THAT GREAT DEBATE - TRUMP PUTS THE GOP OUT OF ITS MISERY AS HILLARY SHOWS HER METAL

Donald J. Trump, in the First Presidential debate, finally put the Republican Party out of its misery. At least all those Republicans that had not already abandoned him. He obliterated any hope that the “real” Trump would finally emerge and/or his handlers could once and for all talk sense into him. In fairness to Trump was it reasonable to expect his behavior to change after seventy years? As the saying goes, “You can’t each an old dogs new tricks”. If Hillary was scripting this she couldn’t have done any better. In fact her team would have told her, “You are laying onto thick. Who can believe that he will do all that?” But for those of you who thought you fell asleep and dreamt it all you can check and see whether it really happened on You Tube. Eleven million people already have, and to coin a phrase, “Believe Me”, its real.

TRUST ME I’M IN REAL ESTATE

From the word go Trump made it quite clear to the eighty - four million viewers that he didn’t think it was important to prepare for the debate. His message - “Trust me. What do you have to loose?”. What is more he looked a bit miffed when Hillary claimed that the time in mugging up facts on the USA was not wasted as she was preparing to be President too. Now didn’t his new debate team tell him that the camera would be on him all the time? Of course they did. In his own family box at the Republican Presidential Congress there was a notice to all to be on their guard as cameras pan in for reaction every moment. Now do you really want a President who pulls faces, and drinks as much water as Marco? 

INTERRUPTIONS AND ONE WORD WONDERS

Then he interrupted Hillary fifty - five times. Those interruptions beat his record on lying. According to Politico he tells a lie only once every three minutes fifteen seconds. (Jay H. Ell can already can hear his naysayers screaming, “What about Hillary?”). For good measure he interrupted the Moderator too speaking over him. Poor Donald he never will learn. He always had this problem that’s why he was sent to naval school but obviously that didn’t help. After all this he claimed that he had the best temperament to be President. The audience who had promised to shut up burst out into laughter. If the Republican nominee for President can interrupt so could they.

There were so many damning one word responses that came out of Trump’s mouth in speaking over Hillary that one wonders what he was thinking, assuming, of course, that he does:

To Hillary’s exclamation, that she would soon be blamed for everything he blurted, “Why Not?’

To her attack that he probably didn’t pay Federal Taxes, he bragged that makes him smart!

To her accusation that he hoped for the housing collapse where hundreds of thousands lost their homes, he smirked to the effect that that’s called Business. 

Dear dear, Trump will be Trump.

TRUMP MEANS “NEVER SAY YOUR’E SORRY”

Then his endearing feature “never say your'e sorry” was on display, “Big Time”. The birther issue alone should disqualify him from being President however he never knows when to call it quits. He has openly perpetuated the preposterous infamy for four years that the first African American President was not born in America but he claimed, in front of eighty - four million viewers, that it had nothing to do with him. It was the Clinton campaign. He then went on to name the Clinton individuals who had admitted their culpability. (The latter denied after the debate that they had said anything of the sort). So not only was he not going to apologize he wanted congratulations for ending the controversy by forcing Obama to produce his birth certificate. When confronted that he was regarded as the face of the birther campaign perpetuating the calumny continuously he shouted down the Moderator and of course Hilary. 

A similar sequence of making a worse matter a catastrophe was doubling down that he never supported the Iraq war. Again the same old same old. In fact he wanted credit for warning what would happen. The Moderator got it wrong. Then he embellished all with his revisionist history which is another feature of his style. - Obama pulled out of Iraq thereby creating ISIS. (One lie after the other). Obama screwed up by not stealing Iraq’s oil. 

Carrying on like a one man wrecking crew is the reason Nancy Pelosi has described him as “The Gift That Keeps On Giving”. By giving the birther story new legs especially with the new lies that the Clinton operatives started the story he has provoked Michelle Obama, Hillary’s most popular surrogate, to let all know how hurtful Trump was and that the birther campaign was simply designed to undermine her husband’s Presidency.

Then to prove again the fact that The Donald can not leave bad enough alone, when confronted with his sadistic, misogynistic, racial and demeaning behavior towards a former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who he stereotyped by calling Miss Housekeeping, he went on the rampage the following day justifying his gross behavior. “Machado was a problem as she put on weight”. By making Machado his talking point even after his disastrous debate he helped catapult her into celebrity status. She was interviewed on talk shows confirming how he bullied and demeaned her. Two days after the rumble on the debating floor Trump’s Machado behavior was a segment on every news channel. Fox News helped flame the issue by running a story that Miss Machado allegedly threatened a Venezuelan Judge allowing the Trump surrogates to spin this as justification for his treatment of her.

 BRAGGING RIGHTS.

Trump claimed victory quoting phone in polls in right wing media and ignoring the scientific polls that reported that he had been creamed. Sixty - two percent of the viewers in a CNN poll thought Hillary had won and twenty - seven percent chose Trump. Reuters and the NBC polls showed a similar sized victory for Hillary. He chastised his team that reported to him that the debate had not gone well. All reminiscent of Hitler’s statement in the bunker, “Don’t bring me defeatist statistics”. In addition the Trump team were given a pep talk to talk the debate up with “high energy”. Hillary’s succinct and only comment - “When you complain about the microphone you didn’t have a good debate”.  

