As I wrote previously, the Swiss Travel Board has put out a series of long ads the past few years that are pretty amusing. They each star Swiss tennis star Roger Federer, along with another celebrity he’s supposedly got to join him, and I’ll post the best of them. The first I posted was with Trevor Noah here. The second was this with Federer and Anne Hathaway Finally, completing the trilogy, here’s one with Federer and Robert De Niro.
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Before President Biden kablooeyed everything on Sunday, most eyes were still on the Republican National Convention, and notably Trump's acceptance speech Thursday night.
The next morning, an analyst on MSNBC said that Trump’s RNC speech was calm and unifying enough to likely placate Republicans who were on the edge of voting for him. I have no idea whether any on-the-edge Republicans were placated or not. Nor, I'd guess, does the analyst. But I’m certain that any Republican who could watch a Trump speech written by someone else and think that it showed a change in Trump, a “new Trump,” is someone who was planning to vote for him anyway and was looking for a reason they could use to defend their decision at dinner parties. If anyone thinks there is a “new Trump,” a change in Trump because of the early part of a speech that someone else wrote -- which once you got past the opening was still (of course) was full of unrelenting lies (CNN counted at least 20, PBS detailed their own count here) and had more than its share of divisiveness, still slamming witch hunts, “crazy Nancy Pelosi” warning of “bad things ahead” if he loses, attacking LGBT issues, promising mass deportations and more, although, yes, he did read some nice-sounding things at the start which are uncommon in a Trump speech and were likely shocking to an unsuspecting audience -- then all they need do is wait 24-48 hours until he speaks at his next rally, and you will be back on solid, familiar, out-of-control, dystopian ground. Actually, you really don’t have to wait that long, since he got to the darkness and divisiveness before even finishing the speech. Many turned off the 92-minute speech before getting through it all (it peaked at the 15-minute mark, and with a half-hour still to go, 20% of viewers had turned it off), so they missed the discord and Return to American Carnage. For that matter, one-third fewer viewers watched the MAGOP convention than the last pre-COVID event in 2016. Mind you, this is the same party that desperately wanted to fool itself into thinking there was a “New Nixon” and so nominated him to be president, coming back from obscurity with his flim-flam. Only to create an Old Nixon “Enemies List” and become for first U.S. President to resign from office in disgrace. It’s the same party that believed George W. Bush was a “compassionate conservative,” which many would argue is an oxymoron. The man who ignored the Presidential briefing “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.,” sat reading a children’s book to schoolkids when the attack came, lied about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, got the U.S. involved in wars that lasted eight years in Iraq and 20 years in Afghanistan, and got dressed up in a flight suit to declare “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq after just six weeks. For starters. But then, you know the Republican phrase: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me again and again and again, that’s the Republican Party. Or as it was expressed so eloquently by the compassionate conservative Mr. W. Bush himself: 'Fool me once, shame on......shame on you. Fool me -- -- -- you can't get fooled again.” The only reason anyone can think there is a “new Trump” is that they haven’t been watching Trump for the past eight years. If they had been, they would have seen Trump. This is the person who fomented an Insurrection to overthrow the government, who was impeached twice, was convicted by a jury of 34 felonies, found liable by two juries of rape, found guilty of business fraud, is currently under three indictments, had his charity foundation (!) shut down for a “shocking pattern of illegality, had 30,000+ documented lies, enabled white supremacists and neo-Nazis, who says he wants to be a dictator, says he wants to throw out parts of the U.S. Constitution, said that if elected “I will be your retribution,” said that if he wasn’t elected there would be a “bloodbath”, received $7.8 million from China which he said publicly was “for services,” has expressed him admiration of despotic dictators Vladimir Putin and Kin Jong-Un, as well as fascist leader Viktor Orban, told the neo-fascist militant Proud Boys (whose four leaders were later found guilty of “seditious conspiracy”) to “Stand back and stand by” before the January 6 Insurrection, For starters. And that’s just the past eight years. It’s been the pattern of his entire adult life the past 60 years. He and his farther settled a lawsuit by the Department of Justice for racial discrimination over not