FBI director James Comey is a cruel man. Just when Trumpeteers had started to achieve serenity by accepting the things they cannot change, i.e., a Hillary Clinton presidency, Mr. Comey threw a life preserver to a campaign that was going down for the third time.

Buoyed by this “investigation” of e-mails found on a computer owned by Hillary’s top aide, Huma Abedin, and used by her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, to sext message a 15-year-old girl, the ambiguous letter sent by Comey to members of Congress gave false hope to The Donald and his supporters. They think this is the “smoking gun,” the game changer, the big October surprise.

But there’s no there there, and this will be yet another crushing disappointment for them, a three-day event that will fade into oblivion with the Benghazi hearings and the other e-mail scandals. As Carol King sang, “It was too late, baby, it was too late.”

More than 20 million people have already voted, and this new wrinkle on a tired controversy will not move the needle more than a point or two at most.

It’s over. The fat lady has sung. Stick a fork in Donald Trump. He’s done.

In 1947 Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first Black man to play in major league baseball. In 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary was the first climber to conquer Mount Everest. In 1954 Dr. Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3:59.6, the first man to run the mile in under four minutes. In 1956 New York Yankee pitcher Don Larsen was the first (and only) man to pitch a perfect game in the World Series. In 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space. In 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. In 1993 Cuban track and field athlete Javier Sotomayor was the first (and only) man to high jump 8 feet. In 2008 Barack Obama was the first Black man to be elected President of the United States.

When you are the first, nobody can take that away from you. Nobody can break your record.

Hillary Clinton is about to become the first woman elected to the presidency of this country. No matter what happens, her achievement will be permanently historical.

I don’t care if she wins the election with a 400 electoral vote landslide or squeaks in with 272, a win is a win. In the immortal words of Vince Lombardi, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

I don’t care if she’s a one-term president. I don’t care if she gets impeached. I don’t care if people say she won because she was “the lesser of two evils” and that if Donald Trump wasn’t her opponent she would have lost.

Every day each of us makes one choice out of two where we’re not thrilled with either. It’s delusional to think that any of the other 16 Republican candidates could have beaten Hillary. In their own ways they were all just about as obnoxious as Donald Trump.

I don’t care if some Democrats insist that the primary election was “rigged” against Bernie Sanders. They can whine all they want, Hillary won it fair and square. If Bernie had run as the self-identified “INDEPENDENT” he’s always been, he’d be that party’s candidate instead of Gary (What is Aleppo?) Johnson.

I don’t care if people on both sides of the aisle think she’s corrupt or that she’s the consummate “politician.” When you’re running for political office it helps to have political skills. Donald Trump is a testimony to that statement. The idea that this is an “outsider’s year” in politics is a myth. Congress has a 7% approval rating, but 90% of incumbents get re-elected. Somebody needs to explain that.

I don’t care if she’ll be identified as the most unpopular president ever elected. She received 18 million votes in the primaries. She’ll probably get 65 million in the general election. We all should be so unpopular.

You can call her “lying Hillary” or “crooked Hillary” if it makes you feel better. I don’t care. You can fault her for being too scripted or too robotic or too wonkish or too prepared, as if being prepared is something negative.

I don’t care if the Republicans in Congress obstruct everything she tries to do. It can’t be any worse than the obstruction they used through all of Barack Obama’s two terms.

I don’t care if they keep trying to hold hearings on Benghazi or e-mails. I don’t give a damn about her e-mails. How would that be different from six years of Kenyan birth certificates and Muslim sympathies?

I. DON’T. CARE.

What I do care about is that her Supreme Court nominations won’t send us back to the Dark Ages, to back alley abortions, to gays in the closet, to poll taxes. It will be a big help if Democrats can win the Senate so she can get liberal judges in those seats.

What I do care about is the first woman president smashing to bits the most impenetrable glass ceiling imaginable, one that has been holding firm in this country for 227 years.

I do care about the fact that Hillary Clinton will be a role model for girls and women of all ages. Just as Obama’s victory inspired Black people, Hillary’s election will make a huge difference to the future of women in the workplace and in the political arena.

She is without doubt the most tenacious and determined candidate to run for office of either gender, and she’s fended off so many attacks, most of them grossly exaggerated, one has to wonder if she’s made of iron.

