Nothing To See Here?

Donald Trump is so intolerant of Muslims that he had trouble condemning the mosque attacks in New Zealand, a country that couldn't be farther away from America or anywhere else. When fifty people died in those attacks, the most he could do was say how terrible it was - because what else could it be? - while offering no consolation to the survivors or to Muslims worldwide. 

He also said that he doesn't see white nationalism as a rising threat.  Well, of course, since he thought there were good people on both sides of the Charlottesville demonstrations.  Even if you take into account the greater problem of white nationalism in Europe as opposed to the United States, Canada or even New Zealand - countries that were all founded by non-indigenous settlers and have welcomed immigrants thereafter, as opposed to European countries that arose from indigenous populations - well, it's still a great problem everywhere.  And how is it that white terrorist groups like the Klan are called "secret societies?"  Why aren't acts of white nationalist violence taken as seriously as al-Qaeda or ISIS?   

I'm too flabbergasted to say any more . . .        

The Martin O'Malley World Tour

Martin O'Malley is touring the globe, but not with his Irish rock band.  After hiking in South America with disabled folks, he made his way to New Zealand to take part in a conference on using data to make government work better. He continues to promote technology to make government work more efficiency and provide better services and policies for the people.  

But for now, anyway, people back home couldn't care less.  

I'm still waiting for the inevitable mean joke that O'Malley is so irrelevant, he has to spend more time in New Zealand than in New Hampshire to get attention.

His television and radio interviews in New Zealand show that he remains deeply involved in how government works and can work better, and his analytical thinking and his commitment to good governance that benefits everyone still make him a worthy presidential contender.  But his biggest strength - making use of data - can also be a weakness; he's so involved in the data that he risks disconnecting himself from voters who want more than just a competent administrator in the White House.  To be fair, O'Malley still hits the right notes on social justice and promotion of the general welfare, and when he gets fired up, he can sound more Kennedyesque than Joe Kennedy III. I wouldn't have supported him for President if the opposite were the case.  However, as I already made clear, he still has to acknowledge his failures from relying on data too much - like the failure of the Baltimore criminal justice system. 

That said, O'Malley is still a viable contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, assuming there's still a Democratic Party by then.  His foreign travels are a double benefit in that they give him more of an international perspective than Trump will ever have, and they also allow him to get away from an American commentariat that cannot and will not stop ridiculing him while allowing him to formulate a vision of where he would take the country as our 47th President (because we know Mike Pence will finish Trump's term).         

In the meantime, those of us who are ready to back O'Malley should he run in 2020 should try to ignore the haters - some of whom are Hillary Clinton minions who complain about the "haters" of their heroine.  And in case you're wondering, no, I have never gone back to watching or listening to Ed Schultz since he ridiculed O'Malley the day after the last Democratic presidential debate O'Malley participated in (which was also, by coincidence, O'Malley's birthday).   I distinctly remember Schultz, who backed Bernie Sanders for President, saying that O'Malley was an annoyance and that nobody tuned into that debate to watch him.  Well, I did, so Ed Schultz called me a nobody.  (Since he joined RT America, Schultz has exposed himself as a fraud and as a hack - but that's another post.)  

So, 2020 is 50-50 for O'Malley.  He knows what to do if he wants to run for President again, and he's only just begun to do it.  But will he follow through?