gosh you just hate to see all these nice people at each others’ throats https://t.co/qL8al2jer3
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 2, 2024
Puck‘s Tara Palmeri is a jourmalistic botfly, and therefore a leading indicator that her ilk will find it more fun to harass #DonOld than to do the work of researching the Harris campaign [gift link]:
Two weeks ago, Donald Trump was riding high, envisioning a landslide victory against Joe Biden after beating an assassination attempt, briefly proclaiming himself to be a new man, and enjoying a drama-free convention that felt like an early victory party. Days later, of course, Biden euthanized his campaign, elevating his vice president as his presumptive replacement and definitively resetting the table. Trump, who is now at parity in the polls with Kamala Harris, has responded with his own stages of grief: complaining at the unfairness of a new challenger; befuddled by the inability of his campaign to land a punch against Harris; furious at the suggestion, proffered by his own team, that her gains were inevitable; and annoyed at having to clean up J.D. Vance’s messes.
Predictably, the campaign’s loss of elevation has all manner of Trump courtiers and advisors blaming each other for the past week’s various fuckups and distractions—including at least one major unforced error by the principal, himself. “It’s just two weeks, and I’m like, what the hell is going on,” one stunned Mar-a-Lago denizen told me.
In many ways, their frustration is understandable. For months now, Trump’s campaign has been lauded for its eerie proficiency under the co-management of political professionals Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. And yet, in recent days, Wiles has faced an unusual degree of criticism in Trumpworld, after she quickly jumped on the Vance train and was charged with vetting him. LaCivita, for his part, is getting lashed for publicly gloating about Trump’s ostensible path to 320 electoral college votes. Some detractors blame both Wiles and LaCivita for not having a backup plan for Harris (a source familiar countered that they were “exceptionally ready”); others are frustrated over the statement Wiles and LaCivita issued celebrating the resignation of Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, after Democrats made it politically toxic. “They danced on the grave after Dans resigned,” said one Washington insider. “It was a ‘Let this be a warning to anyone who claims to have the president’s ear,’ but with a knife.”
Naturally, there’s an emerging consensus that this insider squabbling, reminiscent of an earlier chaotic era, is distracting from the race. In one pointed example, twenty sources took the time to blame Kellyanne Conway for leaking negative stories about J.D. Vance to The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo. “A lot of people are very frustrated. There are cracks within the ranks and team, why are the consultants knifing Kellyanne in the Bulwark?” said another Trump ally. “They should be focusing on Kamala.”…
Until this week, I’m told Trump was still enjoying the honeymoon stage with Vance, and largely ignoring the brutal savaging his V.P. pick has received on social media. In particular, he was distracting himself with the promise of the Silicon Valley money that Vance might haul from tech billionaires like Marc Andreessen and Elon Musk. Now, however, Trump is said to be perplexed that the furor over Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment hasn’t died out, forcing him to waste time defending an underling. As I’ve previously reported, Trump has long viewed the requirement that he pick a vice president as unnecessary, a perspective he shared openly this week, when he told Fox News’s Harris Falkner that Vance would have no impact on the election. “If he keeps slipping in the polls, he’ll blame J.D. Vance, but he would never take him off the ticket,” said the Mar-a-lago denizen. “That’s a very drastic move. He’d have to admit he made a mistake.” …
In any case, for now, Trump’s team is clenching their fists and waiting for an end to the Harris honeymoon period, which they anticipate could extend until Labor Day, with her V.P. selection coming as soon as Monday and the D.N.C. the following week. Some are optimistic that the window could be even shorter, pointing out that she’s basically in the same poll position as Biden before the debate, when Trump still had a slight lead in the battleground states. They’re also running ads bashing Harris on the border, trying to define her as a weak and invariably dishonest California liberal. But nobody is harboring any illusions that they’re facing a weaker opponent.
Trump, meanwhile, has been setting new fires by ad-libbing attacks about Harris’s gender and identity that advisors wish he would have kept to himself. One of the worst examples, of course, came on Wednesday, during his tense and awkward appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists, when Trump firmly planted his hand on the third rail by questioning Harris’s racial identity and suggesting that she is more Indian than Black. (Harris is biracial, with an Indian mother and a Jamaican father.)