renting apartments to Black families, took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the death penalty during the trial of the Central Park Five young Black men – who were all later exonerated, had his fake “university” shut down, used the fake name ‘John Barron’ to pretend to be his own PR representative to call journalists and pass along stories about himself, has said he lives by the principle that “If you hurt me, I will come back and hurt you 10 times, has been sued over 4,000 times in the past 40 years – which averages out to being sued twice a week, every week, for 40 years!!! For starters. And so, after all that, just watching a speech written by someone else that was filled with lies and divisiveness, with just a handful of more calm statements than you’d normally hear in any other Trump speech, that supposedly is enough to convince people on the edge about Trump that this is a “new Trump.” By the way, anyone on the edge about who Trump is and whether they should vote for him knows who Trump is, knows they’re going to vote for him and have their heads buried in the ground so that they don’t have to see and hear any more and desperately want to point for just one nice sentence that someone else wrote so that they can say, “See, it’s a ‘new Trum’ trying to unify the country!!!” The only way Trump wants to unify the country is if it he can get everyone in it to do whatever he tells them, signs a loyalty oath and then signs a non-disclosure agreement. Trump wants to “unify” the country the same way Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation (core authors of the fascist Project 2025), said, "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be." There is no “new Trump.” There is Trump. There has always only been Trump. He is the same vindictive, dystopian, racist, malignant narcissist, fascist, anti-Semitic, pathological liar he has always been. And at 78, he is not suddenly becoming even a wisp more kindly and gentle just because he read some nice sentences that someone else wrote. He is Trump. Period And the only reason there will be a change is because psychologists and psychiatrists have said that show signs of early dementia, which is degenerative and will only get worse. And anyone who says – or even just thinks otherwise -- not only is trying to fool you, but themselves. Willful ignorance is not a virtue. Speaking of Bob Newhart -- The CBS tribute to Bob Newhart is on tonight (Monday) at 8 PM ET/PT. I wish this clip started five seconds earlier to make the set-up surprise better, but it’s still a treat. It’s from an episode of “Murphy Brown.” If you watched the show, you’ll recall that Murphy had a ongoing, hellish time finding a secretary. And one episode, she found someone she finally liked who liked being there. A woman named Carol – played by Marcia Wallace, who had played the secretary, Carol, on The Bob Newhart Show. At one point in the episode, the elevators opened in the office, and out stepped – Bob Newhart! And he played…oh, you can guess – Well, so much for the article I’d already written for today. Throw that sucker out, and start with a blank page. And Sunday is supposed to be the day of rest... Okay, so Democrats and President Biden have acted for the good of the party and the country, as well. Now it's time for the Republican Party to do the right thing and convince their party leader that he's much too old with even more and greater cognitive issues -- in fact, early dementia -- as well as 34 felony convictions, liable for rape, and guilty of fraud, and should drop out of the race. How big is the news of President Biden withdrawing from the campaign on Sunday? Perhaps for the first time in his Chaos Agent political life, Trump is unable to control the news narrative. Not only is his “I Gave My Life for You” Martyrdom Tour off the front page, the news for the foreseeable future, up to the Democratic Convention a month away and then through it, will be entirely focused on the Democrats, from the biggest decisions down to the smallest hiccup. With two weeks off for the Olympics. Okay, all that out of the way, first things first: the answer to every question and situation to be discussed below is “I don’t know.” Furthermore, anyone who tells you that they know, they are either flim-flamming you, self-delusional, or so over-pumped up with hot-air arrogance that even just one more gulp might cause them to burst. “I don’t know” is the only legitimate answer. So, onward – with random thoughts. After all, there is no structure to dealing with this in real life, so there is no way there can be structure in dealing with it. The biggest question isn’t who will replace President Biden as the Democratic nominee, now that he’s dropped out of the race, but how that process will occur. Though the President has endorsed Kamala Harris, that doesn’t resolve the situation. There are other hopefuls in the wings – will they endorse her, as well? Drop out, but not endorse her? Still keep their name active as candidates? No doubt the party would love