In fairness Trump did win one metric. The Fact Checkers stated that he won the lies or misrepresentations division 34 to 4. As Trump might argue he broke his record by almost having one lie per minute. 

GIVE A THOUGHT TO HILLARY’S EXCELLENCE

The media have been obsessed with covering Trump for whatever reason including the motive of ratings. Whatever the motive however it is because Trump has given them a headline a day. He in his megalomaniacal way has been only to happy to make this election a referendum about himself. In this milieu it has been difficult to be a serious policy candidate and get noticed when a reality star grabs the headlines by building a wall across America, by banning all Muslims from entering the country, expelling 11 million Latinos or calling woman pigs, dogs or housekeepers if they are happen to be Latino or Pocohantas if they, like Senator Warren, have Indian ancestry. 

However, the debate forum gave her in an equal share of the oxygen and more importantly allowed a comparison between her and the windbag. Now even the partisan polarized electorate recognized that she outshone him in every department and had a glimpse of why the current President and his wife believe that she is the most well prepared candidate ever. Also the way she clinically disemboweled Trump was an object lesson in politics. Now in case anyone has forgotten Trump is no pushover he demolished fifteen of the best of what the Republican Party could offer. Hillary made him look like an ignorant hack. In addition she provided specifics on a range of policies, showed a depth of knowledge, exhibited temperament and judgement. 

WHAT’S NEXT

Trump will stump along and his loyal adoring base of at least forty percent will hang in come hell or how water. Some of the latter, however, are not so adorinng and are holding their noses, the future of the Supreme Court being uppermost in their minds. What those leaders and opinion makers fail to appreciate that by supporting him they are co signing the death certificate of the Republican Party they are trying to save. As Jennifer Rubin rightwing commentator has said they will be answerable to history. The campaign is in a mess and their is no comprehensive ground game to schelp in the votes. He has to wait till the next debate where he can try and appeal to that other twenty percent by appearing a more acceptable Commander in Chief than the Democratic contender.

Hillary Clinton in her attempt to seize that middle twenty percent will have an army of surrogates to stomp the trail for her, covering every base. The team includes the Obamas with their lock on the Obama coalition - minorities, women and youth. Warren and Sanders will try and rally “The Movement” while good old Joe Biden will connect with the blue collar workers that have formed the backbone of the Trump revolution and his takeover of the Republican Party. 

What else is allowing Trump even to be a factor? It is the general anti establishment mood in the country not to mention him representing America in the world wide xenophobic wave. Hillary Clinton even though she has been, at every stage of her life, a mover for change, is ironically being cast as the poster child of the Establishment, first by Bernie Sanders and now by Trump.

As matters stand Jay H. Ell sticks to his initial assessment that Clinton will triumph and it is a question of by how much. After her stellar performance and Donald’s juvenile display it is very difficult to see him making up the ground he needs to win. Hillary is far too professional to take anything for granted. Elections are won and ultimately lost on the ground game and Clinton has been working on this from day one. 

One fact is for certain that those who are supporting Trump and were hoping that he would lend their decision respectability have been put out of their misery. It is not going to happen. Trump will be Trump. He has no desire to be anyone else. 

POLICE DEATHS, RACISM, PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS AND GUNS

Once again the country has been rocked by the death of two African American citizens at the hands of the police. This follows a series of high profile homicides resulting from the actions of the officers of the law that have plagued the country these past few years. All of these incidents were recorded by modern day technology, in the hands of all and sundry, or by societal pressured police body cameras. All of these police actions to the eyes of broad sections of society, to put it at its lowest, have been questionable or to put it the highest, unprovoked violence. None of these episodes have resulted in convictions of the perpetrators. The latter fact is central to the growing anger, particularly in the African American community. The whole cause celebre has precipitated the formation of an activist group entitled “Black Lives Matter” that is growing by the day. Whichever way the whole unhappy circumstance is viewed it is dominating the news cycle even overriding America’s principle preoccupation - the presidential race. 

INDIVIDUAL AUTHORITY’S RESPONSE

The individual civic authority’s response to a particular episode dictates, to a large extent, the immediate behavior in the streets. In Tulsa Oklahoma the police body cam was released and the officer charged for manslaughter. In Charlotte North Carolina the police steadfastly refuse to show the video to the public and the Police Chief is very defensive of the shooter officer maintaining that the investigative judicial process must play out. As could be expected the streets of Tulsa are in quiet mourning and those of Charlotte are in chaos. However, the central problem remains - are blacks profiled for police violence in the same way, as studies show, they are in every other aspect of the legal process whether it be arrests or more severe sentencing for similar infringements of the law, for example? 

