Trump’s waning mojo
26 October—It looks like doddering octogenarian Donald Trump’s malevolent mojo has waned abroad as well as at home. In Brazil’s presidential runoff election yesterday, Flávio Bolsonaro lost by some 4.5 million votes to incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who’s not quite a year older than Trump but considerably less senile. Flávio is the eldest spawn of Trump BFF former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who’s currently doing hard time for trying to overturn his 2022 election defeat with a ham-fisted coup d’état. (Isn’t that precisely what Trump tried to do with his ignominious defeat in 2020 but got away with thanks to a complicit Supreme Court majority?)
So like his incarcerated papai before him and should-be-incarcerated Trump before papai Jair and forever till the end of time, world without end, Flávio refuses to concede the election he clearly lost and already is trying to annul the vote. When that doesn’t work, you wonder, will he try a coup?
Moving over to Europe, Aleksandar Vučić, prime minister of Serbia from 2014 to 2017 and president from 2017 until he resigned last month in order to run again for the more powerful job as prime minister, had the good sense to concede defeat when he and his party lost big-time in yesterday’s so-called snap parliamentary election. Serbia is a constitutional democracy, but Vučić has earned his reputation as an autocratic, illiberal dictator.
Some cynical, uncharitable observers would describe Donald trump as an autocratic, illiberal dictator, so it’s no surprise that Vučić is an unapologetic fan, supporter, and ass-kisser of America’s first—and one hopes last—emperor. But the Monitor would never stoop to such invective.
While enjoying Trump, everybody knows how he and his flunkies, lackeys, and stooges, as well as fearful and otherwise stupid and unworthy Republican political candidates, have diligently refused to actually say in so many words that Joe Biden won and Trump lost the 2020 election. But his own official month-old government (rather than privately owned—by Trump family and friends) website, America.gov, using official certified government data gathered by unbiased artificial intelligence, states in no uncertain terms that “Official certified results show Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and Joseph R. Biden Jr. won,” thus contradicting Trump’s perennial insistence that he had won three presidential elections.
Rumors were circulating that the truth about the 2020 election had been expunged from the website, but at this writing it’s still there. How long before it isn’t?
General Tso and Sun Tzu
25 October—Probably the Chinese military commander best known in the United States is General Tso (General Zuo Zongtang or Tso Tsung-t’ang), who made a name for himself during the Qing Dynasty in the mid-19th century. Although he was celebrated as a statesman as well as a military commander, General Tso’s stateside reputation these days is built on sweet and spicy deep-fried chicken.
Not that it matters, but Tso had nothing at all to do with General Tso’s chicken, which wasn’t created until the 1950s (by which time he’d been dead a half century) in Taiwan, purportedly for visiting U.S. Admiral Arthur Radford, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the time. The chef who created the special dish opened a restaurant in New York in the 1970s and, along with other market-oriented Chinese chefs, modified the recipe for mass American taste.
General Tso’s chicken is hardly known outside the United States, including the 51st state up north. And Donald Trump probably never asked his BFF Xi Jinping to introduce him to General Tso—because Trump prefers American-style less-spicy junk food.
The second best-known Chinese military commander at home and abroad is General Sun Tzu. Widely known as plain old Sun Tzu and born Sun Wu (Sun Tzu is an honorific, making him Master Sun), he lived and commanded mostly in the later sixth century BC and is said to have authored the 13-chapter “The Art of War” (Bingfa—in Chinese, of course) at the very start of the fifth century BC.
“The Art of War” is a core text of American military science and tactics (MST) curricula, which actually involve as much art as science. Parts of it were required reading in ROTC MST classes at about the time Gen. Tso was being served to Adm. Radford. Business schools also adore “The Art of War.” Sun Tzu emphasizes winning without fighting whenever and wherever possible, using psychology, diplomacy, and strategy rather than brute force.
Sun Tzu stresses flexibility, adaptability, and creative leadership—outsmarting the enemy through deception, for instance. In fact, according to Sun Tzu, all warfare is based on deception: when able to attack, a commander should appear to be unable; when nearby, he should make the enemy think he’s far away; and so on.
The art, then, is to take the enemy by surprise.
So why would a brilliant businessman, statesman, and military strategist like Donald Trump announce his intention to resume his war on Iran after he and his Trumpublicans lose the 3 November election?
