Rattling hard words

Za "Time" from New York

Two old, nearly identical houses next to Ellsworth Park in Weehawken, with views of endless Manhattan and sky-scraping skyscrapers, have recently been distinguished by signs their owners have placed on their front lawns. While on one it is written Tramp/Vance – “Let's do it America great again", on the other are the names Harris/Waltz and the recognizable silhouette of a cat, the trademark of the Democrats. What the neighbors think of each other when they pass each other, that only they know, but even without invading other people's privacy, which is inviolable here, it is clear that the presidential campaign has not only changed the appearance of the yard in the quiet suburbs of New Jersey. She changed everything. She changed America.

photo: ap

The political scene is increasingly resembling a battlefield, and many fear - although they are reluctant to talk about it - that mutual accusations, insults, threats and the drawing of weapons are not the end of what could be seen before the new tenants move into the White House. However, as much as passions can blind objective judgment in this atmosphere, it must be said that the rhetoric used by Donald Trump and his supporters is much more aggressive than the language of Kamala Harris and the followers of the Democratic Party, but that the attempts to kill the Republican leader are far more dangerous than anything the leaders of the Democrats are exposed. The indictment against Ryan Root for attempted murder in Florida clearly confirms this. The assassination had been prepared for a long time.

FILMING MURDER

photo: ap

Not only did Root wait for the former president next to the golf club with a rifle and a sniper scope, but he spent a whole month in Florida, and for twelve hours he hid around the Trump estate in West Palm Beach, where he set up a special GoPro camera to film the murder, before than one of the police operatives noticed the barrel of a weapon peeking through the fence. He might as well not see his SKS rifle. He could have replaced Root, who is obviously not a very balanced person, with someone stable and better prepared, just as in Butler, in the place of young Thomas Crooks who shot the presidential candidate in the ear, he could have found a professional assassin who, from that distance, would not have missed the target. It could have easily happened that a bystander who saw what was happening on Summit Boulevard, instead of taking a picture of the license plate of Ruth's car, continued on her way, people in America often mind their own business in such situations, so the attacker would never have been discovered or arrested . Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe may praise his young agent for "doing a good job" when he shot Ruth, but it is more than obvious that a series of security lapses were made in a short period of time and that there were two people with intent to be in Trump's vicinity. to kill him. All of this seems even more ominous that they are clearly not the only ones.

Iran is currently badly shaken by Israeli attacks on its militants, but ever since Trump's order to kill General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020, Tehran has been announcing "brutal revenge". The FBI officially confirmed that Iranian hackers stole data from the emails of members of Trump's election campaign, while the Ministry of Justice recently unsealed the indictment against three members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for "identity theft", passing material to the media and a "terrorist organization".

photo: ap

The Washington Post reveals that a recent Trump rally in Nashville was delayed an hour because a person evaded security at the entrance and disappeared into the crowd, while the Republican candidate was held behind the stage and his advisers debated whether he should even appear in front of the crowd. was waiting for an address. It was similar at the conference in Tennessee, when the police detained two people because they did not follow the procedure at the entrance, and this newspaper reveals that the Secret Service, during a recent meeting, warned Trump's closest associates extremely seriously about threats of poisoning and the danger of drone attacks on open space. When the leaders of this federal agency, whose agents are the elite of law enforcement, tell someone to be careful, their words should certainly be taken extremely seriously.

gloom atmosphere

All of this brought a gloomy atmosphere to Trump's campaign team, his people received special psychological support after the shooting in Butler, campaign rallies and other activities must be announced days in advance, and contacts with those gathered at rallies are set within strict limits, so that disappeared that former spontaneity, relaxation and chatting with people, where Trump knew how to fully show his talent as the star of the reality show "The Apprentice", in which he performed until he started to engage in politics. He has built his political image on spontaneity and communication, and the fact that he recently seized the opportunity to add some money to a woman in a supermarket while she was paying for things at the checkout clearly reveals his populist style. Of course, Trump would not be what he is if he did not use all this happening for new attacks on his political opponents.

His predecessor in this was House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said after the attack in Pennsylvania that such things happen because Democrats say Trump is a danger to America. The Republican leader himself continued with similar claims, repeating that the words of President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris that he is a threat to democracy directly inspired those who tried to kill him, and that their rhetoric "leads to people taking up arms" and they shoot at him. Of course, he always adds that it is actually Harris and Biden who are "destroying this country".

LUNATIK and SHAME

As much as in a country whose citizens are great patriots, the claims of "destruction" and "threat" sound like a call to do something and remove the danger for what lies in their hearts, these are even chosen words in relation to what Trump calls the Democratic candidate a "left-wing lunatic", "evil", "stupid" and "lying" person, although even Harris can answer that he is a "disgrace" that world leaders "mock" or that it is "a frivolous man" whose return to the White House would have extremely serious consequences.

