Child care is child care

 The topic of the day was children and how to care for them, and J.D. Vance got the difficult part, explaining away the Apalachin High School shootings.  In Phoenix he said, "I don't like that this is a fact of life," which struck some people as callous.  His solution was to step up school security "so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children they're not able to."  But the alleged psycho was a student at Apalachin and had a right to be there.  What then?  Nobody asked.  

Yes, school shooting is a fact of life. So is cancer, but if your doctor offers only thoughts and prayers you should find another doctor.  And if the second doctor urges you to "get over it" and "move forward," as Trump did last January after a school shooting in Perry, Iowa, you might wonder what the hell was wrong with oncology in this country.  

At the Economy Club yesterday, Trump was asked what he would do to make child care affordable.  The response was a tsunami of gibberish:  "Well, I would do that, and we're sitting down.  You know, I was somebody -- we had Senator Marco Rubio -- and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue.  It's a very important issue.  But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers about -- that, because look, child care is child care..."  Do you mind if I don't type any more of this?  He's going to "tax foreign nations at levels that they're not used to" and have "no deficits within a fairly short period of time" and end "waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on" and "make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people," and on and on.    

This isn't "weaving."  This is the work of a spider on LSD.

And his bromance with Xi Jinping is on again.  I guess the president hasn't heard about all the tariffs he'll soon be paying us.

Now I hear that the listeners not only didn't laugh but applauded.  It's amazing the Biden-Harris economy is doing as well as it is (142,000 jobs added in August, unemployment down to 4.2%, and the Dow just closed at 40,345).  But the price of bacon!

Citing a "source with knowledge," NPR identifies the two people who bullied the employee at Arlington National Cemetery as deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and advance team member Michel Picard.  Caporale ran the January 6 pre-putsch rally and recently compared himself to a character on The Sopranos, although he has not claimed credit for helping to whack Pope John Paul I.  So it took two of Trump's tough guys to shove one woman out of his way.  Hey, she got mouthy.

If a jury has found you liable for sexual abuse and awarded the victim $5 million, and you're running for almost anything, probably your best move is to either pay up or shut up.  So after the Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the first E. Jean Carroll defamation case, guess which doofus held an extended self-pity session/press conference to make sure it was uppermost in the minds of millions.  Correct.  Flanked by a surgically enhanced Alina Habba and the rest of the legal eagles and in front of most of the flags in the courthouse, Trump ranted about the "rigged" judge, the shortcomings of his "legal talent," the political prosecution organized by every high-ranking Democrat, Monica Lewinsky's dress, Anderson Cooper, "George Slopadopoulos," ABC ("the worst, the nastiest") and the woman he groped on a plane ("we became very intimate").  I'm only surprised he didn't bring up Hannibal Lecter.

If the Harris-Walz techies haven't already used the worst admissions in an ad, you can call me Helvetica Bold.

Trumpism has a history of roiling families, and this year it's over the top.  The Kennedys would like Roadkill Bob to change his name so they don't have to.  Meghan McCain says she won't renounce her brother Jimmy like a "trashy" Kennedy just because the Arlington stunt drove him into the Harris camp.  Somebody found a bunch of MAGA Walzes in Nebraska who apparently never met their second cousin Tim.  They're trying to recruit his brother Jeff.  Today the bombshell:  Not only will Liz Cheney vote for Kamala Harris but so will her father Dick, the former vice president.  Looks like Wyoming is in play!

First Liberty Institute, an outfit that thinks our courts need no ethical reform, got a fan letter from Ginni Thomas:  "You guys have filled the pockets sails of many judges.  Can I just tell you, thank you so, so, so much."  Then she went to pack for their next Mediterranean cruise with Harlan Crow.  And this is newsworthy because...?

Trump's outreach to Jews may have hit a snag.  Jonathan S. Tobin of Jewish News Service wants him to denounce Tucker Carlson for promoting antisemitic "historian" Darryl Cooper.  Tobin says only Trump can save America from "the toxic disease of woke ideology," if he'll just do this one little thing.  Don't you do it, sir, next he'll want you to dump Kanye and Nick Fuentes and the Proud Boys and Richard Grenell and Sebastian Gorka and Stephen Miller and Margie Greene and where will it end?