So today started out as my usual Friday. I got up fairly early, dressed, got in my car and drove to Breads Unlimited to pick up a challah. But when I was ready to pay, things changed. My credit card was not in my wallet.
Luckily, I know where it must be, because I used it to pay for our dinner last night, and I obviously have not been anywhere since. So I am hoping that, when the restaurant opens, I will be able to pick it up. Otherwise, yuck. Once again, I will have to change my registered card everywhere I use it.

The talk about Biden drones on and on. I wish he had the courage to withdraw now, so that his heir apparent, Kamala Harris, could stop wondering what is going to happen and could receive the full support of the party so that she could mount a full campaign against Donald Trump. I started listening to the Trump acceptance speech last night, but I found it rather listless and boring and at about 11:15 I gave up and went to sleep. I don’t think I missed much. It seems that the tone was subdued, the words not so much.

And I see that the fact checkers are having a busy time this morning, as there seems to be more than 20 clear falsehoods. It’s interesting. I did listen to C-Span this morning to and from the bakery, and one Republican caller brought to mind the problem any Democratic candidate is going to have. This was a very rational sounding man, who started by saying that he just couldn’t understand why any Democrat wasn’t clear that everything was better under Trump.

He then went through a number of issues, one by one. The problem was that the facts on which he based his conclusions were virtually all alternative facts. Alternative facts that he clearly believes because Trump refers to them time and time again, and they have lost their identity as “alternative”.

The ones that struck me most were (1) illegal immigrants taking American jobs, (2) energy independence under Trump but not under Biden, (3) Americans involved in foreign wars under Biden, but not under Trump. The most difficult issues for the Democrats, though, do not involved alternative facts, but real facts – the number of unauthorized border crossings and inflation. As to the first, there is no denying – and the Democrats have not come up with a story to show that the U.S. has not been hurt by this influx, even if the number of crossings today are no longer excessive, and if the Republicans in Congress killed a workable reform bill. Trump of course is talking about a mass deportation of those who have come without prior authorization – this is something that probably is impossible to organize, even if you think it appropriate, and gives the Democrats some good talking points, but I haven’t heard them yet on this topic. As to inflation, the Democrats have talking points: you have to look at inflation world wide and the effect of the COVID pandemic in holding down demand and creating both manufacturing and supply chain issues everywhere, not only here. But they have not been able to relay these points with much success.

As to foreign involvement, I guess people really believe that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine under a Trump presidency, and that Hamas (or Iran-backed Hamas) would not have attacked Israel. Why do they believe this? I think it can only be because they want to.

At any rate, I think that the Democrats will have a very rough time, no matter who the candidate is, and that if the candidate is Biden, they will have the roughest of times.

Of course, the Democrats do have the advantage on some issues – the most important being issues related to the rights of women. A Republican administration, with a Republican Congress and even more entrenched Republican judicial system, will most likely try for some sort of national ban on abortion and national restriction on other issues pertaining to women’s health and freedoms. Because this is not a popular issue, the party took reference to these things out of the party platform as I understand it, and I don’t think they were mentioned at all during the Convention.

And then there is the questions of Ukraine and NATO. There has always been a strong isolationist strain in this country, and it continues today with the Trump party. If, as J.D. Vance has said,  we shouldn’t care at all what happens in Ukraine, someone needs to explain to the American voters the reasons that a strong NATO and a strong Europe are important to us. This will clearly be a major issue in the upcoming campaign, even if it was not really discussed at all during the convention.

Lawrence O’Donnell made a good point last night on MSNBC, I thought, although I didn’t hear the entire discussion. He was speaking generally about the Electoral College and the number of times recently, the elected president of the United States has lost the popular vote. Had popular vote winners become president, we would have a different Supreme Court because of the number of justices nominated by presidents who lost the popular vote. What kind of a democracy do we really have, he said, if we inaugurate the candidates who come in second as president, and then allow them to choose Supreme Court justices with lifetime tenure? There is a lot to that, of course.

So, buckle up those seat belts. The ride will be bumpy for a while. But we will survive.