That’s right, Trump is using deception, taking the enemy by surprise. Because he’s really going to leave Iran to his Jewish and Arab pals in the Middle East to take care of—while his ROTC-trained warlord, Pentagon Pete Hegseth, sends all the American forces and matériel he can muster to bomb the hell out of Ukraine. Because Donald Trump has had a personal grudge against Volodomyr Zelenskyy since 2019 and nobody harbors a grudge like Donald Trump . . .
Can’t wait for the new 007
24 October—The big news today is that Amazon’s MGM Studios, which finessed its way into creative control of the lucrative 007 franchise only last year, has progressed on a script and found an actor—whose name will be released in a week or so—to play James Bond in the latest picaresque fantasy flick. In the interest of full disclosure, no one on the Monitor’s editorial bored can recall having seen a 007 flick in a movie house or on the boob tube since the turn of the century. Peccavimus!
By way of atonement, then, here’s a roster of all the actors who have been cast as Bond on screens big and small, in chronological order:
Barry Nelson (1954)
Sean Connery (1962-1967, 1971, 1983)
David Niven (1967)
George Lazenby (1969)
Roger Moore (1973-1985)
Timothy Dalton (1987-1989)
Pierce Brosnan (1995-2002)
Daniel Craig (2006-2021)
Barry Nelson? Before Sean Connery? For those too young or parochial to remember (or foreigners), Barry Nelson was an American movie and television actor. Rather than put on a stiff upper lip and speak with a curled tongue (or put on a curled upper lip and speak with a stiff tongue), he played an American agent named Jimmy Bond, working for a combined British-American intelligence agency, in a live TV adaptation of “Casino Royale,” which had been published only a year earlier, in 1953. The one-hour show co-starred Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre, the bad guy, by the way.
Yes, children, real acting used to be done on live—real-time, live-streaming—TV. Not that we miss it.
And Barry Nelson was one of only two non-Commonwealth actors to play James Bond. Pierce Brosnan, the other, is Irish, born in the Republic of Ireland. He’s a naturalized American citizen, as is Daniel Craig. And Timothy Dalton’s mother was American.
We read that the 007 flicks have become more politically correct since the bad old days when James Bond did unacceptable things like slap women around and blackmail them for a bit of rumpy-pumpy; drive under the influence; and—worst of all—smoke. And of course the Bond stories have abounded in racial, ethnic, cultural, and sexual stereotypes, among other no-nos. Can’t believe that anybody actually enjoyed those horrid books and movies.
So word on the street is that to make amends, Amazon’s new James Bond movie, whose first-draft script has just been approved by Amazon’s politically correct content moderators, will feature an indigenous African-Asian-Caucasian non-binary transgender (or gender-neutral) Agent 007. To avoid being lambasted—and worse, boycotted—by the African-Asian-Caucasian non-binary transgender (or gender-neutral) community, they (Bond) is sure to be played by an African-Asian-Caucasian non-binary transgender (or gender-neutral) actor . . .
The Ryan and Ned Show
23 October—The first of two so-called Connecticut gubernatorial debates last night between Gov. Ned Lamont and State Senator Ryan Fazio is one of many arguments against early voting, which started Monday. Not that last night’s show was likely to have changed any voter’s mind.
Wannabe governor Fazio, formally and nattily attired with a pressed (and probably sized or even starched) shirt under his well-fitted jacket, and a perfectly knotted tie (so perfect, it could have been a clip-on), was well-rehearsed in a few arm and hand gestures as well as several generally well-founded attack points and vague if-I’m-elected promises.
Governor Lamont, on the other hand, was dressed more casually, tieless, with an open-collar shirt and unpressed jacket. He kept his hands on the lectern and maintained a stoic facial expression throughout the performance, except for the few times his gestures, eye-rolls, and smirks clearly revealed his impatience with Fazio’s attack points. Otherwise, Lamont spoke considerably more calmly and naturally, with less self-conscious forced animation than Fazio.
Most of the talk was naturally about money matters because most people vote their pocket books. Taxes and the price of electricity. Lamont has a record on both that’s attackable and defensible, depending on who’s using it. And Fazio attacked and Lamont defended. The only time Fazio provided any substance to his de rigueur promise to reduce taxes was when he said he’d be able to lower local property taxes by, among other things, reducing unfunded mandates. Problem is, a governor can’t do that by himself.
Lamont appeared to be taken aback only once, when the subject of Terrence Cheng came up. Cheng, as you may recall, was the overpaid chancellor of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system from 2021 to 2025 who abused his state-issued credit card, among other embarrassments to the state. He wasn’t fired by Lamont or the asshole regents as he should have been, but “agreed to transition” to a “strategic advisor” to the board at over $400,000 a year, which he’s still being paid for essentially doing nothing. That helps the rogue academic pay for his glossy self-promoting website.
