I have to admit, it’s getting hard to keep up. I wanted to comment on the latest Trump rant about sharks and electric boats. But…
A couple of days passed, and Hunter Biden was convicted. After the apparent disappointment from the right that Biden had not been exonerated, the message shifted to the subsequent claim that President Biden masterminded that entire trial, and the conviction, to take heat off his own crimes.
Biden is either “Sleepy Joe” or a criminal mastermind and we can’t seem to make up our minds on that.
Then, we had the Supreme Court rule that bump stocks could not be outlawed. In 2018 Donald Trump announced that he had told the National Rifle Association that “bump stocks are gone,” arguing that the modifications “turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.”
Last Friday a spokesperson for the Trump campaign stated, “The Court has spoken, and their decision should be respected.” A presidential campaign can change your entire outlook on issues.
And speaking of the Supreme Court, it was discovered that Justice Clarence Thomas had several more undisclosed luxury trips that his billionaire best friend paid for, and this time, the best friend did not even accompany the Thomas’ on the trip; he just paid for everything and supplied the private jet.
In total, at least from what has been uncovered so far, Thomas has accepted more than $4 million in questionable handouts from his rich friends. Gee, that doesn’t seem quite right.
Still on the Court, what is it with those wacky Supreme Court Justice wives? Aren’t they fun? When I was younger, and not yet into my cynical years, I thought that judges, and especially Supreme Court Justices, were impartial, apolitical, professional, and ethical beyond reproach. Another illusion shattered.
Also on Friday, Mr. Trump implied that Joe Biden may drop out of the presidential race, despite no evidence, and then used some creative logic (like alternate facts) to excuse his potential of losing the upcoming debate, “Maybe I’m better off losing the debate, I’ll make sure he stays. I’ll lose the debate on purpose, maybe I’ll do something like that.”
That seems to cover all the bases.
The news is dizzying.
But the topic was sharks, and I know Fox News didn’t broadcast it so, for those who missed it, let me provide the text from a Las Vegas Trump rally last week, because everyone should have a chance to read this:
“So, I said, let me ask you a question, and he said, nobody ever asked this question, and it must be because of MIT, my relationship to MIT. Very smart.
“I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight, and you’re in the boat, and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery’s now underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?’
“By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately, do you notice that? Lot of sharks. I watched some guys justifying it today: ‘Well they weren’t really that angry, they bit off the young lady’s leg because of the fact that they were not hungry, but they misunderstood who she was.’ These people are crazy. He said, ‘There’s no problem with sharks, they just didn’t really understand a young woman swimming.’ No, really got decimated, and other people, too, a lot of shark attacks.
“So, I said, ‘There’s a shark ten yards away from the boat, ten yards, or here. Do I get electrocuted if the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking? Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted, or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?’ Because I will tell you, he didn’t know the answer.
“He said, ‘You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question.’ I said, ‘I think it’s a good question. I think there’s a lot of electric current coming through that water.’ But you know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted? I’ll take electrocution every single time. I’m not getting near the shark. So, we’re going to end that, we’re going to end it for boats, we’re going to end it for trucks.”
Trucks? Somehow, he brought this around to electric vehicles, so Trump’s fear of sharks in land-locked Las Vegas may be the impetus for a major policy position.
While both candidates are old, and both misspeak at times or get a name or date wrong, or have longer pauses than are comfortable, this story is concerning.
If Joe Biden had told the shark-boat story in exactly the same words, they would be committing him to a nursing home by now.
I know our choice this November is limited, but in this election, one guy is old and unhinged, and the other guy is old.
Curt MacRae is a resident of Coldwater, MI, and publishes opinion columns regularly.
Tweets @curtmacrae — comments to rantsbymac@gmail.com
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