Trump is a cheap stunt. It’s all he’s ever been. A loud-mouthed pretender in love with the attention.

Imagine someone so selfish, just yakking away, taking up our time for the past nine years. Longer, if you include all the years of annoying people in NYC with his Savvy Businessman schtick.

This all has to come to an end now, or at least by November 5. No more of this clown, and the detritus he’s stirred up. We have more important things to think about besides a bloviating, shallow phoney.

Mr. Biden is wounded. He’s defiant, but wounded, and the momentum seems to be building among those who want him to step aside.

Even if this is somehow a piling on, it feels like we’re not far removed from that moment when Biden faces the cameras and announces he’s bowing out in favor of Kamala Harris. It seems to be approaching inevitable. Biden’s candidacy is becoming less viable every day in no small part because there is so much negative talk out there. It’s taking on the feel of a self-fulfilling prophecy, even if Joe is still actually capable of carrying out his duties.

I hope the Dems know what they’re doing. Changing candidates at this point in the campaign would appear to be a risky thing. Harris seems capable, but then the question becomes, “Who will be the running mate?” Stepping back for a moment, it sometimes feels like the DNC is panicking, depending too much on poll numbers still 4 months removed from the election, and strangely fixated on the sub-par debate performance. This could turn into a debacle if it’s not done right. The thing is, I can’t see people deciding to vote for Trump if Biden withdraws. It seems more likely that people just won’t vote at all, unless a more attractive candidate emerges.

Events in England and France are encouraging, to some extent. One can only hope that trend carries over to the states. In any event, whoever ends up facing Trump needs to be interesting enough to prevent any chance of the empty-headed gas bag prevailing.

It has to be tough for Joe Biden. I’m only 70 but I still feel, at least mentally, like I’m 30. It’s probably the same for Joe, except he’s 81 and he’s President of the United States.

But what about FDR, one might ask: did his polio inhibit his ability to do his job—for 3-plus terms?! I guess that’s not apples and apples. FDR was 63 when he died, and he was a different animal to begin with. Joe is already 81, and showing signs of advanced age—in a job that demands sharpness and stamina, and a certain tirelessness.

The past is the past, and Joe performed admirably. But the future is the future, and Joe will not get any younger. It’s hard to think in these terms, and maybe everyone is overreacting. But a certain reality is becoming apparent—people are worried that Mr. Biden may not be able to handle another term and all that will inevitably come with it.

Well, that, and current members of Congress are worried about their own futures and the likelihood of Biden prevailing in November.

Interesting and challenging times for America and the Democratic Party. Either things quiet down and we forge ahead with Joe, or a decision must be made, in short order, to ready Kamala Harris for a helluva stretch run to Election Day.

History conveniently shelved. I can see why. It’s easy to sweep the ugly stuff under the rug or avoid it altogether– if people want us to grow up with a certain notion of America in our heads. No need to teach the nuts and bolts and gritty details of Manifest Destiny—that somehow entitled, God-ordained, and ruthless expansion westward.

Promises made, broken, or never kept. The poor treatment, the utter disregard for indigenous traditions and practices. The extermination of men, women and children. Survivors and subsequent generations relegated to reservations, treated little better than impediments and obstacles and less than human.

That understanding of America, that fuller picture of how we came to be, isn’t liable to elicit the same feelings of pride and patriotism. Many eventually find out, though, and then a fair share of our history becomes less than heroic.

America the beautiful, with a giant asterisk and lots of small print.

Nigel Farage annoys the hell out of me. He’s a former broadcaster, a flamboyant, pompous loudmouth who thinks Britain can do just fine on its own by circling the wagons and closing doors and, apparently, just returning to the good old days of some sort of prideful self-sustenance. It’s a short walk from what he’s selling to racist isolationism. The fact that he and Trump see eye to eye on some things should tell us everything we need to know about him. He’s a fount of arrogance.

His critique of the new PM—that he’s boring—is boring in its own right. I’d take boring any day, if Keir Starmer can deliver on his promises.

The interview between George Stephanopoulos and the President was underwhelming. George was trying to get Joe to consider certain realities, to say he’s old and should consider withdrawing, and Joe was not having it, instead touting his own- or his administration’s—accomplishments.

Should the individual get all the credit, by the way? They’re making it sound like this is the case, like POTUS doesn’t have any other staff, or help on these highlighted legislative wins. And the increasingly loud drumbeat from other Democrats is disingenuous at best. They’re not concerned for the country, though they may be worried about Biden’s chances—but only because they’re worried about their own chances for reelection and the likelihood of holding onto their own cushy jobs.