When Fazio attacked Lamont on Eversource’s sale of its Aquarion Water Company to the state, nobody—including Lamont—bothered to point out that Fazio had voted in favor of the enabling legislation.
Fazio has no substantive record to attack (and neither do Connecticut Republicans for decades), so Lamont took every opportunity he could find to criticize and blame the Trump maladministration for the high cost of living in the state and everything else. And he was absolutely right . . .
Conservative pol on Trump
22 October—Last month, an acquaintance in the UK—a writer of some renown and retired politician—took the opportunity to augment the Monitor’s ongoing commentary on Donald Trump. Here’s his op-ed, posted without emendation:
A Standard of Madness: Why the Spectacle in Washington Can No Longer Be Ignored
I have spent a lifetime studying the mechanics of power, ambition, and the fragile egos of those who climb to the top of the greasy pole. In my years serving in Parliament alongside Margaret Thatcher, I witnessed true leadership firsthand. One did not have to agree with every policy of the Iron Lady to respect her absolute mastery of detail, her tireless work ethic, and her unwavering adherence to the dignity of her office. She understood that a leader represents not just a faction, but the very soul and decorum of a nation.
Which brings me, with a profound sense of despair, to the current occupant of the White House, Donald Trump.
We are no longer merely dealing with a politician whose policies are debatable. We are watching, in real-time, the terrifying spectacle of a man who has gone completely mad. He cannot simply say it as it is; he must always embellish, distort, and obfuscate. It is an exhausting display of a fragile ego in perpetual free-fall, masked by an incredibly rude and childish bravado. To watch a President of the United States taunt global statesmen, insult steadfast allies, and routinely brand anyone who disagrees with him a “loser” is to watch the systematic demolition of presidential decorum. Who does he think he is?
But beneath the playground insults and the chaotic bluster lies a far more insidious and alarming reality. This is not strategy; it is the erratic flailing of an unstable mind. The sheer volatility of his decision-making suggests a dangerous lack of impulse control. A leader must be an anchor in a storm, yet Trump acts as the hurricane itself, thriving on division and manufacturing crises simply to position himself as the sole savior.
Worse still are the visible, undeniable signs of cognitive decline. The rambling, incoherent monologues that veer wildly off-topic, the repetition of easily disproven falsehoods, and the apparent inability to grasp complex geopolitical realities point toward a state of advanced senility. It doesn’t matter if what he says isn’t true; if he says it with enough conviction, his loyal voters believe him. But conviction cannot replace competence. When a leader confuses basic facts, dates, and historical figures—boasting that he is the greatest president in American history while seemingly forgetting the very existence of Jefferson, Lincoln, or Washington—we must ask ourselves how long the free world can rely on a mind so clearly slipping away.
This mental fragility is compounded by an equally evident lack of physical stamina. A grueling schedule requires a discipline of body and mind that this president simply does not possess. The sluggish demeanor, the reliance on theatrical stagemanship to mask physical fatigue, and the reports of poor health reveal a man visibly worn down by the immense weight of the office. The presidency is a punishing job, demanding rigorous vitality. Instead, the world is forced to watch an unhealthy, erratic figure struggle to maintain his grip, both on his own faculties and on the reins of global power.
No nation deserves a leader like this. In fiction, an unstable character holding the keys to a nuclear arsenal makes for a gripping thriller. In reality, it is a tragedy unfolding before our eyes. It is time for his enablers, his voters, and the wider world to stop making excuses for the inexcusable, see him for exactly what he is, and recognize that the emperor has no clothes—and very little time left on the clock.
Stupid early voting
21 October—I early-voted yesterday. And thanks to Connecticut’s curbside voting, I didn’t even have to get out of my car to do it. All but three states—Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire—offer their own versions of early in-person voting, with some allowing voters to cast their ballots over a month before Election Day; Connecticut’s early voting starts a mere 15 days before Election Day.
Just over half the states offer curbside voting. Technically it’s only for disabled drivers or passengers, but no verification of disability is required, at least in Connecticut.
Connecticut still offers in-person absentee voting and now you don’t need an excuse—like religious belief or illness—to do it; and applying for a mail-in ballot in Connecticut is easier than ever, to say the least.
