October 19, 2024

Saturday, October 19, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

Kamala is always busy.

Kamala’s birthday is on Sunday. The singing has begun.

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#Trump is always crazy.

Trump’s withdrawal from six events this week has gotten much attention, as has his dancing bear act for 39 minutes at one rally in Pennsylvania.

But only one major paper has posted an article demanding he really withdraw. New York Times, are you listening?

Below is that column by a columnist at the Boston Globe.

Why are press, GOP ignoring Trump's cognitive decline?

Trump’s decline is too dangerous to ignore.

We can see the decline in the former president’s ability to hold a train of thought, speak coherently, or demonstrate a command of the English language, to say nothing of policy. So why are Republicans and the press holding Trump to a different standard than Biden?

Donald Trump’s answer to a question about child-care costs last month was eye-opening — not because of what it said about his agenda if he were to return to the Oval Office but what it said about his ability to do the job.

Asked at an economic forum in New York what specific legislation he would back to make child care more affordable, Trump rambled incomprehensibly for nearly two minutes without answering the question.

“Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down,” Trump said. “You know, I was somebody — we had, Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka, was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about — that, because look, child care is child care, couldn’t — you know, there’s something — you have to have it in this country. You have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to.”

The rest of his answer provided no clarification about a connection between import tariffs — if that is what Trump was referencing — and child-care costs. The lack of context, or even complete sentences, made his comments as clear as mud.

But what was crystal clear was the decline in the former president’s ability to hold a train of thought, speak coherently, or demonstrate a command of the English language, to say nothing of policy.

President Biden, after struggling with his answers during a June debate with Trump, ended his bid for a second term in July. That decision came after Democrats publicly voiced concern about Biden’s cognitive fitness and the press pursued the controversy breathlessly for weeks. Editorial boards, including the Globe’s, had even urged Biden to step aside.

The next president will enter the Oval Office at a time of immense challenges: an economy on the upswing but still hamstrung by persistent inflation; the ongoing domestic threat of home-grown radicalized terrorism; a surge in racist, antisemitic, and Islamophobic hate crimes and bias incidents across the nation; expanding conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine; and the ongoing global threat of political and election interference by China, Iran, and Russia, just to highlight a few.

The next president must be sharp and nimble in confronting those perils. Trump’s decision to halt an Oaks, Pa., town hall last week after two attendees needed medical attention and then convert the event to an impromptu dance party, dancing awkwardly to the tunes of the Village People and Barbra Streisand for over a half hour instead of answering voters’ questions, does not a paint a picture of a man up for the task of being commander-in-chief.

Trump and his campaign seem to be aware of his addled appearance. He canceled several interviews in recent days. At a rally last month in Johnstown, Pa., Trump tried to pass off his meandering verbal style as an intentional strategy called “the weave.”

“Friends of mine that are like English professors, they say: ‘It’s the most brilliant thing they’ve ever seen,’ ” Trump said. News flash: That’s a lie too.

I’m not a doctor, but in a report for STAT, several cognitive experts who have studied Trump’s speaking patterns over the course of several years say his disjointed way of jumping from one subject to another — called tangentiality — and his increasing reliance on superlatives and absolute terms are consistent with several causes of cognitive decline.

Though cautioning that they could not diagnose Trump without examining him, experts said his speech patterns match those of people experiencing the effects of things like mood changes, aging, and dementia.

“There’s reasonable evidence suggestive of forms of dementia,” clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis told STAT. “The reduction in complexity of sentences and vocabulary does lead you to a certain picture of cognitive diminishment.”

Yet Trump’s party has not urged him to step aside for the good of the country, as Biden’s did. And much of the press is doing the American people a disservice by treating Trump’s obvious cognitive slippage as just “Trump being Trump.”

Yes, the press has a lot to wrestle with when it comes to Trump, including his embrace of authoritarian strongmen, his refusal to vow to accept the election results, his criminal conviction and civil judgments for fraud and sexual abuse, and his racism and disparagement of women, LGBTQ people, and immigrants.

But his diminishing cognitive ability can’t be ignored. He may not be able to get a grip, but it’s long past time the news media and Republicans stop participating in the gaslighting. We can see reality with our own eyes.

Yet neither the media nor Republicans have shown that kind of urgency as Trump has repeatedly shown himself to be, to put it kindly, unwell. That is not only unfair and irresponsible, it is dangerous for the future of our country.
(Kimberly Atkins Stohr, The Boston Globe).

Trump Dementia on display at the Al Smith Catholic Charity dinner in NYC on Thursday.

His words were bad enough - “We have someone in the White House who can barely talk, barely put together two coherent sentences, who seems to have mental faculties of a child. It’s a person that has nothing going, no intelligence whatsoever. But enough about Kamala Harris.”

But the actual presentation is even more troubling.

Touch to watch. 👇 if the sound emoji has an x on it, touch to hear the sound.

The Vice President on the offense against Trump.

Watch her in Michigan. 👇

Trump, who has been campaigning at a breakneck pace as well, fired back later in the day when asked by reporters about Harris' comment.

