How to Link a Story in the Comments Section

The easy -- and perfectly fine -- way to create a link is to CLICK, COPY and PASTE the URL of the story you want to share. That is, while in the window of the page you want to share, highlight the address bar, which is likely at the top of your screen. So,

(1) CLICK on the URL -- let's say it's    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/us/politics/biden-economy-bidenomics.html    -- which will highlight (i.e., block) the entire URL.

(2) COPY the URL. You may have a "copy" function on your toolbar; if you don't, simultaneously type CONTROL + C. That saves the URL.

(3) Open the Reality Chex window and go to the "Create Comment" box as you usually do to write a comment. PASTE the URL into the box. Use either the paste function on your toolbal or simultaneously type CONTROL + V.

Also let us know what the story is about. So your entire comment might read,

This NYT story makes the case that today's economy is really good; that should help Joe Biden's re-election prospects:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/us/politics/biden-economy-bidenomics.html

(Of course you can add your own commentary before and/or after the URL. But let the URL stand alone on its own line.)

That's it. Couldn't be easier. CLICK, COPY, PASTE.

The fancy way is more time-consuming, but becomes easy after you do it a few times.

(1) Type your comment in Reality Chex' "Create Comment" box, as you normally would. Let's say your comment is

This NYT story makes the case that today's economy is really good; that should help Joe Biden's re-election prospects.

(2) Now, decide what words in your comment you want to use to create your link. Let's say they're

This NYT story

In front of the text you want to highlight, type <a herf="">   Exactly like that: Open-caret a Space href=Quotation mark Quotation mark Close-caret    Make sure you use "regular" quotation marks. The curlique ones won't work. The only space is between a and href.

(3) Go to the page you want to share/link. CLICK on (i.e., highlight or block) the URL, and COPY the URL.

(4) Go back to the Reality Chex Create Comments box and PASTE the URL between the two sets of quotation marks. 

(5) At the end of the text you want to highlight, type </a>   That is Open-caret Forward-slash a Close-caret   No spaces.

So your entire comment will look like this:

<a href="This NYT story">This NYT story</a> makes the case that today's economy is really good; that should help Joe Biden's re-election prospects.

You can preview your comment to see if the link worked the way you meant it to. (If not, you made some kind of typo or omission.) Your highlighted (that is, linked) text will show up the way it will appear to the reader.

I've put the code in the header, so that once you've figured out how to make a link, the code is easily accessible.

The Conversation -- August 7, 2023

The defense in the Trump coup indictment has submitted its response to the prosecutors' protective order proposal. I'll get up a story when one is published. The response is apparently a cantankerous delay tactic.

Another Loss for the Biggest Loser. Kara Scannell of CNN: "A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump's counter defamation lawsuit against E. Jean Carroll, dealing another legal blow to the former president. In an order Monday, Judge Lewis Kaplan said that Trump had not proven that Carroll's statements on CNN the day after the jury awarded her $5 million after finding that Trump sexually abused Carroll and defamed her were false or 'not at least substantially true,' which is the legal standard. Trump sued Carroll in June based on her response to questions posed on CNN. Carroll was asked about the verdict finding Trump sexually abused Carroll, but did not rape her as defined under New York law and as she alleged. Carroll said, 'Oh, yes he did.'"

** BUT. Trump's Best Gal Puts Two Thumbs on the Scale. Josh Fiallo of the Daily Beast, via Yahoo! News: "More questions were asked of Judge Aileen Cannon's fitness to preside over Donald Trump's high-profile classified documents case on Monday after the South Florida federal judge rejected special counsel Jack Smith's bid to preserve 'grand jury secrecy' through sealed filings. In her ruling, Cannon questioned the 'legal propriety' of Smith using an 'out-of-district grand jury to continue to investigate and/or to seek post-indictment hearings.' She demanded that Smith explain [by Aug. 22] why prosecutors are doing this.... While much of the Mar-a-Lago docs case is being handled out of Cannon's district, a portion of the grand jury work ahead of Trump's indictment was done by a D.C. grand jury, which Cannon appeared perplexed by. Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote online that Cannon's latest order 'may tee up the issue of her fitness on this case.' Andrew Weissmann, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, suggested the same -- writing that Cannon's order is 'off base.' 'Judge Cannon clearly shows her ignorance (bias? both?); the obstruction crimes that were investigated are charges that could have been brought in [Florida] or in DC and thus could be investigated in either district,' he wrote on Twitter. 'And there was conduct that is alleged to have occurred outside [Florida].'

