​Less than 10 days remain before election day. A few reflections on what is going on:
 
Democrats are right to be worried. The shock of a possible Trump triumph is palpable. It is difficult to get beyond the fact that, despite his disgusting behavior, his threats to prosecute his enemies, his vulgarity, his severe cognitive decline, his disastrous record in office, the actions he proposes should he return to power, and the immense danger he poses, half the country favors his election.
 
Learning from history is not something Republicans do. They are reprising the disastrous policies they advocated and put in place a hundred years ago, namely severe immigration restrictions and confiscatory tariffs, both of which were major contributors to the Great Depression. Self-defeating policies may win an election, but guarantee defeat within a couple of years, provided that the former GOP permits future elections to take place.
 
If Kamala wins, post-election chaos is certain. Republicans have been preparing for four years to contest a Democratic win, and they are much farther along than in 2020. In several battleground states, Republican-controlled legislatures have made it easier for county election boards to refuse to certify election results. While there are procedures in each state to either compel certification or substitute alternative certifying authorities, these require court intervention. Consider January 6 as a dress rehearsal for the violence likely to ensue in 2024-25.
 
More than 100 Republican election deniers have “infiltrated” local election boards in the battleground states, poised to wreak havoc come November 5. A number of these individuals were also fake electors in 2020 and have been indicted for that treasonous act.
 
One of the counters to the “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” message from the Trump campaign is to remind people that, in 2020, America shut down because of the pandemic and watched Trump mismanage the crisis, with devastating effects on individuals’ lives, work and education. Trump should have been hammered with his historic fiasco every day. The Trump administration did not end in February 2020 when the pandemic began. C’mon folks!
 
In 2016, Green Party candidate Jill Stein got more votes in the three “blue wall” states—Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin—than the margins by which Trump prevailed over Hillary Clinton. Had she not been on the ballot, her voters would have either chosen Clinton or stayed home. She is potentially a disrupter once again, seemingly unmoved by the likelihood that a vote for her is in essence a vote for Trump. Stein’s hubris and recklessness is appalling.
 
The key thing Harris has to do now: Demonstrate that she wants to move away from Biden’s economic record. She blew the chance to do so in a recent interview where she said she could not think of one thing where she would have done something different from Biden. Big mistake. If you want voters to see you as the “change” candidate, this is not the way to do it.
 
Trump’s obvious cognitive decline has had zero impact on the campaign. While incomprehensible that anyone would want to cast their lot with a candidate who displays symptoms of likely deteriorating into deep dementia sooner rather than later, it is also inexcusable that the media devotes so little attention to Trump’s mental decay after obsessing over Biden’s cognition.
 
Mindful that Trump understands very little about economics, Harris and her surrogates should devote much more campaign time and advertising to the utter absurdity of his all-encompassing tariff plan—“all tariffs, in all countries, all the time” (per Yale economist Jeffrey Sonnefeld), which will amount to a huge national sales tax on every American.
 
The question voters need to ask themselves as they enter the voting booth is this: “How will what the candidates are promising affect me and my family?” If they actually do this, they need to vote for Harris and Democrats down ballot. Trump’s proposed tariffs, just one of his Pandora’s box of phenomenally stupid and thoughtless proposals, will amount to a heavy tax increase on every American family and a spur to rampant inflation.
 
I am disappointed, but not surprised that the artificial intelligence elephant in the room has not been discussed by either candidate or appears anywhere in what passes these days as party platforms. AI in the near term is likely to have a massive impact on jobs, and we do not have a plan in place to deal with the colossal disruption that sudden mammoth job loss could produce. While Trump probably does not understand the issue, Harris certainly does.
 
Similarly, too little attention has been paid by both Harris and the media to Trump’s epic bungling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to the fact that we lack policies in place born of that catastrophic event to manage the next pandemic.
 
January 6, which Trump now says was “a day of love.” NOT! It was a day of infamy. This was high treason, period. Full stop. The very long and achingly plodding arm of the law may not have snagged him yet, but the media surely should have. At least he must be made to pay at the polls. JANUARY 6! Enough said.
 
The atmospherics around these last weeks of campaigning are ominously reminiscent of the weeks in January 1933 before German President von Hindenburg made Adolf Hitler Chancellor at the end of the month. After that, it was all downhill for the planet. Eighty million people had to die before the situation was resolved 12 years later.
 
Dick Hermann
October 27, 2024

​Donald Trump has, in the course of his presidential campaign, threatened many diverse people and groups: Jews, immigrants, Democrats, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, General Mark Milley (Ret.), CBS, Hollywood, blue states, judges, Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Merrick Garland, Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, poll workers, Adam Schiff, nonprofits, Liz Cheney, Hillary Clinton, Democratic donors, and anyone he deems “the enemy within.”
 
