Roger's Musings

This, from a German newspaper, sums up what many of us felt … and feel. Jimmy Kimmel, on the eve of the election, put it well “It feels like the whole country is waiting to get the results of a biopsy.” … and it turned out to be malignant.

Hugo Rifkind also put it well in the London Times:

‘This time, it’s different. This time, there can be no excuses. No Russian disinformation to blame, no fake news scandal to hide behind, no murkily social media advertising that you can tell yourself made all the difference. No bogeyman of Cambridge Analytics, not even a popular vote that went the other way, betrayal by the electoral college. Not even a hand-wringing, horrified “these fools don’t know what they are getting!” By now, how could they not? America saw Donald Trump, heard him, and knew him. Just like you did. More so, even. And voted for him anyway. And, really that’s it. That’s all there is.’

Another Brit, Jonathan Pie, had a feisty take  I disagree a bit from his view, castigating Democrats for not better articulating their policies, and the bed-wetting and blame game crap well underway … led by the NYT. They had policies, they certainly had a view (maybe belatedly) on immigration, but the majority of Americans did not want to hear it.

The country chose the Madman. Racism and sexism certainly played a part, as did the (stupid) fear that transgender men would dominate girls’ sports. Resentment of the ‘elite’ (you mean those dumb enough to go to college?) also played a part, but, in truth, the majority chose Trump because they weren’t happy with their lot, and it had to be somebody else’s fault.

For some inexplicable reason Democrats did not make a big deal about how Trump mishandled covid, probably resulting in 500,000 unnecessary deaths.

In total six million fewer people voted compared to 2020, and about twelve million fewer voted for Harris than for Biden. Damning numbers. Only 44% had a positive view of Trump, 55% think his views are too extreme … but still they voted for him. Hispanics voted for him in droves, let’s see how they feel when family members, or friends from their congregations, are deported; “Oh, we hate illegal immigrants, but please don’t send Jose or Maria away, they’ve been here for decades.” Arab-Americans in Michigan voted for Trump. Let’s see how they feel when Trump gives Bibi the green light to annex the West Bank, or reinstate a Muslim ban. Good, moderate Democratic senators were ousted because too many just blindly followed the party line. Bob Casey was beaten in Pennsylvania by a carpetbagger from Connecticut, aided and abetted by votes for a Libertarian … shameful.

My view is that the country has chosen a new course, and so be it. It’s pointless grinding our collective teeth, and I’m not going to wallow in misery. I’m simply going to effectively opt out, cut the cable news cord, refuse to listen to all the whining and moaning that lies in our future. The country has made its bed, and must now live in it. We will find better ways to spend our time.

We have lived in many different countries, some of which were not English speaking, like Paris for us now. We were not involved, or interested, in politics in any of them, and it did not affect our daily life. We will simply ‘try’ to live the same way in America. The world has not ended, we are still getting dozens (to put it mildly) of emails trying to sell us everything imaginable … but no more (for now) solicitation mails.

In a speech in WisconsinTrump’s mic had a problem, and he got frustrated, jerking and blowing it off … classy to the end! Maureen Dowd made a few pertinent comments in her final pre-election column. She asked a scholar what Shakespearean figure Trump most resembled, and he replied that Trump is not complex enough to be one. “You have to have a character to have a tragic flaw.” And, “Donald Trump is a human algorithm, always ratcheting up antagonism. He’s a personification and exploiter of all the things creating anxiety in people’s lives.”

Amazing, no claims of cheating! Just consider the absurdity of it all. The Democrats cheated in 2020 when a Republican president was in power, but didn’t in 2024 when a Democrat was in the White House!!

This is what we all feared. Jack Smith is apparently already wrapping up his investigations, so Trump gets off scot free, and his tame judge, Ailleen Cannon, won’t even get her knuckles rapped by the Appeals Court. Trump still has to be sentenced in the Stormy Daniels NYC case, but I’m not holding my breath for him being sent to Rikers Island.

Elon Musk is about to become as conflicted as Trump. He apparently ran Trump’s ground game, which was far better than indicated by Democratic pundits, and invested a couple of hundred million dollars. He wants a return on his investment, on top of the $26 billion jump in the value of his Tesla stock immediately after the election. Sources say he’s asked for a couple of his SpaceX executives to be embedded in the government, no doubt involved in approving tenders for space projects. Jeff Bezos’ decision to pull a Harris endorsement from the Washington Post could well have been influenced by concerns that his Blue Origin space company would be impacted by a Trump win.

According to the WSJ, Putin asked Musk not to activate Starlink over Taiwan as “a favor” to Xi Jinping … Musk agreed. Now we hear that Musk was in on the call Trump had with Zelensky, and reassured him he’d continue to provide Ukraine with access to Starlink. Kinda a different degree of concern than Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Concerns about abortion did not have the impact many anticipated. In Florida it failed to hit the 60% trigger thus keeping the six week ban in effect … Ron DeSantis must be very proud. The vote for legalizing marijuana also failed … fun state. This is all no comfort to the 26,000 Texan women who have been forced to give birth to rapist children. Incidentally, there is a new term for abortion, and abortion related healthcare … ‘bodily autonomy.’

So, JD Vance is going to be Vice-President, real comforting thought. His closing line before the election, “We’re going to take out the trash in D.C., and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris.” What a piece of garbage. His beer of choice is Coors Lite … of course it is!

I’ve been irritated by the NYT coverage of Trump, thinking it was far too soft on him, especially compared to how they castigated Biden, and his age. Seems I’m not alone, a ton of people think the same, including a lot of journos at the Times. It’s called ‘sanewashing.’

We went out to dinner with friends on Tuesday, treated myself to a rare steak (rare and rare!), drank a lot and ubered home. Stayed up until 4.00 a.m. (10 p.m. EDT) and went to bed already despondent. The next day, to take our minds off the depressing result, we went to the movies, to see, at a friend’s recommendation, ‘Anora.’ Golly, did it take our minds off the election! Terrific movie, excellent casting and acting, and enough ‘action’ (no guns involved!) to satisfy anybody … don’t take your kids.

On the stroll back we were amused by the menu at ‘La Democratie’ … kudos to whoever thought up the menu!

Last cartoon is from Gary Trudeau, and is on the money as usual.

‘Musings’ is going on an indefinite hiatus. I just don’t think I can write anything humorous about  this situation, and don’t want to become an embittered curmudgeon. My trouble & strife suggested I simply switch horses, and write about something other than politics, which actually is where I started. I’ll ponder that, but for now Chelsea, the NY Knicks and NY Rangers will get more of my time. Starts tomorrow, I’m taking the Eurostar to London to watch the Blues play Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. Doesn’t take much to get me charged-up when we play the Gunners, but learning that Barron Trump is a fan adds extra spice!

Lastly, as ever, your moment (s) of advertising zen. As a hiatus special, you get three. In case you are wondering, the first two ads are for purveyors of suits.

As my trouble & strife oft tells me, I have a very juvenile sense of humor … she doesn’t phrase it quite like that! But, I confess to being intrigued and amused by signs on toilet doors. Most restaurants in Paris, even very good ones, are housed in old buildings, with old plumbing and limited number of bathrooms. Very often there is only one bathroom for an entire reasonably sized restaurant. So, inevitably they are unisex, and inevitably there is a line. Ladies hate sharing with men, believing (tut, tut) that all men are slobs, and we hate sharing with them because (tis true) they take too long.

My trouble & strife and I rarely argue, I’ve long accepted that it’s pointless, I never win. But, last Sunday morning we did, over something as trivial as the time. I said, looking at my watch, “It’s time to get up, it’s quarter to nine already.” She replied, looking at her phone, “No, it’s not, it’s only quarter to eight.” “I know my watch runs fast, but not by an hour.” Back and forth, and then the lightbulb went on … daylight savings time. We had no idea, and one of the joys of being here is we have no idea what is going on. This one completely slipped by. Europe is always a week or two ahead of the U.S. in changing the clocks.

Halloween is not a big deal here, no parade down the Champs d’Elysees, or through the Latin Quarter … although pumpkin spice is available at Starbucks.

What a good idea that would be! In 2020 I was confident Biden would win, I just couldn’t imagine that anybody who hadn’t voted for Trump in 2016 would vote for him and thus he had a ceiling. I was right, and wrong. Biden won, but seven million more people voted for Trump than had four years previously. This race is a technical dead heat, goodness knows why, but the polls have been consistent. Republicans think they have it in the bag … based on what?

I’m cautiously optimistic, think the polls may have over-compensated for Trump voters, and that women are going to come out in droves. I also can’t bring myself to accept the alternative!

I’m sure we all feel like this, and want the election to be over … with, of course, the right result.

The big event of the week was Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. And, these headlines pretty much sum-up the press reports.

Tony Hinchcliffe, an ‘insult’ comedian, spoke of a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean now … I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” Good way to court Latino voters?! But, he wasn’t finished. He mocked Hispanics for failing to use birth control, characterized Jews as being cheap, Palestinians as rock throwers and called out a Black man in the audience with a reference to watermelon. Real winner. Another speaker likened Kamala Harris to a prostitute with “pimp handlers.” Sid Rosenberg, a conservative radio host, also had some pearls of wisdom. He said of Hillary Clinton, “What a sick son-of-a-bitch”, and then of Democrats writ large, “The whole fucking party a bunch of degenerates, lowlifes and Jew haters. Every one of them.” And the mob cheered.

Cuddly Stephen Miller, paraphrased Hitler, “America should be for Americans, only Americans.”

Oh, the Yankees did win one game but were well beaten by the L.A. Dodgers.

The also cuddly Tucker Carlson opined his two cents worth, called Harris. “A Samoan, Malaysian low IQ former California prosecutor.” 

The late nite comics lapped it up. Meyers, “Most vitriolic, rage-fueled group of white people in that building since the last Rangers game (ice-hockey.) Fallon, “Everyone was on the edge of their seat waiting for the Menendez brothers to come out.” Kimmel, “The Clueless Klux Klan turned-up in force for what I think may have been the nuttiest Trump event of all time.” Fallon, “Trump’s rally was described as unhinged, crude and racist … as opposed to the stable, polite and tolerant Trump rallies we’re accustomed to.”

The Trump campaign tried to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s comments, kinda late and kinda self-serving … only concerned about Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania. Did Trump himself apologize? Right! Next day, “The love in that room, it was breathtaking. There’s never been an event that beautiful. It was a love fest. It was love for our country.” He also said he had been the best president ever for Puerto Rico. Guess he had forgotten that he suggested trading it for Greenland.

Marjorie Taylor-Greene praised Hinchcliffe for making people aware of Puerto Rico’s waste management issues. You can’t make this up. Vance called Harris a “dipshit.” Vance calling somebody else a dipshit! Classy guy.

A new low, even for Trump. Also sued CBS for $10 billion for editing an answer Harris gave in an interview on 60 Minutes … the same guy who has his garbage edited all the time by Fox.