In a separate blow to Smith, Cannon also removed two filings by prosecutors -- about defense attorney Stanley Woodward's potential conflicts of interest -- from the record entirely. Prosecutors had asked for a so-called Garcia hearing to alert Woodward's clients of the potential conflicts of interest, so they filed a motion in hopes they could do so while keeping information off the public record. Cannon shot down that request, however, writing that prosecutors didn't do enough to explain why the meeting needed to be kept under wraps." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The chief judge for the district should just remove & replace Cannon. A high-profile trial in which a former POTUS* is a defendant should not be used as a training exercise for a judge-intern. There may be some inexperienced judges who could intellectually and emotionally handle the burdens of such an historic trial; Judgette Aileen is not one of them. The world is watching and Judge Barbie Aileen is embarrassing the U.S. judicial system.

John Eastman Is in a Bind. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Attorney John Eastman, an architect of Donald Trump's last-ditch efforts to subvert the 2020 election, is asking a California judge to postpone disbarment proceedings lodged against him, saying he's increasingly concerned he's about to be criminally charged by special counsel Jack Smith.... [Eastman's attorney Randall] Miller said the growing concern about criminal charges might prompt Eastman to assert his Fifth Amendment rights during disbarment proceedings.... But invoking the Fifth Amendment in the disbarment proceedings would jeopardize Eastman's ability to defend his law license, his lawyers wrote.... Eastman's bar discipline trial began in June -- and he had even testified for several hours without asserting his Fifth Amendment rights. But it was postponed to late August after the proceedings ran longer than the initially anticipated two weeks."

News Flash!! Stop the Presses! More than 1,000 Days After Election, DeSantis Admits Biden Is President! Nicholas Nehamas & Alexandra Berzon of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida clearly stated in a new interview that Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 election, diverging from the orthodoxy of most Republican voters as the former president's struggling G.O.P. rivals test out new lines of attack against him. 'Of course he lost,' Mr. DeSantis said in an interview with NBC News published on Monday. 'Joe Biden's the president.'... For years, [DeSantis] dodged direct answers to questions about whether he believed the contest was stolen, and during the 2022 midterms, he campaigned for election deniers." The NBC News story is here.

Minnesota. Anna Betts of the New York Times: "A judge in Minneapolis has sentenced Tou Thao, a former police officer who held back bystanders as other officers restrained George Floyd, to four years and nine months in state prison. In May, Mr. Thao was found guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Mr. Floyd's killing. This is the final sentencing in the killing of Mr. Floyd." CNN's report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

What's Bugging Marie Today?

Pundits, including legal experts, all of whom say judges have to treat Donald Trump's First Amendment rights as more precious and expansive than yours and mine because he is running for president* and we're not. Bull. Donald Trump is running largely because becoming president* is his only viable assurance he won't do hard time. Not only that, he has known since before he decided to run for president* that he was likely to be indicted for at least one of his many (alleged!) crimes. Trump does not have a right to run for president*. It's a choice. And with that choice, as his lawyers surely advised him, come the responsibilities of a defendant who is lucky enough to get out on bail. That of course includes carefully following any restrictions imposed by bail agreements. I realize that if Trump was forced to zip his lip over the course of his campaign, he would be a more attractive candidate. But even knowing this, I think that if he cannot STFU, a judge or judges should revoke his bail.

