May Jobs Report: Still solid for the US

The jobs outlook for May, according to the US Dept. of Labor is still strong despite the threats of the tariffs from the Trump administration, and despite a slight softening from the previous month, and what was expected 139,000 non farm jobs is still a solid report and one that has surprised many observers, and economists, and despite expectations did not show a downturn from these tariffs.

This good news shows that despite the politicization of the American economy, all is well, and gave rise to accolades from the Administration, and The Council of American Advisors Chair Steve Miran, noted, "The President is succeeding in creating hundreds of thousands of jobs since he came into office, more than half a million jobs since he came into office, and they’re all going to native born Americans.”

The unchanged rate of 4.2 unemployment was also satisfactory, although predicted, but what changed was a lessening of the labor force participation rate among prime aged workers, those aged 25 to 54, who were looking for work, which dropped to 83.4, betraying, perhaps, a lack of confidence from Americans.

That stands in contrast to the average wages, that exceed inflation, which rose 0.4 percent from April, now at $36.24 an hour; and, even further American consumers are still spending, perhaps in no small measure to the increased wages, but, as some observers have noted, that spending may be to save money on goods to avoid the “on again off again” tariffs from the president.

Consumer confidence has waxed and waned in the last 8 weeks, with concerns about tariffs, and layoffs, but The Conference Board reported for May, that consumers were feeling more upbeat than thought:

“Consumer confidence improved in May after five consecutive months of decline,” said Stephanie Guichard, Senior Economist, Global Indicators at The Conference Board. “The rebound was already visible before the May 12 US-China trade deal but gained momentum afterwards. The monthly improvement was largely driven by consumer expectations as all three components of the Expectations Index—business conditions, employment prospects, and future income—rose from their April lows.”

They also emphasized this: “However, while consumers were more positive about current business conditions than last month, their appraisal of current job availability weakened for the fifth consecutive month.”

If this seems like a conundrum, then it is, with indicators expressing some level of confidence, and some improved beliefs, but, perhaps cautiously optimistic might be the best estimation.

The New York Times opined that, “The steady hiring is an indication that businesses are still seeing enough demand for goods and services that they will fill open roles and add new ones, even if they're no longer expanding as quickly as they had over the past few years.”

To note, for May, as seen in preceding months, the heavy hitters are health care jobs, coming in at 78,000 and leisure and hospitality at 48,000; but while others fell flat, manufacturing took a nosedive to the tune of 8,000 jobs.

DOGE cuts to the federal work force disposed of 22, 000 federal jobs in May, and according to the Times report, "down 59,000 since January. That’s not counting those on administrative leave, or who were let go when federal contacts were cut.”

It should be mentioned that a significant reason that health care is booming is due to an aging population in the US, coupled with social assistance, a broad category that includes, social work, allied health and community based programs from local and state governments.

This has not quelled the worries of Main Street, as well as Wall Street, since uncertainty is the one thing that both do not like. How that bodes for the future is anyone’s guess since no one can determine with any certainty what the end game is for the Trump efforts, is it a negotiation tactic? If so, that does not seem evident, as we noted some months ago covering the “Liberation Day” announcement in the White House Rose Garden, and the placard showing tariff rates held aloft by the president, that most experts discounted as fanciful.

The intersection with the global community cannot be discounted as it affects not only consumer purchases, but in the larger scheme, foreign trade, underscoring the fact that no country can produce all goods,(and even services) domestically.

The fly on the wall, at least according to statements from Trump in his social media platform, “Truth Social” and statements from White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, is that he is upset with Chair Jerome Powell of the Federal Reserve, and has labelled him as a “disaster” and nicknamed him “Too Late” in his refusal to drop interest rate, as the Chair has steadfastly tried to separate the bank’s behavior from politics.

Trump’s beliefs are also supported by Vice President JD Vance who seems not to understand the role that interest rates, and putting more money into the economy curtail, all tied to inflation; and, how when there is too much money in the economy, leading to inflation, higher rates cool the economy down, and when lowered are needed, to stimulate the economy.

The current rate of inflation, 2.3, does not indicate a need to lower interest rates.

