Kamala’s looking tired, and she recently sounded like she might have a cold or something. She must be biting her tongue and fighting the temptation to pull her hair out after Biden’s ill-timed gaffe lambasting Trump supporters, calling them garbage. Are you kidding me? An unforced error on Joe’s part, a totally unnecessary pot shot that just adds fuel to a preventable fire.

Geez, Joe. What the hell? This better not turn out to be a Dukakis moment. Of course, the fruit of his ill-timed commentary is that certain media outlets are siezing upon the moment and are going to use it for all it’s worth, banking on the targets of Biden’s venom being as thin-skinned and easily offended as they are often portrayed. Call it convenient victimhood.

Anyway, it’s a good thing they got Biden to step aside, though he’s still been able to do damage. He’s acting like a cranky old man who doesn’t care what he says anymore. Frail and crotchety. This has forced Harris to put some distance beween her and her current boss, which is a bit of a dance, but not a bad thing.

Lots of twists and turns, hills and valleys in this loooong, merciless campaign season. Too long, unnecessarily long. Ridiculously, painfully long.

And too often lost in the weeds, though we can thank Trump for most of that that.

Way to go, Joe. We might have had ’em on the ropes after the wannabe MSG Nazi rally, but then you had to open your mouth and call Trump supporters garbage. Even, if by chance, you were talking about the opening act who bad-mouthed Puerto Rico, it doesn’t matter now. Fox and the rest are using your gaffe for all its worth, and they’ll get some totally avoidable mileage from it.

Way to go, Joe. So glad you’re done in January.

Maybe the NY Jets hit their low last night, or at least added a signature to their nearly lost season.

A rookie running back went in for a beautiful running touch down—his first with the team—and decided he needed to do the drop-the-ball-at-the-goal-line silliness and timed it poorly. Not only did the play end up being a fumble, but the ball rolled through the back of the endzone for a touchback and the Texans took over. Zero points.

There were a few consolation pats on the back, but mostly the guy was left alone on the sidelines to wipe the egg off his face and think about the abject failure of his bone-headed stunt. Shortly after, the Texans sustained a 98-yard drive and scored before the end of the half.

Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit pounced a bit, but even they knew there wasn’t much to add in the way of commentary to such an obviously avoidable and costly mistake. Maybe a lesson was learned, though it’s hard to know anymore. Kids will be kids. 

There exists an education gap in the electorate. According to Judy Woodruff in a report on NPR, there are far more college-educated voters today than there were in 1960, and more of them vote Democratic.

Of course they do, and not only because someone with a college education is more likely to be better off financially, thus having the luxury of thinking further down the road beyond paycheck to paycheck. It’s also because their worlds have gotten bigger merely by their exposure to living on a college campus or attending college classes, and having opportunities to travel and see the world as something more than what exists in a single zip code.

Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump went to college, so it doesn’t always follow that the college-educated emerge with a tendency toward blue. I guess one can pick and choose what they get from their educational opportunities, if they have them in the first place. To me, the benefit of mobility and opportunity is an evolution of thought, a heightened awareness that moves beyond tolerance and even acceptance. Difference and diversity among Homo Sapiens are givens in this world, and not things to be feared. We can choose to see things this way, or not.

Higher education isn’t the bad thing people are told, for some reason, to be wary of. Ignorance may be bliss, but it also perpetuates itself and puts less emphasis on critical thinking, and it closes doors.

Much of the rhetoric that seeps from Trump’s pie hole, and those of other highly educated Republicans, reflects the thought patterns of someone who didn’t take full advantage of their college experience or, for some reason, arrived at very different conclusions regarding human nature and what’s important.

In any event, those who never went to college, and who harbor suspicion of anyone who did, need to understand that Donald Trump, college graduate, is banking on their ignorance. He can’t win without that.

To lifelong Republican voters: the world will not end if you decide Trump is a bridge too far.

If Trump wins, it’s gonna feel like the world’s heading for the shitter for a while—maybe for at least 4 more years. He was something of an unknown quantity in 2016. But not anymore. There are far fewer excuses this time around.

Still, many will be happy if Trump wins, though I’m not sure why. Many more will be dazed and confused, angry and sad, maybe all at once. I will be in that latter group, mystified, likely to accept the results, though hoping maybe somebody will lead an inquiry, if warranted, into how such a thing could happen– given Trump’s telegraphing of an intent to manipulate local election boards.

A bad man, an empty soul, will have prevailed, and that would be a tragic thing. I can foresee unrest either way, whether Trump or Harris wins.

We’ve somehow gotten ourselves into a spot where, win or lose, Trump is going to continue to make things difficult for everyone. He and the machine behind him are not about honoring election results or preserving the Union. They’re about distraction and doubt and blowing it up and reconfiguring it more to their liking.