ALREADY AN ISSUE IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE

This pervasive societal problem has entered into the Presidential race. Clinton has shown empathy and support throughout and the significant others of police victims have backed her throughout this election cycle. Mindful too that the police are, for the most part, performing a tough job,  she also has paraded Officers of the Law that were supportive of her. Till the most recent incidents Trump was unambiguously the law and order candidate. As he so often does he is now sending a double message opining to an African American audience that he is”disturbed” by the Tulsa video. However both he and his Vice Presidential candidate do not categorize the problem as racial. Rather they see it as inappropriately trained law officers. 

The protest has infiltrated America’s number one pass time - football. The latter is a national obsession and is dominated by African American players. A San Francisco major league player signified his involvement by failing to join in the pregame national anthem. He has followed up by pledging his first $1,000,000 in earnings to the cause. His declaration has been supported by several High School teams and to date a smattering of national players. 

The argument by the protestors is that this is just part and parcel of their profiling, which only now is receiving attention because of the emergence of visual evidence. The point was hammered home by a black Charlotte pastor who at 2.00 am while entering his car was harassed by the Charlotte police and told to get a move on. The pastor had just attended a meeting with the Charlotte mayor to discuss the defusing of this explosive situation. He poignantly pointed out that the whites attending that meeting were not subject to similar treatment.

MEANWHILE BACK ON THE STUMP

On the stump Clinton has just stuck to her earlier positions but Trump, currently desperate for minority votes has offered solutions all over the show as is his want. He has suggested a stop and frisk approach by the police. He falsely attributes a similar approach by the New York police as the reason for their decrease in crime. This explanation has been debunked by the current Mayor of New York who reminded Trump that anyhow it was declared unconstitutional by a Federal Court. As a solution it is crazy if Trump is using this to court the African American votes who were singled out for this humiliating process. In addition it flies in the teeth of his uncompromising second amendment stand. All and sundry should have guns he maintains as this will eliminate all these shootings is his mantra.  All except the minorities it would now appear. But who expects Trump to be able to string two sentences together without contradicting himself. 

Trump’s central thesis is that the country is in chaos and ungovernable and he is the solution. This has to be a hard sell. He has advanced this to the African American constituency claiming they have never had it so bad. This is an even tougher assignment. There are a large number of African America Chief’s of Police as is the one in Charlotte. Without going into too much detail for Mr. Trump’s enlightenment the President and the current attorney general as well as a sizable caucus in the legislature are too from that minority group. Where was Mr. Trump during the Civil Rights Movement? Is he aware that there was once slavery and Jim Crow? 

THE POLICE FEAR IS BASED ON GUNS 

This brings Jay H. Ell to his final points. Even when the officers are tried the bar is very high to convict them and in the past this has merely inflamed the aggrieved minority communities. You see the Supreme Court ruled that all the police officer has to claim that he had a “reasonable” fear for his life. In spite of an attempt to objectify the fear no jury will be dissuaded that an individual who thought he saw a gun, or that the victim made a quick movement or that the suspect was fleeing from the police and known to be armed, did not fear for his life. Objectively too everyone is mindful that the police have a tough job and on any day they could be murdered. 

In case the irony has escaped anyone inevitably the police fear, real or imagined, is based on the dread that the suspect has a gun. The assumption is reasonable in and of itself as anyone can get a gun and an AK 47 in America. Thus you have the bizarre situation where, the selfsame politicians, on the one hand, will fight to the death for all to have guns, and on the other, like The Donald, would like to deploy an army of law officers to stop all in the streets and if they find a gun remove it! One can only hope Mr. Trump is asked to explain in the debate but even if he is he will say that is not what he said.

TRUMP’S RUSSIAN CONSPIRACY - A SATIRE

 FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE 

Jay H. Ell can now reveal after months of painstaking research and at risk of the loss of his life that Donald J. Trump is Vladimir Putin’s candidate for US Presidency. Our very own Donald is central to Russia regaining its glory so cruelly ripped away from it when Ronald Reagan and George Walker Bush sent thugs to break down “that wall”. Putin is really a KGB apparatchik that has grabbed his country back from the likes of Gorbachev and that woes Boris Yeltsin who couldn’t even hold down his vodka. The objective is to put the old USSR together again and break NATO.(In fairness our Donald has only publicly agreed with Putin on NATO). Who  better to partner the Russian matinee idol then our own God's gift to women,The Donald. Our man in Moscow has, amongst his many sacrifices, built Trump Towers and other great buildings like The Taj Mahal Casino and he like Putin is the greatest. Taking over the USA is a stroke of genius of course and is the only way Putin could imagine becoming top dog again. 

HOW?

Trump nearly gave the game away when he said he had previously met Putin and uncharacteristically drooled praise in language used only to describe his good self. He thought that the Russian Premier for life was powerful and strong. While he didn't quite say that Putin should be the President of America he just said that he was a far better leader than Obama. 

 The foolish media thought they had caught Trump out when he blurted out that the two had parleyed when they both were interviewed on Sixty Minutes and in Moscow at Trump’s Beauty Pageant. The intrepid media proved that it was impossible but in truth it was the truth. When The Donald said, “Believe Me” they should have, this time. Putin of course went ballistic at Trump’s indiscretions but the latter reassured, “Believe me” he said to Vlad, “ Nobody believes anything I say, especially when I say, believe me”, And of course he was proved right. Since then Vladimir doesn’t worry anymore at all The Donald’s regular gaffes that, if he was treated like a normal inhabitant of planet earth, would blow his cover. 

