Yes, I’m getting into politics again.

Run for the hills.

For those still left, the situation with Donald Trump is perhaps one of the more fascinating to come around in recent times.

Terrifying, I’ll grant you, but fascinating nonetheless.

There were many, IMHO, highlights in the Democratic Convention from last week, from the emotional and beautiful Michele Obama speech to Cathy Giffords.  But there was one speech that reverberated above almost all others, that of Khirz Khan and his wife, who lost their son back in 2004 while serving in Iraq…

Bizarrely and perhaps all-too-expectedly, Donald Trump went after Mr. Khan and his wife.  Thus far (its Monday, August 1st), he hasn’t backed down.

As I said above, that was perhaps to be expected.  If nothing else, Mr. Trump is an attacker.  He attacks anyone that tries/dares to go after him in any way.  And let’s be very clear here: Attacking has helped him considerably up to last week.  They certainly helped him when he brilliantly took down party favorite Jeb! Bush by calling him “low energy”.

However, we’ve moved beyond the primaries and, as is often the case, when you get past the party’s most faithful and begin addressing the country in general, things that may work on the smaller scale of a primary might not work on a larger one.

It appears this may well be happening to Mr. Trump.

Suddenly, he has to answer questions regarding the world in general and, at least so far, his “answers” regarding things like Russia have been troublesome.  Further, while Ms. Clinton is certainly a prime target to fight, going after people like the Khans is unwise and, to many, beyond the pale.

Because he is the figurehead/candidate for the Republican party, many “big” names in that party have been very reticent to directly criticize Mr. Trump’s more outlandish comments.  While Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan offered criticism, they did so without mentioning the highly important identity of who they came from.

Which gets those cynical with politics in general shaking their heads.

The Republicans (and Democrats in their own way) look after their own, even if they have to hold their nose while doing so.

All is not lost, however.  This morning, John McCain becomes the first high level Republican office holder to not only criticize the comments of Mr. Trump, he mentions him by name:

John McCain: Donald Trump defamed Khan, does not represent GOP

Despite the hard words sent Mr. Trump’s way, Mr. McCain hasn’t taken back his endorsement of his candidacy for President.

Perhaps he’ll do so the next time Mr. Trump puts his proverbial foot in his mouth?

Avert yer eyes!  I’m about to get political!!!

Anyway, I really, honestly, try not to get into politics yet keep falling back into it.

What, is there like an election about to happen or something?!

Anyway, the Republicans are in the midst of coming up with their convention “platform”, ie, the things Republicans stand for/against.

In this case and via an article written by Liz Goodman for Yahoo, they have decided…

Porn is a “public health crisis” and a “menace”

This, my friends, is but an example, IMHO, of why the Republican party is in as much trouble as it is.  The amendment, offered by Mary Forrester, a delegate from North Carolina, makes the mistake of conflating child pornography with pornography, as if the two were somehow completely and totally interlocked.  The former is clearly illegal and anyone involved in such activities deserves, other than the innocent underage victims, deserves to get jail.  The later is an activity conducted by consenting adults.  I’m not saying everyone who has ever been involved in the porn business comes out of it “fine”, but there are many in the business who enjoy what they do and have few regrets.

As far as child pornography, it is indeed illegal and I’ve read more stories than I care to about people -some who present society with a respectable face- being caught in stings thinking they were about to hook up with an underage individual or were caught with child pornography in their computers.

Again, child pornography is insidious and ILLEGAL and it should be.  But child pornography does not define pornography in general, and if one has to explain that to people, well, jeeze.

But perhaps the worst part of this story is its timing.  Here you have the Republican party platform announcing pornography is a “public health crisis” and a “menace” and yet, given the frightful news of the past weekend…where does this party stand on the issue of guns?

You know, those items too many crazed individuals -actual menaces– have used to barbaric effect to kill people?  To, you know, create a “public health crisis”?

If pornography, to the Republican Party, is a “public health crisis” and a “menace”, then what about all these weapons?

The silence regarding that topic is deafening.

Ok…getting off my soapbox in…

…3…

2…

1…

If you’re a political junkie, the work of Nate Silver over at fivethirtyeight.com is a fascinating snapshot into the various polls and the possibility of Candidate X winning over Candidate Y, whoever said Candidate is.

Yesterday Mr. Silver offered the first prediction of the upcoming general election.  You may have heard about it…its for the office of the President of the United States and pits Hillary Clinton (D) versus Donald Trump (R).