In fact, voting in Connecticut and most other states is too easy and thus attracts people who certainly have a constitutional right to vote but really aren’t interested, don’t know what they’re doing, and therefore shouldn’t be doing it. To a large extent, politicians of all persuasions depend and prey on voters like that.
As for early in-person voting, not only is it a waste of state and municipal money, it’s totally unnecessary. The only argument in its favor is that it may reduce lines at the polls on Election Day. And that’s because people who would otherwise vote on Election Day are now voting early, not that more people who should be voting are voting.
So it appears that Aeolus, the ruler of winds, cast his ballot early. These signs put up by Litchfield Republicans stood together and were blown down together a few days ago. At least the Republican Town Committee’s annual pasta supper sign—it’s tomorrow—is still standing. Doubtless because it’s not connected with the toppled candidates . . .
Buying off Supremes
20 October—At the risk of jinxing the upcoming midterm election in favor of Trumpublicans, largely thanks to the snowballing unpopularity, monumental corruption, ineluctable ego, and sheer incompetence of Donald Trump, it doesn’t appear unlikely (note the double negative to emphasize pragmatic uncertainty) that Democrats will regain majorities in both houses of Congress. Good people who aren’t particularly fond of Democrats hope so, anyway.
With that distinct possibility, then, Trump, Trumpublicans, and Trump-fearing-and-weary Republicans must already have strategies and tactics to prevent the Democrats doing to them what they’ve been doing to the Democrats since they’ve had majorities in both houses. For better or worse, that’s the way of the political world.
A trifecta—regardless of which party controls both legislative houses and the executive—is bad news, so we’d never want the presidency to be in control of the same party that has both houses. But that still leaves Trump reigning in terror for another two years.
And you’d better believe that the poorest sport (as confirmed by his reputation as a notorious golf cheat), sorest loser (as confirmed by his unending scandalous efforts to discredit and even overthrow the 2020 election result), and most maliciously spiteful (as confirmed by all the ad hoc weaponized departments of his corrupt administration) president America has ever suffered, Donald Trump and his coterie of self-dealing kakokleptocratic oligarchs have been plotting among themselves to retain as much illegitimate power as possible.
One way to do that would be to keep the Supreme Court from going liberal. And with a Democrat-majority Senate not unlikely to be seated in 2027, as well as a Democrat president inaugurated in 2029 (although a Democrat trifecta is to be eschewed, of course), the obvious thing to do in the circumstance is keep SCOTUS conservative.
And the easiest way to accomplish that is for the two oldest justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, to retire right after the election this year so that Trump and his lame-duck Trumpublican Senate can install two new corrupt justices before the newly elected Democrat Senate convenes on 3 January 2027.
But neither Thomas nor Alito has indicated willingness to retire under any circumstances—or, of course, die—in the near future. So they’ve got to be motivated. And that’s where Trump’s kakokleptocratic oligarchs come in. While justices’ $274,000 pensions and income from investments, books, and speaking are nothing to sneeze at, several million here and a billion there can certainly sweeten retirement security.
Not that Clarence or Sam would even consider accepting a buyout bonus or any other supernumerary retirement emolument, to be sure. But would anybody put it past Trump and his corrupt pals to try to buy off the justices or anyone else—just as Trump has tried to buy off voters?
In all events, if the Democrats should win the Senate on 3 November, don’t be surprised . . .
CT GOP candidate survey
19 October—Today is the first day of in-person, absolutely unnecessary, waste-of-money-and-resources early voting in Connecticut. So, without commenting on the total folly of early voting, the Monitor will seize the opportunity and report on a simple and unscientific survey of Republican candidates for U.S. Congress, Connecticut constitutional offices, and the Connecticut State Senate.
Given the limitations of the Monitor’s human resources, we limited the survey of Republican state senatorial candidates to districts in which Connecticut subscribers to the daily link are known to live. We don’t regret that our e-pollster didn’t have the patience to survey Republican candidates in Connecticut house races.
All the Republican candidates were contacted through their campaign websites. Except that 15th district senatorial candidate Ruben Rodriguez, whose campaign doesn’t have a website, was contacted at his campaign’s email address; and 32nd district incumbent senatorial candidate Eric Berthel, who has neither a campaign website nor a campaign email address, has a Facebook page with the message: “This content isn’t available right now. When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it’s been deleted.” So forget about him. For any number of reasons.
All the Republican candidates were asked the same brief, unambiguous question: “Will you say for the record that Joe Biden actually won the 2020 election and was elected President of the United States, not just that he was President of the United States?”
