THE SACRIFICES OF THE SIBERIAN CANDIDATE

I have said elsewhere that I once swore I would vote for Zippy the Chimp before I would vote for a Clinton. Donald Trump is making me eat my words. As a presidential candidate, he is not only less attractive than Zippy the Chimp, he is less attractive than a Clinton. The man is a foreign policy nightmare who appears to me to be firmly in Vladimir Putin's pocket.

Donald Trump reminds me of a cross between Howdy Doody and Don Rickles. Putin pulls his puppet's strings and Trump blithely rewrites the Republican Platform to give Russia the Ukraine on a silver platter. And when Trump opens his mouth, nothing of substance comes out--just insults. Is that how he's going to conduct foreign policy? by hopping every time Putin says "Frog" and spewing insults at the leaders of other countries?

He can't even make sure his brain is loaded before he starts shooting off his mouth. Witness the Tim Kaine/Tom Keane fiasco. His latest venture into the realm of talking about that which he knows not is his demeaning statement about Khizr Khan's wife. And those who are in line to drink the koolaid are applauding Trump's comparing his sacrifice of a few dollars from of his millions of dollars to Khan's sacrifice of his son.

If Trump had taken the time to watch the MSNBC interview of Khan and his wife the day after the convention, he would have learned that Mrs. Khan, who is very shy, helped him write his speech. Watching the dynamic between husband and wife, it seemed apparent to me that she was far from the stereotypical submissive wive. She was the one who decided that they were going to stay in the USA after Khan got his degree.

In what universe does spending money to make money constitute a sacrifice? Especially if you actually make money from the investment. In what universe does making a tax deductible charitable contribution to help build a monument constitute a sacrifice when your bank balance has six zeroes? And how does that compare to the loss of a beloved son? To suggest that it does also suggests that in Donald Trump's world, love of money is greater than love of children.

I titled this piece THE SACRIFICES OF THE SIBERIAN CANDIDATE.  Last night it occurred to me that Trump was like the fictional Manchurian Candidate, so I dubbed Trump the Siberian Candidate. This morning I googled "Siberian Candidate" and found myriads of posts calling him the Siberian Candidate. This one, for example: "Donald Trump: The Siberian Candidate." I don't agree with everything the author says about Republicans in general, but I whole heartedly endorse what he says about Donald Trump in particular.

If you're a Republican and just can't bring yourself to vote Democrat, then vote for Gary Johnson, but please don't vote for Donald Dunce, I mean Trump. If you're a Bernie Sanders supporter, don't vote Green. Do what I'm going to do. On election day I'm going to go to the polls with a clothespin on my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton because (1) as bad as she is, she is nothing compared to Donald Trump, and (2) Clinton is the only candidate with a ghost of a chance of defeating Trump.