Said he would protect women whether they wanted it or not.

This is Pastor Paula White praying over Trump during the National Faith Summit. He doesn’t need prayers, he needs absolution after confession.

The CEO of ‘Turning Point USA’, Charlie Kirk, “Straight white Christian males are tired of being painted as colonizers. They want to be part of a political movement that doesn’t hate them.” Sick and sad. As is the $77 million Republicans have spent on transgender issues in ten states … $32 million alone in Ohio against Senator Sherrod Brown. In an interview with Joe Rogan on his podcast JD Vance suggested that children in upper-middle class families saw becoming trans as a way to improve their odds of getting into Ivy League colleges. Really?! He also said he believed that Trump would win the “normal gay guy vote.” I don’t think so.

Steve Bannon is out of jail and back in his ‘War Room.’ He said the mistake Trump made in 2020 was waiting too long to declare victory, that this time he needs to do it at 9.30.

The right is shouting from the rooftops that the race is over, indeed the Madison Square Garden rally was like a victory parade. The implication is that the only way Democrats can win is if they cheat, setting the stage to claim election fraud.

Joe Biden is well known for his gaffes, and he had a zinger this week. In trying to say that Hinchcliffe was garbage he implied that anybody who votes for Trump was garbage. Oops, another Deplorables moment? He immediately corrected himself, but Trump by then was already, literally, climbing (very slowly and carefully) into a Trump branded garbage truck (very appropriate) wearing an orange (matched his face) safety vest. Comics loved it. Kimmel, “The garbage is driving the truck” and “the vest will come in handy when he’s on the side of the highway picking-up trash with the other inmates.” Fallon, “And, right at the buzzer a new Halloween costume has emerged.” Meyers, “I don’t get it … is he trying to show us every job he’s not qualified for?”

Kamala Harris gave her big closing speech at the Eclipse, same place from which Trump incited the mob on Jan 6 four years ago. The crowd size was estimated at 75,000, compared to 53,000 for Trump. Donnie won’t like that, he’ll no doubt get Eric to clarify, the same guy who claimed 40,000 were at MSG on Sunday … an arena with a 20,000 capacity. At that event Trump lawyer, Alina Habba, said Trump “built NYC’s skyline.” Huh! And talking of lawyers Rudy was there as well, calling NYC the”capital of the world.”

RFK Jr claimed that Trump has promised that he will be in charge of all health departments, including FDA, CDC and NIH … the anti-vaccine czar. This is dangerous insanity. As is Speaker Mike Johnson’s assertion this week that if Trump was elected they’ll take a blowtorch to the Affordable Care Act … “we have plans.” Trump, realizing the potential damage, immediately denied this, but … Also insane is a story in the NYT that the Trump campaign is thinking of having a private company vet potential government appointees rather than the FBI … this after some embarrassing problems in 2020.

This follows a similar declaration from the IMF and ‘The Economist’ … the WSJ isn’t exactly a liberal shill. But, a large percentage of the population doesn’t agree, fueled by Trump and Republicans ash-canning the economy (and America) at every opportunity. So what is their plan?

Tax cuts and tariffs, which just about every expert believes will have a very negative impact on the economy.

Apparently, Trump has promised to put Musk in charge of reforming the government, and Musk thinks two trillion dollars can be cut from the budget. To reach nirvana Musk says the country will have to go through “hardship.” Ashcan the economy that is the envy of the world, and that has enabled Musk to become very rich. Do voters have any idea what they might be signing-up for?

Musk’s main beef with Biden and Harris is immigration. But, it seems that Elon might have violated the terms of his visa when he first came to the U.S. He started a company when on a student visa, a no no. He’s trying to back pedal but the facts don’t help him. Now if Trump was president he would have his Attorney-General investigate and have the guy deported … still time, Joe.

The owners of the LA Times and the Washington Post decided not to endorse a presidential candidate … to the surprise and dismay of both editorial boards who were ready to strongly endorse Harris. It did not go down well with staff at the papers or with subscribers.

200,000 subscribers of the Post have already canceled. I am not one of them, the Washington Post is still a fine newspaper, and tanking their finances will only hurt the quality of the product, and cost some reporters their jobs, not punish Jeff Bezos. If you want to be mad at him, stop using Amazon … but that would be inconvenient! I’m not against newspapers declining to endorse anybody, in fact, as Bezos wrote in a defensive op-ed, it makes a lot of sense. But not, Jeff, two weeks before the election … that stinks.

The Economist had no concerns about strongly endorsing Harris, just a week after declaring the American economy the envy of the world.

Meghan Kelly was on Bill Maher last week … gosh, she has morphed from a relatively sensible newscaster to a total shill for Trump. Her two main issues were immigration and trans. Maher was kinda shell shocked, and gave her too much of a free pass.

Brits are agog (horrified) over the first budget from the new Labor government. There is a big difference between the U.S. and U.K. over budget processes. In the U.S. a budget from the president, or Congress, is essentially a wish list, and marks the beginning of negotiations. In the U.K. the Chancellor of the Exchequer announces the budget in the House of Commons, and it becomes law … it has to be approved by the House, but that is a formality. And, it’s implemented immediately. Incidentally, Elon Musk has strongly criticized one element of the Brit budget … how does he have time to design rocket ships?

Staying in the U.K,. on average 2.4 people a year have been shot and killed by police over the last five years … and each one is investigated in detail. Why? Of 149,000 police officers in the U.K. only 6,000 are trained to carry, and use, a gun. Kinda different in America! Even in Europe most officers carry a gun.

Lastly, as ever, your moment of advertising zen:

One thing the French and most tourists agree on is the need to avoid ‘touristy’ restaurants like the plague. But, what is a ‘touristy’ restaurant? One that tourists frequent? One that has menus in English? One that says tips are welcome? One that is in a touristy area? The common feeling is that a ‘touristy’ restaurant does not serve good food, and is overpriced. But, it’s not always that straight-forward. This restaurant, for example, is in the middle of Abbesses, a quaint part of Montmartre, and well trodden tourist mecca. It’s also a well-known landmark, a ‘must’ photograph. The waiters speak English, it attracts many foreigners, tips are welcome … but, it’s just as popular with locals. It is surprisingly good, and sensibly priced. An exception to the norm.

Many years ago I swore that I would punch out the first person who offered me their seat on a bus or train. I was pretty confident that it wouldn’t happen in NYC, and, indeed, it was in London about a decade ago. I politely declined, and explained to the horrified young lad that I would have to punch him. Laughs all round. Well, it’s happening a lot in Paris, and I’m not amused. I swear that one guy who leapt to his feet was at least five years older than me. My refrain is, “Merci, mais je suis tres jeune. “ Guess it gives them a good story to tell over dinner!

Sadly, the Amazin Mets came-up short against the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Yankees now represent NYC in the World Series … the Dodgers won the first game last night with a tenth inning grand slam.

Staying with restaurants, this is the bill for a very good lunch we had yesterday, at a pretty decent restaurant. Difficult for a bill to be simpler. My trouble & strife had the ‘formula’ (lunch special), celery salad and swordfish, I had a filet steak in pepper sauce, and we washed it down with an excellent Sancerre. Three items on the bill, no extra costs. The way it should be.

The owners of ‘Goldfish’ have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to change the name to ‘Chilean Sea Bass’ hoping to broaden the appeal to adults. Guess they forgot the real name of Chilean Sea Bass is ‘Patagonian Toothfish’, which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I can just imagine the hours taken discussing this, the focus groups, the risk assessments … and still coming-up with a profoundly stupid decision. I know, I’ve been there!

Always good to start with Gary Trudeau.

Early voting has started, and it’s hitting record highs, helped by Republicans being told it’s now OK to do this. Hopefully a good sign that folk realize this election is kinda important. But, the Republican shenanigans have already started. A voter in Georgia using a touch screen machine made a mistake, corrected it, and Marjorie Taylor-Greene was off and running with a conspiracy rampage, “This is exactly the fraud we saw in 2020 and it cannot be tolerated.” This was viewed 3.5 million times.

As ever, Trump had some ‘stellar’ moments during the week, none more so than rambling on about the size of Arnold Palmer’s penis. The Harris campaign stated he was talking about ‘Literal junk.’ Nice. But a ‘Palmer’ is now a reference to something other than lemonade and iced tea, or a big golf swing.

Fallon on Trump and Arnold Palmer, “I think one of his staffers must have said, ‘We need to focus on the polls’, and Trump was, like, ‘Oh, I’ll focus on the pole.’”

Trump’s campaign organized a work day for him at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s … totally fake. The store closed for the day so Trump could seem to be a working stiff, and push his none too subtle narrative that Harris never worked at a McDonald’s … because she didn’t list it on her resume for law school.

Colbert, “He’s not the common man. This is all just blue-collar drag. But with more makeup.” Meyers, “Well, McDonald’s screwed-up my order again.” Fallon, “Yeah, he had a great time at McDonald’s, because, for 20 minutes, Trump actually ran a successful business.”

Verbatim of what he said in a rally on Thursday. His message is dark, categorizing America as an awful place … all driven of course by his disgusting anti-immigrant stance.

John Kelly at last came out publicly castigating Trump in an interview with the NYT, the week after General Milley called Trump a “fascist to his core.” But, as a former military officer, Kelly said he could not endorse a candidate. What a stupid, facile cop-out.

Jeff Goldberg in the ‘Atlantic’, a respected writer who usually gets it right, reported that Trump stiffed the family of a soldier who was murdered on a military base. He met with them and offered to pay for the funeral, a nice gesture. But, he thought the bill was too high, and refused to pay. Classy, as ever,

It’s a big problem that Trump is selling fascism, but an even bigger problem that over 50% of men are buying it. Huge problem. The sense of entitlement that Americans writ large have is, to me, breathtaking.

In a CNN Town Hall, Harris called Trump a fascist. He turned down a debate with her on CNN, and also the offer for his very own Town Hall. He’s avoiding possible confrontation like the plague.

Harris’ closing argument is that Trump has an “Enemies List”, whereas she has a “To Do List.” Her final speech of the campaign on November 4th will be at the Eclipse … beautiful touch.

Trump reposted, ‘January 6 will go down in history as the day the government staged a riot to cover-up the fact that they certified a fraudulent election.’ Huh?! He was president, the government. In an interview with Saudi state media, Trump, “I would have done a deal with Hamas and 10/7 wouldn’t have happened.” He’s totally delusional.

I’ve just finished a book, ‘When Paris Went Dark – The City of Light Under German Occupation 1940 – 1944.’, a subject that has always fascinated me. To this day discussion about who collaborated, or what was collaboration, is a taboo subject. It’s as if the four years were one big black hole. But, there were brutal recriminations right after Paris was liberated, men were arbitrarily shot, women, who were thought to have had relationships with Germans, had their heads shaved, unless they were prostitutes … they were just doing their job! One comment that did strike a chord with me, that early Nazi success came from rural areas and small towns. Ring a bell? Trump is having a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, it brings back memories of a pro Nazi rally there in 1939 with 20,000 zealots waving swastikas.

