Schwab: Apparently, comparisons of Trump, Biden still necessary

While Biden is rebuilding infrastructure and economy, Trump is dealing for contributions and tribute.

By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist

It’s over. No thinking person will vote for Trump now. The catastrophe is out of the bagman. How?

At a gathering of oil executives at Mar-a-Lago last weekend, dropping any pretense of caring for anyone but himself, Trump promised that for a billion dollars in donations he’d give them anything they want. Pollute at will, unregulated. Drill everywhere. End support for windmills, solar power, electric vehicles. “You’ll get it on the first day,” Trump said, waving his corruption like a bloody flag (Washington Post: tinyurl.com/onebill4u).

So much for “He loves America” and “He cares about us.” A billion. Trump’s price to sicken your children and contaminate the planet they’ll inherit. From the day his daddy handed him millions, it’s been about the bucks. Morality? Not even an afterthought. This episode makes it undeniable. Listen to his media buttosculators finally giving it the coverage it deserves, atoning for their servile, perfidious fealty: (YouTube: tinyurl.com/theycover4u).

Even before this oily solicitation, Geoff Duncan, former lieutenant governor of Georgia, announced he’d be voting for President Biden. “Unlike Trump,” he said, “I’ve belonged to the GOP my entire life. This November I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant with no moral compass.”

Then there was Charlie Spies, the Republican Party’s top lawyer, who resigned after Trump trashed him for acknowledging the 2020 election wasn’t stolen. The list of prominent not-for-Trump Republicans, which includes Trump cabinet members and current and former office-holders, is long. As Trump might say, “People are saying they’ve never seen anything like it;” (Wikipedia: tinyurl.com/longlist2u).

OK, not everyone. Not Trumpists who show up at his rallies, definitely not a cult, proudly wearing diapers (Snopes: tinyurl.com/2poop4u). Not those who didn’t think “wtf” when he praised “the late, great Hannibal Lecter.” Not Holy Mike Johnson, R-La., Specious of the House, who spoke during a break in Trump’s election interference trial, to which he’d hied along with a bunch of Republicans hoping to become Trump’s VP, announcing plans to “rein in the abuses” of Special Counsel Jack Smith. Because retaining government documents to the having of which Trump had no right, hiding them, lying about them, reportedly sharing them, ignoring subpoenas about them, aren’t crimes about which a government of laws should care.

Mouthing words Trump evidently wrote for him (X; tinyurl.com/cribnotes4u), genuflecting to an adulterous dallier with porn stars, Mike, who, according to Mike, God likened to Moses, who told us his philosophy can be found in the Bible, most of whose commandments Trump has violated, disgraced himself and the office he holds (X: tinyurl.com/disgrace4u).

On “Meet The Press,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., refused, six times, to say he’d accept election results if Trump loses. He’s among the anglers for the VP nod, which will go to the grovelliest of grovellers. He’ll need some up-grovelling, as Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Trump critic till he wasn’t, is throwing himself, hard, into the grovel pit.

Who else? Johnny McEntee, Trump’s former valet, now adviser to his democracy-destroying Project 2025, personifying the excreta inflowing if Trump is “elected” again, seen here gloating about his heartless cruelty, like Trumpism itself, toward the vulnerable: (Threads: tinyurl.com/badguy4u)

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., spinner of that creepy “rebuttal” to President Biden’s State of the Union speech, proposing a national data bank for collecting data on and tracking pregnant women; intended, she smiles, to provide help at all stages of pregnancy, including funding for crisis pregnancy centers. Not, however, any that mentions abortion. Not creepy at all. Nothing to fear, ladies. To make it happen, vote for Trump (Guardian: tinyurl.com/2spyonU).

Among voters, creepy abounds. Seventeen percent blame President Biden for the end of Roe v. Wade. Not a huge number, but when reality insists on zero, it bespeaks brain worms. As does the fact that a higher percentage claim Trump would handle the economy better than President Biden. To which the proper response is: “Foxconn.” (“Fox” plus “con.” No irony there.)

Remember? The Taiwanese company that suckered Wisconsin’s then-governor, Republican Scott Walker, into gargantuan tax breaks; touted by Trump as validation of his “America First” policy? That invested a fraction of the intended amount, created far fewer jobs than promised, then bailed? Under Biden, the abandoned buildings will be occupied by Microsoft, which will invest $3.5 billion for an AI training hub, creating hundreds of permanent local jobs and thousands of job-ready graduates.

Providing infrastructure funds his leadership created, Biden’s administration has dispersed $450 billion for 56,000 projects in 4,500 communities. It’s fixing 165,000 miles of roads, 9,400 bridges, 450 ports, and 300 airports; 1,400 drinking water and wastewater projects; 8,000 low- and zero-emissions buses. Cleaning up 95 neglected Superfund sites; 12,000 miles of high-speed internet infrastructure. At Biden’s direction, America is benefitting in even more ways than those. (Heather Cox Ricahrdson:tinyurl.com/spending4u)

So, who deserves reelection? A democracy-degrading, billion-begging, pollution promiser, or a results-producing maker of America greater?

Email Sid Schwab at columnsid@gmail.com.

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