Both conservatives and ultra-liberals need medication and counseling to deal with their Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

If we give Hillary a chance and support her, she might turn out to be a fantastic president. In the immortal words of Donald J. Trump, “What have you got to lose?” (insert smiley face here).

One of my friends accused me over coffee the other day of only voting for Democrats. He said I don’t see the other side of the debate or the reasons to excuse, explain, and rationalize Donald Trump’s statements and behaviors, past and present, because I’m such a dyed-in-the-wool liberal.

After giving that some thought, I have to admit he’s right. I can’t imagine myself voting for a Republican. However, there very good reasons for taking that stance.

Here are some of them:

1. I’m married to a Black woman. I have a Black family, Black relatives, Black friends. Republicans don’t believe that racism exists. They deny the obvious when it comes to discrimination in the criminal justice system, the educational system, the health care system, the economic system, and they don’t understand institutional racism. They support Blue Lives Matter but call Black Lives Matter a “terrorist group.” They rationalize and make excuses for white cops murdering unarmed Black men. Their solution to the problem is more militarized cops and more unconstitutional stops and frisks. They get their jobs through white affirmative action (nepotism, favoritism, political patronage) but they abhor affirmative action for non-whites. They attempt to suppress the Black vote by any means necessary. They nominated, defended, and will vote for the most racist presidential candidate in history, the repulsive Donald Trump.

2. I have a host of gay and lesbian friends here in Worcester County and in other parts of the country. Republicans are homophobic. They’re against gay rights. They want to overturn the Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage. Republican senators and members of the House run for office on anti-gay political platforms. They freak out about gay people, so it’s understandable why they become apoplectic about transgender issues. Republicans have an overabundance of sexual hang ups.

3. I consider myself a feminist, especially when it comes to a woman’s right to choose an abortion. Republicans want to overturn Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision passed in 1973. They want to revert to back alley abortions and coat hangers. They’re against birth control. They’re against equal pay for women, and they voted down the Equal Rights Amendment. They’re against equality for women in the workplace, especially with regard to promotions.

It is mind-boggling to me how any woman can vote Republican. It is equally mind-boggling how any man who has a daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, or wife can support the GOP.

4. I’m a devout atheist who believes in the separation of church and state. Republicans flaunt their phony Christianity as a reason to take away freedoms from the above-mentioned women and gays. Nearly every one of the 17 Republican presidential candidates was a religious zealot, a member of the Christian Taliban. Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence has been on a crusade against Planned Parenthood, is obsessive in his zeal to ban abortions, and he even believes in gay conversion therapy. That latter belief should disqualify him from holding any form of public office.

5. I believe in science and intellect. The GOP is anti-science and scorns intellectuals. They believe that climate change is a hoax despite 97% of our top scientists declaring its validity. Republicans completely disregard any evidence that refutes their ideology. Their party caters to the uneducated, the emotional, and the illogical.

6. I believe in sensible gun control. Republicans believe the Second Amendment gives everybody the right to a Glock and an AR-15.

7. I’m in favor of immigration reform. The Republican idea of reform is to spend a zillion dollars on a wall that will make no difference and on the impossible task of deporting 11 million undocumented people.

8. I’m a supporter of labor unions that gave workers income equality, created a strong middle class, and helped senior citizens receive pensions to supplement their Social Security. Republicans, beginning with Ronald Reagan, destroyed unions and brought us income inequality, a declining middle class, and private pensions have largely disappeared.

I could go on, but let me finish with this comment posted in the New York Times from a resident of Savannah, Georgia:

“In the past, I would occasionally vote for a Republican. But the GOP has become so extreme that I will probably never vote for a Republican again. At one point, the GOP supported the environment, a woman’s right to choose, civil rights, sensible gun control, and other positions. Pulled to the extreme right by the Tea Party, the NRA, and the Religious Right, it is no longer the party that it once was. Its politicians shut down the government, obstruct the president, hold endless investigations about the same issues, want to repeal the healthcare of 20 million+ fellow Americans, block judicial appointments, and vote against basic infrastructure repair and other priorities that used to be routinely supported by both parties.”

I could vote for a pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-Black and Latino, intellectual Republican if his Democratic opponent was anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-Black and Latino, and a climate change denier. Would such a scenario ever happen?