All KGB big deal that Vlad is he confesses to his inner circle that he cannot understand America. All the Americans know Trump is lying and a total childlike phony but they still treat him like an adult swarming around him and asking his opinion on everything and anything. What finally did it for Putin that America was nuts was the fact that Trump started rising in the polls just because he stopped behaving like a lunatic. That together with the fact that he held a nation in thrall with the media at his feet with an announcement that the current President was born in America! This event shook Putin's usual composure to its foundations. If this is what a free press was all about, thought Vlad, Russia was better off with it censored. Moreover if democracy can produced a whackhoo like Trump then lets stick to dictatorship. One fact was for sure Putin mumbled, this loon wouldn’t have lasted a day in Mother Russia. 

WHY?

Now that we have established the connection why did it all happen? Notwithstanding Trump’s genius, and we have his solemn word on that, his business career is really very undisciplined. In fact his biggest success was on TV where had to outlay no bucks. He is constant trouble with harebrained ventures into areas he knows nothing about. This ranges from disastrous casinos, to fake Universities to low alcohol vodkas to off steaks to landlocked airlines, boring magazines and the like. Usually reliable sources have informed Jay H. Ell that he ran out of banks in the US of A that would loan him money. (As he subtly points this out in the campaign  - America is no longer Great). So Donald went in boots and all to the murky Eastern world. 

China and for the first time Jay H. Ell can reveal Russia have partnered him in various ventures. In addition Donald has business big time in countries such as Korea, Turkey, United Arab Emerates, Libya, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. He has three hundred such partnerships. In a signature piece in Newsweek their investigation revealed his shadowy dealings with oversea figures who were variously defined as thugs and criminals connected to those in power. (Interestingly enough, The Donald, never a shrinking violet, did not claim all these international connections as part of his foreign policy experience. He just said that his was better than Sarah Palin’s as he had actually been to Moscow for his pageant and not just seen it from the Trump Towers). Being President of the United States would allow The Donald to conduct foreign policy favorable to his deals, that wouldn’t go away, even if he put them in a blind trust managed by his not so blind children. 

PUTIN SUPPORTS THE DONALD

Vladdie is a bit more circumspect in his praise for The Donald. Trump claims that his “partner”, Putin, says the most flattering things about him. Donald needed to embarrass the Democrats big time so Putin’s team hacked the Democrats and their Party up the ying yang. Putin nearly threw a fit when Donald skipped the diplomatic bag and on TV asked him to hack Hillary’s e mails. It was only when he replayed the tape that he noted that “his man in the USA” had said “believe me” at least four times during the interview, that he relaxed. 

Now in case The Donald isn’t aware Putin has the same policy on torture as he has, “believe me”. So he better deliver. Thus far the KGB Russian leader is still not totally aware of the ins and outs of getting people to the polls in America and that it requires organization, which The Donald, lacks. In Putin’s Russia they just declare that he received ninety seven percent of the vote. Nobody asks how many voted otherwise they might join the other three percent. 

CONPIRACY UNCOVERED

So there you have it. Of course The Donald can disprove it all by producing his tax returns where most of this doesn’t appear. However, The Donald is a vain man and the last fact he wants exposed is how much he spends on his hair which he regards as a business expense. So if these foreign adventures go sour and his perfidy is exposed in greater detail he can blame Hillary and claim that he picked up all these contacts from The Clinton Foundation. It works every time. 

# DEPLORABLE DONALD - A TWEET

Jay H. Ell

@JayIWriteWhatIlike

A FAKE TWEET

Deplorable Donald - a lot of people out there are calling him Deplorable Donald. People are saying it, they are calling him Deplorable Donald. Deplorable Donald that’s what out there across the country. It all started when Hillary called half his supporters deplorable. As shrewd Donald is his own biggest supporter he didn’t miss out that that great divider Hillary was calling him Deplorable Donald. (By this argument he is the Most Deplorable Donald). Maybe she called fifty percent of his supporters deplorable because they like him support Deplorable Donald unconditionally. He had attacked the Muslims mercilessly saying that not one more can darken the doors of his Great America even as a visitor. This after he, and only he, had seen them cheering the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Consequently he would keep a close eye on all these Muslims currently in America, would Deplorable Donald. Then Deplorable Donald said Mexico sends their rapists, criminals and drug dealers to America. (In fairness Deplorable Donald said that he supposed that they threw in a few good people too). To make his point he claimed, did Deplorable Donald, that a Judge born in America because he had Mexican parents had to be biased against him because he was building a wall to keep Mexicans out. He also would chuck 11 million “illegals” out, even those that were working for him. Then there is the anti semitic imagery that is denied because his daughter is an orthodox jew. Whatever the reason the name Deplorable Donald is spreading like wildfire. Deplorable Donald likes the name because that is all he can talk about and he thinks it is a kind of honor to be named Deplorable. For example, because his campaign claim they don’t like a very vocal supporter, David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK, a campaign spokesperson Deplorable Mike Pense has refused to call  Duke “Deplorable”. On the other hand the campaign presented tee shirts with DEPLORABLE written on them to supporters who claimed they weren’t deplorable. Deplorable Donald made them honorary Deplorables. 

