RockyRoadTravel

The "red" states, plus Alaska and South Carolina, minus Illinois, Colorado and Minnesota.

Today's thought. All the "red" States are in the Missouri/Mississippi drainage basin, the rest of the country is "blue". (The blue exceptions being Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, and red exceptions South Carolina, Florida, Alaska and Maine 2.)

Today's thought. The peaceful transition of power, is one of the arguments for Washington DC to be recognized as a State. Coordinating security between, City police, National Guard and other federal agencies is currently needlessly complicated. The simplest and most efficient policing response in defense of democracy against the right-wing extremist threat to the peaceful transition of power is now, in the Trump era, a reality we have to face.

This next phase, you call it, with her talking issues and agenda. While she is doing that, Trump will criticize and complain about her platform, while running away from providing one of his own. It'll be irritating, as he always is.

I'm not sure what thread this fits under. Harris current bump in the polls is raising her to the levels that the Senate Democratic Party candidates were already polling at, they were always ahead of Biden's numbers against Trump. If there is any further growth in the numbers, this phase is going to be harder to achieve.

Further on this previous post of mine. Trump is almost to the point where he is not going to be campaigning on issues anymore. (He's always attempted to wiggle free of being held to specific promises.) At the point that he decides, and believes, that he's behind in the polls I think he will stop fighting the election campaign, and focus on fighting the election itself. He gave himself away at his unhinged press conference last week, "taking care of Clinton" and the creepy "the things we could have done to her." (You may have missed that with the focus on Walz using the preposition "in" instead of "of" about weapons of war.) If you can't play the game and win, the sore loser complains about the field conditions, and rules and the referees and ... whatever other excuse that creates an alternate narrative to the truth - you got beat. What does the Harris campaign do about that? It can't be a focus of the campaign because then they are playing on Trump's unhinged field. At the same time they can't ignore the defeated former President's attacks on the democratic process setting up who knows what next December/January. Does Harris continue to focus on values and policies, or try and weave the Trump threat to democracy into their freedom message? I do like the focus on freedom rather than democracy - it's seems more tangible and less theoretical to me, as well as the historical resonance. In summary, soon the defeated former President will soon be campaigning against the election, rather than campaigning in the election.

I know this isn't the point that Trump was making, but I think there is a point in life where maybe one does "turn black". Turn black in the sense that one becomes aware of racism. Not everyone is treated the same way and that some folks are not only physically white but also sociologically white, and some folks are not only physically black but also sociologically black and othered. I think that happens with gay kids too. The realization that we aren't all the same (of course we have to do it alone and not in solidarity with our families of origin). Trump's comments of course had nothing to do with empathy and how and when folks become aware of the differences there are in society.

What's the Dominica bank connection? I haven't heard of that part of the scam.

O'Donnell keeps begging Trump to sue him, it's a hilarious through line with him.

Fourth. In hindsight it might be a good thing that Biden did SO badly in the debate that he had no choice but to step down as the candidate. What America needs is an Italian mother. Hearing Nancy Pelosi on the interview circuit for her book, she is on point all the time. She ran Congress like she must have run a house of five kids. With love and precision. She probably spoke to Biden in the same manner, "we love you Joe, it's time to go, to cement your legacy."

You are most welcome. We wouldn't want you to be free and clear of rabbit holes. If you start sprouting a tail, post photos.

Sigh

I expect that the HIPPA regulations are well known by anyone who has any involvement with the medical system, they are to me. The point I was making is that Trump, the patient involved who we are talking about, could/should waive his own patient confidentiality and allow the medical personnel to speak publicly. I guess I needed to be specific about that in my previous post, sigh. In any case it would be good to know from the medical personnel involved what specific injury happened. It might help tamp down the silliest of the conspiracy theories.

How can I put this? Duh. Yes, of course. For you and I, neither of who have chosen to be public representatives. However, this is a public attack on a public figure being guarded by public servants. Did you know that patient confidentiality/privacy can be waived in the public's interest? Not that the defeated former President ever gave a shit about the public's interest (Americans are still waiting on the tax returns).

The defeated former President did go to the hospital, and there were medical personnel who tended to him. I want to hear from them, and not the nonsense from Dr. Ronny who wasn't anywhere near the scene.

One thing about the defeated former President, he's very transparent. Every accusation is an admission of guilt. With his weird press conference yesterday at Mar-o-lago the line that really stood out for me was what he said about Clinton. I think it was his first admission that he thinks he's going to lose the election. He said (lied), in referring to Clinton, that he was "protective of her" and tried to calm down his crowds chants of "lock her up." He then went on, very creepily, with "there were things he could have done to her." I think Trump is laying the ground work for the nonsense fairytale of "I protected Clinton, I was being Presidential, therefore President Harris should protect me."

I still want to hear from the medical personnel who actually treated the defeated former President. Why the silence? I expect it's shrapnel, and the more information the fewer the conspiracy theories. Also, it's amazing that even with an assassination attempt Trump still couldn't crack a 50% approval rating. Americans really doesn't like the guy.

The answer to Walz' military record is two fold: one, neither Vance not Walz were in combat roles, and two - bone spurs. I wonder who he is going to vote for? I doubt it's Trump.

Is Trump's saying Kamabala an attempt at a nickname, or is more mispronunciation (like all those countries he couldn't pronounce) and evidence of even more cognitive decline of the defeated former President. @EmmetK perhaps as an expert all things MAGA you could tell us?

Vance is turning into a bit of a campaign stalker. Arriving at the airport the same time as Harris, and prowling the tarmac looking for press attention. Yes, weird. Very weird.

I think Harris picked Walz because she feels they are going to win if the Democrats stay united. She wasn't picking based on the short term election goal, but the longer term governing goal.

I believe Obama would agree with me, remember he eventually was legislating off his "bucket" list in the face of total obstruction - GOP leaving the legislating to the life time appointed extremists on the Supreme Court.

She is a better orator than I was expecting. She's let it drop a couple times, in referring to Walz, as Coach Walz. She's not "labelling" him that, but if the monicker gets a take up and sticks - it's not a bad one. After 10 years of being berated with anger by Trump, the America Dream could use a coach.

I hope Harris learns something from Obama's presidency. In his first two years he had a substantial majority in the Senate (was it 54 or 56 seats?) and a large majority in the House. If Obama had governed in his first two years as he did in his last two years (having then experienced six years of complete Republican obstructionism) there would have been a renewed Voting Rights Act, Washington DC would be a State, a renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban, perhaps Campaign Finance Reform (taking the worst of the obscene amounts of dark money in elections), and Mitch McConnell might not have been able to pack the Courts (Donald took credit, but Trump did none of the strategy and work, of undermining the integrity of the courts and rule of law). So, hopefully, if there is a Harris presidency, she'll recognize the obstruction she is up against in Congress, and move ahead with whatever is possible to improve the functioning of American democracy and freedoms, and pass the necessary laws to counter act the partisan policy rulings that the extremists on the Supreme Court have been legislating from the bench.

On the debate I expect that Trump will organize his rally - err debate - on September 4th and claim from the stage that Harris was afraid to "debate" him. I think she should have a rally on the same night, to up stage him with her crowd, and keep the focus on the real agreed upon debate date and format on September 10th. Also, rather than a debate, I want them both to appear on Celebrity Jeopardy. US State Capitals for $100. Bible Verses for $200.