In a note to clients, and reported by the Times, Lindsay Rosner of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said this report was too strong to warrant the Feds to cut interest rates, and, “with the Feds laser focused on managing the risks to the inflation side of its mandate, today’s stronger than expected jobs report will do little to alter its patient approach.”

Aftermath: The Defeat of Kamala Harris

Just before last Tuesday’s election, things looked great for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee to succeed President Joe Biden after his decision in July not to run for reelection. After that announcement, and her entry into the race she managed to energize the base, and her infectious smile and masterful detail was definitely a threat to her rival former President Donald Trump, and her rallies attracted huge crowds, waving, clapping with visible energy.

Harris had outspent Trump to the tune of $1.4 billion, but widely identified herself as the underdog, and with the increasing attention given to him, this was smart politicking, especially as well as realism since many polls identified the two as neck and neck, in some instances 50/50 and in others, a notch, or two, above each other.

She definitely ran a better, stronger, and faster campaign than her first run for the presidency in 2020, where management lacked strength and the capacity to prepare her for facts and figures. But, this time, her efforts were not merely photogenic, but substantial as she managed the landscape of interviews and statements, with a staff that was sharper in their handling, than many other modern presidential campaigns.

In this sense, Harris definitely picked up the torch from Biden who suffering from the flu, stumbled badly in his debate with Trump, and her background as attorney general of California, and her legal training, prepared her for her debate with Trump, who seemed old, enfeebled and unprepared as she steam rolled over him with both polity and grace.

It was always a closely contested race, and many had predicted a razor thin win for Harris, who had to contend with both her gender, as well as her Indian and Jamaican ethnicity’, which she wisely did not capitalize on, having learned the lessons of the defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Election night brought more than a case of anxiety for her supporters, but championed a victory, no matter how thin, as she was lampooned, cursed, and ridiculed by Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, as they blamed her for every ill, both real and imagined, for the last four years, with the exception of the common cold.

As the returns came in all were watching the seven critical swing states that could deliver her the needed 270 electoral votes, and as North Carolina, there was still optimism as Harris had not expected to lead in the Tar Heel state; but, as the evening wore on, and tired fans went to bed, they woke to the news that Trump had won three key battleground states, Wisconsin, Michigan and the highly coveted Pennsylvania.

Harris supporters holding vigil at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, DC, were deflated in their misery. And, while the book is yet to be written on why, opinions have rolled in from every corner: some blaming Biden for not dropping out of the race earlier, with the Democrats then holding a primary, to sexism and misogyny, to Trump being the devil known.

There has been some speculation that many said they would vote for her, but then stayed at home, either undecided, or worried about being denied the right to vote by a well-financed GOP juggernaut; and, as we saw in Georgia there was an attempt to demand hand counts, plus the electric ballot boxes, and also to other states where election officials were sued in specious claims of voter fraud.

Now that the dust has somewhat settled, we are seeing that there was an edge, not momentous, not enough for Trump to claim a mandate, but an increase in votes from the burgeoning Latino populations whose working-class roots, in many cases, focused them on kitchen table issues that dominated their budgets, such as high grocery prices, and rent, despite the fact that US presidents do not control them.

There was also a younger male Black population that felt the Trump years were kinder to their wallets, based more on perception than fact. Black voters overall voted 8 out of 10 for Harris, but this was down from 9 out of 10 in 2020 for Biden.

Significantly, it was younger Black males, 19 to 45 years old that gave Trump the edge, double the amount that he got in 2020, and roughly double the amount that he got in 2020.

Harris got a lead from Latino voters, but down from the 6 out of 10 that Biden received in 2020.

Race, always an issue in American life, and especially in politics, showed that White voters, always the majority of American voters, voted in higher numbers in those three swing states, and it was especially notable with older White voters, particularly those in rural areas, a fact which had been determined by many pollsters.

As the Associated Press reported, “white voters make up a bulk of the voting electorate in the United States, and they did not shift their support significantly at the national level compared to 2000.”

Interestingly enough they noted that White support for Harris was about the same for Biden, four out of ten voted for Harris.

Much has been made of the increased Latino vote, but it may not quite be the juggernaut that it seems

In the past, social class and race were clarion calls for the Democrats had definitely relied on working class voters decades ago, and Blacks had been a mainstay since Civil Rights struggles and victories in the 1960s.

