Two Frightening Quotes

“I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament. I have a winning temperament.” (Monday, 9/26/16)

And from four months (?) earlier: “When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different."

Hey! Here’s a thought! Let’s hand this man the keys to the nukes!

BILL

Fun Quote

"I just don't think she has a presidential look, and you need a presidential look. And I don't believe she does have the stamina. To be president of this country you need tremendous stamina. You have so many different things that you have to do, and I don't believe that Hillary has the stamina,” the obese man said.

BILL

Now THAT'S a Range!

The same actor, Rhys Ifans, who in 1999 unforgettably played Hugh Grant’s uncouth lout flat-mate Spike in “Notting Hill” just as believably plays Edward Snowden’s sober-minded, hint-of-danger cloaked NSA superior in “Snowden.”

BILL

Debate Post Mortem

No, Donald Trump. Not paying federal income taxes does not make you “smart.” It makes you a freeloader. And we’re all pleased that the housing crash that devastated so many was something you considered a “good business opportunity,” but so would selling Zyklon B for the Nazi gas chambers during World War II. Perhaps this is why the man who (ahem) “co-wrote” “The Art of The Deal” labels you a sociopath.
BILL

A Great Question:

If America is, as most Americans would strongly assert, the “greatest nation on the face of the Earth,” how can it possibly become great “again” as Donald Trump suggests?

BILL

Birth of a Notion

NEWS ITEM — Donald Trump says he finally admitted President Barack Obama was born in the United States because he wanted to "get on with the campaign." In a brief interview, Trump was asked why, after years as the chief proponent of the falsehood that the president was born outside the country, he decided to announce Friday that was no longer the case.

"Well, I just wanted to get on with the campaign," the GOP nominee responded. "A lot of people were asking me questions.”

EDITORIAL: Was one of those questions “How could you be so f’ing stupid?”

BILL

Twitter: @BillBekkala

Job Growth

NEWS ITEM: “Americans last year reaped the largest economic gains in nearly a generation as poverty fell, health insurance coverage spread and incomes rose sharply for households on every rung of the economic ladder, ending years of stagnation.”*

EDITORIAL: I have to admit by now I’m simply looking forward again to the right’s non-rebuttal rebuttal, i.e. simply questioning the accuracy of the numbers.

*Source 9/14/16 New York Times

Home is Where The Gun Is

NEWS ITEM: National studies have shown that people with access to guns are three times more likely to commit suicide and twice as likely to be the victim of violence. In addition, women in households with guns are three times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner.*

EDITORIAL: Wellllllllllllllll, all I have to say to that is: USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!!

BILL

*Source: None at all. People are saying. I’m hearing this. Nahhhhhhh. I’m just messing with you! (9/20/16 Los Angeles Times)

Freedom, oh, freedom, well that's just some people talkin'

The Colin Kaepernick national anthem controversy reminds me of this Dennis Hopper/Jack Nicholson exchange in the film “Easy Rider” from 1969:

BILLY: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That's what it's all about.

GEORGE HANSON: Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what's it's all about, all right. But talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.

BILL

"Snowed In"

So my buddy calls me and asks me if I want to see this flick. Figuring it was a thriller about the Donner party or something dealing with the merciless brutality of winter, we go and I find out it’s about databases and computer geeks. What a disappointing bummer.

BILL

Elton John Was Right

“Sorry seems to be the hardest word.”

But does anyone expect Little Donnie to apologize for having been SO wrong on the Obama birther thing. Not me. Why? Duh! He’s a child!*

BILL

* "When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different."

In The Merry Old Land of Dr. Oz

Did Dr. Oz ask Little Donnie re his miraculous recovery from those terribly debilitating heel spurs that kept him from serving in the Vietnam War when he was 100 pounds lighter?

BILL

What's Good For The Goose...

NEWS ITEM: WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized U.S. policy in Iraq again, but this time he aired his grievances on an unusual platform: a Russian government-funded television network.

EDITORIAL: OK, Republicans, that’s your cue. Go after him with the same vitriolic rage as you did the Dixie Chicks back in 2003. (Oh, wait. I'm sorry. They were women.)

BILL

A Year Wiser Than Kindergarten

I’ve decided to cast my vote for president for a man who recently said "When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different." I mean how can you not?

BILL

Funny Mike Pence Quote re Little Donnie:

“I know they’re (voters) going to elect a bold truth teller in 2016.” Here are some of those bold truths:

No one reads the bible more than me.

No one respects women more than me.

I have the best words.

Nobody knows the tax code better than I do. OK. I know it better. I’m the king of the tax code.

I am the least racist person that you’ve ever seen.

I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me.

BILL

Billy Buzzkill Alert:

NEWS ITEM: Last week, South Korean officials announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had executed one senior official, reportedly for slouching at a political meeting, and banished two others to reeducation camps.

EDITORIAL: And remember, kids, this man has nukes.

BILL

Why You Don't Want Me Doing Your Taxes

So I’m watching the film “Margin Call,” set in a Wall Street investment bank during the early hours of 2007-8 financial crisis. Spotting the iceberg ahead and confident re the grim magnitude of what is about to befall them, they call in the big boss who helicopters in. Surrounded by a roomful of razor sharp analysts, he wants an explanation, prefacing his request with words to the effect of “And explain it to me as if I’m your six year old granddaughter or your cocker spaniel. Remember, I didn’t get to this position by way of smarts.”

The analyst does as directed. I still don’t get it.

BILL

Cap and Traitors

(As was pointed out to me) I wonder how many people who hate NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for not standing during the national anthem, his silent protest that his country still has quite a ways to go before self-praising its own greatness, are at a rally right now wearing made in China baseball caps emblazoned with a statement outright denying America’s greatness and cheering the man who manufactured them.

BILL

Yes, there is only one word: "Amazing." (Believe me.)

In keeping with the Republican tradition of addressing problems that don’t really exist, Little Donnie unveiled his (logistics and cost bereft) ten-point plan on immigration despite the fact that more Mexican immigrants and their children left the US for Mexico than came FROM it from 2009 to 2014.

BILL