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In these four years or so of reality television president Donald Trump taking over for Kevin Spacey as a fictional American president the best book I’ve read to date is still Insane Clown President by Matt Taibbi.

In 2016..Matt Taibbi covered the election for Rolling Stone as an actual member of the campaign press corp.

He said there would be no pivot from Trump if elected and there has been no pivot. Sociopaths don’t pivot. There was never going to be a pivot towards the center. He said a Trump presidency would be both hilarious and horrifying. He said every day would be a journey of exhausting rabbit hole chasing and trolling. On pretty much every count Taibbi has been correct.

Donald Trump has turned the American presidency into a seedy reality televison show which would make both Jerry Springer and Howard Stern blush with envy. BTW…both voted for Hillary.

I begrudgingly give Trump credit for this because he like no other politician before or after tapped into this piece of American dysfunction. Whether you love or hate him you have to give Trump credit for making both Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton look equally snarkish in 2016.

This is why despite the polls I sit here with nine days to go in this 2020 campaign and still would not bet against Trump somehow pulling off another Electoral College miracle.

For certain…I think Trump will once again lose the overall popular vote. But as we learned in 2016 the overall vote count isn’t the ultimate decider in our system of choosing a president..

Are there somehow still enough ‘Trump twitter patriots’ coupled with some other fragmented demographics out there in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylanvia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nevada to allow Trump’s reality television presidency another four years of air time?

Let’s say Biden wins and Trump goes on to become Sean Hannity’s fulltime co-host on Fox…who kills it on the televison ratings for that time slot?

Would it be Anderson Cooper, Rachael Maddow, or Donald Trump?

I would guess Donald Trump and I’d guess he’d get quite a bit of crossover traffic from both MSNBC and CNN because sociopaths generally aren’t boring.

This video is of Michael Steele the former head of the RNC who preceded Reince Pribus who himself went on to become Trump’s first Chief of Staff. Of course, Pribus was fired in less than a year and eventually replaced by General John Kelly who recently described Donald Trump as the worst human being he’s ever observed.

Steele went on to endorse Biden a week after Cindy McCain.

We’re now within ten days of the election. My feeling hasn’t changed. The Electoral College is the system we use to elect our president. Trump could even lose by an even greater margin in the general overall vote and still win a second term.

As in 2016…the states I’ll be watching with the most interest are Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. These are the six I’m watching the closest right now. Florida is the key though. If Biden could win Florida he probably wins the White House.

No such drama in Oklahoma where the GOP could put Putin, Hitler, Stalin, or Mussolini on the GOP ticket and it would not matter an ounce.

I think Putin would play big in Oklahoma as long as he kept the tax cuts in place and nominated ultra conservative judges.

It is what it is.

I think on Monday when we get our first cold day of the season I’ll settle in and have a little Jeff Bridges film festival . Some hot coffee, a couple of hot teas and some stew or chili would be nice. In my older age…I’ve become quite the hot tea sipper in the winter months..

Jeff Brdiges and Al Pacino have always been my two favorite actors. Third perhaps a character guy like Bobby Duvall who was actually in a supporting role in Crazy Heart.

With Jeff Bridges there is such an inherit ease in the manner in which he becomes his on screen character.

My favorite Jeff Bridges movie by far was/is The Fabulous Baker Boys. From my view …that was the slam dunk Oscar he should have won before winning for Crazy Heart.

But that’s the way the Oscars work–like in sports you get makeup calls here and there.

Even this speech when he won for Crazy Heart is the most at ease and gracious winning speech I can remember at the Oscars. He didn’t ramble. He didn’t take on a political cause. He just basically thanked everyone who helped him get to this place where he was at the top of his very competitive craft.

I love this song…the lyrics have been a part of me since I first heard them in the early 80’s. It’s kind of who I am in a weird way.

Tough, tough, tough week for me from a personal standpoint of which I won’t write about on my blog.

Add to that my favorite actor Jeff Bridges was diagnosed with lymphoma the same week that Donald Trump Character Counts Week was proclaimed.

I’m sure the presidential debate tonight will remind us of everything which is currently wrong in America as well.