Trump, of course, has been proud of his gains with Black voters, especially Black men, which may have spurred his defensive and ill-conceived appearance at the event. “Why did he go to the Black Journalists conference when you have Kamala Harris in a sold out arena with Meghan Thee Stallion, and then they have him at an event where his mic doesn’t even work and he’s not even talking to voters, he’s talking to journalists?” one of the allies questioned…
KatKapCC
Good lord. I wish journalists would stop thinking of themselves as writers.
Shalimar
There is never a wrong time to knife KellyAnne, because it’s almost guaranteed she has been knifing you off-the-record to some journalist within the last few hours.
japa21
Love the cartoon.
That being said, I am sick and tired of media talking about how Trump was cruising to a landslide victory against Biden. He wasn’t. Period. End of story.
Snarki, child of Loki
@KatKapCC: ” I wish journalists would stop thinking of themselves as writers”
It’s a writer for Puck.
Could title the articles “Lord, what fools these MAGAts be.”
KatKapCC
@japa21: They have to believe it, because then it creates more drama, and they are all adolescents hungry for more gossip they can giggle about in the bathroom at recess.
Ryan
@Shalimar: At least Plouffe ended her career as a podcaster.
Mike in NC
Landslide, huh? Maybe the world forgot about the coup attempt?
Ryan
“Trump, of course, has been proud of his gains with Black voters, especially Black men, which may have spurred his defensive and ill-conceived appearance at the event.”
I mean, being questioned by uppity women, what couldn’t appeal more, amirite?
Lyrebird
@KatKapCC: @japa21: AGREED to all of the above! I’m not gonna read the botfly’s column just now, but I am gonna appreciate Anne Laurie’s brave sorties. And if Geo. Conway thinks it’s going well, hooray. I don’t think it’ll be easy for the Harris campaign, either, but I think the Vance pick made their (Harris campaign’s) path the White House more clear!
Postcards completed and sent today: 6
Thanks to a BJ contributor and WG for the stamps! I have to write slowly to write neatly, but it sure feels GOOD to be doing something.
Frankensteinbeck
They weren’t proficient. They were being ignored because the press wanted to bash Biden.
zhena gogolia
@japa21: In their minds he was, and they were going to do their best to make it happen.
Mousebumples
Do journalists not vote?
Nukular Biskits
Good evenin’, y’all!
Obligatory “DEMS IN DISARRAY!”
OMG it was hot today.
eclare
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yep.
japa21
@zhena gogolia: Which is why I am sick and tired of hearing it. I think it will be harder for the media, other than Fox, to hard after Harris without looking…
rk
I watched a bit of Trump’s Atlanta speech. I’ve never really watched him for any length of time. It was so stupid that I’m just shocked that anyone who is even a little bit sane can stand it. Just meandering BS. Illegal immigrants, emptying insane asylums, the late great Hanibal Lecter, bullets flying during the assasination attempt. I got angry when he talked about the Algerian woman boxer and said that she had “transitioned”. She hasn’t and she’s a woman. This guy almost got killed two weeks back and yet he was fearmongering about Kamla taking your guns away. I’m not saying anything new but my god, what a demented evil clown! He covered all this in less than 10 mins that I could watch. Something is seriously mentally wrong with a significant portion of this country.
Villago Delenda Est
My heart is pumping buttermilk, to be made into waffles along with the waffle mix, and then pumping maple syrup at the distress of TCFFG/PAB’s political staff. Suffer.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
These people are high on their own supply.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mousebumples: We can be fairly certain that they undergo what we in the Army called “field grade lobotomies” when they get hired by big corporate media.
Anyway
Some “journalists” (Cilizza is one) ostentatiously declare that they do not vote — they say that demonstrates their objectivity and above-it-all-ness. I think it’s an excuse for them to ignore policy positions and the effect of those policies on regular people. Easier for them to launder Rthug talking points and call it journalism
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rk: Listening to Trump destroys braincells. Thanks for taking one for the team.
Mousebumples
@Lyrebird: yay postcards! Thanks for your GOTV efforts!
I connected with a local woman who has *thousands* of Wisconsin postcards for Postcards to Swing States. I’m going to help her with maybe 200 or so.
Also, tip to Juicers in or near GA, MI, NC, or WI – the latter 3 states are trying to mirror the Georgia Postcard Project. They provide postcards (locally, ish, though I think GA also has drop sites in NYC and CT), you write and provide stamps, and then drop them back off for the Project team to address and mail.
All messaging is aimed at encouraging Dem votes up and down ballot in November.
Let’s gooooo!
Geminid
So Trump went down to Georgia and picked a fight with Republican Governor Brian Kemp. A Stable Genius move for sure!
