The 100th anniversary of the Veteran's Day Parade take place on Monday, November 11. It began with the end of World War 1 and has incorporated veterans of our many wars since. The parade organizers have invited Donald Trump to send off the parade beginning in Madison Square Park. The NYTs reports that he will not lead the parade--a security nightmare!
As everyone knows, Trump gave up his NYC residency and moved to Tom Blackburn's Florida backyard. And as everyone further knows, he is not popular here (you could be the person he shoots on Fifth Avenue). First hearing the news, I could only think he was leading the parade, being booed, and having rotten tomatoes coming at him, etc. Then in these paranoid time, I thought OMG, this will show up in a campaign twitter, video, you tube, showing what awful snobs NYers really are.
At least at the moment, he is not leading the parade, is apparently not in it, just setting if off. But in case he does lead, I hope the parade watchers will simply turn their backs.
Trump isn't a veteran, is he? I think it would take a lot of nerve for him to lead a parade of veterans. Of course, "a lot of nerve" doesn't begin to describe our president ...
ReplyDeleteRaber, a USN veteran, had the same reaction.
DeleteHe heroically avoided AIDS during the epidemic, which he told a shock jock was "my Vietnam." He got a note from his doctor, which earned him the rank of Gen. Bonespur. But, for what it's worth, Blackburn, USArmy veteran, had the same reaction.
DeleteCan't make the poor man walk all that distance in his bone spurs. He doesn't look in the best of shape either. Maybe he could use one of those scooters.
ReplyDeleteNew Yorkers on scooters
Deletehttps://youtu.be/csuZHyW-iGI
I think it would be more Trumpian to make six disabled veterans, ideally of color, to bear him along in a sedan chair.
DeleteI read an article yesterday that said that rallies are basically Trump's full-time job, to the extent that he has one. Unfortunately I can't find the link now. But it said that they usually attract around 15,000 people. Sometimes they're the same people. He has a following who are like rock star or sports groupies. People will stand in line for hours to get tickets, and when the fire marshalls say the venue is full, that's all there is. He speaks for roughly 90 minutes, kind of a rambling routine with some jokes and favorite talking points, pretty disjointed, and not fact checked. But his crowd eats it up, and chants slogans. He is energized by it.
ReplyDeleteThe writer of the article worried that the Dems have nothing similar. But I don't know that that is a bad thing. Hopefully they can run on actual ideas. The people attending Trump's rallies have made up their minds already, they are his base. But the rallies are unlikely to convince anyone outside the base.
Additionally, Trump has stiffed at least 10 cities for unpaid bills related to the expense of rallies being held there.
The idea of listening to Trump speak for 90 minutes sounds like torture to me.
DeleteMargaret, what are New Yorkers saying about Bloomberg's impending candidacy?
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard much. I have the impression many NYers consider that he was a good mayor (compared to our current one [and former presidential candidate]). He became a Democrat to run for Mayor, and he's stayed one. He was a champion of charter school, which led to wrangles with the teacher's union. Many, many Af-Am families are big fans of those schools. He leans to the technocrat side of the universe and made use of such as well as novel organizational ideas to run his office. Someone said to me this morning as I went outside that "at least, Bloomberg won't steal money." True. He is not a warm, fuzzy. There is a bio out of him by a former NYTimes reporter that got good reviews (haven't read yet). The great question: Can he beat Trump? How will the alt-Right and others treat his being Jewish (wouldn't put it past Trump to stir trouble there...in spite of his Jewish son-in-law, daughter, and grandchildren).
DeleteIf the country is desperate enough in Fall of 2020, I can see him winning...but how desperate? And who will he have beaten out in the primaries.
Dread: continuing stories about Hillary Clinton jumping in.... OH NO!
He's not going to play in the Midwest, where all people know about him is that he wants to restrict their soda pop and take their plastic straws.
DeleteAlso no smoking in bars, restaurants, and public places! What about that?
DeleteIt should be noted that Bloomberg doesn't suffer fools gladly. How would that play?
DeleteNobody can smoke in public in Michigan, though vapers are often ignored, especially in restrooms.
DeleteBloomberg's not suffering fools would likely play as East Coast arrogance, depending on where it's directed.
He's also a Wall Street billionaire, yes? That has to be problematic for some segments of the Democratic base.
DeleteBloomberg, noooo! How many septuagenarians are there in the race now?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't Mike have a record of trotting up to the starting gate and then refusing to enter?
ReplyDeleteBut he would drive old Dunning-Kruger crazier. For one thing, everybody knows he has more money.
If Bloomberg does go through with it, the one he's going to hurt is Biden. Does he secretly want Warren or Sanders? Because it looks like Ross Perot-ish stunt.
DeleteI don't think Bloomberg has a secret plan, just a big billionaire's ego that if you have buckets.of money, you can do anything.
DeleteJane Fonda, not a billionaire, but plenty rich and lots of ego, was on the NewsHour last night acting pretty manic about her recent arrest in a global warming demonstration. Apparently rabble-rousing in your 80s is a quite a tonic.
In the clips I noted that she bought a bright red coat and stylish fedora so the news cameras could find her more easily.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-jane-fonda-is-putting-herself-on-the-line-to-fight-climate-change
Yes...saw Jane last evening on the Newshour. How much staff/medical assistance does she have to keep the look. Even Judy, who looks good, seemed a bit in awe of the ever youthful Fonda. Fonda's characterization of her jail stays in Cleveland and DC were on the fraught side....
