For months, the former president, Donald Trump, repeatedly exhibited his age issue with so many gibberish and incoherent speeches at rallies. The Democrats were lured into thinking that his cognitive ability was deteriorating and would be no match for the president’s debating skill and experience.

It is hard to think that the president’s people did not see his cognitive problem before the debate. But they were probably confident that he would look old and feeble at the debate but a “normal” 81 years old and feeble statesman. They forgot the former president was once a show host and had appeared on TV probably more than any politician in history. He had learned the skill of pretending. In fact, he was a great pretender. He even prepared for the contingency by leaking to the press that he had decided on a running mate, no doubt to be announced at the debate if things would not go smoothly for him.

Republicans set a trap for the self-confident Dems.

At the debate, a different Donald Trump appeared, focused, energetic, and controlled, to the surprise of the Dems. But it was too late for them. When the viewers of the debate saw the president at the podium, they would ask the obvious question why did his handlers allow him to appear? Could there be traitors or saboteurs lurking inside the Democratic campaign? An excuse for the president to back out of the debate such as a flu or sore throat would be bad but not as damaging as his performance at the debate. What is going on?

Well, the MAGA Republicans have done a fine job of setting their goal, devising a plan and implementing it perfectly even when they run into unexpected problems.

The Republicans are disciplined and well organized. They know their mathematics. And with the help of genius minds in mathematics, science, technology, and engineering such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel who come out passionately and publicly to help the Republican Party, hands on.

A guy who has just arrived in America from South Africa, takes a look at the cars made by legacy companies for a century and SEES that he can make better cars and KNOWS what to do to build them and in no time, creates a company worth more than all the legacy car companies combined. That guy is now LOOKING at the Republican Party and if the Democrats still think that the ideas he gives to the Republicans as to how to re-organize and win political races are that of a political novice, then they must stop and think again. Everything of importance now is computerized, using algorithms, or AI, political battles being no exception.

The Republicans know how to fight and has fought effectively, from the Bush v. Gore victory to McConnel’s successful blocking of the appointment of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court to the 2020 presidential victory even though they lost the popular votes, hugely.

The Democrats on the other hand seem to be confused and rudderless. They are not sufficiently politically nimble. The Republicans accepted the debates because they were not sure they could persuade the undecided to vote for them. But they had a contingency plan, the vice president nominee announcement, that would soften any blow the former president would have received during the debate. The Democrats suggested the debates. So, they seemed to think they were obligated to go forward, or a cancellation or delay would show weakness. They had known the pitfall of a Biden appearance at the debate (to suggest otherwise, that they did not know, is to suggest something more sinister than what is known) but seemed paralyzed, unable to make a proper decision.

After the Democrats’ debate debacle, the former president, Donald Trump, issued a statement denying that he was not connected to the Project 2025. Then, the Republican Party announced that it has dropped the federal abortion limits from its platform, strategic announcements to woo moderate voters. They have plans, precision plans.

The Democrats has visions where the country should go, decades from now. But tactically, they are underhanded. They need to focus on November 5, only a few more months away, as the Republicans have been. What the Democrats need now is for a few computer or AI geniuses to take a leave of absence from making money to engage themselves full time in helping the Democrats. They can’t just send money to them, then turn around and proudly talk about climate change as if American election politics is beneath them to take a public stance.

Then, the voters will get back to watching debates and political discourse because they will be more factual, reasonable, rational, and more sophisticated worth watching with their children. The voters, even hardcore rightists, want to be enlightened.

(You can read this article on X, “cothuxanh”, or on my Facebook).

John P. Le Phong (7/10/24).

Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN will moderate the presidential debate today, Thursday 6/27/24 at 6PM Pacific time.

No less a figure than the MAGA Extraordinaire, Marjorie Taylor Greene who wrote on X, “Dana Bash’s husband is one of the 51 spies who in 2020 lied by signing his name to the intel community letter claiming Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation,” and “Jake Tapper hates Trump so much and has called him Hitler.”

So, why the Republicans agreed to the debate and the choice of Tapper and Bash of CNN, a bastion of “woke” according to MAGA, as the moderators?

A brand-new star of MAGA politics opined on Fox News that “Biden’s debate-prep artifice is as fake as his presidency: projecting an artificial projection of a leader who is nothing more than a puppet for the managerial class that controls him”. So true if you replace “Biden” with “Trump”.