Nukular Biskits
@Villago Delenda Est:
Now THAT I need to remember!
trnc
But the drama favors the democratic candidate, which would be an unusual thing to see the media create. Regardless of how much the media have slagged Biden’s candidacy, it’s entirely true that the handover from Biden to Harris has been pretty dramatic – for once, in a good way because she’s been getting mostly positive press while DT has suddenly been getting kicked in the nuts repeatedly.
phdesmond
@KatKapCC: some of them are writers. “euthanized” caught my eye.
Sure Lurkalot
Hope they fire their ire on each other right to Election Day. I can’t imagine spending a single minute trying to put polish on that turd. Close to 60 years the fat fuck has been screwing people over in clear view and there are still rubes lining up to kiss his ring. I hope he goes down in flames and takes everyone propping him up down with him.
zhena gogolia
@Mousebumples: I finished my first 100 to NV today.
trnc
He’s a moron, and Kemp will probably love him more for it.
KatKapCC
@phdesmond: No self-respecting writer would have typed that phrase out and said, “Ah yes, literary gold.”
Jackie
In other great news today – Judge Chutkan is BACK!:
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
@Geminid: nothing says “candidate of unity” like fragging your own side in the middle of a battle
Another Scott
+1
People don’t change their bad behaviors until there are reasons to do so.
Cheers,
Scott.
currawong
I’m watching this meltdown with amusement from Australia, tempered by the fact that a second Trump term would be a disaster for the globe.
However, one thing I’m not seeing mentioned much recently is Trump’s takeover of the RNC and the installation of his DiL as co-chair. All the money raised that would normally go to the ground game is surely being syphoned into Trump’s pockets. When it comes to getting out the vote in October and November, I think the GOP will be broke.
Geminid
@Mousebumples: Journalist Jaime Dupree says he doesn’t vote. I heard him tell Neil Boortz this 20 years ago. Boortz was needling Dupree, telling him he probably voted for Democrats and Dupree told Boortz, “I don’t vote” and explained why.
Jaime Dupree has been a Washigton correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a long time, and also reported for Atlanta radio station WSB. That was Boortz’s home station. A few years ago Dupree came down with a neurogical disease that robbed him of the ability to speak, so now he just writes good reporting.
KatKapCC
@Jackie: Sweet.
Reading through the whole document, and this line caught my eye on page 2:
Judge-speak for “How many times do I gotta tell you this, idiot?”
phdesmond
i started tracking the frequency of the term “kamalanomenon” [i searched for it in quotes]
About 69,300 results
12.01 AM Eastern, Aug. 3
About 86,700 results
11.14 am Eastern, Aug. 3
seems to be growing slowly.
Jackie
@trnc:
Kemp’s already said he’s voting for TCFG, so let them go ahead and insult each other. Kemp’s wife refuses to vote for TCFG, stating she’ll write in her hubby’s name.
Makes me wonder if TCFG will ever vote for anyone for president that’s not himself.🤔
KatKapCC
@KatKapCC:
“Defendant is full of shit.”
Jackie
From his mouth to voter’s ears in the voting booth:
Tazj
@rk: They are going with a rerun of the old favorites with maybe a couple of new ones sprinkled in. I saw a couple clips from that speech. Apparently Harris wants to take away gas stoves, red meat, and the right to say Merry Christmas. I also heard JD Vance bring up Hillary Clinton and deplorables again. “She called us deplorables!” No, for the millionth time she called Trump supporters who were also nazis and racists deplorables.
Geminid
@David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch: I think Trump needs Kemp more than Kemp needs Trump.
Trump is picking up where he left off in late 2020, when he displayed his vindictiveness towards Kemp at his two rallies for Loeffler and Perdue. Observers believed that Republican turnout in the Senate runoffs was depressed as a result.
StringOnAStick
@currawong: The GOP and tRump’s campaign are counting of PACs to do all the on the ground work. Elon has a PAC that looks like a register to vote website and if you’re in a solid blue state it sends you to your state website to register, but if you give an address in a swing state then it sends you to page to get you to give them more detailed information about yourself, which will be used in their R voter outreach program. That Elon sure is versatile! When we win I want Starlink and Space X taken over by the federal government.
KatKapCC
Oh, for the love of…now I’m seeing articles, including on the homepage of NYT, that Harris’s husband had an affair during his first marriage. WHO FRIGGING CARES. Are they really gonna try to make that equal to Trump’s numerous instances of sexual abuse and harassment and such? The press is disgusting.