Until recently, most of Trump’s ads focused on the economy, but, as Harris closed that perception gap, they changed gear to culture issues, especially “transgender insanity”, and “Trump is for you, Kamala is for they / them.” Disgusting, but, apparently, it’s gaining traction in midwestern swing states.

The stars have been campaigning with Harris this week; Obama, Eminem, Bruce Springstein, Willie Nelson, Tyler Perry … and Beyonce. Fallon, “What a night … the most powerful woman in the world, and Kamala Harris.”

Ian Sams, Harris’ campaign spokesman, is getting under Trump’s skin. Why? Because he’s on Fox News so often … four times in five days last week. Trump thinks that Fox is his own private network, and that having anybody on from the Harris campaign is a betrayal. “Does this mean that Ian Sams, Lyin Kamala’s special advisor, owns Fox News? He’s on all the time, as are so many of her other supporters. In the old days, you never had Ian Sams.” He said he’d have a word with Rupert Murdoch, which he obviously did because Sams hasn’t been on since. This is the guy who has the gall to accuse ABC and CBS of bias, and that their broadcasting licenses should be revoked.

The Outlaw called into a Town Hall the Hillbilly was having in Detroit, “I do have a question. I think it would be quite an interesting one. The answer should be easy. How brilliant is Donald Trump?” Much nervous laughing, and general unease from Vance, then three minutes later. “Sir, of course you’re very brilliant.” Cringe

The five largest newspapers in Texas all endorsed Colin Allred. Poor Ted Cruz, he really is not popular … with anybody. More than 25% of Americans think that civil war could break out after the election, according to a poll commissioned by the Times of London.

Elon Musk is all in for Trump, offering to pay one million dollars a day to a lucky raffle winner in Pennsylvania, all they have to do is register to vote as a Republican. The DOJ is investigating whether this could be construed as a bribe. The DOJ?! They’ll come to a decision maybe in time for the next election. According to the WSJ, Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since 2002 … on personal, business and geopolitical issues. This, after Bob Woodward reported that Trump has been in regular contact with Putin. Why doesn’t this outrage politicians from both sides? Whose side are they on?

Musk has been rabbiting on about the use of Dominion voting machines in Pennsylvania. He better be careful, as Fox found out, it can be expensive.

Wouldn’t this be nice? They both give immigrants a bad name.

There’s another narcissist in the race, Jill Stein. Trump, “I like her very much. You know why? She takes 100% from Democrats.” Even her own family has pleaded with her to drop out … to no avail. Talking of third party candidates, what happened to RFK Jr.? Total radio silence.

I was stunned to learn that Costco’s magazine, ‘Connection’, is now the third largest magazine in terms of circulation in the U.S. with 15.4 million copies. Number one is ‘AARP: The Magazine’, number two, ‘The AARP Bulletin.’ And the readership of ‘Connection’ is high value to advertisers, average household income of $99,000, and 92.6% own a home.

Lastly, as ever, your moment of advertising zen:

The grand old lady is looking better by the day, and hopefully will be in fine fettle for the planned public re-opening on December 7th. Work will continue through 2025.

Rainy week, but didn’t stop us getting out and about, or eating well. Bro and sis-in-law left on Monday to return home and tend for Didier, the itinerant dog.

The Subway Series is looking distinctly dodgy right now. The Yankees are in good shape, with a 3 – 1 lead, but the Mets are down 3 – 2 needing to win games six and seven in L.A.

As I’ve mentioned, Montmartre is hilly, and different levels can be reached by steps … like this lung burster. Sacre Coeur is at the top, surrounded by the old village of Montmartre … cafes, restaurants, portrait painters, and Starbucks. We, in fact, shock, shock, went into Starbucks. Why? Despite the charm the average French cafe serves awful coffee, and certainly not Matcha, my trouble & strife’s new fave brew. Times are changing, and there are some new decent coffee houses, but not in the village of Montmartre.

This is the local Amazon delivery vehicle … tis true. Cuts down on emissions, but I pity the guy pedaling up and down the hills here.

One of the joys of walking along the Seine, both banks, is the array of sellers of books, posters and old ads. This ad brought back memories. I flew Concord twice, the second time it lost an engine an hour out of Heathrow, and had to be diverted to Nova Scotia. It was the day of the 1990 soccer World Cup Final and I was not best pleased. It took six hours for a U.S. Air plane to come and fetch us. The pilot told us the score en route to JFK.

82 year old David Jenkins was the winner of the 2024 world conkers championships held, as usual, in the village of Southwick, in the county of Northamptonshire, England. It took me back to my childhood when playing conkers was a playground staple in the autumn. Conkers are in fact chestnuts, and fall from the horse chestnut tree. The competition is pretty simple. You drill a hole in your conker, put a piece of string through it, and take turns swinging to try and destroy each other’s conker. No cheating allowed, like soaking in brine. Young David was accused of using a metal conker, a definite no, no. Tut, tut.

Yet another gem from ‘People.’ Order quickly, before they run out.

This is so true. In my early working years in New York, after arriving from London, I had no idea about anybody’s politics, and, frankly, little interest. It only began to change after the first time we returned from Asia, and coincided, I guess with the advent of cable news … in particular Fox News.

Now it’s in  your face 24/7, fueled by the Internet and solicitations for money. The NYT reported that the Trump campaign has sent more than 7,400 emails asking for dosh since he announced that he was  running again in November, 2022 … that’s about eleven a day. The Democrats do their fair share as well, but nowhere that magnitude.

This, too, is so true. One’s mood goes up and down like a yo-yo depending on the latest polls. Best thing is to try and ignore them. The die is cast, voting has started, agonizing about polls is a waste of time … and emotional energy.

This, of course, is a very back-handed compliment, but I’ve been listening to far too many Trump and Harris speeches, and I’ve figured out her problem. She speaks in complete sentences, and has complete thoughts. How can she possibly compete with the weave? I’ll come back to her interview on Fox.

SNL is must watching in election season. Last week’s cold opening borrowed “Family Feud” to pit Trump against Harris.

4.4 million Americans live overseas, 1.2 million were registered to vote in 2020. The votes are important. In 2020, 18,745 overseas voters cast ballots in Georgia … Biden won the state by only 12,670. 18,435 were cast in Arizona … Biden carried the state by only 10,457.

Kamala Harris sat down for an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News, and it was confrontational from the get go. He acted like a shill for Trump, constantly interrupting her and aggressively challenging her … kinda different from the way the network handles Trump. Most pundits thought she did just fine, I certainly did. Fox News hosts, predictably, thought she was a train wreck.

Harris did not bitch about how she was treated, handled it like a professional. Trump has done his best to avoid any possible confrontational interview like the plague.

He declined to participate in a 60 Minutes interview, but, like the petty little whiner he is, accused CBS of editing Harris’ answers to make her look good … said it was illegal and “must be investigated today.” The public was owed a “ major and immediate apology.” Said CBS should lose its broadcasting license … just as he had said of ABC after his debate with Harris.

Trump had an interview with the Bloomberg Economic Club of Chicago, which he thought would be a friendly and captive audience. It did not go well. The interviewer (a Brit) pushed him on tariffs, and he spewed nonsense … “tariff is my favorite word in the dictionary.” He was told that the WSJ criticized his view, “What does the WSJ know? They’ve been wrong about everything. So have you, by the way. You’ve been wrong. You’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff.” Asked a question about breaking-up Google, he answered by complaining about courts in Virginia not allowing the state Republicans to purge the electoral roll.

He continues to rant about deporting millions of illegals. Be careful of what you wish for. In Idaho 89% of dairy workers are foreign born (probably mostly illegal), nationally it is 51%. Who will do the work if there are mass deportations? And, the price of milk? In affluent areas, who will mow the lawns?

The economy is supposedly the number one issue on voters’ minds, and Trump pans it every day. But, the economy is doing just fine by any measure, whether it be GDP growth, jobs, the stock market or salary increases, but Biden and Harris aren’t getting any credit. The Fed took too long to cut rates,so interest rates are coming down too slowly. Inflation is down but folks are still mad about rising costs following the pandemic. And, Trump and Republicans knock the economy every day. It amazes the rest of the world. ‘The Economist’, “America Has Left Every Other Global Economy In The Dust.”

Rachel Maddow did a devastating take on the reason many give for voting for Trump, “It’s a business decision.”

Trump continues to rant on about “the enemy within”, and how traitors like Pelosi and Schiff should be prosecuted. Also, “We are known throughout the world as an occupied country.” In a speech in California he suggested that a heckler would later “get the hell knocked out of her.” He called Gavin Newsom, “New-Scum.”

He lied about having been to Gaza … or, more likely, just confused.

In another town hall meeting on Fox he said he was “the father of IVF”, while admitting that he only heard about the procedure earlier this year when the “fantastically attractive” senator from Alabama, Katie Britt, explained it to him … said it took him two minutes to fully understand. You can’t make this up.

Trump spent the last 40 minutes of a rally ‘dancing’ and exclaiming “No more questions, they’re boring.” North Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was forced to sway along with him. Kimmel, “He played music and kind of did that baby toddler jumping dance that he does for a full 39 minutes. He just stood there swaying like a manatee tangled in seaweed.”

Grift is ongoing. Trump complains about China, and how he’s going to hit them with the biggest tariffs the world has ever seen. Turns out  that the Trump Bibles are made in China … guess there will be a religious exemption.

Trump refuses to release his medical records, but says that Harris having allergies is “dangerous.” A guy, apparently associated with the Sovereign Citizens Movement (anti government extremists), is arrested at Coachella, California at a Trump rally as a suspect for a third assassination attempt … he was carrying illegal guns. Assassination attempt, serious stuff? He’s released on $5,000 bail. Only in America!

Bob Woodward, in ‘War’, quotes General Mark Milley calling Trump. “Fascist to the core.”

That would be too easy. Instead, we have ‘Rod of Iron Ministry’, an offshoot of the Unification Church founded by Sun Myung Moon … remember the Moonies? It had its annual freedom festival last weekend, and the highlight was a raffle to win a Trump AR-15. They believe the AR-15 is an instrument of God’s justice … the rod of iron from Revelation 2:27. Mike Flynn was the guest of honor and Tom Homan, ex head of ICE, also spoke and said that if Trump won he would be back and would lead the “largest deportation program in history.” I hope all the Moonies are here legally.

In a NYT interview JD Vance refused five times to say that Trump lost the 2020 election. He has subsequently claimed that Trump in fact did not lose … guess the boss had a word.

