Today is Sunday, December 17, 2023.      In response to the putative repugnican nominee for president in 2024, the Biden campaign has now issued a retort to some of the controversial, anti-immigrant sentiments made by the Orange Blob, in which the Biden camp slammed Chump for quoting Adolf Hitler and praised other like-minded dictators at a campaign event in New Hampshire yesterday.   This turn of events is reported in an online salon article by Kelly McClure entitled “Biden campaign issues statement in response to Trump’s Hitler rhetoric.”

In response to this troubling recurring theme, Ammar Moussa, spokesperson for the Biden campaign, issued a statement denouncing Chump’s comments, saying he “channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jung Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy.”

Diving into Chump’s disturbing rhetoric, Moussa added that he “is not shying away from his plan to lock up millions of people into detention camps and continues to lie about that time when Joe Biden obliterated him by over 7 million votes three years ago.  He is betting he can win this election by scaring and dividing this country.  He’s wrong.  In 2020, Americans chose President Biden’s vision of hope and unity over Trump’s vision of fear and division – and they’ll do the same next November.”

Moussa indicated that Chump paraphrased the words of the former Nazi Germany dictator by saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”  The Biden spokesperson said, “The former US president’s comments were the latest example of his campaign rhetoric that seemed to go beyond the lies and exaggerations that are a trademark of his stump speeches and instead go into territory of outright extremism or racism.”

In conjunction with this, I must tell you I received that special Atlantic issue which has been advertised on the various news networks.   It is the January/February 2024 issue and it contains 24 articles by leading journalists on why another Chump term would be terrible.  Each writer, particularly David Frum, Anne Applebaum, Barton Gellman et al. write about one aspect of a Chump second-term presidency.    Frum writes about autocracy, Applebaum writes about NATO, and Gellman writes about the Justice Department.  Other journalists tackle subjects ranging from the climate to abortion to disinformation to civil rights to science to corruption and much, much more.  It is a must-read for anyone mildly engaged in politics today.    Unfortunately, no Trump supporter will probably read this important issue.   Maybe one of these brilliant reporters can explain to me Chump’s unflagging popularity with a large swath of the American public.    For the love of God, I cannot understand it – and never will, I’m afraid.   Anyone else facing 91 federal criminal charges would have lost support from potential voters a long time ago.    But not this loathsome figure. 

Anyway, today was supposed to be windy and wet, but we still haven’t gotten soaked yet.   And it’s past 10 p.m.   So I stayed home and – surprise – baked a cake.  I baked an apple cinnamon white cake with Elliot’s assistance.   I went out earlier in the day to buy some ingredients and got busy before 2.    I can’t remember the last time I baked; I think it was sometime in 2022.     I would have to scan earlier blogs to find the answer.  

Tomorrow more rain is forecasted, unfortunately.  There is a high wind warning, I see, from 12 a.m. December 18, until noon Monday afternoon.   Winds are expected to be 25 to 35 miles per hour, with gusts up to 60 mph expected.   Hopefully, it won’t be that bad here in Forest Hills.

Have a good week.

Stay safe and be well.

Here is my first baking effort for 2023, I believe:  an apple cinnamon white cake.