Baud
@KatKapCC:
Their liberal subscribers.
Another Scott
Nitter, Twitter version
Indeed, quite polite.
[ rofl ]
Well done.
Cheers,
Scott.
Eunicecycle
@KatKapCC: and Doug Emhoff’s first wife supports Kamala! The affair was not with Kamala and he has admitted it. Nothing to see here, especially with a serial adulterer as the candidate.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
@Jackie: I don’t think he ever voted before 2016.
In the video he shows up to his precinct to vote but he doesnt appear on the voting rolls. They send him to a couple of different locations to appeal, but he isnt listed eligible to vote. This can only mean he either never registered to vote or he registered but went so long without voting that he was eventually purged.
lowtechcyclist
@japa21:
FTFY. Here’s the quote:
Two weeks ago, Donald Trump was riding high, envisioning a landslide victory against Joe Biden
ETA: Maybe elsewhere the media is declaring that Trump was on his way to a landslide win, but this isn’t an example of it. Neither was the Josh Marshall piece someone quoted the other day – it too was viewing the situation as if from TFG’s POV.
KatKapCC
@Baud: I highly doubt it
@Eunicecycle: Exactly.
Jackie
@Geminid: And TCFG convinced Perdue to primary Kemp in ‘22. Kemp beat Perdue in a landslide!🤣
dmsilev
@Another Scott: Yep. And that’s pretty much the line that the Harris campaign is taking, that Trump agreed to the ABC debate so either he shows up or he’s a chicken. And that since there wasn’t any agreement for an earlier debate on Fox with “an arena crowd”, Trump can whine all he wants but it won’t make fetch happen.
wjca
I would be totally unsurprised if, in November, in the privacy of the voting booth, Kemp voted against Trump. And only mildly surprised if he went so far as to vote for Harris. Straight Republican otherwise, of course, but for that one race….
“Bad blood” doesn’t begin to describe that relationship.
John Revolta
Several Right-wing sites (Newsmax, Daily Caller) are reporting that Kellyanne has registered as a foreign agent to represent Ukrainian zillionaire Victor Pinchuk
WTF is going on here? It can’t be good whatever it is.
Baud
@John Revolta:
She’s getting paid to lobby. What else do you see in this?
Chet Murthy
@John Revolta: “Their money spends just like Vova’s”
Jackie
@KatKapCC:
His ex-wife just organized a zoom fundraiser for Kamala. OMG! 😳
The affair “scandal” will fade rapidly – except on Faux, whose audience won’t vote for Kamala, regardless.
cain
@Eunicecycle:
The morality rules are different for Dems. Besides, Trump’s wife was a model who did nudes. Nobody is covering that.
People have affairs all the time.
Finally, the dude is not running for office but we know this is a misogynistic move against Kamala.
eclare
@trnc:
So the devil went down to Georgia…couldn’t resist. Actually Kemp has been anti-TCFG, I’m sure he’ll still vote for him, but I doubt he’ll support him enthusiastically.
rk
@Tazj:
I saw that too. Also something about the debate with Biden and fertility. Notably he said that he has to like electric cars because Elon endorsed him. How is this not a huge deal? He packed a lot in the short time I watched him.
bbleh
@Frankensteinbeck: @Enhanced Voting Techniques: there’s been other commentary that pretty much all the Felon’s poll lead was due to the media banging incessantly on
her emailshe’s old, and his staff thought they were due the credit, like the rooster who thinks he makes the sun rise.I guess we’re about to see just how talented they are. And I DO hope the Felon feels the same way :)
eclare
@Jackie:
What the hell is “vindictive prosecution”? Is that an official legal term?
Jay
I hate how everyone keep trying to frame it as an “assassination attempt”,
From everything we know so far, it was just another mass shooting, in other words, a day ending in “y” in the USA.
The shooter was just looking for a mass shooting site near to him with a “famous” person.
HumboldtBlue
@japa21:
Yeah, that’s a bullshit narrative and the DC wanks are all patting themselves on the back for calling for his head, it was a damn close race with Biden in.
John Revolta
@Baud: In support of Ukraine? Seems kinda out of character to put it mildly
Jackie
@Another Scott: Crap! Polite should have been in “quotes” as I innocently clicked on with my eleven yr old grandkiddo in hearing distance.😳
Thankfully she’s preoccupied with a video game…
Baud
@John Revolta:
Taking money is entirely within their character.
