The Vice Presidential Candidates are Picked

Mike Pence is the nominee, it looks like, for Vice President by Donald Trump.  The official announcement isn't scheduled till tomorrow.  Trump's children were leaning toward Newt Gingrich but all of the party officials and heads of delegations want Governor Mike Pence of Indians.  Norman Goldman describes him as a complete nothing while in congress.  He’s definitely “a low energy guy”.  His big claim to fame is that he signed one of these “religious rights” bills enabling anti gay people to discriminate in their business practices.   Tin Kaine might be Hillary’s nominee and speaks fluid Spanish according to Norman Goldman.  He was the governor during the Virginia Tech mass shootings in April of 2007.  Now we learn from Google News that Kaine has joined the Clinton campaign and is a long-term supporter.  Hillary is entitled to pick anyone to run with her whom she feels comfortable with- - and if that’s a moderate, well, our side still has the Platform.   Next week should be the most exciting Republican convention since the sixties. 

Sometimes right wingers are all for states’ rights, like with gutting the Voting Rights Act.  But they are inconsistent.  For instance with the intervention of the High Court by Sandra Day O Conor in Florida, the Republicans were not for the “state’s rights” of Florida by any means.  The constitution says that barring specific statute (which is allowed) the states are in charge of managing all aspects of elections including who is ellegable to vote.  There is another recent example of treading on State’s rights which involves the state of Vermont and GMO labeling.  Vermont passed a law requiring GMO labeling.  Monsanto wouldn’t allow that so they got the republican majority in both houses of congress to pass a “GMO labeling law”, which forbids states from passing laws on the subject.  The Senate passed it with 63 votes and the House has now passed it.  The only thing standing in the way is the president’s signature on the bill.  And we know how in bed the President is with big transnational corporations like Monsanto and in my mind there is little doubt the President will sign the bill, even with all of the phone calls in the world.  There are certain things which transcend democracy such as corporate greed.  This is sad, but true. 

This morning Thom Hartman is talking about incidents of racial discrimination.  One black US senator has been stopped seven times.  I thought US congressmen were “privileged from arrest” by constitutional law.  One Black man was talking to one Black fireman cleaning his truck outside (?) and then in the building another “supervisor” said he was trespassing and had him arrested and he spent a night in jail.  As of now there is not a snowball’s chance in hades of my voting for Donald Trump.  I could not have said that several months ago.  It’s like when John Mc Cain picked Sarah Palin for his vice president there was from that date onward not a snowball’s chance of hades of my voting for John Mc Cain, though prior to that I had been considering it.  I wouldn't consider voting for any candidate who didn't have a good record on civil rights or whom I suspected was a closet bigot.  The Republican establishment seems to assume that fifty percent of America gets off on their inflamed, bigoted rhetoric.  

At least 73 people were killed Thursday night when a large truck plowed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, the Nice prosecutor's office said, according to French media.  The driver pointed his tractor-trailer into the crowd and accelerated, mowing bodies over. The driver was shot to death, authorities said. At least 100 people were injured, authorities said.  Here are the latest developments in the tragedy:

• The attack in Nice, France, began when an occupant of the truck shot into the crowd and then drove for 2 kilometers along the pavement of the Boulevard des Anglais, the main street in Nice, regional President Christian Estrosi told CNN affiliate BFM-TV. He said police later found firearms, explosives and grenades in the truck.

• Anti-terror prosecutors have taken over the investigation, according to BFMTV, citing the prosecutor's office.

• Preliminary information from French officials is that there was one individual in the truck, according to a U.S. law enforcement official briefed on the attack. The individual, a male, was killed by police and it does not appear there was any gunfire from the truck, according to the official.