Taking into consideration what was then and what now, an important factor was the education of the electorate, both for Trump, as well as Harris. The base for the former had always capitalized on those Whites, especially rural people without college degrees, and an early CNN poll showed that those that had college degrees, or some college, tended to vote for Harris and less for Trump, far less.

Not to be overlooked  in this equation is the low level of information that fueled much of those voters, that led them to embrace the accusations by Trump, and Vance, that legal Haitian immigrants, in Ohio were abducting and eating pet dogs and cats; a claim that Vance later admitted to CNN anchor Dana Bash was false, but he deemed necessary to get media attention to the plight of American workers.

A durable myth for younger Blacks, and even some of their elders, was that Biden, and all presidents, set the prices of groceries and other durable goods; but also not knowing that Trump had given a brief and temporary tax cut for the average income Americans, but a near permanent, and much deeper cut for corporations.

As a letter writer to the New York Times noted somewhat  ruefully, had they been better educated critical thinking skills would have been utilized to analyze these falsehoods, or at the very least, read the more reliable media reports that showed them to be untruthful.

Added to this was the deep well of lies, of which the pet eating was just one example from Trump, and his MAGA followers, joined by the earlier claim by QANON that John Kennedy, Jr, was still alive and would be Trump’s running mate, while some even gathered in Dealey Plaza, the sight of his father’s assassination in Dallas,waiting for him to reappear.

Even further afield was a claim that Democrats were responsible for hurricane Milton, by “seeding” the clouds to produce the devastating event, for the sole intention of preventing southerners, White Southerners, from voting for Trump.

Cultural myths accompanied these outlandish claims, and one of the most salient was that Harris was going to allow federal inmates to receive gender change surgeries at taxpayer expense; a position that she did not run on, but based on statements, she made in 2019, for legalized treatments for gender dysphoria, and that one surgery was performed after a lawsuit on behalf of the prisoner.

Redolent of the earlier bathroom wars, the issue of transgender people became fodder for ridicule and stereotyping Democrats as being out of touch with “real” Americans.

Added to this, by Trump supporters, were profane and misogynist statements leveled at Harris, including racial stereotypes, as “stupid” and “lazy” and even calling her the ‘C” word.

Much of his base laughed and applauded at these remarks, but as we noted in 2016, this was promulgated by  fear-based politics, from the playbook that he used then, and with this recent campaign.

These statements often fell on the ears of some Black men, especially those with conservative and biblically held gender beliefs, coupled with sexism, and the disbelief that a woman could be president, ironic thst those beliefs translated to votes for Trump, and with the matriarchy of many Black communities, irony ruled; despite the appeals of former President Barack Obama.

There was also voter apathy, and even abandonment, from part of this group as we heard a conversation on the bus from one Black man who said, “I have never voted, and never will.”

Hearing this we thought of those violent and bloody battles that American Blacks faced for the right to vote in the 1960s, a fact that was broadcast on the BBC when its program host said just before last Tuesday, “universal suffrage did not come to America until 1965, and yes, you heard that right.”  

Moving to the disinformation, a casual glance at the social media platform X gives Trump supporters plenty of ammunition to thwart Harris from vile and demeaning comments about supposed sexual behavior with Willie Brown to lewd dancing, and even a hilarious clip of Vance blaming her for the price of eggs at $4.00 per dozen while he held a two dozen carton, but a sign in the background showed  a price of $2.99 a dozen, as his young son, who accompanied him, tried frantically, to point out his error.

It was a bit rich to try and portray Harris as a sexual renegade with Trump’s multiple marriages, where he was unfaithful, and frequently entered the dressing rooms of his pageant beauty queens when he thought they would be undressed; and notably his sexual encounter with porn star Stormy Daniels while his wife was pregnant with their son Baron.

Of course no one can forget his claim of grabbing women by the genitals on Access Hollywood, and that they let him because he was a celebrity. But, his supporters seem to forget all of this as they see him as a political savior to return the United States to its glory days, much as Russian President Vladimir Putin claims to restore his country to its Imperial past; and, a man he sincerely admirers along with anther authoritarian leader Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary.

