We still don’t officially have a president yet, though Joe Biden is leading and appears to have an excellent chance of defeating Donald Trump. That’s good. Let’s hope that will become official soon.

What’s not so good is that the much-desired resounding repudiation of Trump and his lying, incompetent ways did not materialize. The Democrats did not create anything resembling a landslide, and they failed to get control of the Senate and lost a few seats in the House. The results are hardly bad news, but they suggest our fractured, partisan Congress will continue to function intermittently if at all.

Biden will have won the popular vote by a very convincing margin, and — apparently — the electoral college by a decent margin. None of that matters to Trump, of course, who continues to spout false claims about voting fraud in the states he didn’t win. Nary a word about voting in the states he won, however.

He just can’t stand being a loser in spite of the oft-evident fact that he is precisely that. What else is new. What remains ahead of us is learning how disruptive Trump will be in the remaining 70-plus days of his administration. And assuming Biden is elected as we believe, how will Trump handle the official turnover on January 20?

Meantime back in Connecticut, we had some wins and losses. Biden of course, won the state in a near-landslide. Democrats picked up more seats in the state Senate and the House, giving them very solid majorities in each. Regrettably the Democratic House candidates in the Litchfield area that I endorsed lost.

Rep. Jahana Hayes won re-election to the US House and did all Democrats running, so that is excellent news.

Now we wait the presidential election returns…..

It’s endorsement time. And I’m not going to waste much space on the presidential race. There’s only one candidate who is honest, visionary, supporting unity not divisiveness, who has integrity, who isn’t narcissistic, racist, misogynist and whose mismanagement of our response to the coronavirus has led to tens of thousands of American deaths.

That one candidate is Joe Biden, of course. And if you’re voting for someone else, please think about it carefully and thoughtfully, and cast your ballot to continue American democracy. Trump’s a loser.

Locally, here’s the way we see it:

US House of Representatives 5th Congressional District: Democrat Jahana Hayes has done an admirable job of representing her constituents during her first term, and she very clearly deserves a second one. Her Republican opponent David Sullivan is just another voice for Donald Trump, and his election would only thrust him among the suck-ups that control the GOP these days.

30th District State Senate: Republican incumbent Sen. Craig Miner has been around a long time, and he’s been a consistent voice for his party. That’s not saying much, of course. There’s not much creative thinking coming from him, and a new voice such as the Democrats offer in attorney David Gronbach is promising. We think Gronbach deserves a shot at this job.

State House District 66: David Wilson is the Republican incumbent, and he has proved to be someone who can be counted on to think and vote as he is told by party leaders. And that’s it. His skills seem limited, so limited that it’s difficult to conceive of how he could do less. Democrat Matt Dyer, a political novice and Litchfield attorney, is a much better choice for voters who value independent thinking.

Just two weeks until the presidential election. And the end of the man who called dead American soldiers “losers,” who said he probably got infected with the coronavirus from the families of those dead “losers,” who said Americans “should get over the virus,” who refuses to tell others to wear masks and makes jokes of those who do, who asks that his opponents be thrown into jail, who The New York Times rightly calls the “greatest threat to American democracy since World War II.”

Of course, this is the same man who hasn’t said for sure he’ll surrender his office peacefully when he is defeated. So, on top of his lying, narcissistic, corrupt incompetence, he remains an outlier to the basic principles of the Constitution. The sooner he is gone, the better for this nation, and it cannot come soon enough.

The divisiveness he has caused and furthers in the place of seeking unity remains an appalling mark on his administration. Polarization of the populace is his hallmark, a partisanship that has seeped from the political to the cultural at his behest, a worsening of life in America which he has encouraged.

It becomes almost impossible to write about him, so mentally unhinged and frightfully ignorant are his responses. He is a terribly sick man. May the electorate in two weeks give him what he truly deserves: a dismissal as America’s biggest loser. Ever.

I and my family have already voted. And we voted eagerly and determinedly Democratic for Joe Biden. May God bless his election.

I’m feeling sick. and you should too.

Donald Trump just told us that he was explicitly warned of the severity of the coming pandemic back in February and didn’t tell the American people because he didn’t want to create a panic. In other words, the President allowed American citizens to become victims, to confront one of the biggest challenges in our history without important information they needed.

Just wondering: Would Trump as a father, knowing that his family was facing imminent danger, keep that information to himself, or would he think it in everyone’s best interest to know what’s facing them and have at last a chance to prepare for it? Imagining that he would remain silent is appalling, yet that’s the equivalent of what he has done to the American people. And he has no shame about it. In fact he says he preservers an “A” for the way he has responded to the outbreak.

The only appropriate “A” he deserves is Asshole. (Ok, sorry; that’s a rant. Let’s get back to the facts.)

Armed with this information from his health experts, Trump didn’t keep quiet. No, he told the people of the country he allegedly loves that the virus would go away, that only a few deaths would occur, that the virus was nothing more than a flu. Those were lies, horrible, devastating lies that added to the tens of thousands of lies he’s already told. These lies, however, caused deaths, and continue to do so.

He bungled the federal response to the virus. He hid information people needed. He urged businesses to open as the pandemic spread. He denied the deaths. He put together no coordination team to help states, rather told them to figure it out on their own. In so many words, don’t blame me. Only now there is more reason than ever to do exactly that.

What a disgraceful man. And these actions — confirmed on tape that even Trump cannot deny — point out once again what a terrible and unrepentant human being he is. He must be defeated, and intelligence, compassion and knowledge must be substituted for his ego-struck incompetence. Vote in November. And do the right thing when you do.

Vice President Mike Pence went on the campaign trail and made this quite astonishing statement:

“I can tell you that after traveling to more than 30 countries as your vice president, America is respected in the world again.”