I need a dose of my favorite Marshall Tucker love song.

My, my, my, my………..

For the first time in the history of my blog I’m almost speechless.

This is the guy who told Billy Bush how while just married to Melania he dedicated himself to trying to f–k Nancy O’Dell during a furniture store shopping f–kfest expedition.

My, my, my, my……. what it must be to be a Christian evangelical in places like Oklahoma. I never did acid in my youth, but taking acid and being a Christian evangelical must have common paralells is all I can figure at this point in my human spiritual evolution.

Billy Bush lost his job while Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. One of them appears to have learned something from the incident while the other maybe needs some more work on the empathy part of the human journey.

This is where I want to curl up next to my black lab Pauli…fall alseep with her and ascend to dog heaven. Being a human isn’t all it was cracked up to be. The end.

I did end up watching the NLCS between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves go to a climatic Game 7. It was a great series as Cody Bellinger’s 7th inning home proved to be the game winner. Bellinger’s blast sends the Dodgers back to the World Series for the third time in the past four seasons.

I kept to my pledge of not watching the Houston Astros get eliminated in seven games to the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS’s Game 7 final.

I actually liked the Atros before their cheating scandal was made public this last off season. Altuve, Springer, and Bregman are three of the game’s most exciting players.But they went too far.

What a year of sports so far for the three Tampa Bay professional franchises. The Lightning won the Stanley Cup. The Rays are in the Wolrd Series. While Tom Brady and the Busc routed Aaron Rodgers and the previously unbeaten Packers yesterday.

I guess when Brady went south from the Pats to the Bucs the mantle of City of Champions travled south with him.

I’m a Dodgers fan and I hope this is the year they get Klayton Kershaw his ring. I saw quite of few of these current Dodgers play their Triple A ball in Oklahoma City …even Kershaw twice in rehab assignments.

Hopefully…Bellinger didn’t hurt his shoulder celebrating the homer.

Now that Houston is out I can watch the World Series and not go back on my word.

Clemson is a bad, bad football team. A team I would not want any Big 12 football team to ‘even’ get on a football field with in the national playoffs. But let’s put Tide quarterback Mac Jones and Steve Sarkisian’s offense next in line in our college football rankings after seven weeks.

This Alabama offense is what Auburn’s Gus Malzahn wishes he had at Auburn. Or what Lincoln Riley or Mike Gundy used to have at OU and O State.

By the way..Big 12 fans in case you don’t remember…Sarkisian was Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator for those iconic USC teams back in the day.

This is a Tide offense with more spread firepower at quarterback, running back, and receiver than any team in the nation albeit maybe Clemson or perhaps Ohio State.

With shocking ease Mac Jones and his offense turned a 24-20 halftime deficit into an easy 41-24 stroll through the park against overrated SEC also-ran Georgia with three straight second half touchdowns.

So much for the question if Georgia’s defense or Alabama’s defense is the premier unit in the SEC.

Nick Saban taunted the Covid-virus and for the 22nd straight time beat another one of his former assistants to show the rest of the college football world once we see Ohio State… the four team national playoff will be looking for a fourth team to join the bracket in January if college football makes it that far.

Saban is a smart dude. Even though defense is his bread and butter he knew what college football was becoming when he benched Jalen Hurts for Tua and installed his first version of the spread. Saban knew even at Alabama you have to score with the other elite spread offenses in college football.

To Saban’s credit he changed his offensive philosophy and his program. Alabama along with Clemson and Ohio State are the top three programs in college football currently. Everyone else is on the oustide looking in if they want to hoist a crystal Dr. Pepper ball.

Saban has an offensive team with more talent than OU, Auburn, and O State combined. He has a football distributor in QB Mac Jones. He has elite running backs and receivers Lincoln Riley wishes he had this season. Saban has a team Auburn will want no part of when the Iron Bowl rolls around and spread guru Gus Malzahn will probably be needing a win to save his job.

Alabama is a beautiful offensive football team. A racehorse who comes down the stretch like Secretariat. Worlds better than any Big 12 offense this season. Every bit as dangerous as LSU’s offense was last season…albeit Jones isn’t as elusive as Joe B.

