-Why have the Kardashians ever been a thing? They really are a symptom of some sort of illness or deprivation.

-Donald Trump never grew up.

-“Regulation” is a dirty word only if you’re comfortable and you really want to stay that way, and you’re just a selfish bastard.

-If Joe Biden is accurate in his declaration that Trump has designs on ending Social Security, you’d think it would be a– maybe THE– line in the sand. The thing that gets Trump fans to reconsider their vote.

-A lingering question remains: How does he get away with all this stuff?

-One more: Besides the Democrats, why does no one else stand in his way? It can’t be because they think he’s doing a wonderful job.

-With Trump, the buck stops somewhere else.

The intentions seem so blatantly obvious and ballsy. Beside the hint at postponing the election, there was the USPS shenanigans, Intelligence briefing issues, and now exhorting his supporters to vote more than once!

And none of it has anything to do with the reality of lagging poll numbers and an immoral incumbent fearful of life after the White House?

It seems what we’re all witnessing, whether or not we want to, are the (hopefully) last gasps of a desperate man.

Was it just me, or did the applause and cheering during Trump’s acceptance speech seem at times less than enthusiastic? Forced, half-hearted, not exactly genuine. Did attendees each get a stipend for showing up? Did they at any time stop and ask themselves what they were doing there? Were they told not to wear a mask?

The speech itself was vintage someone else- probably Stephen Miller or some other adviser. Those weren’t Trump’s words. He’s always just reading scripts and teleprompters. He doesn’t have a true stance. There are no planks in his platform because he has no platform. He doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He just says stuff that’s calculated to resonate with The Base.

It was great fun to see folks having a field day with Melania’s green screen.

Let’s see… two named storms in the Gulf at the same time, one of which was the strongest to hit the U.S. in a hundred years, intensifying quickly. Mega-fires in California, from one end of the state to the other (and the winds haven’t really picked up yet); drought; pink snow in the Italian Alps; temperatures hovering around 100 degrees IN SIBERIA; an “inland hurricane” that takes out more than one-third of the corn crop in Iowa; locusts in Africa and Asia; a dam threatened in China; above average temps over larger swaths of this country lingering for longer periods of time; views of the Himalayas from northern India that some had never seen in their lifetime because many were not driving and factories were not operating during the early days of covid-19, so the air was cleaner.

Yet there is no climate change. And there are almost 8 billion of us, but we’re having no effect on the natural processes that sustain life…

The fossil fuel hold-outs and flat-earthers must somehow sense this isn’t true, somehow know that there is a connection between our sheer numbers and the condition of the planet. But there are special interests, livelihoods, money and power at stake. And these things still hold more sway than the concerns of a clear majority of rational, well-intentioned scientists who keep telling us we need to wake up and do something before it’s too late.

Only one of a thousand reasons why Trump and whatever party he’s part of have to be defeated in November.

Both conventions are over now, thankfully. Behold the stretch run. The ugliness will be ramped up to a 12 out of 10.

I can’t imagine what’s yet to come. Unless people can break free of the incitement to fear, and they see through the veneer of the Trump camp’s attempts at image makeover, it’s gonna be another nail biter.

Close when it shouldn’t be close.

After the RNC, the polling gap will close because people will have believed the four-day advertisement for a person who doesn’t exist.

I’m fighting the urge to look at YouTube late night clips about the RNC, even though I’d probably enjoy the commentary from Colbert and others.

I know that there will also be clips of the actual speeches from various Republican luminaries and loudmouths, and I just don’t want to listen to any of it. Sounds like they painted quite the apocalyptic picture last night, which wouldn’t seem to be the most enlightened way of inspiring American greatness. It’s difficult to imagine anyone but the flat earthers and anxious bunker builders actually believing any of it.

Fear sells, sadly, but maybe folks can step back and ask themselves whether or not such tactics are the most honest and appealing approach.

Neither candidate is an angel, of course. They both have flaws, they’ve both said things they probably wish they could take back. Well, at least Biden has. Trump can’t admit that he’s ever done or said anything wrong or off-color or untimely or anything else. He conveniently forgets, simply denies, lies, or blames someone else.

He’s gotten a pass for most of his life. And people seem to appreciate the fact that he continues to get away with that, like it’s somehow admirable and commendable that he can continue to find ways to be deceitful and avoid consequences.

The bottom line for me is that I neither like nor respect Donald Trump. He’s an arrogant, insincere, twisted Forrest Gump without the heart who somehow lands on his feet, despite being an unsympathetic bottom feeder. He is eminently unlikeable. I will never understand how so many can rally around him or believe a word he says.

Even though I can’t think of one reason why this election should be remotely close, we should probably prepare for its being contested.

I know I should watch the RNC, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. There is nothing to be gained from it, except higher blood pressure and unnecessary angst. I truly don’t expect to hear anything of value, or anything that would appeal to my sense of country or patriotism.

I don’t know what has happened over the years, because I used to listen to people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and found them at least entertaining if not occasionally lucid. That was during the Bill Clinton years, I think, and I wasn’t exactly a Clinton fan. He did seem like “slick Willie” to me. But anymore these guys are lunatic fringe, and they support the likes of Donald Trump and everything he says he stands for.

Just hearing Trump speak raises my anger and anxiety levels. Everything that exits his mouth is shit. And to know that so many still hang on his every word… It’s clear that pro-Trump PACs are just going directly to the fear and smear tactics with their latest batch of commercials.

So the Republicans have the floor this week. The whole country, if it chooses, can tune in and listen to what I can only assume will be speech after speech heeping praises on Trump and painting the worst possible picture of Joe Biden. It’ll be a whole cast of characters who appear to have drunk the kool-aid.

Trump himself will offer up more than his share of self-praise. It’ll be all Trump all the time. It’ll be obscene and ugly and hard to watch. But millions will watch, and they will eat it up. God help us.

-So the Dems got to draw first blood. I can’t imagine what sort of nonsense the Republicans will be spewing in their convention. Sounds like Trump is contemplating acceptance of the nomination from the White House, which no one has ever done, but he doesn’t give a shit so he’s gonna do it because he feels like he can. I won’t watch a minute of it because it’s just going to be 4 days of weirdness and paranoia with faux patriots and a bunch of people who make exaggerated claims about the Dems. They’re gonna tear Biden and everyone else apart, and make Donald Trump seem messianic. So, no thanks. I’ll pass.

-It bothers me that Trump supporters can be so cavalier about their man. I swear they don’t really respect him, either, but they do love the way he makes Democrats cringe and squirm. I’ve never been a real Biden fan, but he’s miles ahead of Trump. Biden-Harris will get my vote. Trump can walk east till his hat floats.

-Of course the face-to-face experience is preferred to virtual learning. Of course it is! And it would be happening without reservation IF THERE WASN’T A PANDEMIC GOING ON!!