Keeping Up With Donald

Last night was the 2nd debate between presidential candidates Hillary ("Tell me what you want!") Clinton and Donald ("You know what I want!") Trump and I'll probably have a few things to say about that. But that will have to wait a day or two.

The problem with writing about Donald Trump and the stupid things he says and does is trying to keep up with it. For example, I was going to write about Donald's bringing up the case of the Central Park Five. About 20 years ago, five teenagers (4 black, 1 Hispanic) were convicted of raping a white woman in Central Park. It was all a lurid and tragic mess that Donald Trump decided to wade into at the time by taking out a full page ad in New York City newspapers demanding a return of the death penalty in response to this heinous crime.

Except these 5 guys didn't do it.

They had confessed but only after grueling hours of interrogation where they were willing to say anything to make it end. The whole case pretty much hung on those confessions. There was no solid evidence linking them to the crime. DNA evidence was available but testing wasn't a thing back then.

Later when it did become a thing, DNA testing found no connection whatsoever between the victim and the 5 men. In fact, DNA evidence did link someone else to the crime who confessed to the crime. 

This past week, Donald Trump made it clear that he still thinks those guys are guilty despite evidence to the contrary. But Donald has not been one for letting a little thing like facts get in the way of good fear mongering so why start now.

But while the dust was still swirling in the air over that statement, recorded comments made by Donald Trump in 2005 surfaced and damn, it's not good. Basically, he boasted in the crudest terms of his sexual escapades including his efforts to have sex with a married woman. At one point, Donald proclaims, "When you're a star, you can do whatever you want with women." 

So there's that.

The apologists for Trump came out to proclaim that what Trump said was from years ago and it doesn't matter and besides, Bill Clinton did worse and Hillary was worser still for the way she treated the women Bill had sex with and.... and...

Shit. This depresses me. 

Like Trump himself, his surrogates will not let facts get in the way of an extreme position.  Just a week ago, Rudy Guiliani defended Trump for having affairs as something that men just do and it really shouldn't matter, yet turns on a dime to say Bill Clinton's affairs were repugnant and are fair game in the campaign against Hillary Clinton.

The thing is, as you read this, I'm sure Donald and his pals have said or done even more absurd things, making his comments on the Central Park Five and his reprehensible views on power, sex and women old news.

That seems to be the pattern here. Nobody can make Donald shut up so the course of action is to just let him keep talking and churning up so much vile nonsense, we just can't keep up.

Over the weekend, the release of the recordings of Donald Trump's sexist and misogynist comments elicited a lot of angry retorts, from Democrats and Republicans. And Republicans who had endorsed Donald Trump withdrew their endorsements.


Of course we all have eyes to see and ears to hear. What Donald's done and is doing and damn well will likely do is not a surprise. For everyone who endorsed him and has come to regret it, the man was out there all along for us to witness by his words and his actions the kind of man he truly is. It's more than a bit hypocritical to be shocked by his behavior now.
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That's it for today. Tomorrow, I'll post some thoughts on the Sunday debate. Until then, remember to be good to one another.