His admiration for authoritarian leaders across the world, including Hitler, according to John Kelly, his former chief of staff, and a point of criticism by Vance before he aligned himself with Trump.

A brief look back at Trump’s earlier claims during his first run for office as he untruthfully categorized Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers, it’s clear to see that the playbook of that time was still in evidence, with Vance much like comedian Johnny Carson’s sidekick Ed McMahon, on the old Tonight show, providing backup, often comedic as we’ve seen.

Lies as we have seen have been part and parcel of Trump’s candidacies and as historian Ruth Ben Ghiat has noted, “The number of documented falsehoods he uttered as president increased from 5.9 a day in 2017 to an average of 22 a day in 2019, for a total of 16,241 in his first three years in office.”

We can expect more in his second non consecutive term, and If we take all of the false claims, the misbeliefs of those who voted for Trump, and his past administration together, it says less about Harris, than it does how American voters both receive and process information, no matter how truthful. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Examining and fact checking the Vice Presidential debate

In the wake of Tuesday’s presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance and Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota all who viewed it agreed it was more civil than was expected, as many felt that it was going to be a "throw down” between the two very different candidates, especially since the many volatile, and even vile attacks by the former, and would probably include attacks on the military records of the latter in the National Guard, while some expected Walz to attack the more egregious attacks by Vance on Haitian immigrants living in Springfield Ohio that he accused of kidnapping and eating pets and ducks in local waters.

Walz was also expected to contest Vance’s statements of women without children as “childless cat ladies” who, bereft of being a mother, lacked the necessary intelligence to function in American life.

That would be a lot to unpack what has been expected to be a very close election between their bosses, former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Walz came out of the gate visibly nervous but soon relaxed and was able to gain hold on the debate stage, despite his earlier warnings to Harris that he was no debater. Vance, who has scored the lowest favorability of any vice presidential candidate,(a negative 11 according to a CNN poll) in recent history must have been keenly aware of the fact and decided to rival the fabled “Minnesota Nice” aspect of his Democratic rival.

Vance as is well known has given scores of interviews and comments on a variety of media platforms extolling the virtues of Trump and his record, albeit weak, and demonizing Harris as a “Flip Flopper” despite his own record of likening Trump to Hitler and some embarrassing gaffs, most recently, in a store, in front of a display of eggs with a sign stating $2.99 a dozen, while blaming Harris for increasing them to $4.00 a dozen while holding a carton of 24 eggs, while his 7 year old son tried to point out his mistake by pointing at the sign.

Walz, on the other hand has gained a plus four net favorability, due in no small measure to his “everyman” image, and what has seemed apparent, a genuinely nice guy persona, evident on the campaign trail.

The expectation that Vance would outshine Walz, and attack him. on his misstating his title and record in the Guard, and his recollection of when he was in China and if so, was it during the uprising in Tiananmen Square, was low hanging fruit that the senator did not pounce on.

Vance to his credit, often referring to the governor as Tim and expressed empathy when he learned that Walz’s son had witnessed a shooting and said, “Christ have mercy.” A penitential response from the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Mass, or a heartfelt response from the senator, We like to think of the latter.

He is also a chameleon to some, an opportunist to others, a scion of Silicon Valley under the tutelage and mentorship of billionaire Peter Thiel, and who when pressed upon learning of Walz as Harris’ running mate was asked if they had anything in common by reporters, stated, “Well, look, I mean, yeah, we’re white guys from the Midwest.” and “I guess there are similarities there.”

That aside what Vance excelled at on Tuesday, and was often overlooked by some observers was that he lied continuously for nearly 90 minutes on almost every topic, even with a glaring falsehood that Trump did all he could to save the Affordable Care Act, that he and other Republicans have given the derisive label of “Obamacare,” when in fact Trump did everything he could to weaken and destroy President Obama’s signature piece of legislation, and key to his legacy, and even filed a lawsuit, that was later thrown out.

Blaming the nation’s lack of affordable housing on immigration, all illegal, and overlooking the fact that Haitian immigrants, especially in Ohio, a state he represents, are legally in this country under the Temporary Protected Status program..