“She’s a loser. She doesn’t go to any events,” Trump charged hours before a rally in Detroit as he ticked down his to-do list for the day. He said he was on “Fox & Friends” at 7 a.m., had two other appearances and then made “about 15 phone calls.”

“I’ve gone 48 days now without a rest. And I’ve got that loser, who doesn’t have the energy of a rabbit,” Trump said. “Tell me when you’ve seen me take even a little bit of a rest. Not only am I not — I’m not even tired. I’m really exhilarated.” (ABC News).

Trump seems to be sleeping on the job. What do you think?

The Lincoln Project is backing up the Vice President.

Amy Siskind weighs in.

One more thing.

Does this sound weird to you?

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Progress in Pennsylvania.

A few days ago I posted an article about Scott Perry, MAGA Congressman from Pennsylvania, being seriously challenged by Harrison area television celebrity broadcaster. Popular Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called Stelson “a trusted voice in the community.”

Articles such as that one and people like you are making a difference. Here is what is happening in PA-10.

If you are able to donate a bit more to Janelle Stelson’s campaign, it may make the difference. We can throw Scott Perry out and turn the People’s House Blue again.

Janelle Stelson Against Scott Perry.PA-10

https://app.oath.vote/donate?p=niemtzow-stelson&ref=PPIAM0N1

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Don’t count Senator Jon Tester of Montana out yet.

Montana GOP candidate who could flip control of Senate nagged by claims he lied about bullet wound.

A former Park Service ranger says U.S. Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy of Montana has been lying about a bullet wound that the candidate said came from fighting in Afghanistan.

BILLINGS, Mont. -- A former Park Service ranger said Friday that U.S. Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy of Montana has been lying about a bullet wound that the candidate said came from fighting in Afghanistan — going public with an accusation that has nagged the Republican’s campaign for months.

The claim from former ranger Kim Peach that Sheehy in fact shot himself on a family trip in Montana was immediately dismissed by Sheehy and his allies as a smear campaign engineered by Democrats in a race that's expected to help decide control of the Senate.

But with the election less than three weeks away, it adds to the huge pressures that the political newcomer already faced as he challenges three-term Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester.

Sheehy is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and his military record is a centerpiece of his bid for office. During stump speeches and in a book published by Sheehy last year, he recounts being wounded on multiple occasions during combat, including in the arm in 2012.

Sheehy was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in a separate combat incident and was also awarded a Bronze Star.

A Sheehy campaign spokesperson said Peach was a partisan Democrat pushing a “defamatory story.”

“Anyone trying to take away from the fact that Tim Sheehy signed up for war as a young man and spent most of his 20s in some of the most dangerous places in the world is either a partisan hack, a journalist with an agenda, or outright a disgusting person,” spokesperson Katie Martin said.

He’s faced scrutiny over the arm wound since April, when The Washington Post quoted a Glacier National Park ranger anonymously saying Sheehy accidentally shot himself in 2015, when he was travelling with his family and his gun fell out of a vehicle and fired when it hit the ground in a parking lot on Logan Pass. The ranger who was quoted in the story was Peach.

Sheehy was cited by Peach and paid a $525 fine for illegally discharging a firearm in Glacier, government records show.

The Republican candidate said in response to the April story that he lied to the park ranger — not about being wounded in Afghanistan.

Sheehy said he fell while hiking at Glacier and injured his arm, then concocted the story about the bullet wound to cover up the fact that the 2012 incident may have been friendly fire. He said he didn’t want members of his SEAL unit in Afghanistan to suffer any consequences.

With absentee voting in Montana underway and Sheehy poised for potential victory, Peach, a Democrat, said Friday that he “couldn’t let him get way with something like that without the truth being told.”

Peach said he interviewed Sheehy at the hospital where he was treated for the bullet wound.

“At the time, he was obviously embarrassed about it. And you know, he admitted to what I was there for — the gun going off in the park," Peach told The Associated Press. “He know the truth and the truth isn't complicated. It's when you start lying things get complicated.”

His decision to go public was reported earlier by the Post.

Peach worked as a park ranger for more than three decades and is now retired. He lives in small town near Glacier. He's posted a photo of himself on social media wearing a “Make America Wrong Again” hat and said he votes for Democrats.

He denied any connection with the Tester campaign or other Democratic organizations.

Tester's campaign has been running ads in recent weeks criticizing Sheehy for lying about the gunshot wound. A campaign spokesperson did not have an immediate comment Friday.

The Montana Democratic Party seized on Peach’s latest comments as providing a “firsthand account” of what happened to Sheehy.

But National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director Mike Berg rejected the latest reiteration of the accusations against Sheehy. He suggested it's a sign of Democrats' desperation because they fear Tester's going to lose.

“It's the last gasp of a career politician who sees his career about to end,” Berg said. (ABC News).

Jon Tester can pull a win out again, and we will control the Senate. Help him if you can.

ActBlue

Show your support with a contribution.

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Your Daily Reminder.

Trump is a convicted felon.

On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.

The Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11th and September 18th. He will now be sentenced on November 26.

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Listen to our candidate!

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