Chet Murthy
@John Revolta: “All those other Repub elites are against you; I’ll help you get your case across (and I ran Trump’s campaign in 2016, so you know I have access in the halls of power): so pay me”
KatKapCC
@eclare: It is, basically, yeah. As well as “selective prosecution”. There are statutes and case law regarding both.
eclare
@KatKapCC:
Thanks!
John Revolta
@Chet Murthy: Sure but it seems like Vova might not like it, especially seeing as how she’s practically a former employee of his…….
Princess
@John Revolta: Kellyanne is selling herself to the highest bidder, again.
Also, she’s feuding with some of Trump’s other minions. Maybe she can smell the loser stink and is cutting out to find other opportunities.
Jackie
@cain: Also, apparently when Kamala was being vetted for VP, Biden was aware… the rest is history.
The evangelists voting for TCFG in-spite of his history of affairs and sexual assaults weren’t going to vote “D” anyway.🤷🏼♀️
SatanicPanic
Totally unrelated to anything I am a 47 year old skateboarder. I have rolling around since age six. I’ve never been notably good, but in my old age I have figured out some pretty cool shit (for my age). Anyway I make a yearly video of my friends and this time I’m trying to put together some of my own stuff.
I’ve been dreaming about trying this trick at this spot. It’s a kinda scary spot and a pretty scary trick (it’s switch stance like a switch hitter in baseball). But if I do it it’ll be the most impressive thing I’ve done on a skateboard since my twenties. Anyway I went to said scary spot a month ago and managed some easy tricks on it so I was like “fuck it, let’s work on my dream trick”. It was going well , I was almost there, and then bam hit a crack and fell on my face. Blood was coming out of my eyebrow. It was bad (but the photo was pretty rad 😎).
anyway I fixed the crack and today I went back to try it again. Good news is I didn’t hit my face. Bad news is I tried for four fucking hours and could not land it. I came so close so many times. This is probably not interesting to non-skaters but this was my day.
Geminid
@John Revolta: I wonder what the term Conway’s lobbying contract is, and if Pinchuk’s foundation can drop her if and when Trump loses.
Chet Murthy
@John Revolta: I guess I’m pretty cynical about Conway and her ilk: the Ukrainians have to do this, if for no other reason than hedging their bets for a future where G(r)OPers hold the reins of power in at least one chamber (not to mention the trifecta, ugh). So why not take advantage of them? If TCFG wins, it ain’t like she has to actually -deliver-, and she’ll be riding high on other lobbying dollars anyway. And if TCFG loses and Dems control things, sure why not lobby a few G(r)OPers to join Ukraine’s side? It can’t hurt, since President Harris will be running things anyway.
Alternative speculation: maybe Vova’s checks didn’t arrive on time? *grin*
Alternative-alternative speculation:
She’s got neither Friendship, nor character, nor ethics.
I’m just spitballin’ here. Just spitballin’.
raven
@SatanicPanic: Me on my home-made board in Inglewood, CA 1965.
Jackie
@eclare: 🤷🏼♀️ I’m not a lawyer.
HinTN
@raven: Barefoot raspberry bait. 😂
Ken
@Jackie: @KatKapCC: But Trump is being selectively prosecuted. You don’t see the Justice Department filing charges against Biden for leading a mob to storm the capitol and overturn the election, do you? It’s a lot like that great man, Hannibal Lecter, being unfairly singled out for cannibalism.
SatanicPanic
@raven: dude you’re fucking cool
my first board was a little skinny one like that. I was hooked from then on
KatKapCC
@raven: Lordy, are you 7 feet tall?
John Revolta
@Chet Murthy: I remember thinking sometime last week that maybe Vlad wasn’t taking Trumpf’s calls anymore- don’t remember why right now………….
Rocks
@japa21: The nice thing about the “Trump was cruising to a landslide” motif is that, when he gets crushed in the general election, it will appear (however incorrectly) that his fall was even more dramatic than it actually was. See the famous Lucifer description in Paradise Lost, by John Milton He is a tragic figure who famously declares: “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”
Tenar Arha
@SatanicPanic: I decided to watch the women’s street skating (I believe with Tony Hawk commenting) and 🤩 that you’re working on that!
