets of their faith into what will, eventually and once again, prove to be a huge mistake. They conveniently overlook the passage where Jesus says to shake the dust off their feet and move on. Jesus says nothing about beating the ”heathens” into submission until they’re all on board. But they may not know much about Jesus, since they seem to find more of what they’re looking for in the Old Testament.

Anyway, there’s a lack of humility and imagination in the Republican Party. They are the party of backwards, oppressed and dutifully fearful of the incompetent at the top of their ticket. They may claim to be the party of limited government and personal responsibility, defenders of the pursuit of happiness and the American Dream. But in reality, they appear to be the party of paranoid, angry control freaks who lack trust and spend a lot of time dreaming about yesterday.

I refuse to watch the RNC. Their rhetoric and general tone have long infuriated me, and I’m not interested in hearing how the recent assassination attempt has changed things. I can’t stomach more than a minute or two of their trash talk. And now that the ticket is finalized, we’ll be suffering a steady stream of double-barreled anger and rebuke and fine-tuned smooth talking.

Saturday’s events have changed nothing, in my view. It’s not like Trump has a whole new perspective on life now that he realizes how close he came to death or some sort of grave injury. No lightbulbs, no change of heart for him or those around him. They of course have been handed a gift in the form of softened public sentiment, but the stretch run is still going to entail many wild accusations and strange statements about policy and philosophy, and reveal this brand of Republican politics to be more of the same off-the-charts darkness.

Trump may feel like he’s been given a second chance, but he won’t use it for good. It’s more likely to simply affirm his understanding that his presidency is meant to be, that more clearly he is on some sort of unstoppable, even God-ordained, mission.

I’m glad the Dems go last. They’ve got a few weeks to get their act together.

I guess I must be one of the desensitized ones. I’m not the least bit shocked by the events at the Trump rally on Saturday. And Joe Biden’s Oval Office address, in which he says we can’t allow this violence to be normalized, seems more a weak shout into the void than anything substantive.

The kumbaya bus appears to have left a long time ago. Violence– political or otherwise– is our middle name here in America (right, Birmingham? Right, Chicago and numerous other places around the country?).

Calls for unity and a decrying of this assault on civility seem disingenuous, mere protocol, the expected response. That people can be outraged and indignant now is almost ironic, since violence is woven into the fabric of this nation, sadly. We should not be at all surprised by what happened in PA on Saturday. Concerned, worried? Maybe. But not surprised.

How does this occurrence foster unity? How can unity happen when the current political climate practically dictates confrontation and standing one’s ground? At this point, edicts from the President and appeals to reason and calm end up sounding more like window dressing than anything actionable.

Trump doesn’t get a pass because of his close call.

His calls for unity ring hollow. And what kind of unity is he talking about—in his party, in the nation (that would be laughable)?

He spends the last nine years talking in incendiary terms, advocating violence and inciting it, and then says it’s time for unity. Is he implying unity behind him? I refuse to believe he has it in his heart, which is twelve sizes too small, to even conceive of such a thing.

He gets no pass. He does not get to become a sympathetic figure. Or worse, a hero. Does anyone think for a minute that, after this attempt on his life, he’s a changed man? They would be as delusional as he still is.

It will be full speed ahead for him, and if he wins in November, say hello to Project 2025.

It occurred to me, as it has probably already occurred to others a long time ago, that Trump takes his ardent followers to be idiots. He banks on that, depends on an unquestioning acceptance of the constant stream of consciousness and bullshit that exits his mouth.

It’s remarkable, really, that so many people come to his rallies, sometimes in the middle of the day in the hot sun, ready to sit or stand through boring stories and irrelevant tangents, along with the darkness and lies of whoever is writing the drivel on the teleprompter.

Trump is a false prophet, a front man for the league of misfits and traitors ready to remake America according to their twisted and archaic vision. He doesn’t know his ass from his elbow, but those around him know at least that much.

I’m not sure how much it will matter, with regard to the shooter’s back story. Trump was grazed, most likely emboldened, and, as with everything else, he will use this to his advantage—to play himself up as a brave soldier for the cause…, or to make an appeal to his gun-toting base, who have always been looking for a reason to dust off their weaponry.

When it first happened, I was thinking maybe it was all staged, wasn’t sure what I was watching, but a dead spectator would seem to put the kibosh on that theory.

There’s always the possibility that this serves as a wake-up call for Trump, causes him to reel in the invective or maybe even think twice about continuing.

That’s funny.

We all saw him raise his fist or wave to the crowd as secret service agents were hustling him from the stage. He was already playing it up. And the crowd was delirious.

“Well, Biden is old and seems to be on his way out, so I guess I have to vote for Donald Trump.”

Is this what people are thinking?

They of course are not obligated to vote for the guy—they could write someone in or not vote at all, which admittedly is not the best option but better than voting for Donald Trump just because.

Something isn’t right here. There’s a lot of hair on fire right now. People aren’t thinking clearly. The media are jumping all over this story and making things worse. They need drama and provocative headlines—smooth sailing and clear paths aren’t nearly as exciting as friction and the potential for disaster.

I guess I understand Joe Biden’s reticence and heel-dragging, because no one with remaining faculties likes to hear that people think you’re no longer all there. But there’s a certain momentum building, and it is not in the direction of confidence in Joe’s capabilities. Poll results and down-ballot fears seem to be driving this madness, along with peoples’ legitimate concerns for Biden’s stamina and ability to continue handling the workload for another four years.

The writing would seem to be on the wall, but the one person who could conceivably open the door and shed light on a workable path is, currently, not interested in cooperating. Biden must be listening to somebody besides his inner voice. Two camps within the Democratic Party are creating chaos at the moment. People are putting a lot of faith in numbers and claiming that the sky is falling. Hopefully, they’re not panicking. Hopefully, they’re doing their due diligence and making sure Russia or Iran or China or some other hacks aren’t finding a way to add to the confusion.

And hopefully, when it comes time to actually fill in the circles on the ballot, people decide there’s no fucking way that they vote for Donald Trump. A diminished Joe Biden will still be better than a guy with way more issues, who’s only 3 years younger, and who’s willing to render this country unrecognizable and drive it back to medieval times– in no small part because he’s a sore loser.