In Defense of Trump & the Trumpalumpas

Why, It Was Merely an "Aspirational" Coup! Luke Broadwater & Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Appearing on five television networks Sunday morning, a lawyer for ... Donald J. Trump [-- John F. Lauro --] argued that his actions in the effort to overturn the 2020 election fell short of crimes and were merely 'aspirational.'... Mr. Lauro appeared in interviews on CNN, ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS. He endeavored to defend Mr. Trump, including against evidence that, as president, he pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to reject legitimate votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in favor of false electors pledged to Mr. Trump. 'What President Trump didn't do is direct Vice President Pence to do anything,' Mr. Lauro said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'He asked him in an aspirational way.'... On NBC's 'Meet the Press,' [Mr. Lauro addressed Mr. Trump's threatening Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger with criminal repercussions if he didn't 'find' enough votes to overturn the state's result.] 'That was an aspirational ask,' Mr. Lauro said....

"[In a social media post,] Mr. Trump attacked [Rep. Nancy] Pelosi, the former House speaker, who recently said that the former president had seemed like 'a scared puppy' before his arraignment. 'She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!' Mr. Trump wrote." MB: As if the Pelosi family has not suffered enough as a result of Trump's personal attacks on former Speaker Pelosi. See also Akhilleus' and Ken W.'s comments at the end of yesterday's thread. The Shogun story is right on point. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: it appears Lauro went into "full Ginsburg" mode and admitted on every major Sunday TV news show that Trump is guilty of all charges in the new indictment. A coup does not have to succeed -- that is, it may be merely "aspirational" -- to be both unlawful and unconstitutional. In fact, here's how it works, as Josh Marshall of TPM laid out in an essay also linked here yesterday: if a coup is successful -- i.e., not just "aspirational" -- the victorious coup plotters form the new government and institute their own rules. If the coup is only aspirational (as so far, every coup attempt in this country has been), the coup plotters go to jail or worse. When your best defense is "our revolutionary conspiracy failed," you don't have a defense.

Rema Rahman of the Hill: "Former President Trump on Sunday said his legal team will ask for a recusal of the judge overseeing his case on federal charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election as well as a venue change, reiterating that he cannot get a fair trial in Washington, D.C. 'There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge "assigned" to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case. Everybody knows this, and so does she!' Trump wrote on Truth Social.... Trump once again also went after special counsel Jack Smith.... 'Deranged Jack Smith ... could have brought this [Biden] "opponent" case years ago, but chose to wait and bring it right in the middle of my election campaign. No way!!! I hope you are watching America,' Trump wrote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