He, with others, also claim that Trump saved the ACA … and they are not being nailed for this. In fact he did whatever he could to kill it, and to now try and take credit for its success is unreal. Vance’s own mother suffered from drug abuse and was covered by Medicaid, which Republicans also hate. As she recovered, her income increased, and she was no longer eligible for Medicaid, but she was able to transition to the ACA. Otherwise she would have had to rely on charity. Vance claims Trump made this happen … I’m wordless!

At last, Moscow Mitch and I are in violent agreement. In a (yet another) book, ‘The Price of Power’, it’s revealed that right after the 2020 election Mitch called Trump a “despicable human being” and “a narcissist” … oh, and “stupid and ill tempered.” Amen. But times have changed, he says he’ll vote for him because “we are all on the same team now.”

Musk is all in for Trump, actually campaigning with and without him, especially in Pennsylvania. He and two other billionaires gave $220 million in the third quarter alone to a Trump PAC, and the PAC funded ads like these targeting Arab voters in Michigan depicting Harris as pro Israeli, and Jewish voters in Pennsylvania depicting her as pro Arab. Cynical in extremis. 

Getting hurricane insurance is extremely difficult, and separate policies are needed for wind and flood. In North Carolina, only .7% of people had flood insurance. Hellene caused $250 billion of damage, $47 billion to homeowners alone … but insurance companies are only in hock for $11 billion. This is a huge issue.

Property insurance already represents 9.4% of the average mortgage payment … remember you can’t get a mortgage unless you have homeowners insurance.

A few other things caught my attention:

What is a group of racoons called? A “Gaze” … you’re welcome.

This is Nobel prize season, and the huge majority, especially in the sciences, have as usual been awarded to either Americans, or others attached to American universities. Remarkable endorsement of the quality of higher education in the U.S., and, of course, the monies available for research.

Quite a few Chinese cars on the streets of Paris, and nine Chinese automakers are currently exhibiting at the Paris Auto Show. I had no idea there were that many.

The diocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million in settlement for sexual abuse (1,353 children), this is on top of $600 previously agreed. Where do they get the money?

Lastly, as ever, your moment of advertising zen. This was sent to me by a friend in Bangkok who spotted it on the Skytrain (Their metro.)

There you go, the iconic Sacre Coeur. To my surprise, Montmartre is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Paris … they flood the quaint, cobblestone streets like ants on a march. Our apartment is down the hill, or about 180 stair steps, the other side of the church, away from the hustle and bustle. We are certainly getting our steps in. Popular area for dogs, and the locals are no better at picking-up after their pooches than they are in other areas of the city. They figure the sanitation guys need a daily objective, and it’s their way of ensuring they keep their jobs.

One of the many joys of Paris is the number, and variety, of small shops … not the plethora of big brand shops so prevalent across America. I think it’s because rents aren’t so draconian, that city governments push back against hefty rent increases. But, it does lead to some ‘creative’ names … for example naming a clothing store after a chicken? And …

Charming name for a cafe! Yes, bastard does mean the same … and can be used as the equivalent of “cocksucker.”

We went to a quaint, five table, oyster bar, it was terrific. Very small area. Space has had the same owner for 43 years, only been an oyster bar for the last five. Before that it was a woman’s fashion store … quite a transition.

The Amazins beat the Phillies in four games, and proceed to the NLCS (National League Championship Series) where they will meet the Los Angeles Dodgers in a seven game series. The Yankees have also progressed to the A (American) LCS, and New York City is agog at the prospect of a Subway Series. And, I’m in Paris!

My clever trouble & strife has somehow latched-onto an excellent VPN (Virtual Private Network) and we are able to watch most of the stuff we like on TV … can even get Chelsea games. I think we’ll be able to get the Mets games, but they’ll be in the middle of the night, especially the west coast games.

So, we’ll continue to concentrate on eating well. We are yet to have a bad meal, and the prices are very reasonable, especially at lunchtime … helps not having the extra 30% in service charge and taxes.

Went to see ‘The Apprentice’, the launch date was the same in France as in the U.S. The cinema was packed at 3.00 on a Thursday afternoon. Not a hatchet job, basically the story of his relationship with Roy Cohn, who molded Trump to be the shit he is today. Taught him his three essential principles; attack, attack, attack; deny, deny, deny; never accept defeat, always declare victory. Winning is all that matters, and it doesn’t matter how you do it … even if it’s only the perception of winning. It’s possible to watch the movie, and emerge with two very different takes. That he’s an immoral, narcissistic thug, or that he’s a winner. And, the country is split down the middle on this. Tony Schwartz, author of ‘Art of the Deal’, wrote a guest essay in the NYT yesterday on the movie … excellent.

From the guy who’s major contribution after a hurricane in Puerto Rico was tossing paper towels. The big event of the week was a second hurricane hitting Florida, ‘Milton’ coming in the footsteps of ‘Hellene.’ Trump, Vance, many Republicans and Fox News hosts have been spreading lies that the feds were screwing-up disaster relief in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Totally untrue, and disgraceful.

Biden condemned Trump’s lies in, for him, a very aggressive manner … “Get a life, man.” As have Republican governors, who see on the ground how the lies are spreading mistrust and disrupting relief activities.

The largest newspaper in North Carolina took aim at Trump’s lies. The lies about the hurricane and FEMA are creating havoc and causing the loss of life. Republicans are having trouble trying to put the genie back in the bottle.

The WSJ should be ashamed of itself, publishing an op-ed from JD Vance claiming FEMA was using money that could be used for hurricane relief efforts to instead support illegal immigrants. Totally untrue, and the WSJ knows this. Notice also how Vance describes Biden as Mr. Biden rather than President Biden. Petty.

Most responsible Republicans know that the administration, like any administration, is doing whatever it can to provide relief, that partisan politics are a zero factor. But, Trump and his acolytes are claiming that red counties are being short-changed, that it’s a Democratic plot to suppress the vote in those hard hit areas.

The most insidious lie is that FEMA money is being diverted to support illegals. Why does Trump do this, knowing that it’s a lie? Because it complements his anti immigration spiel.

Then, there’s cuddly MTG, can’t keep a good witch down. “They can control the weather. Yes, they can.” So, Jewish space lasers cause wildfires in California, and, now, “they” create hurricanes. This from a woman who will be reelected in a landslide. Kimmel, “Donald Trump should be forced to live on an island with all these people. Listen, dummies, the government can’t control the weather. The only person who can control the weather is Beyonce.”

Project 2025, in its zeal to slash the federal government, proposes that both FEMA and NOAA should be seriously downsized. This comes from the same folk who are bitching about FEMA not doing enough. Kimmel, “And of course, before the storm even hit, the Trumpers were blaming the White House for all this, which is interesting because two weeks ago, eleven house Republicans from Florida voted against keeping the government and FEMA fully funded. Then, when Hurricane Hellene came to visit, they all signed a letter asking President Biden for federal funding. This is how it goes now.”

Last weekend Trump, Vance, Eric & Lara Trump all said that Democrats had planned to kill Trump. Trump claimed that the “enemy from within” was way more dangerous than “the enemy from without.” i.e. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Really?!

In a phone call with supporters, Trump repeatedly referred to Maine’s governor as a man … nope, it’s Janet Mills. Silly mistake, there’s an electoral college vote up for grabs there, one of two states that is not winner take all. Lara Trump said the election was between “good and evil.” She’s absolutely right, just not the way she thinks. Then, you have conspiracy nutter, and Trump muse, Laura Loomer, “The people of North Carolina should not comply with FEMA.”

Thomas Friedman, “The only good thing about Trump and Bibi Netanyahu is that God only made one of them.”

Even more grift … who woulda guessed? The two guys behind Trump’s new crypto venture are, shall we say, ‘interesting.’ One calls himself the “dirtbag of the Internet” able to sell anything to anyone. The other ran a company, ‘Date Hotter Girls’, offering advice on how to pick-up women in bars. They’re serial entrepreneurs, leaving behind  a trail of lawsuits, unpaid debt and taxes. ‘Only the best people’ … but, I guess, mirror-images of Trump. The company’s promotional materials call Barron Trump (18 years old) a “crypto visionary.” This, like all of Trump’s projects will not end well, and innocent people will, as ever, be burned.

It’s election time, must be time for a new Bob Woodward book. In ‘War’, Woodward, who tends to get things right, writes that Trump sent Putin covid tests when they were scarce in the U.S. and Russia was under sanctions. He also wrote that Trump has spoken to Putin up to seven times since leaving office … as recently as earlier this year. Biden has not spoken to Putin since the invasion of Ukraine. Amazing how many books have been written about Trump, very few about Biden. This book focuses on Biden’s efforts to prevent a wider war in Ukraine and the middle-east, and, according to reviews, is pretty complimentary. Woodward endorses Biden, claiming Trump is unfit to be commander-in-chief. Amen.

Trump, through his nasty spokesman, Steven Cheung, denies Woodward’s claims … but the Kremlin, through Putin’s official spokesman, confirms that Trump did send covid tests. This from Trump’s pal Vlad himself! Both Trump and Putin deny they have spoken, almost certainly because they know this would be  a serious departure from norms. Vance said he didn’t know if Trump had spoken to Putin, but, if he had, “What’s the big deal?” Oh, no big deal? Trump said that John Kerry should be prosecuted for treason for allegedly speaking to Iran after he left office, contravening the Logan Act. And, the U.S. wasn’t exactly at war with Iran.

Staying with JD Vance, “Kids can’t add five plus five, but they can describe to you 87 different genders.” Such a sweetie.

Musk campaigned with Trump at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally; “The other side wants to take away your freedom of speech. They want to take away your right to bear arms. They want to take away your right to vote, effectively.” Whoever thought that Musk would become a Trump shill? Unreal.

Melania’s book is out … to rave reviews. I’m joking! It’s being panned as shallow and self-serving … certainly married a compatible guy! She loves luxury, and nice stuff. Any criticism she received while in the White House she blamed on somebody else. Facts have shown that this is simply not true, like the decision to wear that jacket, and the decision not to try and calm the situation on Jan 6.

Harris and Walz are doing a flurry of interviews, and being grilled on policy positions … fair game if it applies to both candidates. The false equivalency is mind blowing. Trump spews lies about disaster relief, and the media shrugs and probes Harris on policy minutiae.

Yep, folks it’s a binary election. You know enough.

Harris certainly has enough dosh in the till for the race to the finish line. She’s raised over a billion dollars in three months … hope she spends it wisely, and effectively.

She’s getting important help from the porn industry. Project 2025 says that all porn should be banned, and that those promoting it should be imprisoned. Vance says it should be banned … the party of free speech! So, the industry is funding a “Hands Off My Porn” campaign … and endorsing Harris.

A few other things caught my attention:

You can’t keep a good man down. Viktor Bout, the ‘Merchant of Death’ exchanged for Brittney Griner, is back in business trying to flog arms to the Houtis.

20 million motorists are stopped every year, for some infraction or other … 29% of them are Black. Police killed 813 people during a stop … that’s extraordinary.