SatanicPanic
@Tenar Arha: the women’s competition was really good. A big fan of Poe Pinson and Rayssa Leal is just incredible. Rayssa skates with such amazing style.
eclare
@SatanicPanic:
47 and skateboarding? That’s pretty rad.
catclub
I disagree. There is no need to find a lobbyist to convince Democrats to support Ukraine, but it is very necessary to increase GOP support for Ukraine. Taking money to change minds is kinda what lobbyists do – so perfectly in charatcter.
Another Scott
@KatKapCC:
(repost) ReutersInstitute in the UK:
The man is intentionally delusional about his paper. His judgement is crap.
192 stories that “Breaking News: Biden is oooolllldddd” vs almost nothing (in comparison) about TCFFG’s continual lies at the debate, his clear statements over years that he wants to impose a fascist dictatorship on the USA, etc., etc., etc., etc. Because covering the dangers of MAGA and TCFFG would be “taking sides” and being a “lap dog”. [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]
All he cares about is adding another 5M subscribers quickly and getting their credit card numbers so that the NY Times Company can be more like Paramount+ and Hulu.
Grr…,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Jackie: Whoops! Sorry!!
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
JCNZ
@Ryan: Details?
Another Scott
@catclub: +1
That’s my take, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
Villago Delenda Est
@KatKapCC: It’s a “selective prosecution” in that no one has ever been charged with attempting to overthrow the Constitution itself before. So very “selective.”
Villago Delenda Est
@raven: Grab your board and go sidewalk surfin’ with me!
Splitting Image
@japa21:
As long as Harris wins in November, it’s probably to everyone’s benefit that the imagined Republican landslide remains the conventional wisdom.
If the Republicans believe that they had a 500-EV win in the bag and somebody managed to spoil it all for them, then they will spend the next forty years hunting down those somebodies and wreaking sweet revenge on them.
Suggested targets include J.D. Vance and Trump’s idiot kids for elevating him to the ticket. If they end up believing that the entire right-wing media were in kahoots with CNN and the NYT when they were all chanting “Joe Must Go” for a solid month, well, that’s a bonus.
JCNZ
@currawong: Oh, 1000%.
JCNZ
@Splitting Image: “…they will spend the next forty years hunting down those somebodies and wreaking sweet revenge on them.”
Oh, 1000% to that, too!
Chet Murthy
@JCNZ: I don’t actually know from jack about this, but googling, it seems that Plouffe and Conway had a joint podcast for a while there. Perhaps what @Ryan: is suggesting, is that that podcast wasn’t very popular, and thereby Plouffe tanked Conway’s podcasting career (*grin* snicker snicker giggle).
But I don’t know Jack about this, just spitballin’.
Ramona
@Chet Murthy: Miller’s Crossing”! My favoritest ever movie! Your quote is right at the beginning! It’s was the FIRST (and last) time I had to start paying attention to a movie’s plot right from the very first scene. Thankfully, I was watching it on the VCR and got to rewind.
Also loved Dane’s line which completely applies to Trump: Straight as a corkscrew…
Chet Murthy
@Ramona:up is down, black is white, Mr. inside-out-ski, straight as a corkscrew, takin’ his orders from the Yegg Central, like a Goddamn Bolshevik!
[I’m not looking it up, just from memory *grin* probably got some of it wrong]
Ramona
@Chet Murthy: Holy Cow! From memory! I’m not worthy! I’m not worthy! (bowing repeatedly!)
Ramona
@Chet Murthy: Look into your heart! Look into your heart!” <BANG>,
“What heart?”
Chet Murthy
@Ramona: “Hey Tic-tac, y’ever notice how the gaudy patter dries up, once a guy starts soilin’ his Union suit?”
Ramona
@Chet Murthy: while the other goon has just been singing operatically while they walk Tom/Gabriel to a bullet in the woods…
artem1s
@catclub:
It wouldn’t surprise me if there were plenty of Ukrainian oligarchs who’d rather resume doing business with Putin and that Zelensky be forced to accept terms. Remember Putin’s stooge prior to Zelensky was supposed to provide proof that Biden was taking payoffs but he lost the election.
Chet Murthy
@artem1s: I’m certainly not going to pretend I have any strong conviction about this, but …. ISTR that Poroshenko didn’t just lose the election, but he refused to provide such proof ? Maybe I’m misremembering.
Ramona
@Chet Murthy: what you put here sounds right to me but you got me curious so I tried googling for the line (don’t own the movie) and I found this essay instead:
Chet Murthy
@Ramona: You’re not wrong there. I always felt that as a movie with such leading gay roles, it was a landmark. But you’re not wrong there.