The same also said that “Donald Trump has already won the debate” by just showing up.

Setting aside this wisdom for now, there could be a chance, despite being aided by AI, that the former president would repeat his erratic meandering speech as he did in recent rallies. And if that happened during the debate, the independent or undecided voters would realize that the former president’s antics, name calling, etc. were no longer amusing or entertaining but unserious, and would vote for the Democratic ticket.

So, why do the Republicans take the risk?

One of the possible answers is that they WANT him to lose.

JOHN P. LE PHONG, ESQ.

A lot of talk in the media and in the Biden campaign circle that the former president is incoherent in delivering his speeches. It sounds bizarre but it may be, albeit unusual, a possibly effective campaign strategy.

According to The Nation, the 45th president delivered a speech in a 105-degree outdoor in Las Vegas meandering from sharks to boats to batteries that his audience did not know what he was talking about. His detractors conclude that he was incoherent and thus incompetent to govern. They hope the voters can see that and not vote for him coming November 2024.

A case can be made that it has been the Republican strategy all along.

The former president has always conducted himself in a haughty manner. Whether it is his nature or acting, he has treated everybody with disdain as if he were a Kaiser or a Windsor (unlikely, as it would be unimaginable for Mr. Trump to walk with his hands behind his back). That is the image the MAGA Republicans want the public to see: a King moving along in his carriage, smiling and waving to the onlookers without uttering a word let alone meaningful sentences. That was enough to command respect and loyalty of his subjects.

MAGA wants Mr. Trump to do the same in a modern-day American version of royalty, appearing in public often so that his people can SEE him. They are not worried about his “incoherence” but seem to encourage him to talk about anything, even incoherent things. After all, true Kings and Emperors hardly made sense. Even the formidable King of France, Louis XIV, could be incoherent who famously said “L’etat c’est moi (the nation that’s me)”. That of course is nonsensical.

The strategy requires that he can say things like “Somebody didn’t pick up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine (in the White House). I wonder who that could’ve been. I don’t know. Actually, I think it was Joe.”

Perfect. Just don’t try to make sense.

The former president has persistently denied against all evidence that he lost the 2020 election. The Republicans have openly and steadfastly sided with him.

Then, he was convicted in a court of law by a jury of his peers. He has defiantly accused the judge presiding over the trial of being biased against him, the jury rigged, and the trial a disgrace. With no evidence to support his accusations, the Republicans have fiercely defended him and emotionally and approvingly repeated his unfounded accusation.

We all were flummoxed, asking the question in bewilderment what was going on with the Republican Party?

After four years of witnessing Mr. Trump performing as president of the United States, it became obvious that the presidency was not in his natural portfolio. A president of one country, let alone the most powerful country in the world, does not fawn, even in private, over a leader of another country. Just doing so would have disqualified him for the job. But seventy-six million assumably Republicans voted for him in the 2020 presidential election.

What did that signify? -Mr. Trump was not the leader. He was not the commander in chief. But like the soldier in Iwo Jima, he was holding the MAGA flag rushing up the hill of American politics and planted the flag there for the glory of MAGA. He has done it well and deserves to be protected.

But why do they publicly and vehemently chorus his obviously unfounded and poisonous complaints? -The Republican Party has transformed.

It was a party, which elected a leader who thundered “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” and is now demanding a wall to be built on the border with a friendly neighboring country.

It was a party, which fiercely fought dictatorship of any form, is now courting Russia and North Korea, fawning over its leaders and wannabe dictators such as Viktor Orban of Bulgaria. It has taken a confused attitude on the Russia-Ukraine war even though politically and morally there is nothing confusing about it.

It was the Party, which voted to allow the Vietnamese to emigrate to the U.S. after the Viet Nam war despite strong voice opposing such legislation. Now it wants to ban immigrants.

It was the Party, which steadfastly advocated a strong NATO with deep commitment by the U.S. It is now hinting at withdrawing from NATO.

The transformation is now complete. By supporting his lies about rigged election that was allegedly engineered by the deep state, the Party is openly rejecting a fundamental principle of Democracy by refusing to accept the result of free election. By vocally and irrationally supporting Mr. Trump’s emotional denouncing of the jury verdict of his guilt, not just one, not just two, but 34 counts, the Party is openly rejecting our legal system, which is the nervous system of the American democratic society.