With this first prediction, granted its 130 plus days away from the actual voting, things aren’t looking good for Mr. Trump.  Or, to use his vernacular, “Sad”:

2016 Election Forecast at FiveThirtyEight

At the risk of spoiling things (if you’re into statistics, this site will be your nirvana), as it stood yesterday Hillary Clinton has a whopping 80.3% chance of winning the Presidency versus Mr. Trump’s 19.7% chance.

Now, much can change as we have a veeerrrrrryyyyy long way to go still.  Having said that, I really hope these stats hold up.  I can’t get my head around Mr. Trump being president and I at times wonder if he’s doing this as a lark knowing full well he’ll never win.  For all I know, he may well be pranking the entire Republican party…

Still, to be that close to the Presidency is a scary thought.

Gary Legum at Salon.com offers some thoughts regarding Mr. Silver’s recent post and the reality (as of this moment) of Mr. Trump’s position:

The math is with Hillary: She’s surging in the polls and Republicans are in denial

Again, its foolish to take one result this far ahead of the actual election date and assume it’ll be the same then, but for those (like me) anxious about the possibility of a Trump presidency, these links provide some relief.

So yesterday came the last big block of state voting for the nominees to be President of the United States and the big winner was Hillary Clinton.  Not only does she now unquestionably have enough delegates to claim the mantle of Democratic Nominee, but she also took California, a very large, delegate-rich state which her rival Bernie Sanders was hoping to snatch from her.

You will find plenty of articles about yesterday in all major news media.  Here’s one by Stephen Collinson from CNN.com…

Primary Results: Hillary Clinton Celebrates Victory, wins California

While I am usually loathe to dive into politics, it is nonetheless worth noting the historic nature of yesterday’s events.

Like her or not, Hillary Clinton represents the very first female nominee for a major U.S. political party and it is amazing that we may follow the first African American nominee and eventual President, Barack Obama, with the first female nominee.

Based on the bad news trailing the presumptive Republican nominee these last few days, we might well have our first female President.

Of course, we’ve still got a very long way to go…

Dealing with politics here -as well as stroking my ego- so…

BEWARE!!!!

Found this article written by Alexandra Rosenmann over at Salon.com…

Noam Chomsky: The Democratic Party now belongs to Moderate Republicans

Oh, I get it, when big-shot Noam Chomsky says it, people pay attention but when I say the same thing for years now, everyone ignores me.

Seriously, though, I very much believe this to be true.  The conservative movement, for ill in my opinion by the way, has moved the country so far to the right that the Democratic Party is at this point effectively a moderate Republican Party.

I noted before that Bill Clinton and (yes) commie/socialist/whateverthey’recallinghimnow Barack Obama would very comfortably fit into a moderate Republican party circa the late 1960’s or early 1970’s.

On the plus side, a prediction: Like many things, I also very much believe in the whole pendulum concept, wherein a pendulum (or popular thought) tends to have a surge (or swing), reaches its apex, and then loses its momentum and the other side surges.

Starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt and for much of the middle 20th Century, Liberalism was the popular political thought.  While it sputtered in the 1960’s it ran out of gas as a movement roughly around the time Ronald Reagan became president.  From that moment on, the conservative movement began its ascent while liberalism seemed to go into hiding.

I certainly don’t want to count chickens before they hatch, but I suspect the Donald Trump presidential bid may wind up crashing and burning the Republicans -and by extension the conservative movement- this coming electoral cycle.

The reason is simple: It’s become too much crazy for people to tolerate.

However, the future isn’t decided and things could well turn out differently.

If that should be the case, I may have to investigate returning to Canada.

Last night Republican candidate for President Ted Cruz dropped out of the race with the grace and agility of Larry, Curley, and Moe…

I swear, sometimes it feels like we’re living in a Zucker Brothers and Abrahams movie.

Laugh all you want at the above clip, but this means the Republican candidate for office of the President of the United States is Donald Trump.  And you know what that means (memes?!)…

Here’s one:

Man, there are so many of these to choose from.  One more:

Seriously, and with all due respect, I find this incredibly scary news.  The fact this man is as close as he is to even the possibility of becoming the President of the United States is damn frightening to this liberal, but it appears to not sit all that well with many lifelong Republicans…

Some Republicans say they’re breaking away from the party now that Donald Trump is presumptive nominee

The incredible irony of the above article is that many of these lifelong Republicans, who in their own way helped to make the party what it is today and no doubt relished their hatred for all things Clinton, are now in the uncomfortable position of maybe/possibly having to actually…vote for her?!