What Trump Does While out on Bail. First, there was the general threat to every anti-Trumper in the world plus numerous people just doing their jobs: "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!" Then, there are these remarks, made about a likely witness against him: ~~~

~~~ Craig Howie of Politico: "Donald Trump hit back at Mike Pence on Saturday.... 'WOW, it's finally happened!' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday. 'Liddle' Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side.... I never told a newly embolded ... Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was "too honest.? He's delusional, and now he wants to show he's a tough guy,' Trump added.'... Pence defended certifying the 2020 election for Joe Biden in response to jeers and insults from a crowd of Trump supporters outside a campaign event in New Hampshire on Friday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Tim Reid & Kanishka Singh of Reuters: "Asked on Sunday on CBS's 'Face the Nation' if he would be a witness against [Donald] Trump if the [insurrection] case goes to trial, [Mike] Pence said he had 'no plans' to testify but did not rule it out." (Also linked yesterday.)

You Could Get Tossed in Jail for Looking Like a Criminal -- Especially if You're Black. Kashmir Hill of the New York Times: Porcha Woodruff of Detroit, who was eight months pregnant at the time of her arrest [for robbery & carjacking], "is the sixth person to report being falsely accused of a crime as a result of facial recognition technology used by police to match an unknown offender's face to a photo in a database. All six people have been Black; Ms. Woodruff is the first woman to report it happening to her. It is the third case involving the Detroit Police Department, which runs, on average, 125 facial recognition searches a year, almost entirely on Black men.... Gary Wells, a psychology professor who has studied the reliability of eyewitness identifications, said pairing facial recognition technology with an eyewitness identification should not be the basis for charging someone with a crime.... [Surveillance video showed that] the woman involved in the carjacking had not been visibly pregnant...." Ms. Woodruff required medical treatment for dehydration following her release from jail. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alabama, Where a Coup Can Still Succeed. Meridith Edwards & Rachel Clarke of CNN: "Patrick Braxton accomplished something no Black man in his Alabama town had done in its 166-year history: he became mayor. He told CNN he ran for office in 2020 to serve the fewer than 300 residents of Newbern, to connect them to help if they didn't have enough food or to spread information on staying healthy in the Covid pandemic. And when there were no other declared candidates, he won by default. But within weeks of his win, and before he got to take his oath of office, Braxton says he was dethroned in a secret scheme orchestrated by the former leadership.... His opponents 'set in action a plan to thwart a majority Black City Council from taking office and to effectively prevent the first Black Mayor from exercising the duties and power of his new job,' according to a lawsuit filed by Braxton and the four residents he named as his council. The lawsuit alleges the locks on the town hall were changed so Braxton could not get in, adding he was denied access to the post office box used for official mail, and a local bank would not let him see the town accounts."

California. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "A Southern California judge was arrested on Thursday in connection with the killing of his wife, whom police officers found dead from a gunshot wound inside the couple's Anaheim home, the authorities said on Friday. The judge, Jeffrey Ferguson, 72, of the Orange County Superior Court, was booked into the Anaheim Police Department's detention facility on Thursday and held on $1 million bail, the police said. He posted bail on Friday and has been released, according to Orange County Sheriff's Department records." MB: Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think if you or I were arrested for shooting dead a spouse or partner, we would be released on bail. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

California. Gigantic Serial House Burglar & Vandal Nabbed in South Lake Tahoe, Gets Off Easy. Lauren McCarthy of the New York Times: "One of the most prolific thieves in the South Lake Tahoe, Calif., area was 'safely immobilized' by tranquilizer dart and apprehended Friday morning, according to state officials: a 400-pound black bear that the public had come to know as Hank the Tank. The captured bear was responsible for at least 21 DNA-confirmed home break-ins and extensive property damage in Tahoe Keys dating back to early 2022, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a news release. The bear will be transported to an animal sanctuary in Colorado this week."

The Conversation -- August 6, 2023

Rema Rahman of the Hill: "Former President Trump on Sunday said his legal team will ask for a recusal of the judge overseeing his case on federal charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election as well as a venue change, reiterating that he cannot get a fair trial in Washington, D.C. 'There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge "assigned" to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case. Everybody knows this, and so does she!' Trump wrote on Truth Social.... Trump once again also went after special counsel Jack Smith.... 'Deranged Jack Smith ... could have brought this [Biden] "opponent" case years ago, but chose to wait and bring it right in the middle of my election campaign. No way!!! I hope you are watching America,' Trump wrote."

What else has Trump been doing while out on bail? Well, there was the general threat to every anti-Trumper in the world plus many people just doing their jobs: "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!" And there are these remarks, made about a likely witness against him: ~~~