Migrants were in fact, in Vance’s opinion, responsible for all of the ills of American society, and Walz’s truth telling did no good, as Vance was playing to his base, or to use a church held term, “preaching to the choir.”

In the scheme of things, vice presidential debates don’t count for much, save some memorable lines between Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen, when the former claimed that he had a much experience as Jack Kennedy, and Bentsen famously quipped that he knew “Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine and senator you're no Jack Kennedy.”

Walz, for the most part, was error free with the glaring exception of misrepresenting Trump’s stance on contraception, and one that he has changed his position over the decades, along with abortion and seeing that it is a winning issue for Democrats is now embracing contraception and IVF 

Of all the moments in the debate this showed Walz as his strongest and he categorically denied that doctors in Minnesota could end the life of a 9 month old baby after an abortion.

Before we cite the record from our friends at factcheck.org, let’s shake our collective heads in disbelief as Vance continuously pounded on Harris as if she was president, and ignoring the fact that vice presidents are not policy makers, don’t create executive actions, don’t create policy ,and don’t rule in a country where there is the rule of law, but that did not stop him from uttering such nonsensical lines as, “why didn’t Kamala Harris do. . . “ and :”Why not do them now?”

Of note, Harris never held the title of “Border Czar” and was only tasked by Biden to examine the root causes of immigration from the Southern Border; and, neither she, nor any president or vice president set grocery prices.

Was this another cudgel to beat the vice president, or was it a tactical admission that she might just win the presidency, and that he is rehearsing his stump speech in the future?

As promised, some fact checking of the debate from Factcheck.org:

“Vance claimed that housing “is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes.” But economists and housing experts say that the primary reason for the tight housing market is the decline in new residential construction that followed the Great Recession.

Walz misleadingly linked former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts to “an $8 trillion increase in the national debt, the largest ever.” But trillions of that debt were due to bipartisan COVID-19 relief packages. And the debt increase so far under the Biden administration is nearly as high.

In describing an abortion law Walz signed in Minnesota, Vance said physicians were no longer required to provide life-saving care to infants “born alive.” But he neglected to say that the law still requires such infants to be given proper medical care and be “accorded immediate protection under the law.” Such cases pertain to situations involving induced labor for medical reasons such as fetal abnormalities.

Vance claimed that “we have 320,000 children that the Department of Homeland Security has effectively lost.” An August inspector general report said about that many unaccompanied minors who illegally entered the U.S. had not shown up for immigration court between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, or had not received a summons to appear in court. The report did not say they were “lost.”

Walz falsely claimed that “their” Project 2025 will establish a registry of pregnancies, referring to what might happen under a Trump-Vance administration. However, the Trump campaign has disavowed Project 2025. The conservative document advocates mandatory state reporting of abortions and miscarriages, but not the tracking of pregnancy in general.

Walz said that Project 2025 “is going to make it more difficult, if not impossible, to get contraception and limit access, if not eliminate access, to infertility treatments.” Some policies in the document could in effect limit contraception and infertility treatments, but Trump has said he does not want to restrict access to contraception and that he would expand access to in vitro fertilization.

Vance incorrectly claimed the U.S. has the “cleanest economy,” while falsely hinting that carbon emissions might not be driving climate change. 

Vance claimed that because of Vice President “Kamala Harris’ open border, we’ve seen a massive influx in the number of illegal guns run by the Mexican drug cartels.” But the concern of the U.S. and Mexican governments has been American-made guns trafficked from the U.S. to Mexico.

Walz said “less than 2%” of the border wall that Trump promised “got built.” That undersells the amount of wall built during the Trump administration relative to what was promised.

Vance blamed Harris for “letting in … 25 million illegal aliens.” That’s a grossly exaggerated figure.

Walz countered that illegal border “crossings are down compared to when Donald Trump left office,” which is true when comparing the last two months to the last two months under Trump. But looking at Harris’ entire time as vice president, illegal border crossings are up substantially.

Vance claimed that Harris “let fentanyl into our communities at record levels.” That’s not clear. The amount of fentanyl seized by border officials has increased during the Biden administration, which may indicate that more fentanyl is crossing the border undetected.