Now Morning Joe claimed that Hillary did this all on purpose to grab some media coverage just like Deplorable Donald does all the time. However, Hillary apologized that she called 50% of his supporters deplorable. Deplorable Donald ignored her because he does not know what the word apologize means. If Deplorable Donald had listened carefully he would have realized that polling shows that only 46% of his supporters fully support him, racism bigotry xenophobia and the rest, not 50%. Thats why Hillary was apologizing because she should have claimed that only 46% of his supporters were deplorable. But the cat is out of the bag and the name Deplorable Donald is the subject of every media interview and every second Tweet. Even so Jay H. Ell is not calling The Donald, Deplorable Donald.

TRUMP: WHO IS TO BLAME?

There is an irresistible temptation to forget about Trump and get on with life. It is painful and a chore to write again and again as he soldiers on with more and more outrageous behavior. The latter seems to keep him afloat and affords him and his backers hope that all is not lost. It is the Republican contender’s modus operandi to provide eye raising fodder, upping the ante each time. The latest outrage is his preferring Putin over Americas’ Generals and Commander in Chief. Doubling up on his cozying up to a dictator he repeated his criticism of America on Putin controlled Russian TV. Maybe he is looking for a positive poll result in Russia. Jay H.Ell’s frustration is that after Trump’s ongoing train smash is that he is still standing and the media regards him as a “normal” candidate. This rather than point out that his behavior is outside the bounds of the democratic process. Why this has happened and who are The Donald’s supporters needs to be understood.

THE WHY 

Some of the factors that have brought us to this Alice in Wonderland world cannot be controlled and are just facts of life. In many ways the Trump phenomenon can be categorized in “The only in America category”. Here there is worship of unbridled individualism with an unconditional love for the celebrity. As entertainment, in all its forms, is the lifeblood of America and Trump is a highly rated tv entertainer, he is natural for all this attention. Trump, the entertainer, is an icon with an insatiable appetite for publicity. 

All that was coupled with a Party political system that has no discipline and allows all comers to mix in regardless of whether they agree to the Party’s Constitution or Principles. This allowed him easy access into the system.

The final ingredient is the wall to wall coverage the media, who thrive on sensation, provide during a Presidential election which in America is a two year ordeal. The media are more in the business of business then they are in the pursuit of truth and education. Trump, the American icon is a highly charismatic amoral businessman/entertainer  whose objective is the American Presidency and he will say or do anything to achieve that end and the media provided him the stage. 

Now who are the peoples that are backing him?

THE DISILLUSIONED

To help meet the Presidential objectives of this Trump there is the anger in the country, directed at the “do nothing” legislature and their blatant ignoring of their electorate’s needs, to feed off. The outsourcing of jobs and the fact that the middle class in America has not advanced in decades rankles. There is an anti establishment mood. This group make up Trump’s largest constituency and regardless of whatever he says or does he, being a non politician, is their man. The bulk of this group are blue collared workers, including several former Democrats and nearly all are white males. These people mistakenly believe that anything is better than establishment candidate Hillary Clinton and they are unconditionally backing “Trump the Man”.

CROOKED AND LYING HILLARY

In the above vein some citizens, for reasons they cannot fully articulate, assert that Hillary is a crook and a liar, as she has been all her life and or she is “unlikeable”. They point to all the investigations, albeit that were all politically inspired, where she was cleared - they then argue that there is no smoke without fire. Recently they point to her e mails, as a continuation of her criminality. In this they are the helped by the media where Trump’s latest profane saying or act is juxtaposed with an outlandish interpretation of her e mail negligence. The fact is the e mails too have been investigated by teams of FBI agents lead by the Republican appointed FBI Director who could not find a hint of criminality. “It was not even close”, Director Comey clarified. Jay H. Ell can do more than quote The Dallas Daily News, who for the first time in 75 years is endorsing a Democrat, Hillary Clinton, for President. They contend, “Her being cleared of crimes by investigation after investigation has no effect on these political hyenas - they refuse to see anything but conspiracies and cover ups”. The Dallas News editorial was followed up by one in the Washington Post who berated themselves and the rest of the media for inappropriately obsessively focussing on her e mails.

The faithful are only happy to agree with The Donald that the FBI and the media like everyone else was in the pocket of the Clintons.

THE KOOKS AND THE ONE INTEREST GROUPS

Then there are the usual suspects like the right wing groups such as the KKK and the rest who obviously attracted to  xenophobia and racism. There are interest groups who believe that The Donald is their man. These include those who adjudge that Second Amendment Rights are the most important matter facing the country. There is a small section of the electorate that magically believe that he will better for Israel than Hillary. (Incidentally, this view is not shared by the Israelis according to a recent poll published The Times of Israel}. Other one issue voters include certain members of the military who believe that Trump can be better entrusted to look after and grow the military constituency. The one issue group that are firmest behind Trump are ironically the Evangelicals who are terrified of seeing the Supreme Court turning liberal after decades of control.

THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE - THE WORST

The most egregious of the Trump enablers are the Republican Party National Committee who are counter productively backing a candidate who has scant commitment to what they stand for. In the best case scenario, if he loses he will set their party back a generation and if he wins obliterate it from contention forever as Trump's ragbag of positions will be the face of the Republican Party to the nation and the world. The Committee, led by a light weight intellectual bureaucrat Reince Priebus, who has not the courage of his own convictions, the committee members, against an ever-growing number of the Party’s leadership and intellectuals, are aiding and abetting the Trump candidacy. For example, Trump has no organizational infrastructure and instead of letting him sink they are using the Party infrastructure, much needed for electing Congressional candidates, to assist him.

Rather than look at the freakish Party regulations that allowed his involvement in the first place and the reasons he connected with their base, they accept that because he hijacked the nomination he must be best for the Party. Not only are they letting their Party down they are being unpatriotic. Anyone with half a political brain knows that this disorganized narcissistic neophyte has no hope of running the country. It will be chaos.

Priebus was the main mover and shaker behind a report that diagnosed that the GOP would never win another election if they did not attract Latinos and African Americans. The Donald has zilch chance of doing that. Priebus, as the guardian of the Party’s policies  should pick up on the fact that many of Trump’s economic positions are populist in line with the Bernie Sander’s wing of the Democratic Party. The Republican Party once claimed the monopoly of  American exceptionalism and would have slaughtered a Clinton who cozied up to an authoritarian like Putin. The GOP has handed the patriotism narrative over to Democratic Hillary without a fight. So what is Republican or Conservative about Trump? The only attribute he has is that he says he is Republican and he is opposing Hillary who is a Democrat. 

If the GOP hierarchy had any brains not to mention patriotism they would cut lose from Donald and concentrate at limiting the damage to the lower half of the ticket. Then they would start planning their party organization for 2020 and try to get their policies more in sync with the electorate they purport to represent.

THE MEDIA

The media are going to have to share the blame for this shock to the American system. They have abandoned their time honored responsibility of being The Fourth Estate to be a watchdog of societal values. They have done this for ratings. Their fawning to get Trump interviews, for example, has been pitiful to watch,

The media have been enabling Trump by headlining, news cycle after cycle, his on going lying, ignorance, childlike drivel, authoritarian statements, favoring US enemies, unpresidential behavior, criminal bragging and gross disgusting behavior, for too long now. The Commander in Chief forum on NBC “facilitated” by Matt Lauer was another glaring example of pretending this is a two way horse race with matched contenders. What America and the world is witnessing a manipulation of the democratic process by a demagogue who admires authoritarian dictators. This Presidential nominee threatens to fire Generals who disagree with him like any tinpot fascist and then who would pillage and plunder as a matter of policy. He would instruct the American security apparatus to break the law to torture. And in all this Trump’s feet are not being held to the fire.

TRUMP A SERIAL LIAR AND A SELF CONFESSED CROOK 

The group currently supporting Trump because Hillary is a liar and a crook should take careful note of the Trump they are favoring. He unashamedly lies and bribes. To quote just one example, of what has been referred to a Tsunami of lies on Morning Joe, is his position on the Iraq  war. There is tape on his support of that war and everyone knows it yet he persists on maintaining on TV that he was always against it. Apparently he does not care that everyone knows he is lying as he has bragged that his supporters would vote for him even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue, New York. 

 He has repeatedly publicly stated that he pays off politicians and expects them to deliver when necessary. The body politic were given a front seat as to how the process works . The Florida Attorney General, Pam Bondi, was investigating whether to join other State Attorney Generals in litigation against theTrump University. She was also involved in a reelection campaign. Trump illegally donated, through his charity foundation, $25,000 to her campaign. In his tax forms he claimed that the donation was to another charitable organization. For this “mistake” he was fined $2,500 by the Internal Revenue Service. In addition Trump organized a fund raiser for Ms. Bondi. Ms. Bondi dropped the investigation against Trump. When challenged on all this Trump claimed that he had not spoken to Ms. Bondi about his donation but had known her for her a long while. Ms. Bondi claimed that she had had a conversation with The Donald. Trump had also held a fund raiser for her at one of his resorts. There is also no proof that there was any relationship between the two prior to the donation. Trump’s defense is that this is the only occasion his donation to a politician was not pay for play.

THERE IS HOPE - 

There are signs of hope with the swaths of Republican leadership and intellectuals that have refused to support him. Some are even supporting Hillary. Jennifer Rubin who is a senior Washington Post staffer and a staunch Republican has claimed that in time to come people should have to answer if they voted for Trump. However with 60 days to go the effort must become more concerted. Trump needs to be defeated in the same fashion Barry Goldwater was in 1964 when the Republican Committee dumped him. Republican Senator Lindsay Graham has characterized Trump’s support of Putin akin to that of backing Hitler. He has exhorted his fellow Republicans that now is the moment to jump off the Trump train. 