to figure out a way to winnow the possible nominees down to one before the convention, so that it can be a launching pad of unity, and avoid floor fights on national television day after day. And that appears likely. However, the challenge is doing that without cries of unfair, underhanded, party-pushed backroom deals. Kamala Harris certainly is the likely nominee (maybe even by this week) for many reasons – notably that she’s been endorsed by President Biden, she’s the Vice President, and she would be the only candidate who can have access to the fund-raising already done by the Biden-Harris campaign. She has access, as well, to the campaign’s national organization already in place, though I’m sure that would be made available to whoever is the choice. The question is not just about the other candidates, but whether she will be accepted by the supporters of all other possible candidates as The Nominee so that they don’t feel unfairly disenfranchised, or if there will still be some manner of rogue “battle.” I don’t know. As a codicil to what the process is, while there will surely be some disappointment and even bitterness for the candidates and their supporters not selected to be the nominee, even if they make a gracious withdrawal and endorsement, I hope it can done in a way that there is no divisiveness (or at least kept to a paper-thin minimum), where almost everyone understands that the party must be unified to defeat the fascism and wannabe dictatorship of Trump, which is the only goal. I hope so, I think so – though this is the Democratic Party, so I don’t know. The question remains, too, is who the vice presidential selection will be. There’s been a lot of possible names mentioned, but no one leaps out as an obvious choice. Nominating a senator risks losing an important Democratic seat (even though there are some possible safeguards to that). Nominating a member of the House likely wouldn’t help. Nominating a governor is possible – but most (while very good) come with some possible “baggage” to a general public. Perhaps someone from the military? (Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley comes to mind.) Or would you put two women on the ticket? A woman and a Jew? A woman and a gay man? Perhaps – or not. (That said, if you haven’t already scared voters off horrified by the idea of a Black woman as President of the United States and most powerful person in the world, then adding a woman, Jew or gay man to the ticket shouldn’t make a difference. If you fill a cup to the brim with angst, anything more is just spillover….) But who will it be – let alone who should it be? I don’t know. And perhaps the most substantive question is would Kamala Harris or whoever the nominee is do better against Trump than President Biden would? And that’s the biggest “I don’t know” of all. Any current polls are meaningless, not only for being much too early, but also for the public not really having the new candidate in serious mind before as a real possibility. Before when asked, everyone knew it was always “Biden versus Trump.” Any other name was merely a distraction. I do think it likely that whoever the Democrat nominee is, Democrats will eventually get over any disappointment (including disappointment that the nominee isn’t Joe Biden) and strongly unite and vote for their candidate. Undecided independent voters are not as certain how they'll react – but anyone who hasn’t yet committed to supporting Trump or President Biden would seem very open to an alternative who (unlike a third party candidate) has an actual chance to win. Especially since the biggest complaints about both men have been their ages, and that they already ran against each other – not to mention Trump’s chaos and felony convictions. Kamala Harris or any other Democrat nominee would seem to change that dynamic instantly. But I don’t know. Even more to the point, the most important group of undecided voters are the “Double No’s” – voters who dislike both Trump and President Biden. Any other candidate could seem to have a better chance of picking up those critical votes, merely for automatically not being either man. But I don’t know. And how will this affect third party candidates, who were seen by many as alternatives to a Biden-Trump rematch? It would seem that Kamala Harris or some other Democrat provides an alternative to third party options. Not just an alternative to Trump now, but one with an actual chance of winning. What I also don’t know is if Trump will agree to have another debate. But if so, and if it turns out to be Kamala Harris, that’s something I’d pay cash money to watch. While I don’t think she’s necessarily a great debater, I do think she’s not only very smart with facts and details at her fingertips, but, critically importantly, as a former two-time Attorney General of California and District Attorney of San Francisco, prosecuting a case against Trump – and doing so directly to his face – is the kind of thing Kamala Harris has spent much of her career doing. Is it a challenge debating a