There is no longer a MAGA faction in the Republican Party. MAGA has infected the Party and is now in complete control of and is one with the Party. Mainstream Republicans from Mitch McConnell to Nikki Haley, have receded or surrendered to MAGA.

In 2020, MAGA was in a sense caught off guard. The chaos and violence were limited to the Capitol and a few raucous but sporadic denouncements in Congress. They have had four years to regroup and organize. If the election result has not been accepted to this day by MAGA, and only a few “patriots” marched up the Capitol steps, what would be the scale of the revolt after the 2024 election and Joe Biden won? MAGA has signaled what would happen: It would not respect the democratic institutions and it would not respect the legal system.

So, what is its intention? If it wins in 2024, with a stroke of the pen, it will revolutionize the political system. If it loses, it will create chaos to seize power. Clearly, Democracy and the current legal system don’t serve its purposes.

The question every Republican must ask is, what are the Republican Party’s purposes?

    Hamas has received massive international aid for years, billions of dollars. The majority of the money did not go into bettering Gaza or its citizens but into the building of almost a hundred tunnels along the border of Israel, stockpiling weapons, and filling up the coffers of its leaders. Their intention was clear: all their effort and money had gone into carrying out their promise to destroy Israel.

    Of course, the Israelis knew about this, for years.

    But they did not take any preemptive action, which any security expert must admit to be necessary to secure Israel against such an out-in-the-open threat to its national security. They were patient and calm about the situation, minding the weird mindset of the world that Israel was always in the wrong, too aggressive and too militant.

    Until October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched their surprise attack unprovoked, savagely killed, raped, and took Israelites hostage.

    From Israel’s point of view, and the view of ANY national security strategist, Hamas must be attacked. Even that was not enough, Hamas must be eradicated and the campaign to clean up Gaza must continue until that strategic goal is completed.

    Then, what will the world do in the aftermath? Clamoring for Israel to pay for reconstruction. And what will happen after reconstruction? If history tells us anything, that is that Hamas II led by leaders dead set on revenge and the termination of Israel will emerge, and the cycle of crossing the border to kill, rape, and kidnap will start again.

    You can clean up Gaza but you can’t uproot Hamas. Sooner or later, another Hamas-inspired, ruthless, and violent group of terrorists will form in Gaza after Israel “pacifies” and returns it to the Palestinians.

    So the solution is to take and separate Gaza from Hamas, annex and make it a province of Israel. In exchange, Israel will agree to a two-state political framework and cooperate with the Palestinians to make a Palestinian State a viable reality, with some concessions on the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

    Of course, there will be loud swearing and cursing. The alternative is the Palestinians will be without a country for a long time, and the Israelites will not just be open to savage attacks by the likes of Hamas. They will be unable to develop their full and proven incredible potential to work for the benefit of mankind.  

History is full of cases when men used their physical power to relegate women to second-rate human beings, punished them to keep their control over them, and killed them whenever they felt like it, such as when they had a lover BEFORE marrying them or when they could not bear a child.

So, in the new country founded on the principles of equality, freedom, and democracy, enlightened American women struggled and valiantly fought the American chauvinism to assert their rights, rightly so, to be equal to men’s. In 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was drafted. It needed the ratification of 38 states to become an amendment to the Constitution. That requirement was not met by the deadline. What happened?

The proposed Amendment was vehemently opposed by, of all people, WOMEN led by a very well catholic-educated, eloquent, obedient, and charming lady named Phyllis Schlafly and her 80,000 followers, who convinced women that equal rights would not serve their interests. Their mission in life, in their opinion, was to serve men, bear children, and do housework. Equal rights would subject them to the military draft and the burden of making money. Many women bought their argument.

It was quite believable that it was a political legerdemain performed by the Republican men who had pulled the trick beautifully. Eh, we have nothing to do with it. That’s what they want. Every Republican, female and male, is happy. Men’s rights are, and power is, intact. They continue to dominate their households which unavoidably leads to women being abused because there is no counterforce as women have no equal rights; they don’t want them. Right?

Women have been put back to their mission position.