Hillary also has to get out there and attempt to counter the narrative that she is aloof and arrogant. 

DEMAGOGUE TRUMP’S THREAT TO DEMOCRACY

Trump’s 31 August, however much it is spun, was, on its face, a red letter day for The Donald. He behaved Presidentially in his visit to Mexico, appearing for the traditional photo ops and taking great care not to create any controversy surrounding his meeting. Fresh from establishing his credentials as being Presidential he went native and xenophobic in his “new” explanation of his immigration policy in a much anticipated speech in Phoenix. This without going off teleprompter script. Immigration “reform” is the central plank of Trump’s 2016 election campaign and also his central problem. 

SPLISH SPLASH HOW WAS ONE TO KNOW THERE WAS A FLIP FLOP GOING ON?

In the past week Trump attempted to have it both ways and it remains to be seen what the outcome will be:

On August 23 he told Hannity on Fox News, this after 15 months of hanging tough that he would deport 11 million “illegals”, he would consider “softening”.

The next day he took it all back and told CNN'S Anderson Cooper on August 24 that rather there is a “hardening” of his immigration stance. 

On August 28, Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, whose job it is to put lipstick on the pig, argued that The Donald had not mentioned a deportation force for months. 

On August 31 in the morning he made “nice” to Mexican President who told The Donald that Mexico would not pay for the wall. 

In the evening of August 31 he ranted in a speech written by Steve Bannon, his new CEO, whose job it is to wipe the lipstick off, that everyone of the 11 million "illegal" immigrants is subject to deportation, Mexico would pay for the wall even though they didn’t know it, and he would strengthen a deportation force. The speech reassured one of his prominent supporters, ultra right wing commentator, Anne Coulter, who has opined that his supporters would tolerate flip flopping on everything other than his immigration plan. She tweeted that she would replay his speech each night so that she could sleep like a baby. 

On the morning of September 1, he informed Laura Ingram, also in the lipstick business, that his current policy was a “softening” of his immigration plan and all this would be conducted very humanely.

THE PRICE OF LIBERTY IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE

There is every reason to believe that on the basis of the demographics alone that Hillary Clinton will be the next President.  However to take this outcome totally for granted is risking the very values that America claims to hold dear. Democracy is a very brittle institution and relies, to a lesser or greater extent, on participants working within the same paradigm of pitting opposing policies within an agreed framework. History is strewn with examples of charismatic, plausible demagogues who have used the democratic  process to create a system of tyranny. Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin and Stalin are history’s most tragic recent examples. The decolonization of Africa cynically resulted in several countries being characterized as having one man one vote once and ending in dictatorships. 

Trump’s threat to the American democratic way of life is an attack on the role that wave after wave of immigrants have played in the creation of the most successful and powerful nation in recent world history. The American new world created a haven by asking, “Give me your tired your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”. The reason for this approach was not altogether altruistic because each wave of immigrants be they Irish, German, East European or Scandinavian increased the work force and the income produced and therefore the economy.  The end result of this never ending immigration was the creation of the most powerful and richest country in the world. Controlling immigration was always a problem and Ronald Reagan, the Republican alter ego, resolved a similar problem in the 1980’s by “amnesty”.

Trump also challenges the values articulated by the Founding Fathers on the rights of an individual, whether citizen or not, on habeus corpus and the right to due process and that “all men are created equal”. He frequently behaves as if he is running one of his companies suggesting that when he is President he will instruct the armed forces to commit illegal acts. It is his way or the high way.

WHY DO IMMIGRANTS COME TO AMERICA?

Broadly speaking they all come to improve their lives from situations where they perceive they have nothing to lose. All these new comers have been subject to prejudice and exploitation whether they be Irish Catholics, Mexicans or East European Jews that worked in clothing sweat shops. The broad bulk of what constitutes the American body politic have been from Western and Eastern Europe and have been white.This European white crowd no longer see America as such a great big “dream” anymore and the “poor huddled” are now either from Asia or South America. In fact, together these “non whites” with the descendants of the slaves the Southern white immigrants brought to America threaten to muddy the very America The Donald promises “To make great again”. Lest there be any doubt as to his racial prejudice in this exercise he acknowledges the need for the right, (white), type of legal immigration.

BACKGROUND TO THE TRUMP APPEAL.

Now no revolutionary demagogue can exist in a vacuum. Trump has emerged as the Republican candidate for a host of reasons not the least of which is the GOP’s disconnect with their base’s acceptance of the Democrat’s social welfare programs such as Medicare and Social Security. The GOP Establishment’s preoccupation with backing the corporations who have screwed the blue collared by exporting jobs and capitol as opposed to servicing their interests have also not resonated with the blue collared Republicans. In addition the Republican millennials are quite disenchanted by the Party’s obsession with social issues such as a woman’s right to chose or whether they use contraception or not. Then there is the general anger that no party is responsible for - the loss of manufacturing jobs generally which can never return because of mechanization and computerization. 

