Understanding Donald Trump

One of the fascinating things about the Trump campaign has been the number of theories that it has spawned about the man himself, his supporters, and what that combination says about the nature of American politics today. What has triggered this is a sense of incredulity that someone so seemingly vain, shallow, ignorant, childish, and boastful could generate such enthusiasm in so many people that he could possibly be elected president. Even if he loses, we can expect about 50 million Americans to have chosen him. That’s an extraordinary number and cannot be dismissed as fringe elements.
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Quotes

From the sublime …

“Every religion in the world has denounced every other religion as a fraud. That proves to me that they all tell the truth – about others.” – Robert Green Ingersoll (Thanks to Randy P.)

… to the ridiculous.

“For the record, I do not think I am God. I believe in God. If God ever wanted an apartment in Trump Tower, I would immediately offer my best luxury suite at a very special price.” – Donald Trump, writing in Think Like a Billionaire.

What Trump supporters say amongst themselves

On July 30, I was driving my daughter from Boston to New Hampshire to attend a wedding when we noticed a long convoy going in the opposite direction. The convoy consisted of large vehicles, trucks and SUVs and the like, all flying American and Confederate and ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flags, never a good sign because it signaled that they were hyper-patriots and likely white supremacists and xenophobes.
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The new Trump team

There has been a shake-up in the campaign of Donald Trump with Steve Bannon coming on a chief executive and Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway as campaign manager and the seeming demotion of Paul Manafort who will retain his job title. Such changes so late in the game are rare and are usually taken as signs that things are not going well in a campaign, so the Trump campaign has taken some pains to paint these changes as mere trifles.
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Unexpected ending in third Test between Australia and Sri Lanka

Yesterday I predicted that the third and final Test match between Australia and Sri Lanka in Colombo was poised for an exciting finish on the last day with either team capable of winning and the result possibly going down to the wire at the end of the final day’s play. The final result, though, was that by the mid afternoon, Sri Lanka had won easily by 163 runs.
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What does it tell us when terrible people abandon Trump and back Clinton?

As a result of Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination and his subsequent behavior and pronouncements, we are seeing a great deal of uncertainty amongst Republicans on what to do, with over one hundred of them signing a letter calling on the party to abandon Trump. The Los Angeles Times has published a list of traditionally Republican supporters under various shades of support: those actively campaigning for Trump, those issuing a clear endorsement of Trump but not campaigning, those saying they support ‘the party nominee’ but won’t be campaigning, those wavering or backing Trump with caveats, those not saying they will vote for Trump but saying they definitely will not vote for Hillary Clinton, those who are staying quiet altogether, those who reject both Trump and Clinton, those who reject Trump but are not backing Clinton, and those who have rejected Trump and are voting for Clinton.
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