Trump who relentlessly lies (assuming they do debate)? Absolutely, without question. But again, prosecuting criminals and liars is precisely what Kamala Harris spent her life doing. And simply being prepared to say time and again “You’re wrong” and “That’s a lie” and follow that up with whatever case you want to make is ultimately not that big a challenge for any Democratic candidate who is the new nominee. Having said all this, I think the funniest story has been that Republicans are thinking of suing to stop Joe Biden from dropping out of the race. I can’t imagine this lunatic effort not being laughed out of court. The Democratic Party is a private organization that makes its own rules. There isn’t even an official nominee yet -- and won’t be until the delegates decide! And the candidate himself made the decision to drop out, citing his health and physical condition, something Republicans themselves were making a case about. Moreover, assuming Vice President Kamala Harris is the nominee, she not only was on the same ticket as President Biden, but it's a vice president's specific job to serve if the president in unable to! But in the end, making the challenge especially nuts is that if for some utterly inexplicable reason a lawsuit somehow went forward…there would be legal challenges back and forth, would would risk delaying the election. And delaying the election would give the new Democratic nominee extra time to campaign and get better known across the country. After all, the Democratic party wouldn’t stop their process just because Republicans are trying to. And all the while, Republicans would be hard-pressed to even campaign against someone they're suing because the person shouldn't be their opponent, since that would give legitimacy (as it should) to that candidacy. This change of the Democratic ticket has not only upturned the Democratic Party – it has totally thrown the MAGOPs for a complete loop. Everything in their plans – everything for the past three years -- has been to run against Joe Biden. Their impeachment hearings. Cries of the supposed “Biden crime family.” And Hunter Biden and his laptop and conviction. And “Sleepy Joe.” All gone. Poof. The only conviction left on the table is Trump’s. And the only candidate who is old and has cognitive issues is Trump. And now, the MAGOP have to come up with a completely new campaign strategy. Democrats' strategy remains the exact same, running against Trump, fascism, and Project 2025. Now, too, MAGOPs will have to defend their anti-abortion position against a woman likely leading the opposition. Further, this makes the selection of J.D. Vance all the more problematic, given (among many things) his stance that women should stay in an abusive marriage. In the end, there are three things that I do know. One is that President Biden will make a centerpiece speech at the Democratic Convention to unite any lingering hurt and, even more, enthusiastically rouse everyone to aggressively unite behind the new nominee – with a photo of the two on the front page of newspapers around the country and world. And perhaps he will even be introduced by former President Barack Obama, who will surely speak at the Convention. A second thing I know is that if Kamala Harris is the nominee, then having to run against a Black woman will drive today’s racist, misogynist Republicans off-the-chart nuts. They’ve had their “reasons” for the past three years where they’ve tried to explain why they hate her, but they all translate to “She’s a Black woman.” And for Trump, it not only will drive him crazy, but it’s his worst nightmare. Imagine already his hatred of Letitia James. And his hatred of Fani Willis. And his hatred of Tanya Chutkin. All three Black women overseeing whether he is convicted and even in prison. Just imagine now Kamala Harris debating Trump, and her telling him repeatedly to his face that “You’re wrong” and “You’re lying.” It might be something he can’t emotionally handle. And the third thing I know is that at the Democratic convention, unlike at the RNC, the party’s nominee for President will not fall asleep when sitting there in attendance. This presidential season, one presumptive nominee said he will drop out of the race for the good of the party and country, and pass the torch to someone else. The other presumptive nominee said he wants to be a dictator. Joe Biden's selfless act on Sunday was the literal definition of "unpresidented." What kind of a day was it? A day unlike any other. The only difference was...you are there. From the archives. This week, the contestants are Stephanie Anne and Susan Landers of Albuquerque, New Mexico. And the piece by pianist Bruce Adolph is long and beautiful. Still, I couldn’t get the hidden song, even though it’s very well known. However, to my surprise I actually got the composer style. It’s one of my favorite composers, though I usually don’t guess him correctly when in one of these Puzzlers.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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