All the above would not be enough as that is essentially the Democratic platform. To appeal to the GOP far right base Trump has thrown in the usual compendium of prejudice, xenophobia and victimization by the “other”. In true textbook style he has created, the scapegoat, the sacrificial lamb - the “illegal” who just happens not to have a white skin, who is responsible for all these woes - “They are stealing your jobs, murdering and raping your children, and the like”. He is upping the ante even further in claiming that they are responsible for undermining the nation’s security. All this is powerful medicine especially when prescribed by a highly articulate unscrupulous entertainer and master salesman who is an icon of the American scene. 

So in essence his unique contribution to the national debate is the “Immigration” problem combined with nationalism and that was the subject of his much publicized speech on August 31 which was supposed to catapult him out of the electoral doldrums into the WhiteHouse.

THE SPEECH AND THE PLAN

Trump has never been too strong on the facts and his immigration speech was no different. Scrupulous fact checkers have found to date that seventy - five percent of what he claims are either lies or gross misrepresentations not to mention the over simplifications. In addition much of what he ranted about on illegal immigration was already in place. The biometrics that he wants to set up are already there. Another key example, is that the Obama administration has already made deportation of criminals the highest priority and the net Mexican immigration legal or illegal currently is nil. In fact Obama has exited more illegals than any other President, 3 million. 

Then Trump claimed that there were still 2 million illegal dangerous criminals on the loose. The facts show that there are 695,000 that are either felons or are guilty of serious misdemeanors around. Of these a large number have situations that are complex. They are said to include a substantial group where procession of a small amount of drugs such as marijuana was once considered a “serious misdemeanor”. There are others that may have beat up their wives 25 years ago and so on. Then what has become standard fare, a gross distortion of Hillary’s position on Middle East refugee policy. Another gross distortion was that the “illegals” were responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime when the statistics show that at worst the prevalence of their felonies are the same as society or possibly less. The final racialist smear was even the Latinos that were legally here were not properly “assimilated” and needed to meet a Trump standard. 

WHAT HE LEFT OUT

Then he was going to stop the immigrant visa plan for temporary workers happily ignoring that he has employed that practice and still is on the basis “that there are no Americans who are prepared to work at his Florida resort”. 

The most crucial point from Jay H. Ell’s world view is he failed to recognize why these workers were getting work in America. If he was really serious about stopping undocumented employees from being in the market place he would punish their employers. If Trump were to be successful in his endeavor then several industries would grind to a halt. These include agriculture and farming, landscaping and construction.

Ironically, ignored in the hoopla of his much awaited clarification of his immigration final solution was yet another exposure of his illegal business practices by the New York Times. There was evidence that he encouraged models working in his modeling agency to enter the country on visitor visas and lie to customs agencies as to their intention. They were then exploited and treated like indentured servants. All this against the law and to quote The Donald, “We are a country of laws”. Documented incidents involving Trump’s usage of illegal immigrants lead Marc Rubio, in one those interminable Republican debates, to blurt out, “If he builds a wall like he built Trump Towers he will be using illegal immigrants”. 

Finally, for those who listened to his speech carefully he in fact left wiggle room not to deport all 11 million when he referred to after getting rid of the Latino scum they would decide what to with the rest. Like anyone would believe anything that he ever says.

THE UPSHOT

As Jay H. Ell began he must end. August 31 was a much better day for The Donald. He was Presidential in the morning and read his teleprompter without a hitch in the evening. Trump has a very low bar to overcome and he succeeded. He mustn’t swear or mock the handicapped or threaten to bomb Mexico City if they won’t pay for the wall. The polls are tightening and there always must be the fear that somehow he will get enough whites to vote for him to spring a surprise. So far he still has done nothing to win back the Republican white suburban woman and Republican college educated voters. He has now alienated what Hispanic support he had and if Bernie Sanders couldn’t convince the African American voters to abandon Hillary why should he?

The verdict on the Mexico visit is still out. The Mexican President is retweeting that he made it clear to The Donald that he refused to pay for the wall. The Mexican media are on a rant against Mr. Trump whose ratings in Latinoland are less than 5 percent. The big test will come if he can resist the temptation to tweet back. 

Hillary, who to date has been only to happy to allow The Donald the stage and make the election a referendum on him, must be having second thoughts. However ridiculous her e mail controversy may appear to most in comparison with the danger of a Trump administration it is very important to large sections of the electorate. There is a need not to be patronizing when addressing the subject and for her to give more interviews and even a Press Conference.

At the end of the day Trump still has to come through in the debates where his woeful ignorance will no longer be able to be glossed over. In addition any replay of his boorish behavior in the Primary debates will finally put paid to any hope he may have. 

The fear of a despotic unstable nativist bigot becoming leader of the free world will not go away as in a two horse race there is an awareness that anything could happen. Unlike Anne Coulter nothing can make Jay H. Ell sleep securely till after November 8 when Trump has been so convincingly beaten that those he encouraged in the event of his defeat, “to use their second amendment rights because the system had to have been rigged”, will stay home and lock up their guns.