Chet Murthy
@Ramona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc5ZtL-_cKU&t=3s
ETA: I didn’t get the lines right.
Ramona
Hah! I was about to send you that very link!
But it seems to me that there had been an “up is down” in there, apparently not…
Ramona
@Chet Murthy:hopefully, this 3rd attempt trying to respond bears fruit: I did not think this one up. I was able to get the essay at no cost from here https://www.academia.edu/1918131/MILLERS_CROSSINGS_TOM_REAGAN_STRAIGHT_AS_A_CORKSCREW_MR_INSIDE_OUTSKY_
The author starts by talking of Tom manipulating the 3 gay men to their deaths but concludes that the movie is indeed antihomophobic.
Chet Murthy
@Ramona: I tried to read the article, but …. gotta say, not much into film criticism. I thought that Bernie killed Mink? So that Tom would remain alive and susceptible to blackmail, I mean.
Ramona
@Chet Murthy: Bernie said he killed Mink because Mink didn’t seem pleased to see him. He said he dropped his corpse in the woods to help Tom out.
I’m more and more sure that yours is the version I heard in the movie and that the YouTube clip is edited. The up is down, black is white sounds so familiar from when I tried to memorize that line decades ago.
Ramona
@Chet Murthy: My dim understanding of the point the essay is trying to make is that the characters’ arbitrarily enforced silence about the three characters’ queerness is an important element of the manufactured but nevertheless necessary social structure this community of violent gangsters strives to uphold in that “correct” behavior is defined in opposition to the silenced behavior.
But, you are right that it’s not all that easy to understand.
Ramona
@Chet Murthy:
@Ramona:
So, yeah! Tom played no role in Mink’s death apart from sparing the life of Mink’s murderer.
JCNZ
@Chet Murthy: It was called The Campaigners – Plouffe and Kelly-Anne Conway, of all people (I just googled it).
And now Plouffe is an adviser to Kamala’s campaign? Ah, jeeze…
Chris Johnson
@Another Scott: This reminds me of the idea that ‘trump has to see consequences to change his behavior and you can’t simply give in to him and do it his way or he doesn’t see incentive to change’.
It’s sort of market ethics? There’s a problem with those assumptions. They’re conditional on stuff that isn’t always true.
If Trump is completely irrational and his world is based on lies, you can’t pressure him to act normal, because he can’t. If he’s never had money of his own and has always been Putin’s puppet (Hillary was LITERALLY correct and wasn’t speaking metaphorically there) then you can’t tell him to go enjoy his money because he hasn’t got any and isn’t free to do that. So you can’t be surprised if he won’t.
If the NYT hasn’t got any serious money for years from subscriptions (no newspaper has, and most went out of business) and is instead funded out of Russia, you can’t threaten to withhold subscriptions to change their behavior in a market dynamic. They already don’t get subscriptions so your threat means nothing. It would take millions upon millions of ADDED subscriptions to come close to even matching the payola they clearly get from the Russian mob which is Putin’s government, so the reason to deprive them of subscriptions is not to modify their behavior: that’s past changing. It’s to not be paying to read a stealth version of RT.
Chris Johnson
My objection to this is pretty simple: I’ve seen that ‘republican landslide’ narrative before. For instance, Tim Pool was going on about that before Biden won, and Pool is pretty tight with the alt-right types that push narratives for political gain.
The problem with allowing that narrative to go uncontested is that it’s a necessary prerequisite for (a) civil war, which those people also constantly hype, and (b) election denial, because it’s easier to believe you’ve been cheated if you think the masses are clearly on your side.
It’s a fundamental lie to prop up would-be dictatorships. You have the support of 10% of the population, the psychotics and brownshirts, and then you insist at the top of your lungs that in fact you and your bullies represent EVERYONE, and you stage a coup and you rule. If people allow your lie to stand, they don’t fight back, because they think you represent more than you do: if you’re actually just doing a conquest of a manifestly unwilling population, you’re just an asshole with a private army.
That would be Trump, except he’s got problems even holding on to an army because he constantly betrays and sells them out. He’ll align with crazy people and then betray their crazy beliefs immediately for his personal gain. He certainly can’t pull off a landslide of support, even the first time he was just the inadvertent leader of a coup run by others including, apparently, Egypt and their ten million in illegal funding.
The Pale Scot
@raven:
Live to surf, skate to survive