He has said that if he wins and returns to power, he will unleash the Justice Department (DOJ) against his perceived enemies. Unbelievably, his second attempt at weaponizing the Justice Department (he did this in 2020 in furtherance of the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him) may be perfectly legal.
 
So said Trump apologist Chief Justice John Roberts in the last decision announced by the Supreme Court at the end of its 2023-24 term in early July. His majority opinion in Trump v. United States is arguably the most outrageous, appalling and baseless Supreme Court decision in its long history, at least on a par with Dred Scott v. Sandford (upholding slavery), Plessy v. Ferguson (endorsing Jim Crow laws), Hammer v. Dagenhart (encouraging child labor), and Koresmatsu v. United States (approving the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans), not to mention the many dreadful decisions of the Roberts Court preceding Trump.
 
There are countless reasons why Donald Trump should never be allowed within a parsec of the Oval Office again. This one, however, is among the most important. His fever dream of investigating, locking up and perhaps even executing (viz. Mark Milley) his perceived adversaries is straight out of the fascist playbook employed so effectively in Italy and Germany in the inter-war years of the twentieth century.
 
Should he win, he will now have virtually unlimited license to commit whatever crimes he desires, backed up by a servile Supreme Court that has already laid the groundwork for his future wrongdoings. The danger his return to power represents is apparent in the decision of Special Counsel Jack Smith to modify his indictment of Trump in the January 6 case to comply with the Supreme Court’s perverse ruling.
 
Smith’s revised indictment excises mention of Trump’s efforts to browbeat DOJ to help him overturn the 2020 election via patently illegal actions, e.g., seizing voting machines, falsely claiming there were problems with swing state vote counts, installing a co-conspirator as Attorney General, urging states to replace legitimate electors with fake ones, and much more.
 
The Court ruled that former presidents can never be prosecuted for actions relating to the core powers of their office, and that there is at least a presumption of immunity for their official acts more broadly. Smith interpreted that to mean that communicating with the Justice Department, regardless of the content of those communications, was a core power of the office of the President, thus off limits to any prosecution. So, the fact that Trump tried to get DOJ to commit illegal and unconstitutional acts is irrelevant.
 
You may feel gobsmacked by Roberts’ mind-boggling illogic, but alas, this is the world in which we currently live. And while you may not have to worry about a normal, honorable President exploiting that ruling, Trump is anything but. If he orders DOJ or the FBI to round up and even kill his enemies, under the Court’s reasoning, that’s just fine.
 
There is an alternative to this potential horror show. It is up to the people of this country who still value the rule of law and common decency to get out and vote. Let us pray that there are enough of us left.
 
Dick Hermann
October 19, 2024

​I gave up eons ago thinking that Donald Trump could not possibly go any deeper into the depths of the noxious swill he inhabits. So it was no surprise that after putting children and local government workers at risk and completely disrupting the lives of Springfield Ohioans with his lies about legal Haitian immigrants dining on white folks’ pets, he would next be looking to trash peoples’ lives elsewhere.
 
He did not have to wait long for his next opportunity to wreck the lives of people who, in this case, just suffered catastrophic loss.
 
Last week’s Trump victims were the millions of Georgians and North Carolinians under extreme duress from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene. As if they have not suffered enough, along comes Trump and his JD mini-me to lie about the federal response to their plight and likely move some of his true believers to refrain from applying for readily available federal aid.
 
Immediately following the devastation Helene wrought on the Southeastern United States, Trump rushed to battleground Georgia to exploit a campaign opportunity. While there, he lied continuously about how cruel and terrible the Biden-Harris administration’s response to the disaster has been. He claimed that Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, had tried repeatedly to get in touch with President Biden, to no avail. According to Trump, Biden refused to pick up the phone and speak to Kemp.
 
Only two hours before Trump’s brazen lie, Kemp announced that he and Biden had spoken, and that the President was following through on his promise to do whatever it takes to help Georgians affected by the storm.
 
Trump, however, was not finished peddling lies about the administration’s response. He also claimed, again without a shred of evidence, that federal aid was targeted to Democratic counties only, and not equally to Republican ones. He said Biden and Harris were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.” Again, another scurrilous lie easily disproved. He also claimed, falsely of course, that Harris had diverted FEMA funds to migrants.
 
Trump creation JD Vance quickly took up the false mantra, parroting his leader, repeating the same lies about disaster relief. And Georgia’s own mini-Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, she of Jewish space laser renown, asserted that “they” (historically an anti-Semitic trope) control the weather, this time guiding the hurricane to target areas that voted for Trump.
 