Lastly, as ever, your moment of advertising zen:

I know, I could / should have a more inspiring, romantic picture from our first days in Paris, but this from the Metro tickled my funny bone … can you imagine not noticing you had put the ad in the frame upside down? And, then it not being corrected?!

Arrived on Tuesday morning, and very happy with our rented apartment in Montmartre … for once the apartment looks just like the pictures on the website, and all the ‘promises’ are in fact true. First time in Montmartre, first time so far from the Seine. Montmartre is charming, albeit hilly. Fact is, Paris is compact and it’s easy to get anywhere on the Metro, quickly. The Metro is used by everybody, totally classless … kinda different from New York. Sis and bro-in-law also have an apartment for two weeks, and our son is staying in our house with Didier, the itinerant dog.

The journey was OK, but travel (like many things) aint what it used to be. Checking-in at JFK was tortuous, you’re forced to use kiosks, I guess to save on womanpower, but they are so complicated, especially for international travel, that you need so many people to help that it would be easier, and cheaper, to check-in the old-fashioned way at the counter. One strange thing, nobody looked at our passports at all, except at TSA, but there we could have used another ID. For all the airline staff knew, we might not have had a passport … which would have been an issue at the other end.

Since last week’s ‘Musings’ the Mets clinched a wild card spot, a three game series against the Milwaukee Brewers … in Milwaukee. The Brewers owned them in the regular season. But, the Amazins won in three, rallying from two down in the ninth. Next-up the Phillies in a five game series. More than makes up for the dismal Jets, who lost 10 – 9 to Denver at home.

It seems that Kritin Gillibrand reads ‘Musings’. I wrote last week that she was totally missing-in-action, since then she’s been ubiquitous on TV, one ad after another. Eerie. Talking about eerie, we have a new (ish) garbage bin that opens and closes automatically, just need to wave your hand over it. Or, if you are my trouble & strife, growl “Open” … and it does. It will not listen to me, but obeys her every command. No wonder I’m becoming neurotic. 

The 50th season of SNL debuted last Saturday, and was a bit of a disappointment, except for ‘Weekend Update’, and the cold-opening, which was excellent. Here 

These are not beard trimmers. ‘Wirecutters’ is a product review company owned by the NYT, and its helpful reviews are often featured in the paper. Yesterday’s was a first, it rated the best vibrators and G-spot toys … in the NYT! They have a longtime sex-toy writer … what a gig! In a similar vein you might enjoy this brief clip of two old men sharing wisdom.

Last weekend Trump let loose ever more racist and inflammatory rhetoric; “Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way.” He suggested that America have “One really violent day” to control crime. Fallon, “Good news. He stopped talking about Hannibal Lecter. Bad news. He suggested doing the purge instead.” Trump’s daughter-in-law, and chairman of the RNC, Lara Trump, said “Trump is joking around” when he calls Harris “stupid.” Such a classy jokester.

A new ditty from Randy Rainbow on the orange cockroach.

Once again, on the nail. Trump told a ginormous porkie, even by his standards, that he never told senators to kill the bipartisan immigration bill. ‘60 Minutes’, as they do every four years, invited both nominees to a pre-election interview. Harris agreed, as did Trump … initially. But he then declined, because CBS insisted on some fact checking. Such spoilsports! Fallon, “Trump said that he’ll stand-up to the president of China, but Lesley Stahl is a little too scary.” Oops.

 In her memoir, Melania supports abortion, “Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” Here  Asked about this, Trump said he encouraged her to write what she believed, and that’s “why she is so beloved.” Really? More like a cynical attempt to reach out to women pissed at restricted abortion rights … because of him!

Tina Peters, the former clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, was sentenced to nine years in the clink for tampering with voting machines in an attempt to prove they had been used to rig the 2020 election. Yet again, a minion is punished for trying to help Trump … while he continues to get away scot free.             

Just when you think that Trump can’t stoop any lower, he surprises you … all over again. In Georgia, looking at the devastation caused by Hellene, he said that the feds weren’t helping enough, that Governor Brian Kemp couldn’t get Biden on the phone. Out and out lie, as both Kemp and Biden stated, the latter with some vehemence. Trump also claimed that getting hit by Hellene was unlucky because it was so late in the hurricane season … wrong, it’s bang in the middle. Incidentally, Trump was not welcome in Georgia, there was nothing he could do to help. He went purely and simply for a photo-op, interrupting valuable rescue work.

Surprise, surprise, with the increasing number of national disasters FEMA is running out of money. As Hellene was nearing the Florida coast congress voted for extended funding but excluded billions of dollars in requested supplemental disaster funding. All nay votes were Republican including some from Florida. Vance skipped the vote, but criticized the administration for spending billions on illegal aliens rather than on citizens i.e. diverting funds from FEMA. Totally, totally untrue.

The extent of the destruction in North Carolina could also have been mitigated if Republican legislators hadn’t blocked new federal codes from being implemented. Democrat Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, but the heavily gerrymandered legislature overrode the veto. As ever, Republicans voted on the side of builders who fight tooth and nail against any new regulations.

I keep hearing people say “Harris is saying nothing”, even good friends of mine, who would never, ever vote for Trump. They aren’t listening … and it’s a binary choice. They should listen to Bruce Springstein … who has certainly been listening. Here 

New evidence from the Jan 6 indictment was released. When told by an aide that Pence was in peril in the rioting, Trump said “So what?” When one of his lawyers told him that his false claims about widespread fraud would not hold-up in court, Trump said,”The details don’t matter.” On a flight after the election, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”

We didn’t watch the debate … cmon, it was 3.00 a.m. on the day we arrived in Paris! It seems it was a stylistic draw, but JD Vance told a few porkies … what a surprise. He claimed he had never supported a national abortion ban … he certainly did and the internet blew-up with video of him saying he did. He also claimed that Trump tried to salvage the Affordable Care Act … the exact opposite was true. And, he refused to say that Trump lost the 2020 election, Walz, “You really can’t answer that question?”

Vance said that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were illegal. The moderator corrected him … Vance, “The rules were we weren’t going to fact check.” Pathetic.

43 million tuned-in for the debate … that’s a big number.

Jimmy Carter turned 100, the first president to hit that milestone. Trump congratulated him … don’t be silly! But, he did say that Biden was the worst president ever, taking the mantle from Carter. Faint praise.

Lastly, as ever, your moment of advertising zen:

The NY Mets were founded in 1962, and lost a major league record of 120 games … but the Chicago White Sox have erased that stain by losing their 121st game of the season last night. That adds to the franchise’s ignominy of the 1919 game-fixing scandal. The Mets are having a better season than appeared likely after their tepid start, and are still in with a chance of a wild card spot. Down to the wire with their bogey team, the Atlanta Braves. Fingers crossed.

Another ‘People’ gem, perfect for that romantic evening.

Quiet week, getting ready for our six week sojourn to Paris. Yep, we’ll be in Paris for the election. Decided that before Biden dropped out, but it will still be a nail biter. We’ll watch early in the morning, Paris is six hours ahead of New York. Posting of ‘Musings’ will be, as they say, game day decisions, not sure if I’ll have time. My trouble & strife has voted … NY is safe. She reluctantly voted for Kristen Gillibrand for US Senate, who is running against a retired NYPD detective. Reluctantly because she has not forgiven her for railroading Al Franken into resigning when she had her three minute run for president in 2020. Also, we have heard zippo about her during the election … that is arrogance.

Highlight of the week was extending my 500 day Wordle streak … I need to get a life! We watched ‘The Perfect Couple’ and enjoyed it, shallow but full of twists. Started watching ‘Penguin’, and the jury is out. The fourth season of ‘Slow Horses’ has debuted, but we will wait to start until we get back.

I’ve been advocating mispronouncing Donald and Trump for some time now. Gary Trudeau has a (slightly) bigger audience than ‘Musings’ so hopefully this will now take off!

It looks like Trump’s support is exactly the same today as in 2016 and 2020 … 45/46%. It’s mind-blowing to think that nearly a half of the country would still vote for the guy after everything that has happened during the last nine years. 

Trump seems to think that immigration is the key issue. At every rally, in every interview, he highlights Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio … the former being overrun by Venezuelan gangs, the latter by Haitian pet eaters. In both cases the Republican mayors tell him he’s wrong, and please stop. He doesn’t, builds lie upon lie, and says all the immigrants need to be sent back to where they came from.

Harris accepted CNN’s invitation to a debate on October 23rd, but Trump responded, “No Mas.” He says it’s too late, but it’s a similar time to debates in both 2016 and 2020. He just wants no part of another debate, knows he got creamed last time.

The late nite comics loved this one. Colbert, “I’m not sure he’s running for president or marketing a new brand of tampons.” Meyers, “Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about our great women, all right? Because women have gone through a lot.’ I assume he’s talking from experience. Trump also said, ‘Women will finally be healthy, hopeful, safe and secure.’ So now JD Vance is undecided.” Kimmel, “It all reads like a suicide pact.”

Trump’s new attack on Harris is that she’s lying about working at McDonalds … 40 years ago. Desi Lydric on the Daily Show called it Trump asking for Harris’ “Burger Certificate.” “This isn’t the kind of thing you lie about. It’s not like sex with a porn star while your wife is pregnant.”

Democrats have a much better organized ‘ground game’ … i.e. resources to get the vote out. Trump, instead, is focusing on contesting the results, and depressing voting. Says he has enough votes, just needs to eliminate the cheating. Kinda pathetic.

More grift. Trunch launches a ‘Trump Coin’ bearing his face for $100 … the silver in it is valued at about $30. The proceeds go into his wallet, not to fund the campaign. As does …

Add a Trump watch to the stellar list of ‘collectables’, this beauty is a steal at $100,000. The grift is breathtaking, and in the middle of a campaign. Imagine the Republican outrage if Kamala Harris did something like this.

Three ex-chairman of the Maine Republican party have endorsed Harris, as have over 700 ex-Republican foreign policy and national security officers. But, it’s only ex-Republican officials that are seeing the light, none of those in office. One narcissistic popinjay who is not endorsing Harris is Joe Manchin, he doesn’t agree with her on eliminating the filibuster. Not sure I do either, but it wouldn’t be a deal breaker for my (hypothetical) vote. Another dodderer is Bret Stephens of the NYT, who says he will never vote for Trump, but needs to hear more about Harris’ policies before voting for her. Give me a break. It’s a binary decision, guys.

Trump has long been fixated on the late nite TV hosts. At a rally in Pennsylvania he suggested that NBC bring Johnny Carson back … slight problem, he died in 2005.

Trump still endorses Mark Robinson for governor of North Carolina. He’s one of the few, Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia withdrew his endorsement, and many of Robinson’s senior staff have resigned.

Asked on Thursday whether he still supported Robinson, Trump hedged his bets, “I don’t know the details.” Huh, really?!