Walz said that the “last 12 months saw the largest decrease in opioid deaths in our nation’s history.” Provisional data show that reported opioid deaths have declined significantly in the 12 months ending in April. But the figure is still higher than it was at the start of the Biden-Harris administration.

Vance claimed that Trump “could have destroyed” the Affordable Care Act, but instead “worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.” Trump did try to destroy the ACA, including by backing a lawsuit that would have nullified it.

Walz said that if Trump had repealed the ACA “you lose your preexisting conditions,” adding that if you’ve “got asthma, too bad.” Ending the law would significantly reduce protections for those with preexisting conditions, but before the ACA, employer-based plans couldn’t deny issuing a policy.

Vance slightly overstated the inflation rate for groceries under Biden and ignored macroeconomic causes for rising prices when blaming Biden and Harris for food inflation.

Walz claimed that “Donald Trump hasn’t paid any federal tax in the last 15 years,” but that’s not quite right. The former president didn’t pay federal income taxes in 2020, but he did pay various amounts between 2015 and 2018. Trump also did not pay taxes in 10 of the 15 years before he became president.”

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Trump shooting is rooted in a violent America

 

In the aftermath of Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the wide ranging and sincere comments from lawmaker and pundits was that political violence had no place in American life, and while that may be true, to at least the acceptance of that specific event, American history is replete with political violence stretching back to the killing of Alexander Hamilton by Aaron Burr, in 1804, the caning of abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner in 1856, the shooting that felled President Garfield in 1881, Abraham Lincoln in 1865,the shooting of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912,  the assassination of of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Bobby Kennedy in 1968, the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981, and of Congresswoman Gabby Gifford in 2011,Congressman Steve Scalise in 2017, and the physical assault in 2022 on Paul Pelosi the husband of the then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, but intended for her.

As a nation, America is awash in blood, but not only for politicians but also for hundreds of everyday citizens victims of domestic violence, street gangs, urban warfare, not to mention the killings at Columbine, Marjory Stoneman Doulgas High School, and Sandy Hook, and Las Vegas, and Highland Park Illinois, to name but a few of mass killings.

The image of a bloodied Trump, after a bullet pierced his ear, has now become an iconic image and cements his stature as a martyr, and one that he has always portrayed himself as, if not a victim.

Taking a step back we have to remember that he has told so many lies about the mundane, for example how many people showed up at his inauguration, claiming more than that of Barack Obama, to embracing the deep state conspiracy, aided by such figures as Marjorie Taylor Greene, and that Mexico was sending rapists to American shores, ostensibly as immigrants; migrants being put up in luxury hotels by New York city administration officials, to the dangerous, that ingesting bleach could “cure” the Covid virus.

The fact that so many people have embraced these lies, and the very danger that has incited people to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th speaks volumes of what has become the Big Lie, that Joe Biden was not the lawfully elected president of the United States.

The rhetoric, along with the lies that has been so incendiary it’s frightening to hear people say that the off the cuff remark by Biden that he had Trump in his target like a bullseye, and that helped fuel the gunman that fired off rounds in rural Western Pennsylvania is incalculably false.

Facing the inherent danger of falsehoods now gives rise to sympathy for the shooting, but it will soon be back to the accusations, and the grandstanding that has become part of not simply American politicking, but the 21st century tenor of life in America.

The incendiary comments of Trump, now aided by his vice presidential candidate JD Vance, a junior senator from Ohio, whose earlier remarks blaming Democrats for the shooting (along with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson) has fueled the falsehoods Trump, and who are now making statements to turn down the political rhetoric seems ironic.

Vance said on social media, “The central promise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” and “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Against this background was, and which may possibly resurface, the media driven attempt to get Biden to stand down as a candidate for the November election, and to find someone younger, and possibly dynamic, from the ranks of younger lawmakers, and while we’ve noted the difficult of vetting presidential candidates, most of whom have never faced such close scrutiny, and among them is Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer herself the target of a far right wing group planning to kidnap her, and who held Trump as a hero.

The threat of a brokered convention in Chicago, is about as concerning as it is for a repeat of the violent suppression of demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic Convention, in an already overheated atmosphere that again could possibly be violent. 

What is now seen are two elders battling it out for a change, or a sustained democracy, and one not only of the values espoused or the future of the nation, but its soul.