Stormy Daniels

I think Trump would still have won the 2016 election even if we knew about Stormy Daniels before the voting.  Trump voters knew he was a liar, a bigot, was accused of attacking women, supported the birther movement, was in the “Access Hollywood video”, etc.  They still voted for him.  If they could overlook all of the other stuff, they could overlook Stormy Daniels.  This does need to be investigated to see if any election laws were violated.  The stories Trump’s lawyer has spread are ridiculous and at some point, I think we’ll hear the truth.  In this era of the Internet, everything becomes public eventually.

Yes, I know Hillary Clinton had the private email server.  She should have closed the Clinton Foundation before she became Secretary of State.  She supported Bill Clinton against his accusers – some or probably all told the truth. Still her moral failings are much smaller than Trump’s.  Sad!

Diane Arbus

The New York Times just published an obituary for photographer Diane Arbus who died in 1971.  Remarkably, they didn’t print one when she died.

Arbus is one of the greatest American photographers.

Here’s a link to an article about a recent biography.  I haven’t read this book but I did read the 1984 biography by Patricia Bosworth.

This book was the first major collection of her photographs and was published soon after she died.

If you don’t think Trump is a bigot….

If you don’t think Trump is a bigot, you probably fall into one of two categories:

  • You’re a bigot, too.  Certainly, not all Trump supporters are bigots but many of them are.
  • You are not a member of a group that has been attacked by Trump.  You’re not  African-American, Muslim, Mexican, Native American, from a “shithole country”, Jewish, etc.  He has also attacked women.  I think a lot of people ignore Trump’s bigotry because it doesn’t apply to them.  Sad!

Equal time

Trump’s speech last night was largely a campaign speech for his 2020 campaign (from my analysis of what I read about it).  It was supposed to be about the Republican candidate for Congress, but with Trump it’s always about him.

In light of all this, I think the TV networks need to give Democrats equal time when Trump gives a campaign speech like last night.  I understand why they cover it since he is the president.  However, it’s unfair to the Democrats that he gets free air time for political messages.

The Democrats don’t have a candidate yet but I am sure they could find someone to give a response similar to the responses to the State of the Union messages.

Trump is a terrible president but he is a master of manipulating the TV networks.  He got a lot of free TV time in the primaries and general election because he said outrageous things that would draw viewers.  He’s doing it again and it’s already creating an unfair environment for 2020.  Sad!