But there’s Clemson to ponder and probably at some point former Georgia QB Justin Fields once the Buckeyes are allowed to show us what they are this season.

What we learned from this game in Week 7 is the rest of the SEC is ordinary and Georgia’s defense is nothing special when paired against a talented, well coached spread offense.

Which in the end makes this blogger think…after Auburn fires Gus Malzahn will Saban’s now offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian be the next head coach of the Tigers.

Ohio State and Justin Fields…show us what you have in your first game in Week 8.

The bracket awaits while Georgia appears to be the second best team in the SEC because they can’t score with Saban’s sleek new version of the spread.

Note to Lincoln Riley…this is what you used to have offensively and if you want to win a national title before becoming an NFL coach maybe you should become the offensive coordinator at Alabama or Clemson.

Ask Brent Venables if you doubt me.

I would guess this will be part of Michael’s show sixteen days from the election.

Does it even matter to the Trump base? Of course not.

It may matter to some Independents and moderates who don’t live on Fox 24/7…but I would guess when people like John Kelly and James ‘Bulldog’ Mattis say things like this it’s just more fake news for the people who continue to enable Donald Trump.

Sixteen days. Keep in mind in 2016 the Access Hollywood video was released on October 7th and it didn’t even matter to evangelicals like Mike Pence and such.

The guy who’s daddy got him out of serving his country ostensibly for having bone spurs is who the Trump base listens to regarding military service and patriotism. How adorable. Hillary had it all wrong…they’re Adorables and they have lower effective marginal rates to show for it.

I wonder if even the most staunch Trump defender can name the four Trump chief of staffs to date. Who amongst you can name all four without Google?

Which Trump enabler can name all of Trump’s press secretaries without Google?

For those in Oklahoma who voted for Trump thinking he would be a godsend for oil and gas… tell me what the market price of West Texas Crude was the day Barack Obama left office and what the price was today as of closing market prices.

2016 average closing price West Texas Crude… $43.29. 2020 average closing price West Texas Crude… $38.73. Trumpers won’t talk that party line. Fake news. Adorables don’t talk fake news.

They also won’t mention the multiple effects of Trump mishandling China and Iran and how that has added to the glutted oil inventories. They also won’t mention Fed chair Jerome Powell had already predicted the GDP would slow to around 2% growth in 2020 way before the outbreak of Covid-19.

I don’t know if Michael Smerconish will cover all of this on his show today…we’ll see.

What I’m going to do on my blog from this point forward until the election is only quote Republicans and former Republicans pertaining to the rancid presidency of Donald J. Trump.

So…NBC decides to do a last moment dueling town hall with Trump. Par for the course. I don’t think it matters what he says because there are going to be somewhere between 60-to-70 million people who vote for him regardless of what he says or does.

It doesn’t matter if he says Bin Laden is still alive and living with the Obamas in their basement. It doesn’t matter if he makes Alice Cooper his next Supreme Court nominee. It doesn’t matter if Mike Gundy is his next Attorney General who replaces Bill Barr. It just doesn’t matter.

If he were running against Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln it wouldn’t matter.

So…you just have to be that adult in the room. Accept the fact this is the America we live in and it will most likely get worse even if Trump ‘loses’ this election and deal with it in your own unique way.

Nick Saban tests positive. O State vs. Baylor postponed. Same with LSU vs. Florida. Even in the SEC which is the NFL grooming ground the virus shows no one is immune. Why would Georgia even get on a field with Alabama right now other than the CBS contract?

My own unique take is that Mike Leach might as well be the next POTUS because it doesn’t matter at this point.

Watch great music videos. Eat interesting food. Spend time with your dog. Watch hockey. Go fishing as much as possible. But most of all be kind to other people even the ones who vote for Pussy Grabber. Be kind to others. Don’t talk politics at Thanksgiving. It’s pointless.

Great song and I’m glad it’s being put and front center to these younger generations. If you can watch this video to its conlusion because the female host and her husband included some pics from their recent bike trek from Toronto to Niagra Falls which are spectacular. I actually got a chance to do this route in 2003 and can vouch it’s a hike, walk, drive, or bike ride which you won’t forget.