That’s among the most ridiculous statements to come from any trumpster. Factually speaking — an unknown way of speaking for trumpsters — the United States is a dis-respected laughing stock. Canada won’t let us in because Donald Trump so bungled the nation’s response to the coronavirus. For that matter, most nations in the world think so little of us that they don’t want us to come. We have become a dumpster nation.

Sp, here’s the answer to Pence: Let’s Make America Great Again — Elect Joe Biden.

Here’s the wonderful metaphor for Monday:

At a Trump rally on the water at Lake Travis in Texas over the weekend, five boats sank. Hmmm, what could that signal?

Here’s how scared Donald Trump is after it was revealed he called dead American soldiers “losers” and demeaned their military service. He announced proudly that is is opposing the elimination of the military newspaper Stars snd Stripes because he is proud of it and the servicemen and women it serves.

Baloney. He’s frighted to the tips of his tiny little toes that his mean, disgusting words about dead soldiers will cost him votes (which it will). So he’s claiming credit for saving the paper. But it is HIS Pentagon which budgeted its elimination many months ago. Yes, part of the Trump administration’s decision as part of its defense budget cutting. Trump raised no objections for nearly seven months. And his Defense Secretary Mark Esper is still opposing saving the newspaper.

So mark this down as another of Trump’s last, grasping efforts to save his job in the election. and it isn’t working, and his re-election cause is floundering. As it should – the military and those who support it and who have lost family member and friends should denounce Trump.

Our president is a danger to democracy, a mentally challenged loser whose incompetence and desperation seems to grow each day.

And we haven’t yet begun to mention his ghastly abdication of responsibility which has helped cause of the Covid deaths of over 180,000 Americans. And, sadly, many more to come. Let’s throw him out of office — let’s make America great again. Please.

Donald Trump has done it again. And again. The liar, bully and all-round incompetent loser has now gone after the U.S. military. He’s done it before, of course, but now we know just how coarse his beliefs really are.

The Atlantic magazine reports that Trump has called U.S. soldiers injured or killed in war “losers.” More specifically, he refused to go to a cemetery in France to honor soldiers who died in war. He said he didn’t want wounded soldiers taking in military parades honoring him. He disparaged the military service of the late President George Bush. And he dismissed soldiers who are captured and become P.O.W.s.

Trump says he didn’t do all those things. In response to that, consider the man’s record of lies: fact checkers say he’s been caught lying more than 20,000 times since he became president. He’s lying again when he attempts to deny this.

His fact record is full of his disdain for the military and the people who serve. Remember his treatment of Senator John McCain? A war hero, McCain was made a joke by Trump because he allowed himself to be captured by the enemy. Trump said he believes those who get capture are “losers” and don’t deserve respect. People like Gen. Jonathan Wainwright who in World War II was captured by the Japanese.

Trump has hired then angrily dismissed military officials for his administration while questioning their intelligence and their bravery. And this coming from a man who got a fake medical letter to keep from having to serve in the military himself. But then, he’s always been a coward, hasn’t he?

So, if you’re a supporter of Trump and this doesn’t bother you, then let’s turn to other matters:

Build the Wall: Trump promised this over and over, but Mexico still hasn’t paid us a dime. Taxpayers will pay, but Trump insisted that only Mexico would pay. he lied, in other words. The all isn’t build, and Mexico will never pay us anything.

Health Care: Have health insurance? Good for you. A lot of us don’t, others are paying a whole lot more for what we can get. Trump and his Republican allies said in 2016 they had a good health care plan. No one has ever seen that plan, and Trump continues to attempt to eliminate part of Obamacare including eliminating requirements that insurers cover pre-existing conditions. So, if you have an illness now, Trump says it shouldn’t be covered by your insurance. That make you feel good?

Coronavirus: Thanks to the miserably incompetent and failed leadership of Trump — who told us in February the virus was going away and we’d have only a few deaths — we never had any coordinated federal response to a virus that has killed 185,000 Americans and infected more than 6 million. We are the worst prepared country in the world, worse than Russians and China and everywhere else. That’s Trump’s leadership for you.

And we haven’t even gotten to his failing health — he is becoming more confused mentally in his speech and creaky in his movements — which suggest he is not physically and mentally fit for the demands of the job. Nor have we mentioned his ugly attempts to mess with the election in November, the latest being his urging people to vote twice (a federal felony offense). He’s also tried to eliminate voting by mail. If you’re a voter, you should be alarmed by what he’s trying to do to our democracy.

Trump is a dangerously selfish, inept, lying bully whose administration is engulfed by swampy creatures like Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, Jared and whoever it is that is running the post office and homeland security. The word “loser” comes to mind and stays there. Because that’s what Trump will be after November.

The late Rep. John Lewis didn’t think much of President Trump. Always a man of sound judgment, Lewis nonetheless vowed he would work with whatever he had to work with in the White House. There wasn’t much there with Trump.

Lewis was characterized so many times “the conscience of the Civil rights movement.” He was my representative when I lived in Georgia, and I had the opportunity to meet and talk with him on several occasions. I felt fortunate. He was a man of great integrity, determination and honesty.

He died last week, and today a memorial service for him was held at the Capitol in Washington. Leaders from both political parties turned out to honor him, as they should. They were respectful even as their differences were vast.

President Trump did not bother to attend. He had no thoughts about Lewis and his life and his accomplishments, his role in the pursuit of equality for his race. That showed everyone what they already knew: Trump is a small-minded, cowardly, loser.

I hope it will be somehow possible to eradicate the White House of his abominable stink after he is defeated in November.

A headline in today’s New York Times tells us all we need to know about the incompetence that pervades this malignant White House and everything about it:

“The Trump Administration Delivered More Than $1.4 Billion in Stimulus Payments to Dead People, an Oversight Agency says”