Not bloody likely.

In 1980 the United States men’s Olympic hockey team pulled a stunning upset and won the gold medal over heavily favored Russia. In 1990 Buster Douglas, a journeyman heavyweight fighter and a 42-1 underdog, knocked out the undefeated, thought-to-be-invincible Mike Tyson.

These two events prove that anything can happen, and die-hard Donald Trump supporters reference them in the face of overwhelming odds regarding his chances of winning the presidential election on November 8. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over. The fat lady hasn’t sung. Yada yada.

I’ve been predicting that Mr. Trump will lose in a landslide since he got the nomination. Many conservatives have been irritated by my prediction, especially when I put the odds for his victory at 100-1. They want to call me out and get in on the action, but just as Mr. Trump doesn’t drink alcohol, A Keen Observer doesn’t gamble.

No kidding, I don’t. If I go to Foxwood or Mohegan Sun it’s for a boxing match or a show. I won’t even put a quarter in a slot machine. Both my parents loved the casino, especially my mother. She was a heavy player on the slots, and she won much more than she lost. My father played poker and he usually emerged on the plus side of the ledger.

But not me. I worked too hard for my money.

If I were a gambler, however, I’d feel very confident betting a large amount of money on Hillary Rodham Clinton to be our next president, the first female president in American history.

What if I’m wrong? Well, at least I know the Telegram & Gazette won’t cut my salary, because they pay me oogatz for writing this blog (insert smiley face here). I know, some of you are going to say my blog is only worth oogatz. I’m giving you a straight line.

Ironically, I’m in a much better position than most people to survive a Trump presidency. My house is paid up, my cars were bought with cash, I pay my credit card off at the end of each month, and I have zero debt.

I have a federal pension (Social Security) and a state pension (Mass Teachers Retirement) so I get a fixed amount of money each month unaffected by the rise and fall of the stock market.

I know retired Republicans whose monthly payments come from IRA’s that are tied to the market. In my opinion, they are taking an incredible risk in supporting Donald Trump. If anyone could put the stock market in the toilet it’s The Donald. He could start a trade war. He could start a war in the Middle East. He could close down the government and give new meaning to the term “gridlock.” The man can’t even get along with the members of his own party. How could he govern?

I know working Republicans whose jobs and income could be at great peril with a Trump presidency. He’s a wild card, and betting on his success is a definite long shot. I wonder what these people are thinking.

Some of them rationalize that regardless of his moral failings and his unbridled ignorance with regard to just about any subject, his business success (which is certainly questionable given the fact he lost nearly a billion dollars in one year and filed for bankruptcy six times) will make America great again and he’ll double our economic output.

Well, some people believe in the tooth fairy—and trickle-down economics, too.

At this writing Trump is well behind in the polls and his chances of victory are slim to none.

Could he pull off a Buster Douglas and surprise us all?

Not bloody likely. I knew Buster Douglas. Buster Douglas was a friend of mine. Donald Trump is no Buster Douglas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euZ08eWV4ME

I was in Scotland for the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and because there’s a five-hour time difference it gave me an excuse not to watch it. After all, even though the BBC televised it, staying up until 2 PM was not a reasonable option.

But the next morning my son e-mailed me from Boston and told me it was hilarious and I should view it on the internet, so late that afternoon, after spending the day walking around Glasgow, my wife and I sat down with our laptop and experienced a classic example of bizarre political theater.

The first debate was watched by 84 million viewers, but the second debate, which was even more outrageous, had 17 million fewer—67 million.

Tonight is the third and final debate of this quadrennial presidential election campaign, and the most appropriate name for it would be “Donald Trump’s Last Stand.”

On September 8, well before the debates began, I wrote a blog titled “Should Hillary Debate Trump?”

I connected this to my Italian grandmother’s broken English expression when someone in the family was about to do something that made no sense—“What you get outta?”

I wrote:

“With regard to the upcoming presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Mrs. Clinton should consider my grandmother’s question. What does she get out of giving Trump the opportunity to insult her, tell outright lies, make repulsive innuendoes, and evade answers to questions from moderators about issues?

Trump knows absolutely nothing about anything and what’s worse, he’s unwilling to learn. If he feels he’s behind by a wider margin than he is now he will show absolutely no restraint and turn the event into a reality show circus. At that point, what will he have to lose?”