~~~ Craig Howie of Politico: "Donald Trump hit back at Mike Pence on Saturday.... 'WOW, it's finally happened!' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday. 'Liddle' Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side.... I never told a newly embolded -- Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was "too honest." He's delusional, and now he wants to show he's a tough guy,' Trump added.'... Pence defended certifying the 2020 election for Joe Biden in response to jeers and insults from a crowd of Trump supporters outside a campaign event in New Hampshire on Friday." ~~~

~~~ Tim Reid & Kanishka Singh of Reuters: "Asked on Sunday on CBS's 'Face the Nation' if he would be a witness against [Donald] Trump if the [insurrection] case goes to trial, [Mike] Pence said he had 'no plans' to testify but did not rule it out."

You Could Get Tossed in Jail for Looking Like a Criminal -- Especially if You're Black. Kashmir Hill of the New York Times: Porcha Woodruff of Detroit, who was eight months pregnant at the time of her arrest [for robbery & carjacking], "is the sixth person to report being falsely accused of a crime as a result of facial recognition technology used by police to match an unknown offender's face to a photo in a database. All six people have been Black; Ms. Woodruff is the first woman to report it happening to her. It is the third case involving the Detroit Police Department, which runs, on average, 125 facial recognition searches a year, almost entirely on Black men.... Gary Wells, a psychology professor who has studied the reliability of eyewitness identifications, said pairing facial recognition technology with an eyewitness identification should not be the basis for charging someone with a crime.... [Surveillance video showed that] the woman involved in the carjacking had not been visibly pregnant...." Ms. Woodruff required medical treatment for dehydration following her release from jail.

California. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "A Southern California judge was arrested on Thursday in connection with the killing of his wife, whom police officers found dead from a gunshot wound inside the couple's Anaheim home, the authorities said on Friday. The judge, Jeffrey Ferguson, 72, of the Orange County Superior Court, was booked into the Anaheim Police Department's detention facility on Thursday and held on $1 million bail, the police said. He posted bail on Friday and has been released, according to Orange County Sheriff's Department records." MB: Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think if you or I were arrested for shooting dead a spouse or partner, we would be released on bail.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President. -- Judge Tanya Chutkan, November 2021, denying Donald Trump's claim of executive privilege to block the House January 6 committee from accessing records from his White House ~~~

~~~ Nick Robertson of the Hill: "The federal judge presiding over former President Trump's election fraud case has ordered his attorneys to respond to prosecutors' request for a protective order by Monday, according to a court filing Saturday. Judge Tanya Chutkan gave Trump's attorneys a single business day to respond to special counsel Jack Smith's request for a strict protective order which would prevent Trump from discussing case evidence in public. Smith made the request last Friday after Trump made a social media post appearing to threaten witnesses in the case. 'IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!' Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: "Trump's attorneys requested a three-day extension -- until Thursday -- to that deadline Saturday afternoon, claiming federal prosecutors want to move the case along too quickly and that a delay gives them enough time to properly respond.... However, Chutkan denied the Trump team's request for an extension Saturday evening...."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "The man who tried to overthrow the government he was running was held Thursday by the government he tried to overthrow, a few blocks from where the attempted overthrow took place and a stone's throw from the White House he yearns to return to, to protect himself from the government he tried to overthrow.... While Trump goes for the long con, or the long coup -- rap sheet be damned, it's said that he worries this will hurt his legacy. He shouldn't. His legacy is safe, as the most democracy-destroying, soul-crushing, self-obsessed amadán ever to occupy the Oval. Amadán, that's Gaelic for a man who grows more foolish every day." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dewey, Cheatham and Howe, LLP. Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "The legal team that Mr. Trump has assembled to represent him in the twin prosecutions by the special counsel, Jack Smith, is marked by a tangled web of potential conflicts and overlapping interests -- so much so that Mr. Smith's office has started asking questions.... Some of the lawyers involved in the cases are representing both charged defendants and uncharged witnesses. At least one could eventually become a defendant, and another could end up as a witness in one case and Mr. Trump's defender in a different one.... Many of the lawyers are being paid by Save America PAC, Mr. Trump's political action committee, which has itself been under government scrutiny for months. Some of the witnesses those lawyers represent work for the Trump Organization, Mr. Trump's company, but their legal defense has ... been arranged ... by Mr. Trump's own legal team.... Just this week, prosecutors ... asked Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who is overseeing the documents case, to conduct a hearing 'regarding potential conflicts arising from the complex client list of one lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr.... Prosecutors appear to have similar qualms about another lawyer in the documents case, John Irving, who represents Carlos De Oliveira, Mr. Trump's other co-defendant...." Read on for the details of the stunt Trump lawyer/witness for the prosecution Evan Corcoran may be planning to avoid having to testify against Trump on a crucial issue in the documents case.

