Tuesday October 8, 2024
 

Promise ‘Em Anything

A candidate for high office makes promises to the electorate to win votes.  Trump has been bruiting tax cuts for just about anyone and everyone.  The problem say economists is that they will sink the budget of the country for decades to come. Do voters care?  They tend to think about immediate effects of campaign promises and not the future because no one can predict what is to come accurately.  So, while promises of tax cuts are good publicity, the experts are left to worry about them and who cares about experts?  

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Insults

When you can’t win on the facts, substitute insults and invective.  Trump is a master.  It’s poor PR, however.

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Confidence

JD Vance is exuding confidence that he will win the debate tonight against Tim Walz.  He is a skilled debater and Walz is not.  It should be interesting if Walz can hold his positions and neutralize Vance’s venom.  The whole debate is a publicity exercise for the two campaigns.  As one political commentator has said, no one cares about vice presidential debates.  

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Ugly

This is ugly, misanthropic and false.  Most migrants to America are here to make a living and pursue a dream of betterment.  Having worked with them, I can attest that they are not murderers and thieves.  They are starting at the bottom and working their way up.  Trump’s characterization of them is shameful.  

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Tough Road

New York City mayor Eric Adams has been or is about to be indicted, according to the Associated Press.  Federal investigations into the mayor and his staff have been ongoing.  In the last two weeks, the police commissioner and head of the school system have resigned.  Adams says he is going nowhere and the charges are false.  From a PR perspective, he has a tough road to walk.  Once indictments are revealed, the public usually assumes a person is guilty until proven innocent, the reverse of the law.  Adams has now to operate under a cloud, a terrible position to be in with the knowledge that the governor of New York can remove him from office at any time.   

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Two Sides

This is a healthy debate over students use of cell phones in school.  California has just signed into law restrictions on the phones.  Critics say it will harm students who might need to get help and bans should be left up to local school districts. One worry is that it will be left up to teachers to enforce the ban, and teachers have enough to do without playing cop.  It is an interesting example of technology and communications.  How much is too much?  There is no way of knowing the full impact of the ban except over time — a test case in the most forward-thinking state of the union.  

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Was It Worth It?

Kamala Harris spent a week preparing to debate Donald Trump and she is widely thought to have won, but she gained only a single point in the polls.  Was it worth it?  There is a limit to how much speech-making can boost one’s presence, especially on TV without an audience.  It is hard to fire up a crowd that isn’t there.  Maybe Trump wasn’t wrong after all in his minimal preparation for the debate.  He didn’t help himself with his lies and falsehoods, but he wasn’t hurt that much if the polls are accurate.  One unanswered question remains.  Why have debates at all?  

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Incoherent

This quote from Trump putting blame on Jews should he lose the election is incoherent.  It’s hard to figure out what he’s trying to say.  His speech is elliptical — start-stop, change of subject, change back, rambling, hardly presidential.  

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Nowhere Is Safe

A second attempt on the life of former President Trump at his gold course is proof that nowhere is safe in this poisonous political era.  Free speech has turned to unacceptable violence — on the part of deranged individuals, yes — but encouraged by ugly words.  We will survive this period but will we remember it when it passes?  

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Venezuela

Trump said he would go to Venezuela should he lose the election because it would be safer there. He added that the country sent all of its criminals to the US border.  How stupid is that?  One wonders how he maintains an adoring body of supporters with such outrageous remarks.  He has an attraction that is not explainable but is dangerous to democracy.  

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