In the first two debates Donald Trump insulted Hillary, told outright lies, made repulsive innuendoes, and evaded questions from moderators about issues. Though he and his supporters deny it, his campaign is in a downward spiral and he’s on his way to a landslide loss. His own party is deserting him. The Clinton campaign smells blood in the water and they’re looking to flip reliably red states like Arizona, Utah, Indiana, Missouri, and Georgia.

The Donald is already crying that the election is “rigged,” a preemptive excuse for his defeat. His major claim is that the media has focused on his sexual follies while ignoring Hillary Clinton’s hacked Wikileaks e-mails.

It has nothing to do with favoritism and everything to do with content. If you’re running a network and you depend on ratings, are you going to feature a talk show host reading excerpts from thousands of pages of e-mails, or are you going to play interviews of women who tell stories about Donald Trump putting his hands up their skirts, grabbing them and pulling them into bedrooms, and forcing his tongue down their throats?

As a reality show entertainer, nobody should know this better than Mr. Trump. If it bleeds, it leads. Sex sells. He’s given the media sensationalized stories about sexual battery, and his own words on Access Hollywood, which he now denies were serious, contributed to his indictment in the court of public opinion.

He fans the flames and blows oxygen into the accusers’ claims by his defense they weren’t attractive enough to sexually harass. That’s comparable in stupidity to the defense Mike Tyson’s lawyer made for his client when Mike was accused of rape. He asked the victim, “Why would you go to his hotel room late at night by yourself? He’s Mike Tyson.”

Mike got convicted and served four years in prison. He should have hired Johnnie Cochrane.

All Trump had to do was shut up and say his lawyers advised him not to comment. That worked with his refusal to release his income tax returns. Nobody is talking about that issue any longer.

This debate promises to be one for the ages. It will be painful and embarrassing to watch what has happened to American politics, but as an exercise in masochism it’s almost a “must-watch” event.

Let’s hope it will be the last time we ever see what we’re going to view tonight.

Or perhaps it will be the precursor for the normalization of what political campaigns will be like in the future.

I remember when I used to go to singles bars the guys would be hanging around drinking at the bar and young ladies would be sitting at small tables nursing a beverage and smoking cigarettes.

The dance floor would be empty for at least an hour early in the evening, and then some dude, fortified with a wee bit of alcohol, would get up the courage to ask for a dance. Almost immediately the entire dance floor would be filled to capacity.

My gay friends tell me the same thing happens at gay singles bars. It’s part of the human condition.

This explains what I call the “Bill Cosby/ Pedophile Priest Syndrome.” Cosby got away for years with using date rape drugs and having sex with women he’d drugged. He acted with impunity because he was an extremely wealthy, extremely powerful man in the entertainment business.

He was well into his 70’s when a Black comedian named Hannibal Buress joked about Cosby being a rapist in a 2014 stand-up comedy routine in Philadelphia. It opened the floodgates and led to 50 women coming forward with tales of molestation. Mr. Cosby has been in court ever since, defending himself and denying all charges.

In 2002 the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team broke the story of pedophile priests in Massachusetts after one young man, who had anguished over his experience for years, finally came forward and reported what had happened to him.

That opened the floodgates (I like that expression—can I use it again?) to a multitude of men coming forward, both nationally and internationally, with stories of molestation and rape by their parish priests. It has cost the Catholic Church millions of dollars in damages and has led to the closing of churches and the sale of property to raise the funds necessary to settle with victims.

Then Donald Trump came along and ran for president. He had been in the public eye for decades as a narcissistic billionaire who flaunted his wealth by putting his name on buildings, airplanes, and consumer products, and he always had a supermodel on his arm. He was thrice-married with a self-aggrandizing reputation as a ladies man.

For 15 months during his campaign he treated women, from Republican candidate Carly Fiorina to a Miss Universe winner who had gained some weight during her reign, with the utmost contempt. He slandered all women and showed them no respect.

And then on Friday, October 7, one month before the election, a videotape surfaced with Trump and Access Hollywood host Billy Bush having a conversation on a bus. In it Trump joked about kissing and fondling women against their will, and even grabbing them by their private parts.