In the last few decades, many maverick women have tried to prove otherwise that men’s strength is relative. Technology and science have changed the dynamics that have given men advantages. Women are competent in doing whatever men can do. They can till the fields, fly a fighter jet to defend the country, and run mega-conglomerates. They can even wrestle convincingly and more seductively.

But politics is the last bastion for Republican men to cede to those darn democrat women pretending to run Congress or even for president. Something needed to be done. So, Republican men hatched a scheme to prove to the nation that women are not for politics but in the house, doing what they have been doing best since religions were conceived: bearing children, cooking dinner, and pleasing their male partners.

The scheme has been implemented and successful beyond the men’s dream: they have elected so many female Republican politicians to political powerful positions in state houses and in Congress, waiting for them to prove themselves, and as an extension other women, to be unfit to hold political posts. They have behaved as if they find themselves in a Louis Vuitton shop with thousands of handbags and don’t know what to choose, or act blindly.

A Republican governor shot her dog. When she was criticized, she defiantly told the public she had shot her horses too. In a congressional committee’s session solemnly discussing if the U.S. Attorney General should be held in contempt, one Republican congresswoman loudly smeared a colleague for wearing “false” eyelashes, probably thinking that the chambers of Congress were no different than a cosmetic parlor at an L-shaped shopping mall. Another one took every opportunity to make known her desire to be picked by the former president to be his running mate, publicly shopping herself for the job.

A Republican former governor harshly criticized former president Donald Trump, calling him UNFIT to be president. She even questioned if he was mentally fit. Now she says she will vote for him – she will vote for a person she believes to be unfit to be president, or probably worse, mentally unfit. Such about-face is stunning, a naked self-interest chasing disregarding principles that for some time I thought she alone among the Republican presidential candidates possessed.

The men have proved their point: their counterparts are confused, lost, puzzled, and cases in point bearing out the chauvinistic conviction that Republican men and women are not equal, and where the women should belong.

The Republican men would smirk and quietly spread the words: you see that and still think women are equal to us?

The Liz Cheney Republicans, male or female, seem to be a very rare breed nowadays. But the Party does need them, desperately.

The MAGA Republicans have gradually and deliberately brought down all institutions, ethical, social, and political, including a bastion of Democracy and Freedom, the U.S. Supreme Court (why else a member of the symbol of, and real power to uphold and protect the Constitution, flew the national flag upside down to SUPPORT the disproved claim that Donald Trump won the 2020 election and Joe Biden lost? The Court and its members exist to serve the laws, even when at home, not beliefs or sentiments), and returned American society to a political primordial soup.

After so many years including four years in the White House, the former president has been found to possess a deeply flawed character unfit to even run the Trump Organization let alone the most powerful and complicated country on earth. But the MAGA still sticks with him.

The former president is perfect for a scheme to muddle the political landscape and create chaos. He has proved to be able to throw out words such as shithole countries, Mexican rapists and murderers, easily and naturally. Now he could, or probably was told to, drop big bombs such as Unified Reich.

Senator Ted Cruz dropped another bomb not long ago: secession. They are trial balloons, different kinds of balloons serving the same purpose: bringing down American Democracy and replacing it with a dictatorship.

They also serve another purpose: to condition and familiarize the American people with the idea of dictatorship, only a few years back an anathema to American politics, and Americans.

    Former Vice President Mike Pence is underappreciated. He has even been maligned. He does not deserve it. On the contrary, he is an unsung hero. He was probably chosen to be Mr. Trump’s running mate in 2016 because he was a humble, unassuming, following-order-to-the-letter type of man. 

    Once the real estate tycoon from New York took the seat behind the desk in the Oval Office, everything had gone smoothly like clockwork as meticulously designed by the MAGA Republicans. The FBI director was unceremoniously fired. A new U.S. attorney general was in place to dismiss the Mueller Report. The Supreme Court was stocked with not just five but six safely conservative Republicans. The Department of State was already led by a “we lied, we cheated, we stole” former CIA director. Very well organized and ready for any contingency in case the incumbent president would lose the next election. It was unlikely because he was very popular with the Republicans. But the election could not be left to chance. One more term, then the MAGAs would have their revolution to turn the country upside down. Just one step at a time but soon MAGA Republicans would be forever!  