Kamala Harris did not miss the opportunity to blame the problem with immigrants on Trump, even during a recent visit to the border in Arizona, saying that he prevented the adoption of a bipartisan law in Congress because he prefers to "create problems rather than solve them." At the same time, the Democratic candidate did not say why during her three and a half years as vice president, during which she was directly in charge of solving the immigration problem, she only visited the southern border once, regardless of the fact that a record number of illegal entries was recorded for the last few decades. She did not mention in a single word that during Biden's mandate, more than eight million people entered the US illegally, and that the president waited until the beginning of the summer to apply the powers that drastically reduced border crossings by people without passports and visas. The number of those who illegally entered America during the rule of the Democrats corresponds to the population of the city of New York, is twice the number of those who live in Los Angeles, or is equal to the total sum of the population of, say, several of the largest cities such as Chicago, Houston, Phoenix and Philadelphia combined .

As much as illegal immigrants are a sore subject, the rising cost of living is what bothers America's citizens the most. The monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in parts of New York where girls and women don't have to check who's behind them in the evening has reached $4000, while parking for a car, if you can find anything better than an unlit piece of land in a back street, is about $600. dollars per month. In the most ordinary stores like "Ekmi", where those with higher incomes don't think to enter, a bag of grapes costs 14, while "Laifejev kefir", which only resembles what is called yogurt in Europe, costs 6,19 dollars. Plus 17,99 for a small salmon fillet, 3,19 for a small baguette and 7,99 for a pack of feta. Plus nine percent on each of these bills for New York state tax, New York City local tax, and the public transit subsidy that, shall we say, pays $2,9 every time you get on the subway, while the bus, which doesn't stop at each station, twice as expensive. The latest CNN poll just confirms what everyone knows, 41 percent of voters say the economy is most important to them.

When you look at the other numbers, you can see that 63 percent of respondents believe that the Biden administration was not successful in managing the country, and only 39 percent believe that Kamala Harris is better in economic matters. On the other hand, half of those surveyed believe that Donald Trump would be effective in economic matters, while 51 percent see his presidential term as successful. The latest Gallup poll shows that his approval rating is better now than it was in 2016 and 2020, when he ran for president.

TIED RACE

The "New York Times" writes that Trump and Harris are almost tied in key states, Wisconsin and Michigan. Harris is ahead by three percentage points nationally, but that doesn't necessarily mean much because of America's highly idiosyncratic and largely outdated voting system, so no candidate has the guaranteed lead of 270 electoral votes needed to win. . During the 2016 and 2020 elections, only a few thousand votes decided who would be the head of the most powerful country in the world, and it didn't help Hillary Clinton that she had almost three million more votes, Trump was elected president.

That is why all eyes are currently focused on the deeply divided Pennsylvania, where Biden won in 2020 with a 1,17 percent advantage, and Trump had only 2016 percent more votes than Clinton in 0.7. The fact that Trump and Harris are constantly in a close race shows that the voters are firmly entrenched in their positions and that, no matter what happens, they will not change their minds. Not since John Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon and then George W. Bush over Al Gore has there been a more uncertain race in recent American history. This is why words are not chosen. That's why accusations are used. This is the reason why some people take up weapons.

As much as passion can blind cold judgment in this atmosphere, it must also be said that Donald Trump and supporters of his MAGA movement, which is increasingly growing into a movement far more radical than its creator, refuse to say they will accept the results of the election, while The Democratic Party does not question the electoral process. Trump firmly believes that winning the election can only be prevented by theft or his assassination. Based on that, it can be concluded that the elections will be regular for him only if he wins and if he doesn't hear the evil that grandmothers keep talking about, he stays alive.

That is why the most professional American media drew a red line at this point. Whenever they cite the words of those who question the 2020 election results, it is added that these are "baseless claims", "suspicions devoid of evidence" or "lies", and a special term has been coined - "election deniers" - by which they announce the words of such interlocutors. Journalists in this country do their job, just like the cashier at "Ecme", who will neatly write you fourteen dollars for a kilogram of white "grapeferi" grapes, which traveled 80 thousand kilometers on I-4500 from Shafter, California to the shelves of New York stores.

PENNSYLVANIA JUDGES

By the way, these rainy days, the Eighties, a favorite picnic spot for New Yorkers, are pretty deserted, and the Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania looked completely desolate this weekend. An empty parking lot where it's usually hard to find a free spot, the cold river and the Appalachian mountains are immersed in autumn colors and silence, just like the country itself, which, by all accounts, will decide on the future president of America. The weather in neighboring Pennsylvania changed overnight, just like the backyards of New Jersey.

But this election will pass, and those two houses next to Ellsworth Park will soon look exactly the same. Only traces will remain of the places where the two presidential candidates' name boards were placed, the boards that are passed by those who go jogging to the small lake from which the whole of Manhattan can be seen, and the old guard immediately comes out of the wooden house and warns all those who do not run clockwise, as intended. Only those who want to take a photo of the Empire State Building, Woolworths or Rockefeller Plaza, which can be seen on the right side of the entrance, will see through their fingers. So much can be tolerated. As well as the amount of discomfort that neighbors feel when they meet in the morning as they rush to work, leaving behind, next to the front doors of their houses, signs with the names of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.