The timing was very bad for him, as it was two days before the second presidential debate. When asked about his behavior by moderator Anderson Cooper, Trump denied doing what he admitted to on tape.

That opened the floodgates, and since then nine women have come forward with stories of how Trump did what he said he’d done. He refuted their stories, of course, and insisted that not only are all these women liars but that there’s a conspiracy against him by the media and the Clinton campaign, and that the election is rigged so he’ll lose the presidency.

One thing I’ll say for Donald Trump is that he’s very entertaining. There’s never been a candidate like him before, and this election is so bizarre and unbelievable you literally couldn’t make it up. Watching him is like watching a train wreck. You never know what incredibly stupid thing will come out of his mouth next.

But I don’t think anyone should refrain from voting for Donald Trump because of his sexual proclivities and his boorish actions. He’s a product of his times, an aging baby boomer, and he doesn’t realize he can’t get away with the things men got away with in decades past. His wealth and power kept him in a bubble and unaware that the world had changed with regard to the way men can treat women. He’s stuck in the “Mad Men” past.

No, you shouldn’t vote for Donald Trump because he’s a moron. He knows nothing about any issue. He has no policies and no plans. He makes promises he can’t keep. He can’t build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. He can’t deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. He can’t ban Muslims from entering the country. He can’t overturn Obamacare. He can’t make America great again, because it’s already great.

He’s a charlatan and a fraud, a liar and a racist bigot, he’s dishonest, and he’s not even a good businessman. He’s filed for bankruptcy six times and stiffed many of the people who worked for him.

His repulsive sexual behavior is nothing compared to his frightening temperament and his ignorance.

Trump supporters can be consoled with this: if these scandals hadn’t come out, he wouldn’t have won, anyway. He was a loser from the day he got the nomination.

The GOP nominated a lunatic, and it has nobody to blame but itself.

I’m a Netflix subscriber with a three-DVD per week movie plan. At least 90% of the films I watch are foreign with subtitles. That’s because I’m a pseudo-
intellectual who finds most American films boring beyond belief. Foreign films don’t have nearly as much violence, very few car chases, the acting is superb, the stories are plausible, and the characters look like real people.

By coincidence, and relating to the release of the Donald Trump-Billy Bush “locker room” video, the other day I watched a 1964 black-and-white Italian movie set in Sicily and titled “Sedotta e abbandonata,” which translates to “Seduced and Abandoned.”

It’s listed as a comedy, and the laugh is on the idiotic and illogical moral mindset men display about women and sexuality.

Here’s the synopsis:

A wealthy, rather portly man named Don Vincenzo has a daughter, Matilde, who is engaged to a young man named Peppino. Matilde is kept under constant watch by her family and not allowed to be alone with her fiancé. One day after lunch, however, everyone takes a nap except Matilde’s 16-year-old sister, the beautiful Agnese. She is sitting at a table in the living room doing her homework, and Peppino, who lusts after her, makes an unwanted sexual advance. She retreats into the kitchen, and he follows her and forces himself on her until she finally responds. He has sex with her in an adjoining room. He takes the virginity of an underage girl.

As we would expect, Agnese falls in love with Peppino, and although they don’t get together again she finds herself pregnant. Don Vincenzo finds out who the father is and explodes. One daughter has been wronged by her betrothed and the other daughter deflowered and impregnated by the same man. Outraged, he goes to Peppino’s father and threatens him. They agree to have Peppino write a letter to Matilde breaking off the engagement, and to stay out of jail Peppino will have to marry Agnese. In Sicily at that time sex crimes were absolved if the perpetrator married the victim.

Don Vincenzo arranges for Matilde to be courted by a Baron who is so broke he’s missing three front teeth, but he does have a title and agrees to the courtship because his future father-in-law has money and will support him. He even pays for new false teeth.

But here’s the mind-boggling scene in the movie. Peppino’s parents are sitting at the dinner table when he comes in upset and screaming that he doesn’t want to marry the beautiful Agnese because from his logical, macho viewpoint, she isn’t a virgin any longer. He says, “The man has the right to ask; the woman has the duty to refuse.” She didn’t, and that makes her a “puttana.”

Peppino’s mother reminds his father that he was always trying to have sex with her before they were married. Peppino says to his father, “If she had sex with you, would you have married her?” Embarrassed, the older man put his head down and whispered, “No.”

