SO MUCH CONFIDENCE. SO LITTLE SKILL.

I will never understand how Matt Lauer ascended to the position he has in broadcasting. I think he is the most overrated and overpaid anchor in the business. Last night he proved himself to be particularly incompetent in interviewing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. To Secretary Clinton he asked far too many e-mail questions which was not the subject at hand. It seemed like a total waste of time when the nightly news covers that subject ad nauseum. By the time he got the to subject of the forum, they had lost a lot of time. His questions to Trump were softball and he allowed him to lie his way through the interview. Between lies Trump attacked America's generals and iterated his great affection and admiration for Putin, whom he unpatriotically declared a greater leader than Barack Obama. Sadly the Trumpenistas sitting around televisions in local yokel taverns across America were smiling their moronic smiles in admiration of their great orange hope.

CLOSE AND MAYBE A CIGAR.

Trump is closing in on Hillary Clinton. And that should have you terrified. Not just because it suggests the possibility of this clown being president, but because much of the media reports Trump's success with such glee. I have felt all along that Trump has no better ally than the broadcast media who, while seeming to vilify him, keep him in the limelight and are constantly quoting his attack lines against Clinton. Recently Paul Waldman, wrote a column in The Week magazine titled Is the New York Times Out to Get Hillary Clinton and he made a very good case that they are. Their nonfactual attacks on her are nothing short of a vendetta. Ergo: with so many media outlets backhandedly promoting Trump and constantly lying about Clinton, the November election could have a catastrophic result.

On Aug. 19, 1934, the German public voted 90 percent in favor of Chancellor Adolf Hitler becoming Führer 

JOHN AND DANIEL.

This past weekend, while stumping for Chris Sununu, a Republican running for governor of New Hampshire, Ohio Governor John Kasich has a revealing moment. The only problem is that we don't know what it revealed. Inside a bookstore, Kasich, looking at the latest Harry Potter book commented,"You know that Daniel Radcliffe has declared himself an atheist?" He then added, "What a weird thing. Why would a guy who has had all that success just, I mean, what the hell is wrong with him?" The reporter thought that this comment suggested Kasich's surprise that God would be so generous to a non-believer. Possible. It could also mean that Kasich, maybe a closet atheist himself, felt such a revelation would put Radcliffe's popularity at risk and saw it as a brave but foolish move. Of course, Radcliffe, being British comes from a land of growing atheism while Kasich lives a world of magical thinking so we'll never know whether he's a magical thinker or not.

JUST AS NASTY AS HE LOOKS.

Trump seems to have no lack of unscrupulous Republicans who will lie for him. The latest is Senator John Barrasshole from Wyoming. Today on MSNBC this right wing wing nut leveled all kinds of false accusations against Hillary Clinton. Naturally the lazy and irresponsible moderators permitted the attack and said nothing. There is no reason in the world to believe that Donald Trump would be anything but a disaster for this nation. Yet these irresponsible politicians, so hating Hillary, will promote him to the highest office in the world despite all the evidence that warns against it. How did these reckless zealots get into these positions of responsibility. They are all behaving like rejected husbands in a contentious divorce case—without judgement, without reason, without any concern for the consequences of their actions. This Barrasshole is particularly idiotic because he's ready to put the entire country in jeopardy
to make sure that Hillary doesn't get the house and the kids.

CHILDREN OF THE CORN

THE FACES OF YOUR FUTURE.

Some people, mostly her Republican enemies, make fun of Clinton's laugh, which is, in fact, charming and infectious. And, like most natural and good-natured persons, she does laugh. When have you seen Donald Trump display a moment of sheer joy? Never. There are lots of photos of him smiling, generally smugly. There are shots of him grinning, even beaming with self-satisfaction, but not joy. Because he doesn't experience joy. Most photos of him show a somber, driven, self-conscious, and often angry, man. His face expresses dictatorial delight, egocentric elation, sarcasm, disdain, superiority, mockery, and any number of other emotions, but never joy. Why? Maybe, with all his money and power, he has never achieved anything  to be truly happy about.

WONDERFULLY VICIOUS, SURPRISINGLY DEEP.

One of the things I find most surprising about the Internet is how unwilling people are to be located. This goes for companies, authors, celebrities—people who,  yes, might receive hate mail which they can ignore, or might just as frequently receive praise or constructive criticism or other positive comments.Today I read, for the sixth time, a book that always lifts my spirits. I wanted to contact the author, Boze Hadleigh, to order any other book he had written. There were several items about him on the Internet, and a listing of at least eight other books I was willing to purchase, but absolutely no way to contact him directly. Because of this I will have to search from various sources to secure all his books and I will never get to tell him how much pleasure I have gotten from the one I have, and why.

Note: For anyone who says, "I thought you had a Kindle." I did. It died.  I think I'm going back to books.