It’s a crisis situation that’s been in the making since Biden won 4 years ago. He said himself, back then, that he was a bridge candidate, but now he’s convinced he’s gotta hang in there and hang on for another 4 years, “finish the job,” when he will be 86 and even more feeble than he already appears.

With age may come wisdom, but other less desirable realities also tag along—like mobility issues and an overall lack of stamina that would most likely inhibit his ability to keep up with the demands of the office. If he’s the only one who can beat Trump, then polling already says we’re in trouble, even though it’s only July. It’s turning into a nightmare for Democrats and the country, but the sooner a new candidate is found, the better.

There is becoming a certain inevitability about Biden’s odds of prevailing here. A certain momentum appears to be building. The sooner a decision about Kamala is made, the better. It may be time for her to step into the ring and face the Trump onslaught, and hopefully put him in his place. Shut him up for good.

Talk about having to rise to the occasion. Wow.

Hurricanes have such innocuous sounding names. Who’d ever think “Beryl” could be such a monster?

Ask the people of certain Caribbean islands like St. Vincent and the Grenadines, along with Jamaica.  Some islands in the chain are almost completely leveled, 100% of the populations affected, 90% of structures damaged or completely destroyed. It’s always hard to comprehend such damage.

The storm has weakened as it’s moved on to the Yucatan Peninsula and beyond, but will most likely strengthen again before it hits the Texas coast by the end of the weekend.

Meanwhile, in California, the heat has arrived, along with wildfires that have forced the evacuation of at least 30,000 people. It all sounds like Debbie Downer on steroids, like a really bad country song. But it’s just natural forces unfolding the way they’re liable to unfold when things are out of whack.  

Time for my annual July 4th assessment.

In a word—unsettled. Bland, I know, but there are lots of dishes spinning, currently. We as a nation are careening toward an election that has consequential written all over it—at least that’s what we keep hearing from a variety of pundits and people supposedly in the know. We’ve heard it so often that it might be starting to sound more than slightly cliché, losing its capacity to move people.

I don’t know what to think anymore, except that I don’t want Donald Trump to be President, because his vision for America is no vision at all. He’s an empty-souled, blood-sucking leech who’s hijacked nine years of our collective national life and poisoned the water, enticing millions of disciples with divisive rhetoric and promises he has no intention of keeping.

So, half the country is being misled, and the other half is wondering if the center will hold. The ideals haven’t gone anywhere. It’s just that we need to face this current assault before moving on.

It’s difficult, I guess, to think of America as anything less than a beacon of light. I hate the word “exceptional,” because that sounds like hubris and boasting and a symptom of neediness. But our forebears built us a firm foundation, perhaps based on an assumption that future generations would engage the struggle to understand it. To hold onto it, maintain it, build on it, and appreciate it.

I hate to think that we who are alive today will be the ones to witness the squandering, the crumbling, and the unwillingness to engage the task of forming that more perfect union.

(sorry… I’m suddenly unable to change the font size.)

Talking heads. The airwaves are full of ‘em. Loud, self-assured, peddling one opinion or another, carving out their niche, or trying to. We listened to a recent podcast from Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, who spoke reassuringly about Joe Biden’s less-than-stellar debate performance. Mr. Wilson doesn’t seem too worried, or didn’t in the immediate aftermath.

But we flipped to other more recent clips and got a different sense for the level of alarm and hair-on-fire panic that seems to be spreading through certain media personalities and even among Democratic Party operatives.

I guess the public will make up its own mind, but the commentary people are liable to hear seems likely to be weighted toward skepticism regarding Biden’s fitness for wearing the mantle for another 4 years—years that will surely test the fittest of office holders. The fact that he’s not Donald Trump still matters, but it appears, currently, to matter much less than it did in 2020.

I fell asleep before the end of Maddow’s interview with Stormy Daniels. Must be tough to remember everything about an encounter that happened 18 years ago. It seems like forces opposed to Trump are pulling out all the stops in an effort to find something that stuns people into realizing what a ne’r-do-well they’re thinking about voting for.

In the bigger picture, the indictments and counts that would seem to matter more may never see the light of day, or come to trial. Lower courts and the highest court appear to be doing their best to make sure nothing happens before the election.

Maybe this is how justice works and it’s just frustrating for those of us who hope Trump faces consequences for being the scumbag he’s always been. Or maybe there is indeed a sizeable army of people willing to defend him because he’s still their ticket to wielding the power and forcing their fossilized conservative views on the masses. And of course, Trump has always been good for business, blah, blah, blah.

One could get the sense that the Trump kool-aid is being consumed by people one might have thought would have rejected it. It’s like all most of us can do is sit and watch. Well, we can vote, but so can the masses of lackies and zombies who still think Trump is the best thing since… whatever. What’s so life-altering about sliced white bread?