What is it with Republican senate candidates from Ohio? First, there’s JD Vance, now senator wannabe Bernie Moreno basically insulting all women. Two years ago, Ohio overwhelmingly voted against a strict abortion ban for the state. Wasn’t he paying attention?

Rep Clay Higgins of Louisiana has a racist history dating back to when he was a cop, but he outdid himself with this tweet. Generated a lot of outrage, from Republicans as well as Democrats, and then, according to Speaker Mike Johnson (also from Louisiana) Higgins prayed, saw the error of his ways, took the post down and “probably regrets some of his language. We believe in redemption here.” Really? Not so fast …

Clay’s his own man … won’t be pushed around by anyone.

For weeks there has been one indictment after another in NYC, and one senior resignation after another. It stinks of corruption in high places … then the inevitable other shoe dropped.

Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted for bribery. Taking a leaf out of Trump’s playbook, he blames the Biden administration for taking revenge over his bitching about NYC not getting enough help with the large number of migrants … valid argument, but really? Pretty damning indictment. The Biden DOJ has certainly not favored Democrats. They’ve indicted Rep Henry Cuellar of Texas, Senator Bob Menandez of NJ and, now, Eric Adams … not to mention Hunter Biden. You don’t hear Republicans call this weaponization of the federal government. One of the indictments against Adams was for not reporting $100,000 travel gifts from Turkey. $100,000? Chickenfeed. Clarence Thomas received, and didn’t report, $4 million … he doesn’t even get a slap on the wrist.

Maureen Dowd has a terrific article on Adams in today’s NYT, try and find it if you can. She points out, as have others, that he was bought for so little.

The Fed is feeling pretty cocky about achieving a soft landing … if so, they (and us) will be very lucky because, in  my humble opinion, they definitely waited too long to reduce interest rates.

Mike Johnson, predictably, caved in budget negotiations, withdrew a rider requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. Only passed, of course, with support from Democrats. The orange cockroach was not happy.

Talking of Donnie, and the economy, the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics reported that his plans for high tariffs, corporate tax reduction, extension of 2017 tax cuts and deportation of millions of migrants would slash economic growth, create 9% unemployment and increase inflation to 9.3%. Way to go, Mr Stable Genius.

This is, sadly, oh so true. Trump continues to praise Putin, and criticize Zelensky. Zelensky was in DC on Thursday and found very few Republicans willing to meet him. He did meet with Trump yesterday at Trump Tower, and Trump predictably tried to drag Zelensky into partisan politics Ukraine soldiers at the front keep a close watch on election polls because they know their fate depends on who wins the U.S. election. Trump continues to insist that he’ll end the war on day one, but no specifics. Just like Nixon in 1968 about Vietnam, and we know how that went. Trump also said this week, “When I was president, foreign countries wouldn’t fight each other without my permission.” Delusional.

Bibi just can’t stop himself, and is betting big time on Trump’s victory. He’s burned every bridge with Biden, and, by extension, Harris. Israel would be in deep doo doo without American support, and totally ignoring the administration is reckless to the extreme. But we have to remember that Netanyahu, like Trump, has a strong motivation … to avoid going to jail.

This is a Doonesbury strip from 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

A few other things caught my attention:

How true is this?!

TV viewership of the WNBA tripled this year, the Caitlin Clark effect … sadly, her team, the Indiana Fever, didn’t make it past the first round of the play-offs.

Under the category of ‘I thought you would like to know’, “To have your cake and eat it too” translates in Russian to, “To eat the fish, and sit on the dick.” You’re welcome.

75% of kids attending NYC schools live below the poverty line.

A Siamese cat was lost in Yellowstone Park when on a camping trip. His owners gave up hope. Then, two months later he turned-up back in California 800 miles from Yellowstone. How? Nobody has any idea. Didier, the itinerant dog, can barely find his way home from the garden.

Do you know the difference between the winner of the British Bake-Off and the winner of an American cooking show? The Brit has the satisfaction of winning, the Yank gets 250,000 smackeroos.

What is it with some families? Genes? First there was Michael Jackson, for whom the word ‘weird’ was coined. Now, his sister, Janet, who, in an interview with the Guardian, said Kamala Harris was Indian, and her father was white. She’s getting him confused with her late brother!

The Danish company, Nordisk, produces the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. 72% of sales are in the U.S. Ozempic costs Americans with diabetes $969 a month, but only $155 for Canadians and $59 for Germans. What gives? The CEO, in a senate hearing, blamed middlemen, and there’s some veracity in this … but cmon! Big time rip-off. Charge what the market will bear, tis the American way. In other countries, the sole purchaser is the government, and they will not pay exorbitant rates. So, the U.S. subsidizes the rest of the world, with the aid and abetment of Republicans in congress.

Lastly, as ever, your moment of advertising zen:

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This is the famous Chateau Frontenac hotel in Quebec City, perched at the top of the old city inside the (once) fortified walls. Built by the Canadian Pacific Railway Co in 1893, its 610 rooms are now operated by Fairmont.

Quebec City is the capital of Quebec province, and was originally known as New France and exchanged with the Brits for Guadalupe and Martinique back in 1763 … sorta, there was a (brief) battle involved. You can guess who won! France won the long-term language war, but oh the land they lost. Quebec is three times the size of France, and 2.2 times the size of Texas. Like many Americans, I’m sure, I’ve kinda taken Canada for granted. It’s there, it’s civilized, the people are nice. I visited a few times on business, and we spent two weeks in Montreal in 1976 for the Olympics. That’s it. And, I think I know it! I now know the most important thing, it’s bloody big, second largest country in the world after Russia. Yet, only 39 million people, 9.1 million of whom live in Quebec province, 550,000 in Quebec City and 19 million in Montreal. Of course, there is a downside … it’s north of the United States and gets bleeding cold, which is why 75% of the population live close to the border. Fun, and amazing, stat, the territory of Nunavut (one of three territories and ten provinces) is the same size as western Europe, but has a population of only 41,000.

This is the impressive parliament building. Both Quebec City and Montreal are on the majestic St. Lawrence River, which by itself is 2,000 kilometers long, and, as a waterway, stretches 2,500 miles from the Atlantic to Lake Superior. We had a good time, walked a lot and ate well. Highly recommended. About a two and a half hour drive east from Montreal, which is only 30 miles north of the U.S. border. Easy, peasy to cross into Canada, bit more stringent getting back into America … but my brand new green card was accepted with a smile.

This is Notre Dame, of course, a very large, and impressive cathedral, which was built between 1824 and 1829 for the princely sum of 47,000 pounds. Amazing. I found the church gorgeous, my trouble & strife found it a tad gaudy … and she has better taste than me. We enjoyed Montreal, walked a ton, 22,000 steps one day, that’s close to ten miles, but there’s not a lot of what I would call traditional sights. Took the car out one day and drove all around the various neighborhoods, and the large 610 acre Parc De Mont Royal … designed by Frederick Olmsted, who was a busy lad. Also designed both Central and Prospect parks in NYC, plus a ton of other parks in multiple states, including the Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina which we visited in the Spring. It’s cold in Canada, no wonder ice-skating is so popular. There are 2,860 indoor rinks in Canada, compared to only 2,100 in all of the U.S. … in Montreal alone there are 225 outdoor rinks. Not surprisingly ice-hockey is the national sport.

This is Habitat 67, on an island in the St. Lawrence. Built for the 1967 World’s Fair, it comprises  354 individual prefabricated concrete forms which make-up 146 residences of differing sizes, a really interesting block of flats! An apartment there today will set you back about a million U.S. dollars.

The tip disease is alive and festering in Canada. Every single purchase  we made was transacted through a device with the dreaded tip page … every one. In restaurants they bring a mobile device to the table, you have to add a tip right under the nose of your watchful server. Taxes are around 15% and the suggested tip, as above, of 15%, 20% or 25% is calculated including the tax. Ongoing angst for me. As in most of Europe, American Express is welcomed as  favorably as the plague. Another neat trick irritated me. Some shops only took cash and American dollars were given the same value as Canadian dollars, despite being worth 25% more … a neat, and profitable, trick! At our local ice-cream store they have a 30% tip option, first for me.

Gas is about twice as expensive as in the U.S. (driven by tax), which no doubt explains the high number of electric and hybrid vehicles. There were also a lot of car models I did not recognize.

There are about 600,000 Americans living in Canada … and about ten million who claim they will move north if Trump wins!

We like visiting state capitol buildings, but had never been to our own one in Albany. So we scratched that itch on the way north to Canada. We were, sadly, disappointed; a not very inspiring edifice … and, no dome. No dome? Only one of eleven without a dome in the nation … they ran out of money, the richest state in the Republic in the 19th century! What a disgrace. They are awash in cash now, pay their 150 assembly people, and 63 senators $142,000 a year, plus per diem, the highest in the country … and they are only in session from January to June, nice gig. Incidentally, for some strange reason, New Hampshire has more representatives than any other state, 400, and the population is only seven percent that of New York … mind you, they only get paid $100 a year, plus mileage.

Spent the day and night in Albany, not at all impressive, in fact quite a grungy town.

I wrote last week that there were fewer yard signs and bumper stickers, still true. This is the exception, brazenly displayed at ground level on what passes as the main drag in our idyllic hamlet. I saw it and made a mental promise to go back and take a pic. By the time I did, somebody had taken a hammer to it. In 2020 our area was awash in Trump signs, on a drive yesterday I saw more blue than red. Encouraging.

It had to happen, Trump blames Democrats for the (second) assassination attempt. In Bill Maher’s immortal words, “What a whiny little bitch.”

Then, Mini Me, JD Vance, pipes-in, “The left needs to tone down the rhetoric or somebody is going to get hurt.” He continues, stating that Democrats who label Trump as a fascist were inciting violence. Kinda rich. Trump has repeatedly called Harris a fascist. In Tucson, Arizona, he went further, “She’s a Marxist, communist, fascist, socialist.” Tough to be all of them … in fact I’d be fascinated to hear Trump describe what they all mean. Peter Baker puts it all in perspective.

The late nite comics, of course, had a take on this. Kimmel on the suspect, “He tweeted earlier this year that his dream ticket would be Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswarmy, which is how you know he’s nuts.”

 Musk posted, “And, noone is even trying to assassinate Biden / Kamala”, with a thinking-man emoji, which caused an uproar and was promptly deleted. Elon claimed it was “a joke” … such a quirky sense of humor. Ron DeSantis helpfully stated that Florida would investigate the attempt, because he doesn’t trust the same federal agencies that are prosecuting Trump to fairly undertake the investigation. Partisan hack.

Ronny Chieng on the Daily Show, “Will you please stop trying to assassinate Donald Trump? Not only is it morally wrong, but you’re just giving him more things to brag about.”

Vance, who is turning into a real hypocritical scumbag, pretty much admitted on CNN that he created the pet eating story to try and draw attention to Biden’s immigration policies. Both he and Trump continue to double-down on the false stories, and refuse to condemn threats against the town and against Haitians. Fallon, “Yep, Vance admitted that he made the whole thing up, but besides being overtly racist and making Trump look like a total fool at the debate, no harm done, right?”

The rumor about cats started with a woman reporting that her tabby was missing, then posted on Facebook, by one Erika Lee, with a “maybe Haitians ate it” quote. Five days later the pussy was found in the basement. Mea Culpa! Apologizes to Haitians. When the WSJ (not MSNBC) interviews her she’s wearing a Trump t-shirt and a MAGA hat. Ronny Chieng, “Oopsie Doopsie. Sorry I set off a race war in the middle of a presidential election. That’s totally my bad.”

So, if Trump and Vance know the story is false why do they keep talking about it? Because it keeps immigration in the news, and they think that helps them. Cynical and despicable.

Trump claimed that 32,000 Haitians moved into Springfield over two weeks destroying the town. How about 15,000 over four years, and they went there legally to work. The Republican governor, Mike DeWine, comes from Springfield and has pleaded with Trump and Vance to stop … fat chance. In the past Trump has called Haiti a shithole and claimed “they all have AIDS.”

Guess he’s written-off the ‘Swifty’ vote.

In an interview on Fox News, Trump said he was the GOAT of presidential debates, despite ABC correcting him nine to eleven times (try three). Said the studio audience broke into rapturous applause when he got off the stage … there was no audience!

Trump is promising everybody, well everything. Tax cuts for all and sundry. How will he pay for this? By tariffs, which in effect would be a national sales tax. He’s promising no tax on tips,  overtime, social security payments, restoration of SALT (state and local sales tax) and a cut in the corporate tax. This would raise the national debt big time … estimated ten trillion dollars over ten years

How crazy is this? If you buy a product made in China from a retail store, or through Amazon et al, the cost includes duties and tariffs imposed. However, if you buy online straight from China, as long as the cost is under $800, there are no added costs! To compete Amazon and Walmart are developing programs to do the same. It will eliminate jobs, and screw retailers. The joy of tariffs!

Trump is increasingly making remarks that make zero sense, like this one. What did he mean? Nobody has any idea, although one guess is he’s talking about diverting water from British Columbia, which, ironically, is in the middle of a drought.

Then he gets confused, poor fella. This week he confused Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska … easy mistake to make!

He welcomed Nicky Jam to the stage, “She’s hot”, only to discover she was a he … he must have feared for a second that he/she was trans.

In a supposedly anti-semitism speech Trump said that any Jew who didn’t vote for him was “voting for the enemy”, because of his support for Israel. Also said he would impose a travel ban from “infested countries.”

Under pressure from Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson tried to attach to the budget bill a rider requiring proof of citizenship before voting. The whole intent is to try and depress voting. But, yet again, a Republican budget bill was voted down because of Republican “Nays”, and another government shutdown is looming. Trump is all for this, but saner (there are one or two) Republicans think this is a terrible idea as they would be blamed.

Staying with Republican stupidity, all but two (both women) Republican senators voted not to approve a nationwide right to IVF, despite Trump saying he was the “champion of IVF.” Actions, guys, not words.

More angst for Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina, who has a history of racist and misogynistic comments. CNN reported that he made numerous comments on a porn website a decade ago, including that he was a”Black Nazi” and a “perv.”

The Democratic governor pointed-out that Republican leaders had long known that this guy was really bad news, and trying to disassociate themselves from him now was far too late. He also said, “gag a maggot” and “ I don’t give a frog’s ass.” Claims he’s a devout man of God.

Eric likes him, and so does Papa Don who described him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.’ Well, used to … he’s been told he’s no longer welcome at Trump rallies.

There was a MAGA fashion show in a warehouse on Long Island this week … an appropriate location. This is one of the better offerings. I can imagine Sarah Huckerbee-Sanders, governor of Arkansas, in this. She moderated a ‘Town Hall’ with Trump in Michigan, and said “My kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anybody to keep her humble.” What a nasty, whiny bitch.

Talking of which, Aileen Cannon could be a budding Clarence Thomas. Like her mentor she failed, as required, to disclose junkets to conservative banquets and legal retreats. Tut tut.

A few other things caught my attention:

It costs three cents to make a penny. This is asinine … nobody uses them, just, like me, stores them. Why not just get rid of it? Ah, that would require an act of congress, and they can’t agree on anything.

‘The Morning’ is a daily online summary of the NYT. In August, the most clicked story was whether driving when high is as dangerous as driving when drunk. And? Neither is good!

On Labor Day, sorry I’ve been busy, Joey Chestnut beat Takeru Kobayashi in the ‘hot dog eat-off’ … he ate 83 hot dogs in ten minutes. Unreal. The Coney Island July 4th competition will forever be known as the minor leagues unless Joey is invited back.

Lastly, as ever, your moment of advertising zen:

This amused me, has certainly happened a few times, once in France and once in Mississippi, ending-up in the middle of a field, with the GPS lady proudly stating we had reached our destination.

Now, I know, I know. One, I said there would be another hiatus this week, and, two, I’m posting on a Sunday rather than the usual Saturday. After the debate I just could not post. But we didn’t get home to our idyllic hamlet until late Friday with no chance of posting yesterday … it does take a bit of work, you know!

We had an excellent week in Quebec City and Montreal, drove over 1,100 miles and only traveled in NY State and Quebec province. Big places. I have a lot of observations about our trip, and about Canada, but that will have to wait until next week.

We watched the debate in Montreal, excellent early dinner, good bottle of Chablis and back to our hotel, full of nervous anticipation … almost felt as if it was me who was debating! She beat all expectations, completely creamed him … and he knows it.

The NY Post is Murdoch’s print version of Fox News, not a good sign when your in-house rag thinks you were destroyed. 70 million tuned-in, 40% more than for the Biden / Trump debacle. Stephen Colbert had a great line, “Harris got under his skin like she was stuffing in butter and rosemary. It was beautiful.”

But, the most savage indictment came from Karl Rove in an op-ed in the WSJ. He’s the master of dark arts, was regarded as “Bush’s Brain” in the 2000 and 2004 elections.

Crushing. Colbert, responding to a poll showing Harris ahead 48 – 43, “That really restores my faith in almost half of humanity.” A poll also showed Harris up 13 points amongst women, Fallon, “Trump heard the news, and it was like, “Was it everything I said?”

Trump, and his acolytes, blamed the moderators for his bad performance, “Was like three against one.” Why were they so upset? Because they corrected him when he claimed Democrats favored “executing babies after birth”, and that Haitian immigrants “were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.” Trump said the FCC should take away ABC’s broadcasting license, and criticized David Muir’s hair. Some on the right said Muir and Linsey Davis should be jailed. Davis, who is Black, has received death threats. When you blame the ref you are in deep doo-doo. Funnily enough. I was verbally irritated at the moderators letting Trump have too many rebuttal opportunities … he, in fact, spoke six to seven minutes longer than Harris. Mind you, that was probably a plus for her!

In an highly unusual move, Trump himself went to the post debate spin room … and proclaimed himself the winner. “Not even close, polls said I won 86 – 3.” And, he’s been repeating this ever since. More than anything, I guess, to reassure himself.

This is from yesterday! Too many of us just shrug, and say “That’s just Trump”, but to call yourself “an extraordinary genius” and mean it? Cmon.

Some of you might remember the great Sugar Ray Leonard beating Roberto Duran in 1980 … and the famous Duran “No Mas.” That’s Trump. He wants no further part of a  debate with Harris. Says he’s won two debates, “By a lot”, and believes that if he says it enough it will become gospel … has worked for him in the past.

The most bizarre claim of the evening was that Haitian immigrants were eating pet cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio. Incidentally, and a minor detail to Trump, the Haitians are here legally. The claim was seeded by a pro Nazi group, ‘Blood Tribe’, and picked-up by the MAGA mob. It’s been flatly denied by all officials in Springfield, and by the Republican governor, Mike DeWine. It doesn’t stop Trump and JD Vance from doubling-down. It feeds the fears and prejudices of his base, and that’s all that matters. Totally despicable. It’s also dangerous. The Springfield Town Hall has received death threats, and similar threats closed two schools. When asked about this, Trump was totally unapologetic.

Good place to mention a new movie, ‘The Apprentice’, which details Trump being mentored by Roy Cohn, and the beginning of his take no prisoners, never, ever, apologize style. Trump fought hard to prevent the movie being shown in America before the election, mostly by threatening potential distributors. It will finally open next month. Here’s a preview.

Liz Cheney had already said she was going to vote for Kamala Harris, and then announced that Daddy Dick, Darth Vader himself, was also going to. Who would have ever thought that Democrats would cheer for Cheney. Then, the mastermind behind Bush’s torture program, Alberto Gonzales, said he was also voting for Harris. Talk about giving Republicans permission to break ranks.

Sensitive to criticism that his speeches were rambling and incoherent, Trump said it was all a strategy, a strategy that an English professor friend of his said was “brilliant”. He calls it ‘The Weave” … he goes, here, there and everywhere and then brings it back to a conclusion. I’m not sure which is funnier, Trump having a strategy, or having a friend who’s an English professor.

In one of these ‘weaves’ Trump, “It’s so crazy … whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election, where you have every right to do it.” Robert Hubbell put it well, “Trump’s only policy position is “If I win, I get to stay out of prison.”

Trump continues with the grift. The latest venture is a crypto currency business. What can go wrong, Trump fronting a business in a highly volatile arena?

18% of voters claim they are still undecided. How can this be possible? Methinks they are telling porkies.

One thing that probably won’t influence them is bumper stickers or yard signs. I have yet to see a bumper sticker for either candidate, and very few yard signs. It could be because in this intensely partisan world folk are reluctant to overtly show their preference in fear of push back.

The DOJ indicted a couple of workers at ‘Russia Today’ for paying right-wing influencers to air anti Biden and Harris videos. These saps just took the money and ran with the dirt. I sense there could be further indictments in the US and that the saps might be, as they say, ‘Cooperating.’

It’s an election year, and Trump turns-up at Ground Zero for the 9/11 commemoration … “Where were you for 20 years? I’ve been here. Where were you?” shouted one onlooker. Trump took heat for taking one Laura Loomer with him on the plane. Why? She’s a 9/11 truther, a real wack job.

Thom Tullis is a senator from North Carolina, who has been kinda supportive of the MAGA hate machine, but Laura Loomer is a step too far. Republicans think she is too close to Trump and feeds his worst instincts … not difficult. She says Kamala Harris will turn the White House into a curry house and call center. She’s at the ”far end of the fever swamp.” 

And, there’s a cat fight brewing, MTG, obviously upset about being out crazied, calls Loomer “a racist”. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Laura says MTG cheats on her husband, and, according to Bill Maher, her private parts look like an Arby’s. Meow.