** Confessions of a Co-conspirator. Josh Marshall of TPM: In an interview with "Tom Klingenstein, the Chairman of the Trumpite Claremont Institute," Trump Co-conspirator 2 John Eastman "invokes the Declaration of Independence and says quite clearly that yes, we were trying to overthrow the government and argues that they were justified because of the sheer existential threat America was under because of the election of Joe Biden.... Eastman ... makes clear [the insurrectionists] were ... justified in doing so; and the warrant for their actions is none other than the Declaration of Independence itself.... 'There's actually a provision in the Declaration of Independence that a people will suffer abuses while they remain sufferable, tolerable while they remain tolerable[,' Eastman argues]. 'At some point abuses become so intolerable that it becomes not only their right but their duty to alter or abolish the existing government.... So that's the question.... Have the abuses or the threat of abuses become so intolerable that we have to be willing to push back?' The answer for Eastman is clearly yes and that's his justification for his and his associates extraordinary actions....

"Abraham Lincoln ... said ... on the eve of the Civil War in his first inaugural address (emphasis added): 'This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.' In other words, yes, you have a revolutionary right to overthrow the government.... But the government has an equal right to stop you, to defend itself or, as we see today, put you on trial if you fail. The American revolutionaries of 1776 knew full well that they were committing treason against the British monarchy. If they lost they would all hang.... [Eastman and his cohort] knew it was a coup and they justified it to themselves in those terms."

Isn't it terrible that so many reporters from so many media outlets are challenging one another in the game of "Gotcha, Supremes!"?? The New York Times just advanced the paper's position: ~~~

~~~ Jo Becker & Julie Tate of the New York Times: "... in a documentary financed by conservative admirers, Justice [Clarence] Thomas ... waxes rhapsodic about the familiarity of spending time with the regular folks he meets along the way in R.V. parks and Walmart parking lots.... [BUT] His Prevost Marathon [R.V.] cost $267,230 [in 1999].... And Justice Thomas, who in the ensuing years would tell friends how he had scrimped and saved to afford the motor coach, did not buy it on his own. In fact, the purchase was underwritten, at least in part, by Anthony Welters, a close friend who made his fortune in the health care industry.... [The true source of funding for the purchase] leaves unanswered a host of questions about whether the justice received, and failed to disclose, a lavish gift from a wealthy friend ... [and whether Thomas failed to comply with] an obligation to report the arrangement under a federal ethics law." The article goes into detail about the purchase and payment, and unearths another foreign jaunt Thomas apparently took at Welters' expense but did not report. (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When you think about it, "Gotcha, Supremes!" has all the makings of a board game, a la "Monopoly." You advance when your marker lands on "Clarence & Ginny cruise on Harlan's yacht" or "Insufferable Sam takes luxury fishing vacay in billionaire Paul's Alaska resort," but it's a bummer when your marker stops on "Chief John refuses to testify before Senate" or "Insufferable Sam writes a WSJ op-ed."

Presidential Race 2028

Not Exactly Yer Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Julia Shapero of the Hill: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D team slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) counterproposal for a debate as a 'joke' on Saturday, claiming that the Republican presidential candidate's suggested rules are meant to 'hide his insecurity and ineptitude.' 'What a joke,' Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click said in a statement, according to Politico. 'Desantis' counterproposal is littered with crutches to hide his insecurity and ineptitude -- swapping opening statements with a hype video, cutting down the time he needs to be on stage, adding cheat notes and a cheering section.... Ron should be able to stand on his own two feet. It's no wonder Trump is kicking his ass.'"