DeleteYes, she's had a lot of "work" done. And having sat in two jail cells, now she's an expert on our criminal justice system.
DeleteFine by me if she wants to support environmental causes, but she tends to gravitate to where the cameras are--movies, war demonstrations, fitness tapes, Ted Turner, now climate change protests.
Sorry to disagree with you, Jean, but it's the cameras that gravitate to wherever Jane Fonda is. Forty-something parents were charged in the college admissions scandal. How many can you name beyond Felicity Huffman and that other actress I never heard of? The cameras (and coverage) simply is not interested in the bankers and executives who, in some cases laid out more money and did more dastardly things, as long as they can show us Felicity.
DeleteOrdaining married men, btw, was the Felicity Huffman of the synod on the Amazon.
Sorry for dilatory replies....but the "notify me" button doesn't seem to be working---at least for "me."
ReplyDeleteooopps...they've been going to "junk" mail. Horrors! Never!
DeleteIn case you missed it: here's my take on the current Dem race (pre-Bloomberg...though and others appear
ReplyDeletespeculatively:
Making America OK
Do Any of the Democratic Candidates Have the Right Stuff?
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/making-america-ok
I did see it - nice article. I like your takes on each candidate. It does have a typo, I think, at least in the online edition:
Delete"Sherwood Brown, another Midwesterner, could change his mind."
I assume that should be Sherrod? I'll need to find my hard copy to see if it made it into print.
I don't know when you wrote the piece, but I see Beto didn't rate a comment. I guess whatever you'd say now would be a post-mortem.
DeleteThanks, we just got our mag in the mail today. Will look for it. I like the monthly format.
DeleteI wrote it when Warren was over 50 in the betting notes at Real Clear Politics...(late October?) She is now in the 30s. I know nothing about gambling, but I am assuming that the higher the number the bigger the gamble...as her number goes down? Does that mean gamblers are expecting her to do better.
DeleteActually, the issue that just showed up this week has a different MOS piece, which I found to be even more interesting: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/truth-and-consequences
DeleteBad: Sherwood! My mistake; not corrected by the editors!
DeleteWhat does anyone think about Peter Buttigieg or Amy K. I feel like they are the only normal people running. Is it possible normal people can no longer be elected president?
Re gambling, I check Paddy Power, Ireland's all purpose oddsmaker, but they've now been shut down in the U.S.
DeleteI agree that Buttagieg is relatively normal. I don't know much about Klobuchar. For that matter, Biden strikes me as normal.
DeleteThe progressive base doesn't want normal. They want transformation, and not only government transformation. They want cultural transformation, and they want to use the power of government to bring it about (by force as necessary) and enforce it. That's how it looks from the outside, anyway. Previously, the base wanted the Obama years to be years of transformation, and got very frustrated after 2010 when the GOP retook the House.
For some issues, like climate change, maybe "normal" doesn't cut it? Or maybe it does. I think the country as a whole would be more likely to get behind health care and climate change policies that try to work within the bounds of normal. Just my view.
Mara Liasson, Chuck Todd,Dan Baltz and the New York Times don't want Bernie or Warren over there on the, ooooh, way left. No! They want a centrist. Like they wanted Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio three years ago. To which I say, ho hum, what do the people want? Wish young Pete were 45.
DeleteI'm afraid, in the case of climate change, "normal" doesn't cut it. The statistics of weather, the climate, is itself no longer normal. As a matter of fact, the term "new normal" is fallacious because it posits that a new stability has been reached. But the climate will continue to shift. For instance, how do you build a house on a shoreline that will move for hundreds of years?
DeleteOn my own micro scale, "normal" has been shot to hell, not by climate, but by an extremely aged parent. I eventually saw this coming. I wanted to try to maintain things within the limits of normal, but eventually had to accept the reality that normal was gone. My career, over. Self-determination, over. Planning the next steps in my life, over. Right now, with a caregiver, I can, to some extent, take little short trips to a simulacrum of normal. But, there's no fooling myself. Normal is a thing of the past and, at most, an uncertain possibility in the future.
Stanley, being a full time caregiver is a tough situationš¢
DeletePrayers sent for you and your mom.
"Is it possible normal people can no longer be elected president?" Between the primary system and the social media, it makes it really hard. First they have to bring out the base, then they have to appeal to the more moderate voters.
ReplyDeleteI like Pete B. too. But what happens if there's a three way split between him, Biden, and Bloomberg?
Maybe Bloomberg thinks Trump has kneecapped Biden, and that's why he's running. But I'm not at all sure that's true. If Bloomberg was going to run he should have declared early enough to take part in the previous debates.
DeleteI think that's right. Biden is well and thoroughly kneecapped. Under the doctrine of both sidesism everybody knows there was something fishy about Hunter Biden's job (unlike Eric Trump's) which disqualifies his father (unlike Eric Trump's father) from the presidency. Can't figure out where people keep hearing that.
DeleteQuestion is, is there anyone Trump won't kneecap, or at least try to? Sometimes you just have to fight through it. His weapons are to deflect, project, and distract. And lie.
DeleteKnee-capped: It's not just Trump & Co. knee-capping Biden. It's every reporter who repeats some version of his first debate performance...which they do each time they write a Biden story. He has not been sparkling, I agree, nor as aggressive as his competitors.
DeleteBUT, I did see him in an interview (60 minutes?) in which he came across as an amiable pol with a sense of humor and reputable syntax, spoke in complete sentences. It is not hard in that setting to see him as president...albeit one subject to the cartoonist art.
Is Trump-inspired action and reaction an example of the country's total self-immolation?