Each Republican campaign was contacted individually (i.e., not by bulk emails) from the Editor@LitchfieldMonitor.com address three times over three weeks and once, the fourth week, from the pmrosenberg@optonline.net address through the campaign website. First time, no reply, no acknowledgement. Second time, no reply, no acknowledgement. Third time, no reply, no acknowledgement. Fourth time, no reply, no acknowledgement.
No surprise. No fifth time. No comment necessary.
So here are the gutless and rude Republican candidates and their campaign addresses:
Guaranteed losers:
First Congressional: Amy Chai https://chaiforcongress.com
Second Congressional: George Austin https://votegeorgeforcongress.com
Third Congressional: Christopher Lancia https://lanciaforcongress2026.org
Fourth Congressional: Michael Goldstein https://goldsteinforcongress.com
Fifth Congressional Chris Shea https://chrissheaforcongress.com
Guaranteed losers:
Governor: Ryan Fazio https://ryanfazio.com
Lt. Governon: Matt Corey https://mattcoreyct.com
Secy of the State: Peter Lumaj https://peterlumaj.com
Treasurer: Fred Wilms https://www.fredforconnecticut.com
Comptroller: Jennifer S. Tooker https://www.jentooker.com
Atty General: John Bolton https://johnbolton4ag.com
Incumbents and losers:
8th Senatorial: Michael Criss https://www.mikecriss.com
15th Senatorial: Ruben Rodriguez Rodriguezforsenate15@gmail.com
18th Senatorial: Rob Sampson https://sampsonforct.com
20th Senatorial: Lee Elci https://www.leeelci.com
24th Senatorial: Melissa Lindsey https://www.lindseyforsenatect.com
30th Senatorial: Stephen G. Harding https://harding26.com
31st Senatorial: Henri Martin https://www.henrimartinforstatesenate.com
32nd Senatorial: Eric C. Berthel incommunicado
36th Senatorial: Joe Kelly https://joekellyforsenate.com
Earworm on a dream
18 October—A few days ago the FBI arrested a Naugatuck man who used YouTube to threaten to kill Republicans. “I’m prepared to kill Republicans. Eager to do it actually. I already have targets in my local community selected,” David Dyer posted, adding that he had “a lot of hollow points.” He’s out on a piddling $100,000 bond, confined to home and monitored electronically. You wonder if he’s had to surrender his passport.
For the record, Republicans also have a lot of hollow points. And so do Democrats. Wait a minute. Dyer was referring to bullets, wasn’t he? Well, Republicans have those, too. And so do Democrats.
You also wonder if Donald Trump’s FBI would have been allowed to arrest a person who threatened to kill Democrats or anyone Trump or his stooges didn’t like.
Trying to forget about the anus-in-chief for one day, then, here’s an earworm for you. It’s a traditional German Christmas song, “Ich schlief, da träumte mir,” (“As I Slept, A Dream Came to Me”). Forget about the words, it’s the delightful tune. A number of composers wrote variations on it, including Johann Christian Bach and his big brother Carl Philipp Emanuel. CPE’s 24 keyboard variations from 1761 and 1770 are the most famous and the best of the lot. So here they are:
Noting the American Catastrophe
17 October—Yesterday, as I was leaving St. Anthony’s after what used to be called a requiem for a friend, a fellow mourner suggested a descriptive and highly appropriate sobriquet for Donald Trump: “The American Catastrophe.” Great idea. So you’ll likely see that and maybe “the catastrophe-in-chief” from time to time.
The solicitous lifelong conservative Republican mourner (for our friend—and the Republican party), having digested (per Francis Bacon) yesterday’s disquisition, also opined that since Trump would never actually do the right and honorable thing and submit to a trial for his life or blow his brains out, he should do the world a favor and just drop dead naturally. The Monitor couldn’t comment on that consummation devoutly to be wished, of course.
But in the event of Donald Trump’s leaving office before the expiration of his term for any reason, the 25th Amendment would have him replaced by JD Vance, the sitting vice catastrophe-in-chief. Trump is bad in countless ways, to be sure, but Vance is worse because he’s far more intelligent, cunning, and insidious—and even less to be trusted—than Trump. And that’s saying a lot.
On the fourth No Kings Day, then, which coincides with this year’s Vote Early Day, thousands of people will blow off steam but accomplish nothing else. And unless MAGA morons do what they love to do and excel at doing, there shouldn’t be any violence.
So here are two celebrations of No Kings Day:
