Month: October 2020

Is your mailbox stuffed with daily reminders to vote early? Fifty million already voted. If this trend keeps up, a lot of polling sites three days after Halloween will be an empty ghost town. No excuse for not voting. If states counted the early votes early, we would know the winners five minutes after the polls close.

The Covid-19 pandemic is getting worse. CNN says 225,000 have died and they make sure we know the running total up to the minute. And Joe Biden makes sure we know who to blame for every one of ‘em.

I’ve said it before: Trump is an optimist. He knows the coronavirus is a tough opponent and he has thrown everything against it except the kitchen sink.

Meanwhile Joe Biden is a pessimist. He’s telling us it will be a dark winter, all 50 states need to require masks, no large gatherings, and no relief until at least next summer.

CNN is even more pessimistic. Because a few staff for both VP Pence and VP candidate Harris have tested positive, CNN says those two, plus Trump, should follow Biden’s lead and stop in-person campaigning and camp out in a basement until the election is over. I doubt Trump will take advice from CNN.

Have we forgotten who caused the worldwide pandemic? The Chinese Communists! We need to be reminded it’s the Chinese leaders who have killed 225,000 Americans. Not Trump, not Dr. Fauci, not Fox News, not anyone else.

This fact will upset you even more. American exports are down 18 percent compared to a year ago. Guess what the drop has been for Chinese exports. Zero! The country that started Covid-19 and exported it to the world has already returned their export sales to pre-Covid levels. China thrives while the United States and the rest of the world suffers.

Do you still think Russia is the main country influencing our election?

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“There should be a moratorium called on candidates’ speeches. They have both called each other everything in the world they can think of. From now on they are just talking themselves out of votes. Of all the conceit. This country is a thousand times bigger than any two men in it, or any two parties in it. These big politicians are so serious about themselves and their parties. This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation.

So, you two boys just get the weight of the world off your shoulders and go fishing… You will be surprised, but the old United States will keep right on running while you boys are sitting on the bank.” DT #1948, Nov. 1, 1932

“If you ever injected truth into politics you would eliminate politics.” WA #31, July 15, 1923

With two weeks left until the official Election Day, the polls are showing Biden has it wrapped up. About the only ones that disagree are Trump supporters who keep showing up by the thousands to see him.

The only hope for the underdog Trump is the third Debate this Thursday. If the Moderator from NBC News is like her NBC colleague in the “half debate” with Trump last week it will be intense.

Six debate topics have been announced including American Families and their financial condition. Don’t be surprised if Trump zeroes in on the Biden Family financial condition.

Trump might also ask a question about adding six Supreme Court Justices. So far Biden has been talking mainly about the Trump Administration. Trump will insist Biden talk about a Biden Administration.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“If all the charges that’s been made in regard to both the Candidates were layed end to end it would take ’em over two hours to pass a given point. And if all the ‘Denials’ were heaped in a pile, Lindbergh couldn’t fly over ’em.  You know it’s a funny thing about a denial; it takes twice as many words to deny it as it did to make it.” Life magazine, Oct. 19, 1928

“The Literary Digest is taking a poll to see how many people there are in the United States who are interested in politics that can write their name. Up to now there has been about a third more Republicans that can write than Democrats. Course, when election day comes and all you have to do is make your mark, why I think the Democratic total will pick up. Republicans have to learn to write on account of signing checks, but Democrats never have to be bothered with that.” DT #695, Oct. 18, 1928

“Hoover dug up a whole new subject last night, and made the best speech of his campaign. It was about keeping Congress and the Senate from having anything to do with the nation’s business. If he had gone a step further and come out for their entire abolishment, I believe he would have been elected unanimously on the spot.” DT #699, Oct. 23, 1928

“Of all the ‘dumb’ issues that candidates bring up to try and influence people how to vote, I think ‘prosperity’ takes the cake. How a speaker can convince a man that he is prosperous when he is broke or that he is not prosperous when he is doing well is beyond me.” DT #704, Oct. 29, 1928

“I honestly believe there is people so excited over this election that they think the President has something to do with running this country.” DT #1946, Oct. 30, 1932

To debate or not to debate. Soon after the Vice-President Debate, the Biden-Trump Debate scheduled later this week got cancelled.

A side debate is about Trump’s health. Democrats, especially Speaker Pelosi, insist that President Trump is deadly sick, should be confined to his bed, and isolated for another week or two. But Trump claims he is feeling great, fully recovered from a mild case of coronavirus, and chomping at the bit to get back on the campaign trail.

In the V-P debate, I predicted we wouldn’t learn anything new from Mike Pence, and we didn’t. Also, I hoped that Sen. Kamala Harris would answer questions about “packing the Court.” She not only refused to answer that question, but added a curious quote related to the current Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. Referring to an October vacancy on the court in 1864, she said President Lincoln refused to send a nominee to the Senate until after the election, “Honest Abe said ‘It’s not the right thing to do.’”

Now if Pence had tried to correct her, she would have turned toward him, with a wide smile and said sternly, “I’m talking,” and added, “And Lincoln was so honest, he also warned, ‘Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.’”

Don’t you wish that joke was the only foolishness about this campaign?

Well, by constantly not answering the question about adding 6 new Justices, Biden and Harris actually let us know the real answer, “Yes, if Democrats win the Senate, of course we’ll pack the Court.”

Another hot issue is taxes. Joe Biden promises to raise taxes. But only on taxpayers making more than $400,000.

If that were actually true, there’s no way that small group of highly paid folks could pay enough income taxes to cover all the extra costs planned by the Democrats.  Biden also promises to eliminate Trump tax cuts. That includes middle class, meaning those folks would in fact pay more in taxes.  Another item not mentioned is this: increasing taxes on corporations and other businesses means that their consumers will pay higher prices. It may not count as a tax on those medium- and low-income people, but regardless, it means they will have less money to save and invest.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Politics pretty quiet over the week-end. Democrats are attacking and the Republicans are defending. All the Democrats have to do is promise ‘what they would do if they got in.’ But the Republicans have to promise ‘what they would do’ and then explain why they haven’t already done it.” DT #1917, Sept. 26, 1932

“Congress, with an eye, not on the budget but on the November 4, put a tax as high as 72 percent on some incomes. That’s three-fourths…. And Russia [Communists] only gets half…. The crime of taxation is not in the taking it, it’s in the way that it’s spent.” DT #1764, March 20, 1932

“We know that everybody should ‘share the wealth.’ And our own downright conscience tells us that there’s no reason why anybody should have more than you. There ain’t nothing wrong with the plan, only this one little defect: Nobody ain’t going to share it with you, that’s all. I know a lot of tremendously rich people that should share their wealth with me, but they just don’t see it that way. And I know folks that ain’t got as much as I have that think I ought to share it with them. Well, I just can’t hardly see it their way either. That is, even if I can see it that way, I’m not doing it.” Radio, April 21, 1935

First, like all reasonable folks here and around the world, we are pleased to hear details about President Trump’s progress recovering from Covid-19. His team of doctors said he might get to return to the White House on Monday.

Late this afternoon, he even climbed in the back seat of his Chevy Suburban for a short drive. He and others in the vehicle were wearing masks. Meanwhile, CNN commentators are convinced he is seriously ill and should be tied to his hospital bed, with intravenous tubes, oxygen tank, and a bed pan.

We were shocked to get the news early Friday that President Trump tested positive for Covid. Then we learned that 3 Senators and a few other prominent people also have it. They attended the introduction of Amy Coney Barrett as the nominee for the Supreme Court, or the Debate on Tuesday. That’s probably where they caught it, but we don’t know who they caught it from. The best news is that none, apparently, is seriously ill.

Although most of us wish a quick recovery, a few nuts are hoping for the worst. Perhaps the most disgusting comment is from the Chinese Communists. The Chinese leaders are the ones responsible for spreading this coronavirus around the world, infecting more than 35 million people, and killing 1 million. But they had the nerve to blame Trump for catching it.

Before Trump’s illness, the Presidential debate was the big news. I felt that Joe Biden won it by not losing it. He stood strong for more than 90 minutes, looked into the camera at times and spoke directly to the American people.

Oddly, I did not learn much from either candidate.  Trump has been on television constantly and did not add anything. Somehow, even with questions (and demands) from Trump, Biden avoided telling us much about his plans for the next 4 years. He refused to answer about “packing the Court,” and his responses on health care and green energy seemed to contradict previous views.

The Vice-Presidential debate this week is drawing more interest than usual. Maybe Senator Harris will be more definitive about what we can expect from a Biden-Harris Administration. VP Pence will likely repeat Trump’s views that we have already heard a hundred times.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Debates don’t settle nothing, but they are entertaining. Proposing something in a debate is just about like writing a letter to your congressman, nothing ever comes of it.” WA #637, March 10, 1935

“When you straddle a thing it takes a long time to explain it.” Convention Articles, June 29, 1924

“America has the best politicians money can buy.” (Undated notes)

Will Rogers had gall bladder surgery. The next day, still groggy, his syndicated newspaper column, in full, was, “Relax – lay perfectly still, just relax.” DT #284, June 19, 1927