    Then, the incumbent lost. But MAGA did not panic because they had already had a plan: They would clamor loudly and even violently that the election was rigged by the Democrats. Members of Congress would launch investigations. Legal experts would support the theory the vice president had the power to reject the state certificates, disqualify the Biden electors, send them back to the states for recertification, and the Trump electors would replace them and declare the incumbent the winner. Patriots would flock to the Capitol to demand Congress to declare the election to be fraudulent and the vice president to do his job to reject the Biden electors. A perfect plan.

    History has had a quirky way of making unlikely men a hero such as Michael Keaton being Batman. Mike Pence suddenly found himself in a unique and historic position to decide if the country would remain constitutionally democratic or become a monarchy or a dictatorship or forever MAGA Republican. 

    He had every reason to go with the latter. He would be a hero in the MAGA world. He would receive the highest accolade wherever he went. The incumbent would even reward him with a partnership in the Bedminster Golf Course for his good deed because if he refused to certify the Biden electors, he would eventually create the biggest fortune on this earth worth millions of times the value of a golf course. He would give the real estate of America to just one man, or one family. Then, an executive order would change the State of Indiana to the State of Pence. All was possible and all was so powerfully seducing.

    Then, imagine what would happen next. Anti-woke people would go look for woke people, and anti-woke states such as Florida and Texas would send national guards to subdue woke states such as California or New York. The ensuing chaos spiraling out of control would justify strong measures. The new president would declare a National State of Emergency and suspend the Constitution. Congress would shut down. He would form a new emergency cabinet with at least four heads of department named Trump. He would demand the AG, also named Trump, to issue warrants for the arrest of Biden, Biden family, Harris, Harris family, Pelosi, Pelosi family, Schumer, Schumer family, and so on, anyone perceived as disloyal to the new president. The nation would descend into another civil war.

    Any anti-democratic regime could follow to replace the Democratic and Constitutional U.S.A.

    Another outcome would logically result based on the theory advocated by MAGA legal experts that the vice president has the authority NOT to certify the Biden victory. That perverted interpretation of the Constitution would leave the government forever in the hands of the Republicans because the next, and the next, and the next vice president until the Constitution, so interpreted, would somehow be amended or canceled, would always be Republican who would of course certify a Republican slate.

    Faced with such humongous seduction of wealth, power, and glory, and real serious threat of bodily harm and even death, Vice President Mike Pence did not waver. He put his signature down to certify that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and was, and is, the legitimate president of the United States.  

    For such a deep-rooted sense of what is right or wrong, the honorable discharge of his duties to the Constitution and the Nation, and his heroic stand against all threats of harm or death, Vice President Mike Pence deserves the respect of all Americans and the people in the world who cherish and appreciate the God-given concept of Democracy.

    He deserves to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Prize.

JOHN P. LE PHONG, ESQ.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO FORM A TRUMP-DESANTIS TICKET

The obstacle is the former President himself.

He would no doubt consider three factors before he would choose the governor as his running mate. First, whether Mr. Trump would feel comfortable with Mr. DeSantis who is so energetic, youthful, and more importantly, as ruthless as the boss.

Second, could his publicity machine overcome the comparison between the First Ladies. The Florida First Lady is convincingly charming in public. She has a good brain too. In contrast, the former First Lady seems a little stiff and un-smooth in public. The former President would not like that. He has always wanted to tell the nation that he possesses the best. His woman has to be the most charming and beautiful in any setting. Anyone who upstages his wife is upstaging him, something he won’t tolerate.

The third consideration is probably the deal-breaker. With a Ron DeSantis VP, much younger, more energetic, and much more experienced than the President Donald Trump, the party would not indulge in Mr. Trump’s antics any longer. They would want to move on. The possibility of being replaced during his term would never be overlooked by the former President. Thus, his VP could only be someone like congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene or Elise Stefanik whom the party would be scared to death to see either one of them occupying the Oval Office. So, it would do anything and everything to keep him sitting behind the Resolute Desk for the full term.

The Governor could play humble, meek, and always walk three steps behind the boss, just like VP Mike Pence, who was a natural Trump Vice President. But that is something more easily said than done because it has to be real. The governor has a rather stiff personality, and a proud man; he wouldn’t play that role well. And a pretender could not escape the former President’s experienced and sharp eyes when it comes to pretending.

JOHN P. LE PHONG