As startling as Mr. Trump’s success in taking the nomination is, plenty of pundits (and polling) suggests the odds are against him to win the general election…

Yes, It’s Early, but Donald Trump would have uphill battle against Clinton

And this website, 270towin.com, which tracks polling and electoral vote counts, currently has Clinton winning 300 electoral votes (270 are needed to win) versus Trump’s 109.  129 electoral votes are too close to call:

2016 Election: Clinton vs Trump

I hope this stays as is.  Mind you, I’m not a HUGE (he said in a Donald Trump voice) fan of Hillary Clinton but this election, to someone like me, is a complete no-brainer. (I’m so tempted to make a snide comment regarding that!!).

So, anyone got a fast forward button so that we can get to November already?!

After some dreary news, let’s have some levity:

Jack Mehoff Endorses Donald Trump

’nuff said.

Again with the politics (to some degree), so ignore this if it’s not your thing…

Over at salon.com I found the following article written by Eric Boehlert:

Rush Limbaugh hit where it hurts: World’s greatest troll faces steep pay cut

Salon.com tends to skew to the left, politically, so therefore one must excuse the “take that!” nature of the headline/link.

Like many liberals, I have no use for Rush Limbaugh and can proudly state that I’ve listened to no more than 1/2 hour of his show over all the years its been broadcast in my area.  The bits and pieces I’ve heard here and there amount to less than that time and after listening to a few seconds (or perhaps a minute), realized he simply was not for me.

Regardless and as much as one may wish to, it is impossible to dismiss Rush Limbaugh as a political force.  In my opinion he not only rode the conservative wave which gained its first popularity with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, I feel he was one of the primary forces behind keeping that wave strong.

But like many things in life, the moment appears to have passed to some degree.  The ratings are quite as high and, it appears, the conservative movement focuses on an increasingly elderly audience.

I found this quote from the article particularly interesting:

…the conservative talk radio format has morphed into the Classic Rock of talk; super-serving the same aging demo for the last twenty-plus years.

Of course, the conservative movement is far from “dead” but I do agree with the article that Mr. Limbaugh’s radio misfortunes could be viewed as a window into the popularity of conservative politics as a whole.

Some ten or more years ago I had a conversation with my wife’s cousin, a very charismatic young man who also happens to be gay, and the topic of conservative politics reared its head.  He despaired at what he viewed as the power of this movement and the way it affected him personally.

Even though it was many years ago, I urged him not to despair.  Like so many things, I had a feeling the conservative movement at that time had already reached its peak and there was evidence the pendulum had shifted and was moving the other way.  Back then, a conservative candidate could fluster a liberal rival simply by calling them a “liberal” and saying it as if it was some dirty word.  Liberal candidates, to their eternal discredit, never could adequately fight back.  Instead, they re-labeled themselves “progressive” to try to remove the “stigma” of the word liberal.

But things changed and the fight returned to them.

Today, I get the feeling young people view the word “conservative” in much the same way conservatives tried to get people to look at the word liberal.  That’s not to say, obviously, there aren’t any conservative youths out there.  But the days of conservative superpower appear to be receding.  Yes, conservatives still hold power in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but their grip appears to weaken as their politics take them further and further into areas many disagree with.

Who would have thought, ten or so years ago when I had that conversation with my wife’s cousin, that gay marriage would be legal?  And though it isn’t perfect, we now have a form of universal health care and, despite so many years and so much effort in discrediting it, there are even Republicans who are thankful for this.  With the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, we’re finally getting a peek into what a Supreme Court may look like without as strong a conservative presence within that body.  At least for me, the difference is incredible and the future, should we elect a Democratic President, certainly looks brighter.

And that’s the key, isn’t it?  Things can obviously change and, depending on this election, things can move the opposite way.  While I feel either Hillary Clinton (the likely Democratic candidate, at least as of today) or Bernie Sanders would wipe the floor of either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, this isn’t by any means a foregone conclusion.

Unlike years past, however, there appears to be reason for optimism.

As the pendulum swings the opposite direction, we may indeed see a more liberal government in the coming years and it is my hope it features more tolerance toward others as well as a devotion to the protection of our resources.

As with all dreams, this requires hard work.