This kind of thinking prevailed in baby boomer America (those born between 1946-1964), and Donald Trump is from that generation. Men wanted to score with as many women as possible, and those who were successful were praised as “studs” and “players.” On the other hand, they wanted to marry a virgin. Any girl who had sex even once was a “whore,” a “slut,” or worse. There was an incredible double standard, and in many parts of the country and the world that double standard still persists.

There was a popular saying from those long-ago times, the era modern Republicans yearn for us to return to: “Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?”

I’ve been called a “traitor to my race,” and what I’m about to say will cause some to say I’m a traitor to my gender: When it comes to matters of sexuality and the treatment of women, men are really, really stupid Neanderthals.

What are you gonna do?

I’ve never claimed to be the smartest kid in the class or the sharpest knife in the drawer. All I can do is identify with the loveable animal from Jellystone Park who described himself as “smarter than the average bear.” Of course, I’m talking about Yogi Bear, who was named after that great American philosopher, Yogi Berra.

So I need assistance from the intellectual Republicans who read this blog because there’s something I’ve wrestled with for a long time and still can’t understand.

Why do we continue debating whether or not Barack Obama was born in Kenya rather than Hawaii? Presidential candidate Donald Trump was like a dog with a bone on this issue for five years, wouldn’t accept Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate as legitimate, and recently blamed Hillary Clinton for starting the controversy.

But the first runner-up in the Republican presidential primaries, the silver medalist, the obnoxious Ted Cruz, was born in Canada. If he had been able to beat The Donald out for the nomination he’d be running for president right now, and Republicans wouldn’t blink an eye at the fact he was born in a foreign country. The fact is there is nothing in the Constitution that says you have to be born on American soil to be eligible for the presidency. John McCain was not born in America. If you’ve got a parent who’s an American citizen, you’re also a citizen.

Therefore, if Obama was in fact born in Kenya it would make no difference. What other conclusion can we draw but that somebody Black and Democratic is ineligible but someone white and Republican is valid presidential material?

The whole issue stinks of racism and hypocrisy, which is not a surprise when it comes to the GOP’s playbook.

There’s more I need explained.

How can Donald Trump attack Bill Clinton’s infidelity when he’s fathered five children by three different wives, at least one of whom he was unfaithful to while courting his subsequent spouse?

What would Republicans say if Barack Obama ran for president and had five children with three wives? What would they say if Hillary Clinton had five children by three husbands? They’d go out of their collective minds. Talk about a double standard.

How can Trump use surrogates to attack Mr. Clinton’s morals when they’ve been married and divorced as many times as he has? Rudy Giuliani, three marriages, one where he let his wife know he was leaving her at a press conference; Newt Gingrich, three marriages, let his wife know he was divorcing her when she was in the hospital with cancer. What fine, upstanding gentlemen they are, what role models!

Donald Trump is unbelievable.

How can he lose nearly a billion dollars in one year, file for bankruptcy six times, and then claim the country needs a businessman like him running it?

How can he complain about this country’s deteriorating infrastructure and third-world airports when he pays no taxes to maintain or improve those entities and then claim evading taxes makes him “smart?”

He claims Hillary Clinton doesn’t have enough stamina to be president. Stamina?

How does a 70-year-old man who does absolutely no exercise and eats junk food all day obtain stamina? Could there be some truth to speculation that he swallows stimulants, a possible reason why he’s up in the wee hours of the morning posting stupid tweets?

He spent a week “fat-shaming” a Latina Miss Universe winner, and he’s insulted women with weight problems for years.

But he’s obese. He had his doctor add an inch to his height (nobody grows at 70 years old) so his height/weight ratio would only qualify him as overweight, but he’s obese with a double chin, a pot belly, and a big behind. Have you ever seen him one time—just one time—without his suit coat? The dude is hiding more than his taxes.

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/barackobama/ss/Barack-Obama-Memes.htm?utm_campaign=kw_entertainment_13&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=con&utm_content=3207&kwp_0=221939&kwp_4=889675&kwp_1=433765#step3

Again, he sends out fat surrogates to defend his attack on the beauty contest winner. Newt Gingrich is obese. Chris Christie was so hopelessly fat (334 pounds) he had to have his stomach stapled. Roger Ailes, another Trump advocate, is cut from the same mold. He sexually harassed so many Fox News employees (including Megyn Kelly) that Rupert Murdoch fired him from his leadership role at that network, and he’s the physical double for Alfred Hitchcock.