The two sides can’t both be right. Trump is a fascist wannabe, Harris is not a Communist. Trump is an incompetent narcissist, Harris is not a proponent of some cockamamy nanny state. Trump is a brash, boastful, empty-headed simpleton, Harris is smart and sharp and passionate and will gain understanding of the implications of holding such high office. Trump is running from the law, Harris will do what she can to uphold it.

Sure, they’re both politicians, but we have to hang our hats somewhere, put our trust in somebody. How anyone can trust Donald Trump is beyond me.

The news that North Korea is supplying 12,000 crack troops to Putin is of course a worrying development. It also might indicate that Russia is desperate, and not concerned with the world’s perception of escalation and an expansion of hostilities.

It’s good timing on Putin’s part—we’re preoccupied with the upcoming election, and things continue to be ugly and messy in the Middle East. Lots of distractions. But he knows we’ll notice the influx of a third party’s troops. Seems like he’s baiting us, or threatening us to vote for Trump, or else.

This addition of North Korean soldiers seems like the sort of thing that would be considered a glaringly obvious red flag. As a turning point, as the moment when WWIII started. Because how can we stay uninvolved now? Will it take another direct attack on us to force our hand and decide, reluctantly, to engage the little madman?

Nothing good will come of this, and based on what we’ve seen in the Middle East in the past year, along with sporadic attempts to reason with Putin, diplomacy will be impotent. Kamala is going to have her hands full. The world’s Boris Badenovs will see to that.

The Yankees better not make history. They took game 4 last night, avoiding a sweep.

No epic comeback for those guys, please. The Dodgers better not lose their mojo.

I know… the purely selfish motives of a Red Sox fan who couldn’t stand the hoopla and trash talk surrounding a Yankees feat that no team has ever accomplished in the history of Major League Baseball—coming back from 0-3 in a World Series. That would suck.

It’d figure, though—just when a 20^th anniversary Netflix special airs about the ’04 Sox, the Yankees say “hold our beer…” It’d feel like the pinnacle of one-upmanship, like the Yanks get the final word, again and forever.

Well, at least the Sox pulled off their comeback against the Yankees. We’ll always have that.   

The Opinion pages of the Washington Post or any newspaper are a space for publishing opinions. For Jeff Bezos, this is conveniently a bridge too far, not in his best interest, if Donald Trump happens to win the election. Bezos appears to not want to incur Trump’s wrath by endorsing Kamala Harris, which the paper was preparing to do.

This is one more thing, in light of everything else of concern in this election, that has people wondering if Donald Trump is an actual, legitimate threat to our democracy, to freedom of speech, to the envisioned republic as Franklin and the rest once spoke of and brought to life.

Bezos, according to Bezos, would probably explain his move in practical terms, if he was available for comment. But many others are of the mind that this is nothing more than cowardice, and a selfish economic decision.

People are canceling the paper, but maybe they should cancel their Prime subscription instead. I bet Bezos did the math and figured that would be a harder thing for people to give up– we can’t part with the free shipping.

With a week to go, the polls keep saying the race is close. Many are hoping it’s not as close as some may want us to believe.

There’s so much about this election that’s unnecessarily troubling, beginning with Trump himself, who, by some stroke of evil genius or troubling lapses in judgment and letting down of the guard, is in the running for the third straight time.

As Rachel Maddow observed last night, we shouldn’t have to be worrying about the state of our election and voting infrastructure, but we have to. Again. And even more acutely than in 2016 or 2020.

We shouldn’t have to be concerned with international interference in our election, but we must. Again. And even more acutely than in the previous two presidential cycles.

It all reeks of madness, as we once again prepare to gird the loins for election results that most likely won’t be known for days, or longer—because, among other things, Trump’s Stop the Steal II is a more well-oiled machine this time around, ballot boxes have already been suspiciously torched, poll workers threatened, and Trump boasts of some “secret” between him and Mike Johnson. What the hell is that about, or is Trump just blowing smoke?

There is so much about which to be either worried or madder than a hornet. And it all comes back to Trump.

He’s been an easy mark from the get-go. The dark underbelly of ultra-conservative Republicans has always seen him as their man, but not because he was an up-and-coming star or a capable leader. The real brain trust knew he could be manipulated, that he was and is an egomaniac, a narcissist who lives for the spotlight, who tolerates anyone who pays him compliments and tells him what he wants to hear.

Trump and Vance have been acting and talking like losers ever since Kamala Harris entered the race and became the nominee. They’ve spent most of the time defending themselves, downplaying and denying their nefarious intent and paranoia. They speak very little of policy and more about how dangerous Harris and Walz will be. They distract and lie and gaslight practically with every breath, and paint a wildly dark picture of the state of things in this country.

With good reason, they can’t shake their association with fascism and Naziism, and they appear intent on continuing to bring out the worst in as many of us as possible. What kind of leadership is that? Who actually wants that?

Maybe this is what happens when the head of the ticket doesn’t really care about the country or his potential responsibilities, but is only in it for the ego boost and power and protection from prosecution.