While President--
 
Remember, too, that when Trump visited Puerto Rico (after aides had to convince him that the island was, in fact, American territory), he distributed paper towels as if he was shooting free throws. Later, he withheld assistance from Puerto Rico for months when it was desperately needed.
 
And then there was “Sharpiegate” when Trump altered the projected, scientifically arrived at path of a hurricane to conform to his assertion that it would hit Alabama.
 
Finally, he wondered out loud why we could not detonate a nuclear weapon inside a hurricane in order to neutralize it.
 
It is noteworthy that during the Dark Age when Trump was in office, he resisted aiding states and regions where Democrats prevailed. Two of his White House aides said that, when California was seeking assistance after a series of devastating wildfires, Trump had to be convinced that the affected areas of the state contained Republican voters before authorizing federal help. They also said that his loathsome behavior was not a one-off.
 
Trump’s religious right followers say that deadly storms are “the wrath of God” when they hit Democratic areas. These folks aren’t saying much now.
 
Trump and his Project 2025 update of the 1930s Nazi program announced that they will privatize the National Weather Service should they seize power once again.
 
There is no point itemizing more of the vomitus of lies this sociopath is spewing around about this.
 
Once again, Trump shows that he is monumentally unfit to manage anything, much less a national emergency. As if more evidence is needed after observing him bungle his way through a global pandemic, advocating horse medications, ingesting bleach, sticking a UV-light up one’s…whatever, and secretly sending Covid tests to Vladimir Putin when they were in short supply here.
 
I am blown away by polls showing that this by far worst president in our long history is neck-and-neck with his opponent. What is wrong with people? He is a disaster waiting to happen. Don’t let it!
 
Dick Hermann
October 13, 2024

​This is getting to be an old, old story. Great Pretender JD Vance demonstrates in his debate with Tim Walz that he is one smooth operator…and the “lamestream media” (I can’t believe I am actually borrowing a phrase from Sarah Palin!) falls for his Oscar-worthy act. According to the utterly clueless reporters and pundits who get paid kings’ ransoms for their pearls of wisdom, Vance trounced Walz.
 
Aside from giving Vance’s slick but substantively-empty-overflow-of-lies presentation the nod, it was shocking to hear the after-action analysts do yet another “bothsidesism” commentary, equating Walz’s halting explanation for misstating when he happened to be in Hong Kong 35 summers ago with Vance’s awkward deflection when asked whether Biden won the 2020 election. Elevating what, at worst, was a teeny-tiny uncertainty (do any of us remember where we were on June 4, 1989?) with the Big Lie about a stolen election, a rip-roaring falsehood that led to an attempted coup d’état in which people died and 140 cops were injured. Unbelievable! Pundits, along with our major newspapers, cannot seem to get false equivalencies out of their systems.
 
Vance lied about climate change, abortion policy, Harris being the Biden administration puppet-master, and oh so much more. No matter. He did it with such panache!
 
While that was detestable, it paled in comparison to the deep pile of wool Vance pulled over viewers’—and commentators’—eyes. He came across as MAGA-reasonable, gentler, kinder than Trump certainly, and a total transformation from his stump speech self where he zealously rails against legal immigrants, women and all the other demographic cohorts that offend Trump and the MAGAverse.
 
What was not different were his incessant lies, delivered with a cloak of civility and friendliness definitely not in character.
 
Once again, style over substance mesmerized the easily misled punditocracy. We can only hope it did not have a likewise hypnotic effect on undecided voters. The danger is that, if it did, they may trend toward the Republican ticket despite the deranged lunacy Trump manifests at every appearance on the campaign trail. While Vance, like his running mate, lied about virtually everything, he was much slicker and effortless when doing so than the stumbling, bumbling Trump. Vance oozed earnestness. I am reminded of Conrad Birdie’s classic anthem in the musical, Bye, Bye Birdie, “You Gotta Be Sincere.” The fact that he elevated bullshit artistry to new heights doesn’t count, apparently, with the raters. Say it with elegance and victory is yours.
 
By pretending to be a decent guy, and doing so with such articulate ease, Vance neutralized Walz’s  strongest suit, his “Minnesota nice” persona. A little more relentless “Purple People Eater” from Walz (an NFL reference—look it up) would have been preferred. Beyond that, however, lurks the danger that the result of the debate might be to make Trump more palatable.
 
Even more appalling were pundit observations that Vance looked much better than Walz’s pale and puffy-cheeked appearance. Amazing what a difference eye-liner can make.
 
Dick Hermann
October 5, 2024