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear. At least 2/3 of the people in this country are overweight or obese, and there are hundreds of thousands of men who are divorced and have cheated on their wives. That’s no big deal.

It’s when you openly criticize others for the same failings you have that you convict yourself of blatant hypocrisy.

Trump is right about one thing he said. He could go out on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and it wouldn’t matter to his supporters. I’m sure there are Trumpsters out there who will have rationalizations and defenses for all the questions raised here.

That’s the problem. What are you gonna do?

The title of this blog is somewhat misleading. After praising Scotland to the skies for the last three years, I wasn’t disenchanted with it on our fourth three-week trip in four years.

Scotland is still, in my opinion, the most beautiful country in the world. The scenery in some places is so magnificent it takes your breath away. It’s impossible to take a bad picture. You can spin around 360 degrees and everything you see is spectacular and unbelievable. The sky in Scotland is worth the trip.

The people are still warm and friendly, and they’re extremely liberal compared to Americans, especially with regard to social issues. Scotland had gay marriage long before America did, and I found out on this trip that a pregnant teenager can get an abortion paid for by the government WITHOUT her parents’ knowledge or consent. If she’s old enough to get pregnant, she’s old enough to choose to terminate her pregnancy. Not only that, if a teenager decides to become sexually active she can get free birth control from the government, again without the knowledge or consent of her parents.

I couldn’t help laughing about how those two items would go over here in this country with Republican religious zealots like Mike Pence, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, and the other members of the GOP’s Christian Taliban.

Scotland is light years more progressive than the United States.

No, the cause of my disappointment had to do with Donald Trump. Everyone my wife and I met wanted to ask questions or voice opinions on the Republican nominee for president. I’m not just talking about Scottish people, either.

Comparatively speaking, not that many Americans visit Scotland. We were in the country for ten days before we met a couple from California on the Isle of Skye. But tourists from all over the world—Britain, Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa— travel there, and we’d talk to them over breakfast at the B&B’s and small hotels we stayed in throughout our trip.

A man from the Netherlands said that Donald Trump “belongs in a circus.” A woman from Australia thinks he’s “crazy.” A South African gentleman said he was a “nutter.” An Italian called him “pazzo.” A Scottish woman from Campbeltown breathed a sigh of relief when I told her there was no way he would win. “We’ve been terrorized,” she said, “by the media here telling us he had a chance to become the president.” An Israeli called him a “psychopath,” a German described him as a “sociopath,” and a young Latvian couple living in London said he was a “lunatic.”

The reactions to Trump were unanimously negative and varied between those who thought the whole thing was comical to others who were deeply concerned and considered him dangerous.

Another thing I learned on this trip was that the president of the United States is, in reality, the president of the world. People everywhere follow American politics because we’re an economic and military superpower, and as we go the world goes. They’re aware of how the electoral college and our congress work. I met people who know more about what’s going on here politically than many Americans do, and they understand that a Trump presidency would be a disaster for them as well as for us.

Others have a more sanguine view of the election and think it’s a colossal joke. One of them said, “Do you realize that the whole world is laughing at the United States because of Donald Trump?”

Let me repeat that in case you missed it: DO YOU REALIZE THAT THE WHOLE WORLD IS LAUGHING AT THE UNITED STATES BECAUSE OF DONALD TRUMP?

This is the root of my disappointment. Why is it that people across the ocean and on the other side of the world can see Trump for what he is with crystal clarity, but 40% of Americans are going to vote for a man the Scottish people call an “eejit?”

How is this possible? Here’s what New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote by way of explanation:

“So how could someone like Mr. Trump have been in striking position for the White House?…Part of the answer is that a lot more Americans than we’d like to imagine are white nationalists at heart. Indeed, implicit appeals to racial hostility have long been at the core of Republican strategy; Mr. Trump became the G.O.P. nominee by saying outright what his opponents tried to convey with dog whistles.”

In the immortal words of the great Johnnie Cochrane, “Everything is about race. The sooner we stop dancing around that issue, the better off we’ll all be.”