Immediately after the debate Taylor Swift made her long awaited, and anticipated, endorsement of Harris, and posted a link to register to vote. Within 24 hours 337,000 had registered … hopefully in swing states.

The endorsement did not go down well with the MAGA mob … Mobster Don, “She will pay a price.”

This comment from Vance is a clear example that he’s living in cloud cuckoo land … has he no self awareness?

Elon Musk, of course, had to pipe-in, offering to give Taylor Swift a baby, and take care of her cats. Creepy.

Musk really has become a latter-day William Randolph Hearst, or Rupert Murdoch. But, they hid behind their tame editors, Musk is front and center. There was an article in the NYT about the size of his security detail, rivals the secret service. No surprise.

Trump, for years, has been using songs without the permission of the artists … and they don’t like it. This is a list of artists who have told Trump not to use their material. He is shameless.

Lately, as ever, your moment of advertising zen:

I’m pretty sure this is a universal reaction, certainly in Truckee with our granddaughter, who is entering third grade. She’s all excited because her new teacher is a man. Why? Rumor has it he brings pancakes to class! Long article in the New Yorker about the decline in enrolment at public schools. Number of reasons; home schooling post covid, migration to charter schools, drop-outs, declining birth rate. A lot of schools are being closed, and teachers laid-off. I’ll lay a lot of money this will not lead to lower property rates!

Another ‘People’ gem. Who thinks this stuff up? Curiosity got the better of us and we went to an actual cinema to see ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’, which has so far grossed over $1.3 billion. Funny in parts, but we needed a crib sheet to understand what was going on. Watched the first (three hours) chapter of ‘Horizon’, Kevin Costner’s partly self-funded three chapter epic of how the west was settled. Not hard to understand why the movie was panned by the critics, and has been a box office flop. Also watched ‘Logan Lucky’ on Netflix, a 2017 flick with an excellent cast; Daniel Craig, Adam Driver, Tatum Channing, Hillary Swank. It’s an Ocean’s 11 type spoof … excellent.

We’ve had both our flu and covid booster shots … good to go. Lot of covid around, not to mention a deadly mosquito borne disease and the west nile virus, which put Tony Fauci into hospital.

Another ‘Musings’ hiatus, driving to Montreal and Quebec City next week, been on our to-do list for many years. Last went to Montreal for the 1976 Olympics, three months after we married, and my trouble & strife wasn’t her usual perky self … we didn’t realize she was pregnant with our daughter. Unlikely to be a repeat this time!

Bit of, totally non p.c., humor for you featuring the great Australian comedian, Barry Humphries, in his role as ‘diplomat’ Sir Les Patterson. Apologies to my Thai friends.

This was Trump’s response to Harris’ interview on CNN, first one she has given since becoming the nominee … oh, also said it was “boring.” Trump accusing somebody of lying is kinda rich. The 20 minute interview was taped on Thursday afternoon, ran in prime time that evening, and CNN stretched it into an hour. She did just fine. Answered the questions, didn’t demean the interviewer, was articulate, personable … in short, normal. Dramatic contrast to the orange cockroach.

The main issues of the week, of course, involved Trump; the unseemly fracas at Arlington National Cemetery, his waffling on the debate, being indicted again, contradictory stance on abortion and grift. In short, a normal week.

On the third anniversary of the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, Trump was invited by family members of some of those killed in the suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul to honor their memory at Arlington National Cemetery. Trump, of course, had to turn it into a campaign event.

No pictures or videos are allowed to be taken in this part of the cemetery … but here we have a smiley Don giving the thumbs-up in front of graves. The picture was posted by Governor Spencer Cox of Utah who, himself, is running for re-election this year.

Trump’s campaign was clearly told that picture or video taking was prohibited, but the team ignored that and pushed aside a member of staff who tried to stop them. The army confirmed this, but said the worker was reluctant to press charges for fear of retribution from Trump followers … how sick is that?

Rather than apologizing, the Trump campaign doubled-down, said the worker had a mental health issue. Trump claimed he had no idea a picture, or video, was to be taken. What happened? A video ran on TikTok blaming Biden and Harris for the deaths of the family members. Beyond despicable, but just the latest in a pattern of Trump demeaning and belittling military service.

The army felt they had to reply to the attack on their employee.

Again, Trump’s team couldn’t leave it alone.

This shot is from a completely different part of the cemetery. Chris LaCivita is an attack dog who is one of Trump’s most senior advisors. Best known for being the architect of the ‘Swift’ boat attacks against John Kerry in 2004.

JD Vance was pushed on this, and basically said it was Harris’ fault that the guys were killed, she had no right to complain, why wasn’t she at the cemetery, and “She can go to hell.” All the campaign posted was “How sad.” Harris said zippo, her strategy seems to be to avoid taking the bait.

Before Biden dropped out, there was a category of voters called ‘Double Haters’, they couldn’t stand either Biden or Trump and were resentful they didn’t have another choice. That has changed, and a wag said the new category is ‘Double Assholes’ … Trump and Vance.

Donnie is not keen to debate Harris, but with the polls shifting, he pretty much has to, and on ABC on September 10, as agreed months ago. The lingering issue is whether or not to have ‘hot’ mics. Biden did not want that, Harris wants everybody to hear Trump when he, inevitably, goes ‘rogue.’

Wadda you know, Trump indicted again … yep, again. Somehow, Jack Smith convened a grand jury in D.C. without any leaks, and they indicted Donnie all over again in the Jan 6 case. To adhere to the nonsensical supreme court ruling on immunity for ‘official acts’, Smith amended the indictment to focus on ‘Candidate Trump’ and all the naughty stuff he did to try and steal the election.

Donnie is not at all happy about this. Of course, it will go nowhere unless Harris wins … and, if she does, Donnie better be prepared to quickly move to Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang or, maybe, Budapest to avoid the Big House.

Another Gary Trudeau masterpiece. Commandments five to ten are honor your Mom & Dad, don’t murder, steal or commit adultery, don’t bear false witness or covet your neighbor’s wife. See why he prefers the first four!

Trump has been posting a ton of conspiracy and nonsensical stuff on Truth Social, including this one. He’s mental. Also reposted an image of Hillary Clinton with Kamala Harris, and this misogynistic caption, ‘Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently.’ Just can’t help himself.

Also posted this nonsensical twaddle … before deleting it, no doubt after his handlers saw it.

If Trump had buyer’s remorse over Vance, he must now have it in spades over RFK Jr. Reports that he has appointed Bobby and Tulsi Gabbard, both ex Democrats, to manage his transition team have not gone down well with the faithful.

RFK Jr’s daughter, Kick Kennedy, said her father once cut off a whale’s head and put it on top of their minivan. Truly, a nutter.

More grift. Trump, two months before a tight election, has time to hawk new NFT cards … fifty of them at $99 a pop, “All you need is an email address and a credit card.”

Trump is flip-flopping so much he’ll become a seal. David French, the conservative columnist from the NYT, cleverly points out how Trump is trying to change his position on abortion … he’s the arsonist trying to douse the flames. He now says six weeks is too short, yet …

His campaign quickly clarified that this doesn’t mean he’ll vote against the six week ban in Florida, where it is on the ballot in November. Because, if he does that will piss-off his evangelical supporters. Then, last night he said he would vote to uphold the six week ban in Florida, less than 24 hours after saying the complete opposite … because he got so much blowback from evangelicals. He will be nailed for this. Incidentally, in Florida 60% is required to change the constitution, that is a high bar for the abortion measure.

Something else to elate his Project 2025 pals, Trump’s latest ‘promise’ is for the government to pay for all IVF treatments, because “we need more lovely babies.” At $20,000 a pop this could cost $9 billion a year … I can see congressional Republicans loving this one!!

Vance just can’t help himself, doubling down on women without babies, this time teachers. He converted to Catholicism later in life, so maybe missed the whole nun teacher culture.

Vance keeps making gaffe after gaffe, and becomes less likable by the day. On ‘Meet The Press’ he insisted that imposing high tariffs would not raise prices … surprise to 99% of economists.

Another ego nut on steroids is Jill Stein of the Green Party, who will be on the ballot in Wisconsin. In 2016 Hillary Clinton lost Wisconsin by 22,000, Stein got 31,000. In 2020 Biden won Wisconsin by 20,000, when Stein was not on the ballot. Does she seriously think that Trump will be more favorable to the environment than Harris?

Over 200 former Republican aides to GW Bush, Mitt Romney and John McCain have endorsed Kamala Harris. Speaks volumes.

Article in the ‘New Yorker’ about far-right white nationalist groups, and how the FBI is basically not interested unless, or until, they do violent mischief. Their position is that hateful, violent rhetoric is protected speech by dint of the First Amendment. Sobering information. Two years ago the Anti-Defamation League published the membership records of the Oath Keepers.The roster included 400 law-enforcement officers, among them ten police chiefs and eleven sheriffs, plus 117 active-duty service members, eleven reservists and 81 people who either held, or were seeking, public office.

One of the major reasons electric cars are not selling as well as anticipated is because of the lack of charging stations, except for Teslas. Last year Musk agreed to Tesla stations being made available (for a consideration) to other cars. Ain’t happened … lots of excuses but firing the entire team working on this kinda tells the story. He’s as trustworthy as his new MAGA buddy.

The Hong Kong education bureau has advice for teenagers tempted by sex … play badminton instead. Friends with badminton, not friends with benefits. They suggest they fill out this form setting the limits of their intimacy.

A few other items caught my attention:

Here’s an innovative idea. Weddings have become so expensive that some couples are charging guests to attend. A guy in Houston was charging $450 per person, and couldn’t understand why few folk agreed to attend … said many invitees paid more than that to go and see Beyonce. Cheapskates. I have a solution … go to City Hall.

Fare evasion on public transit in NYC is rampant, it’s estimated that 50% of riders don’t pay on buses …  14% on subways. Drivers refuse to get involved, and I don’t blame them. But, this has to be addressed. It’s exploded since 2020 when relief was given during covid. Part of the reason is also general, and widespread, leniency towards minor crimes, which inevitably leads to increased lawlessness.

The world has gone bonkers. The Kelce brothers, Jason and Travis, have signed a deal with Amazon for their ‘New Heights’ podcast for over $100 million … it’s a side gig for both of them. Well, at least, Travis will be able to afford to pay for his share of dinners with Taylor Swift.

There was an interesting article in the NYT about Costco, the number three retailer in the world after Walmart and Amazon. Largest seller of good bordeaux wine in the world, sells 50% of the world’s cashew nuts (I help, big time!), and its private label, Kirkland, generates more revenue than Coca Cola and Nike.

In the U.K., the NHS is going into some male dominated businesses, like construction and manufacturing, and weighing and measuring workers to see if they are at risk of heart disease. Imagine the outcry if this was suggested in the U.S., for a start all fast-food companies would lobby congress that it was discriminating against fat people.

Lastly, as ever, your moment of advertising zen: