Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: The Great *Exhale*

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: The Great *Exhale*

by | 451 Comments

This post is in: , ,

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread 12

(John Deering via GoComics.com)



Remember, social media peep: Sharing is caring!

Some of the Walz analysis you’re seeing has nothing to do with his record as a centrist congressman and then liberal governor but is just pundits being unhappy people they don’t like on the internet are happy with the pick.

— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) Aug 7, 2024 at 7:41 AM

I’d add that there’s more than one way to express racism and scolding Harris for being so dumb as to pick Walz is one approach to nudge-nudge-nod-winking at that particular trope.

— Boston Tom Levenson (@tomlevenson.bsky.social) Aug 7, 2024 at 8:01 AM


 
I can’t blame Captain Obvious for enjoying this week almost as much as I have…

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread 13

(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

451Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Heh. End of the month is still several weeks away.

    I hope her first interview is with Pitchbot.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    Dear FrontPagers:

     

    LarryO ‘s show from yesterday deserves a post all of its own. The way he lit into the MSM

     

    👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

  12. 12.

    rikyrah

    Jason Kander (@JasonKander) posted at 3:25 PM on Thu, Aug 08, 2024:
    Memo to the Trump campaign:

    The Swift Boat BS is a trick play run in the Super Bowl. Everyone knows about it now. You can’t just bust it out again and expect it to work the same way.

    I’ll tell you why.

    1.    9/11 was 23 years ago, and the fear of a 9/11 world that existed in 2004 doesn’t bleed into everything anymore. As much as I wish national security motivated voter behavior like it once did, it doesn’t. (And if it did it would be muey bad for the guy who saluted the North Koreans and will do anything to sit next to Putin in the school cafeteria, but I digress.)

    2.    John Kerry’s campaign was substantially reliant on his strength as a decorated Vietnam Veteran, and therefore his credibility to take on W was vulnerable to any attack – no matter how unfair and slanderous – on his military record.

    3.    While I and many others admire John Kerry for his courage to come home and speak out against the Vietnam War, it was deeply polarizing to his own generation of veterans, and that resentment among some of his fellow veterans had been building toward him for decades by the time he ran in 2004.

    4.    Kerry had been reluctant to release his military records. Tim Walz has been totally forthcoming and honestly I bet the dude would turn over his dental records, his step counter, and his screen time metrics if you asked.

    5.    2004 was a different world, man. Anyone who questioned whether we should be in Iraq was said to be against the troops and even though W avoided Vietnam and had less than stellar attendance at his Air Guard unit, even an icon like Dan Rather had to resign after pursuing that story. I mean, the Dixie Chicks got canceled, and the Dixie Chicks are incredible!

    6.    Tim Walz has released all his records, been very candid about what he did and didn’t do in the military, and has broad support from those he served with. Also, he’s running for Vice-President, not President, and it seems to me his time as a teacher, a coach, and a Governor is more central to his political identity and qualifications than his 24 years of service in the National Guard (which is admirable and impressive in and of itself by the way).

    7.    Kerry was actively criticizing his opponent’s military record and inviting the world to decide the campaign at least in part based on the comparison. I have never heard either Kamala Harris or Tim Walz or any Democrat for that matter attack JD Vance’s military record. I served in Afghanistan with the Army, and it would never occur to me to criticize JD Vance’s service. Nor would Tim Walz ever do so. Vance served for 4 years and deployed to Iraq. Walz served for 24 years and was deployed to Europe to support active duty units deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan (back then, prior to the optempo taking a toll on the active component, this is what the Guard was mostly doing at first). They should both be proud, and I’m sure that’s exactly how Tim Walz feels about it.

    8.    We’ve learned a lot since 9/11, and one of the things we’ve learned is the danger of “gatekeeping” military service. At a time when suicide among veterans who served in combat zones and veterans or active duty troops who didn’t are both far too high, we’ve learned that reenforcing the inclination veterans have to compare their service to others and then think less of themselves … is dangerously harmful. I’m not kidding when I say we’ve learned that talking about Tim Walz the way JD Vance has been doing might actually do a lot of harm to the millions of servicemembers who completed their service without being deployed to a combat zone. It’s a dangerously cynical game and JD Vance knows better.

    In conclusion: This attack isn’t about directly hurting the Harris/Walz ticket with actual voters. It’s a decoy, a running back throwing a pass or a punter throwing to a lineman. They’re counting on the media’s limited knowledge of how the military works to slow momentum and indirectly make voters think there’s a scandal.

    There isn’t.
    (https://x.com/JasonKander/status/1821643867063775613?t=4PN8ODq2id2TUwx3NJ0VlA&s=03)

  17. 17.

    Suzanne

    I saw something on Xhitter that has been kind of stuck in my craw for the last couple of days: there’s some supposition — nothing more than that — that TFG has PTSD from the shooting in Butler. I wonder if that’s true. Would possibly explain the extreme tired look, the lack of campaigning.

  18. 18.

    Scout211

    I could not watch the Trump smear fest yesterday so I’m catching up on the lowlights this morning (and in comments yesterday).

    I was amused when I read that Trump really botched the tired Kamala/Willie Brown smear from ancient history. He made it about him.

    Asked by a reporter about Vice President Kamala Harris’ previous relationship with Brown and whether it helped her career trajectory, Trump said he knew Brown “very well” and told a story about the alleged helicopter incident.

    “I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing,” Trump told reporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for his first news conference since the Democratic ticket was announced.

    “This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was, he was a little concerned. So I know him, I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years,” Trump continued.

    Brown, however, rejected Trump’s account as “obviously wrong” during a phone call later Thursday with CNN, saying: “I’ve never been in a helicopter with him in my life.”

    “He is trying his best to get some way to degrade Kamala,” the former mayor also said of Trump and his Democratic rival for the presidency. “There is no reason why her name ought to be mentioned anywhere near his lies, period.”

    . . .
    The New York Times reported Thursday that the former president apparently confused Willie Brown with former California Gov. Jerry Brown, with whom he toured wildfire damage by helicopter in November 2018.

    A spokesperson for Jerry Brown told the Times that “there was no emergency landing and no discussion of Kamala Harris.”

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who also toured the wildfires in 2018 as governor-elect, said of Trump’s account, “I call complete B.S.,” according to the Times.

    “I was on a helicopter with Jerry Brown and Trump, and it didn’t go down,” Newsom told the Times, saying that Trump repeatedly brought up the possibility of crashing.

    I wish these fact-checks could be immediate, but at least the media is actually fact-checking, sort of.

  21. 21.

    Ken

    If the Republicans want to bring up military service, there is one candidate who was old enough for the Vietnam draft….

  22. 22.

    rusty

    In the overnight thread there was a discussion about Trump quitting.  Will never happen.  He is using campaign funds to pay his lawyers (I have no idea how this is ok, but I guess it is).  If he quits, then he has to pay the lawyers himself, so he will ride this as long as he can.  If he loses he is incented to challenge the results just so he can continue to use campaign funds for his private legal problems, so with a loss (please god!), expect him to challenge right up to the inauguration to keep the cash flowing.

  23. 23.

    Ken

    @Suzanne: Flashbacks to his post-COVID “I could have been one of the diers” moment, maybe?

    (And how dare spell-check underline “diers”. The Orange One himself used the word, and if anyone can claim the mantle of Humpty-Dumpty….)

  24. 24.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @rikyrah:

    networks were busy letting trump lie his ass off.

    I am of the ‘Letting people see Trump directly rather than hearing what the press says he says is a good thing’ mentality.  In 2016 he was much more coherent and pretended to be more moderate outside of his rallies.  In 2024 undecideds hear him and think “Hitler must be stopped.”

  28. 28.

    Scout211

    @Baud: None of those Twitter videos are playing. They are lagging.  Bandwidth issues at X?

    They all play for me and I have slow internet.

    Oh, I see that it’s fixed for you now.

  29. 29.

    matt

    If you’re a Democrat and you serve in the military, Republicans will happily spit on you.

  30. 30.

    suzanne

    @MattF: Yeah, exactly. Like, the crazy and nonsensical seem to be ramping up rapidly. We know the guy is a germaphobe, and doesn’t exercise because he thinks it’s bad for him or something. It actually seems at least plausible.

  31. 31.

    JML

    I would actually like someone to fund Willie Brown a nice vacation in Fiji with no phones or internet until after the election, though. Last thing we need is him deciding that he can make a little cash dishing on his relationship with MVP Harris from 30-odd years ago. He’s a washed-up hack and needs to go away quietly and stay in retirement where he belongs.

  32. 32.

    p.a.

    Should be in an open thread, but I’ll be out & about for a while: some curious intertube/facebook? occurrences.  Both have happened multiple times.

    I’m using iPad/safari, & when I go to post to fbook (friends only, not public) the process is tap the square with the up-pointing arrow, chose my send/post target.  Just mentioning this so it’s clear I’m not trying some incorrect procedure.

    Posting to my fbook page from TPM, if and only if the article is Republican anti-abortion shenanigans, the page flashes less than a second and drops before I can post.  Has happened numerous times.  If I copy the TPM url and then paste it on my fbook page, it posts.

     

    New Deal Dem’s bonddad econ blog: I post his work to fbook occasionally.  Usually successful.  Several times, not sure any of the articles were on specific topics, fbook automatically and immediately denies the post as (paraphrasing) spam and an attempt to get likes.  Attempt to get likes?  I’m posting to friends, not public, and I have less than a dozen!  I’m basically only on fbook for restaurants, theaters, & other arts.  Happened yesterday trying to post his “good unemployment stats ex-hurricane” article.

    🤔

  34. 34.

    New Deal democrat

    I am going to be a *little bit* of a Debbie Downer here.

    I think the Harris/Walz team is repeating the mistake John Kerry made in 2004, being too passive in the face of dishonest attacks that are repeated over and over (and amplified by the milquetoast political press).

    Imo, Walz in particular needs to attack there hit pieces head on and hard, in three prongs:
    1. Flaying the dishonesty (girls start menstruating as early as age 10; the tampons are being provided in schools for them, a good thing. Nothing in the act requires that boys be provided them, and school districts aren’t. Walz put in for retirement, and was granted retirement, months before his unit got any orders to deploy.)
    2. Use the opportunity to list all the good things you’ve done, like providing free school lunches for all children.
    3. Attacking the GOP for how low and dishonest the attacks are, together with “Is *this* the best you got??? These obviously disprovable lies??? Every American should take note that for any future attacks how false their first attacks were.”

    Since the press has also reverted to their 2016 form of granting Trump $$$millions in free air time, go out of your way to pick a fight with them about it. The public doesnn’t like the press, and attacking them – especially when it is warranted – is a winner.

  35. 35.

    Quinerly

    @Scout211:

    I am glad this is getting some press. It was so ridiculous sounding yesterday when he was babbling about it. Morning Joe has spent some time on it this AM. WaPo has a piece up too.

  36. 36.

    oldgold

    Of all the questions that could be asked of Trump, they ask him about Kamala Harris’ previous relationship with Willie Brown?

    Nothing about taking Egyptian money, his upcoming sentencing, his military deferments, his hysterical overreaction to Monday’s minor and temporary market correction?

    Just a pathetic performance by the press.

  38. 38.

    catclub

    @rikyrah: Kerry had been reluctant to release his military records. Tim Walz has been totally forthcoming and honestly I bet the dude would turn over his dental records, his step counter, and his screen time metrics if you asked.

     

    Time to start demanding Trump’s tax records. Past time.

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    @Suzanne: The multidimensional combover is more disheveled these days too, which is probably a tell for the orange fart cloud’s mental state since he’s admitted in the past he “styles” himself. In past years, you could clearly see the comb marks in each layer, which held even in a stiff breeze because individual layers were sprayed down. Now the hair on top is sort of arranged into a teased bouffant without clear definition.

  43. 43.

    New Deal democrat

    @p.a.: Hey, first of all thanks for the reposting! (Since I am not on any social media).

    Interesting that you mention yesterday’s post, because about 4 hours after I posted it a Wall Street firm ran with the same story (i.e., that the big recent increase in jobless claims was provably an artifact of temporary layoffs in Texas due to Hurricane Beryl). Gee I wonder where they got that idea?

  44. 44.

    Eolirin

    @Scout211: Trump really is just doing word association now isn’t he? He’s not actually processing the questions or what’s being said around him, he’s just latching onto a word and going into a rant.

    That this is being treated as normal is insane.

  45. 45.

    TS

    @rikyrah:

    because networks were busy letting trump lie his ass off.

    Lawrence showed it all last night, complaining about the media putting their thumb on the scale for trump. Relatively short and to the point, it was a great speech. Would have taken 10 minutes away from trump’s drivel if there was a political media capable of following the democratic candidate as well as the weird old fool.

  46. 46.

    suzanne

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve also seen some supposition that he’s on Ozempic and that he’s developing Ozempic face.

    Whatever is happening, it’s definitely showing up in his generalized appearance.

  49. 49.

    Ken

    @suzanne: doesn’t exercise because he thinks it’s bad for him or something

    IIRC, he thinks you have a certain amount of exercise you can do during your life, and die when it’s used up.

  51. 51.

    M31

    I love how when Don Jr posts a gross meme about Walz, everyone thinks that Don Jr is gross, and when internet rando (hallowed be thy name) posts a gross meme about Vance, everyone thinks Vance is gross

  53. 53.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @SiubhanDuinne: It is. He is on that channel every day, being the “good” Democrat feeding the media’s preferred narratives.

    Definitely a he knew what he signed up for type situation.

  55. 55.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: Can you imagine being in a combat unit and one of the people you depended on for your survival was Shady Vance? There’s no shame in being an office worker, but I wonder if there’s more to it than that with this guy.

  57. 57.

    3Sice

    That was a lot of blood for a nick. Thinners, so maybe he had a stent installed. I could see long covid keeping him from his adoring fans, or maybe cancer treatments.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @oldgold:

    Of all the questions that could be asked of Trump, they ask him about Kamala Harris’ previous relationship with Willie Brown?

     
    Agreed. Wonder if that question was posed by right wing media or mainstream media.

  59. 59.

    Eolirin

    Also, I really hate that people are taking individual polls at face value especially when they’re showing outlier levels of demographic support.

    I really don’t think we’re going to see Harris get 46% of the white vote (if that happens we definitely take NC and GA, and maybe Florida. Texas might be close enough that Allred can beat Cruz if he outperforms Harris by a couple of points. I’m not holding my breath). It was always implausible that Trump was going to get 30% of the black vote, etc.

    The most likely explanation if a poll is showing you an odd, ahistorical, result is that the poll is wrong. Polls are extremely error prone. Sometimes there is a real shift, but that should show up in more places and be borne out by other measures as well.

  61. 61.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @New Deal democrat: Since the press has also reverted to their 2016 form of granting Trump $$$millions in free air time,

    And it’s 2024 and Trump is babbling loon now.

  64. 64.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @rusty: He can’t quit. This election is existential for him personally in a completely different way than how it’s existential for the nation as a whole. If he wins, America dies; if he loses, there’s a significant chance he’ll die in prison, and even if he doesn’t, his self-image will be shattered in a way that’s probably non-recoverable for a decompensating demented narcissist like him (the word “demented” was chosen very carefully here).

  65. 65.

    Ken

    @Betty Cracker: a teased bouffant without clear definition.

    His hair as a metaphor for his brain, huh? I like it. Works well with trying to conceal his hair loss.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @suzanne:

    doesn’t exercise because he thinks it’s bad for him or something.

    I have a vague memory that he once said something about having a fixed number of heartbeats allotted and if he does anything that brings his heart rate up he’s rushing through his predetermined quota and will die sooner. Something like that.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    @oldgold:

    Nothing about trump taking Egyptian money, his upcoming sentencing, his military deferments, his hysterical overreaction to Monday’s minor and temporary market correction?  Just a pathetic performance by the press.

    110%. Unbelievably pathetic.  No, wait…it’s quite believable at this point.  Pathetically pathetic is more like it.

  71. 71.

    Starfish

    @p.a.: Are you posting just the link for that last thing, or are you posting text with the link?

    If you are posting just a link, that is doing stuff that lazy spammers do so see if writing some text with it helps.

  72. 72.

    Starfish

    @New Deal democrat: You know, I never knew what the “Tampon Tim” thing was about. I just shrugged and thought Republicans were weird.

    They are attacking him because he passed a rule about keeping backup menstrual products in school offices so kids don’t get sent home from school for being poor? Damn, that is low.

  73. 73.

    SFAW

    @NotMax: Don’t have time to watch the whole thing right now. But one thing I noticed in LOD’s semi-rant was that he said the MSM hasn’t learned from their mistake(s) in 2016 (re: Trump coverage/idolatry). I think he’s wrong: they’re doing it on purpose,

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    David Firestone of the Times sums up yesterday’s gonzo presser quite well here:

     

    The Darkness on the Edge of Trump

    In a forbidding and deliberately frightening news conference on Thursday, Donald Trump took listeners on what sounded like a tour of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mordor. But the fetid swamps and jagged mountains of the shadowy land that Donald Trump described were the streets of the United States under the Biden/Harris administration, all of which he suggested will grow more foul should the country’s people make the fatal mistake of electing Kamala Harris president instead of him. His list of the plagues facing America included:

    • “Both gangs on the street and frankly gangs outside of our country.”
    • “We could end up in a depression of the 1929 variety, which would be devastating.”
    • “We’ll be very close to a world war.”
    • “You have millions and millions of dead people and you have people dying financially because they can’t buy bacon. They can’t buy food, they can’t buy groceries, they can’t do anything. And they’re living horribly in our country right now.”
    • “Our country is right now in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint.”
    • Tim Walz “has positions that are just not even possible to believe that they exist. He’s going for things that nobody’s ever heard of. Heavy into the transgender world, heavy into lots of different worlds, having to do with safety.”

    The description of these evils was so over the top that it strongly suggested Trump had simply lost his bearings in the face of the surge of enthusiasm that has been unleashed by Harris and Walz, evident in their poll numbers, prolific fund-raising and overflowing rally crowds. Having lost his earlier lead over President Biden, Trump has been complaining about his campaign lately, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, and his frustration was evident in his attempt to simply scare the public into voting for him.
    He really lost it when a reporter asked him about the size of Harris’s crowds, frothing that she was getting crowds of 1,000 or 1,500 people (it was actually about 15,000 on Tuesday in Detroit) while he got a crowd on the New Jersey shore in May of more than 100,000, which even Fox News said was no more than 30,000. At one point, bizarrely and nonsensically, he claimed that his crowd on Jan. 6, 2021 (about 10,000 people, many of whom went on to trash the Capitol) was bigger than that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..’s March on Washington in 1963, which drew about 250,000.  Clearly the Harris rallies are getting to him.
    But most of all, he can’t stand the sense of joyful enthusiasm that Harris and Walz are bringing to their campaign. He can’t come to grips with the sunny optimism of his opponents, their laughter and energy as they sketch out plans for a brighter day. Lacking joy himself, all he can counter with is darkness and permanent rain.

  75. 75.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    No one could hear the question. I am gathering it was something about Brown helping her career. I still haven’t read who asked it.

    I go with what LOD said last night about the sound. It was on purpose that no one could hear the questions.

  76. 76.

    Another Scott

    @Scout211:

    Asked by a reporter …

    Which reporter? Which news outfit?

    The questions asked shape the coverage. Readers deserve to know who and what organization is shaping the coverage.

    Old man with narcissism and obvious signs of dementia who lies about everything, who tried to overthrow the government the last time he was in office, who has a fascist blueprint to destroy the Constitution, whose hand-picked SCOTUS says he cannot be prosecuted for anything if it was an “official act” (which they get to define), who loves dictators like Kim and VVP and wants to join their club, whose incompetence in office directly led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the US and millions around the world, etc., is asked about some 30 year old anecdote about his opponent.

    This is what’s important??!!

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @3Sice: If you are talking about trump’s ear, there are a lot of blood vessels in the ear, the body’s way of fighting frost bite.

  79. 79.

    Eolirin

    @Starfish: No, they’re attacking him because you can read the law as suggesting said menstrual products also be provided in the boy’s bathroom (even though the law doesn’t actually say this).

    It’s an attack on trans inclusion.

  81. 81.

    gene108

    @suzanne:

    We know the guy is a germaphobe

    He’s not a germaphobe. It’s an excuse for him to avoid coming into contact ordinary people.

    A true germaphobe wouldn’t have had sex with Stormy Daniels without a condom.

  85. 85.

    Lyrebird

    @rikyrah: Hard to describe how much I hate Jesse Watters and his work.  Not gonna click, but yikes the Fox News people really wanna party like it’s 1859.

    Gross.

  86. 86.

    Starfish

    @Eolirin: They provide menstrual products in bathrooms and don’t make kids do the walk to  the nurse’s office while bleeding where they are handed a giant pad that is cumbersome and does not fit properly?

  87. 87.

    SFAW

    @jonas:

    Well, after all, bacon is one of the four basic food groups. As well as being all seven-layers/strata of the “food pyramid” that the USDA publishes.

    ETA: Possible typo in my first sentence: it might actually be all of the four basic food groups. Yes, I like bacon. What of it?

  88. 88.

    Eolirin

    @Starfish: Yep!

    And if Walz and the Minnesota legislature weren’t also going out of their way to be trans inclusive this wouldn’t be getting talked about at all.

  89. 89.

    jonas

    @oldgold: Just a pathetic performance by the press.

    You act as though their job is to ask relevant questions about key issues of the day so as to better elucidate a candidate’s thinking for the public, where as they see their job as getting to the bottom of the ever-important boxers vs. briefs matter.

  91. 91.

    Trivia Man

    @Scout211: perfect opportunity for new memes! a helicopter is a good, simple, understandable visual fr a cartoonist. Endless possibilities! Highlight his irrational fear of normal things (We are going to crash! in a normal trip), terrible memory (Willie somebody… what’s the difference?), and compulsive liar.

    If I could draw – outside the drug store is a helicopter ride with t on it. Screaming WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE hanging on for dear life.

  92. 92.

    hueyplong

    It’s possible that the two consecutive weeks of ever-increasing optimism has led us to get a little sensitive to any hint of a return to the bullshit.  Today, it’s SwiftBoating, refusal to call bullshit on Trump’s MadLib ramblings, and just a general failure of the media to acknowledge that Trump is deteriorating before our eyes.

    I don’t think SwiftBoating matters this year.  People old enough to remember the first time have seen that act already, and the youngs don’t care.  It’s previously been tried against Walz without success.  Also, for once we’re not actually at war.  Kelly, someone with credibility, is already responding to the extent a response is needed.  That “issue” will probably earn a shrug from the populace.

    Trump’s MadLibs aren’t going to get better; they’re going to get worse.  Eventually it won’t matter if major papers are ignoring it.  Either it will get obvious enough for all, or Trump will be in seclusion and reduced to incoherent internet trolling that makes the covfefe post look like Coleridge.  The same with his physical appearance.  Posts have already noted the changes in his cotton candy combover, but there is other stuff, too.  The youngs all — all — know about Ozympic and its side effects.  At Trump’s age, going from overweight to being much, much thinner just makes him look feeble.  The previous, fatter Donald will look healthier by comparison.  It’s going to become a meme on TicTok and elsewhere and the NYT’s silence won’t matter.  Trump is going to do a slow-motion version of Christopher Lee being exposed to daylight in a Hammer Films Dracula pic and I’m here for it.

    Substantively, the election is Roe vs Dobbs, competence vs incompetence and criminality.  We win those.  It’s also young vs old, optimism vs hate, normal vs weird.  We win those, too.  The diversionary stuff isn’t as important.  But for those who worry, the campaign seems to be paying attention to the small stuff as well.

  94. 94.

    WereBear

    @Eolirin: With girls sports on weekends, the opposing team would get the boy’s section to themselves.

    Just put it in all the bathrooms. The boys will live on, unshriveled. Maybe more of them will go the drugstore and get some when needed.

  95. 95.

    bbleh

    @New Deal democrat: I half-agree, but only half.  The upside of engaging is that it pushes back, gets your “side of the argument” out there, gives you an opening to counterpunch.  The downside is, it spreads and to some extent validates their attack.  The question is which approach results in less NET damage to you.  And a big factor in that is whether and to what degree the media push back on the falsehoods on their own.  They can’t be DEPENDED on, certainly, but *IF* they decide to do so, then let them do it for a while, and pile on when and if you think it’ll help.  If they don’t, or don’t push soon or hard enough, or worse yet amplify it, then take it on.

    I dunno whether the time is yet ripe.  The early media reporting was bad for Walz, but now it seems they’re becoming a little more balanced.

  96. 96.

    Trivia Man

    @catclub: and Vance’s tax returns at the same time. I haven’t seen either mentioned yet by the press. The audit story won’t work – I bet a doughnut his new excuse is “I can’t release them while the court cases are still going on.”

  98. 98.

    Eolirin

    @WereBear: I agree, and it’s the sensible thing to do. I saw someone brought up poor kids being able to snag something for a family member that might need it as another benefit too.

    But the right is hyper fixated on bringing trans panic into everything, so here we are.

  100. 100.

    NotMax

    @WereBear

    Trivia:

    The nickname of former Congresscritter Tex Sensenbrenner derives from his family’s tampon business (Kotex).

  102. 102.

    Gvg

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think it was an attempt to support Trumps recent attacks on Harris for “turning black”, which is him not understanding multiracial identity. Since it’s a dumb attack, the support is kind of chaotic IMO. It’s such a dumb attack that most of his supporters don’t understand it but are trying anyway. They know about multiracial and are unable to see that Trump is more ignorant than they are.

  103. 103.

    jonas

    @SFAW: Ok, but he seems to imply that the inability to access bacon leads to financial ruin. Or something? The dude is losing it, bad.

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @hueyplong:

    It’s possible that the two consecutive weeks of ever-increasing optimism has led us to get a little sensitive to any hint of a return to the bullshit

     
    If true, then we’re idiots.

  105. 105.

    Eolirin

    @Baud: Yeah, we should never have gotten any less sensitive to the bullshit than we were before the two weeks of increasing optimism.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    The UAW speech really was good (the clip I watched)

    Sean Fain said on the Progressives for Harris call that Harris walked a picket line with UAW in 2019. I always forget there is more manufacturing in CA than anywhere else.

  109. 109.

    Gvg

    @gene108: that is a germaphobe that understood scientific germ theory. Trump makes up his own science and believes it. It doesn’t make real sense, but then a lot of phobias don’t in a pure sense.

  110. 110.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: I suppose it’s possible, because for most people that would be an extremely traumatizing event, and he cares about himself more than most people care about themselves.

  111. 111.

    Trivia Man

    @WereBear: there was a comment above from a woman who said “my brother had tampons in the bathroom because we shared a bathroom. He’s fine.” Same response for so-called transgender bathrooms. You mean like the one in your house?

  113. 113.

    Starfish

    @Trivia Man: I bet fear of helicopters is not that uncommon, especially after the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter

    Making fun of people may be the tone of the Trump campaign, but it is not the vibe that Harris and Walz are going for. They are doing their work, unbothered, and helping out where they can. It is amazing to see all the people who were under consideration for the VP position solidly supporting the final outcome. It let’s us know that they are serious about democracy being more important than petty nonsense.

  114. 114.

    TBone

    My inner curmudgeon approves:

    U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) announced Wednesday they were investigating Kroger’s use of electronic price labels on shelves to see if they were engaging in surge pricing.
    Called, “electronic shelving labels” Kroger and other grocers introduced the technology in the past decade to save labor costs of changing paper price tags on shelves. In a Monday letter to Kroger’s CEO Rodney McMullen, the senators expressed concern that the technology could be exploited to gouge customers and increase prices during peak shopping times.

    https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2024/08/08/senators-question-whether-kroger-uses-shelf-tech-for-surge-pricing/74721422007/

     

  115. 115.

    Soprano2

    @Scout211: So what would the headlines have been a month ago if Biden had mixed up Willie Brown and Jerry Brown? There won’t be any headlines about TCFG doing it, or any breathless speculation that it means he obviously has dementia and must step down from the Republican nomination.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    If you didn’t watch the Trump press conference – watch it. I know media have cleaned it up (gross and biased herd behavior, as usual) but ignore them and watch it like you’re a normie. There’s something (new) wrong with him. People will see it.

  119. 119.

    Quinerly

    @Eolirin: as I recall it was mixed in with the babble on the price of bacon. He launched into something about Biden depleting all our oil strategic reserves.

  120. 120.

    Trivia Man

    @NotMax: I am a footnote to this footnote. I ran for congress against Tex and heard that story on the trail. Spoiler: I lost.

  121. 121.

    Soprano2

    @Frankensteinbeck: “Morning Edition” mostly talked about what he said, and only played one extremely short clip of what he said. They did say it was disorganized chaos, or something similar, so there’s that. I don’t expect them to theorize about his mental status based on it though, for some reason with him they don’t want to go there.

  123. 123.

    Jeffro

    I thought this was funny, too: trump just can’t get over what happened to President Biden

    At a news conference in Florida, Mr. Trump said “the presidency was taken away from Joe Biden” by a cabal of Democrats including Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris.

    To hear former President Donald J. Trump tell it, he has just been heartsick over all that has happened to poor old President Biden these past few weeks.
    “The presidency was taken away from Joe Biden,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thursday afternoon. “I’m not a fan of his, as you probably have noticed. He had a rough debate. But that doesn’t mean that you just take it away like that.”

    It has been 18 days since the 46th president was shoved aside by his own party, and the 45th president has yet to get over it. He agonized on Mr. Biden’s behalf, telling a tale of treachery perpetrated against him by former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and, most of all, Vice President Kamala Harris.

    Recounting how Ms. Harris had attacked Mr. Biden in a Democratic primary debate in 2019 — “She was nasty with calling him a racist and the school bus and all of the different things” — Mr. Trump said Mr. Biden had made a grave mistake by choosing her as his running mate.
    “For some reason, and I know he regrets it — you do, too — he picked her,” Mr. Trump said. “And she turned on him, too. She was working with the people that wanted him out.” (Mr. Biden endorsed Ms. Harris for president 27 minutes after he dropped out of the race.)

    There was none of the usual, malicious glee in Mr. Trump’s voice as he rehashed all the drama. He told reporters that Mr. Biden was trying to “put up a good face” but that his exit from the race was “pretty severe” and “pretty horrible.”
    “I hate to be defending him,” Mr. Trump said, “but he did not want to leave. He wanted to see if he could win.”

    This sudden outpouring of sympathy for a man he recently called “a broken-down old pile of crap” was somewhat surprising.
    Perhaps there was some projection at play: Was the dismay Mr. Trump expressed for his erstwhile opponent really just dismay at the predicament in which he now finds himself?

    At certain points on Thursday, Mr. Trump’s ruminating on how Mr. Biden felt forced to forfeit power seemed maybe like a window into Mr. Trump’s own thinking. The idea of the former president ever voluntarily giving up a powerful position seems alien.

    (did any of my fellow HAMILTON fans start hearing “What Comes Next?” in the back of their minds after that last line?  LOL)

    Was he was speaking from experience when he said Mr. Biden was “not happy with any of the people that told him, ‘You’ve got to leave’”?
    “He’s a very angry man right now,” Mr. Trump said. “I can tell you that.”

    Yup.  Just completely seething day and night, Donnie.  Absolutely.

    LOLOLOL

  124. 124.

    rusty

    @SFAW: Coffee, coffee is my favorite food group, and bacon isn’t coffee.  (I’m a vegetarian but one of the greatest aromas in the world is still the smell of bacon cooking in the morning.  The smell of fresh coffee and bacon in the morning when camping is the best analogy of heaven I can imagine.)

  126. 126.

    Ken

    @SFAW: bacon might actually be all of the four basic food groups.

    Fat, salt, nitrates, burnt crunchy bits… you’re right!

  127. 127.

    Kay

    Trump has this new angry yet smarmy behavior where he includes media on his team “well, you saw it too” – things like that. It’s truly a new level of horrible. It has to be seen to be understood.

    This must be what he’s like when he’s trying to be ingratiating – it’s somehow worse then when he’s insulting.

  128. 128.

    Scout211

    O/T but interesting news from Paris.  In a stark contrast between the US healthcare system and socialized medicine, US Olympic athletes are  taking full advantage of free healthcare at the Olympic village.

    PARIS — Ariana Ramsey won an Olympic bronze medal with the U.S. women’s rugby team here last week. A few days later, something almost as exciting happened: She got a pap smear. For free.

    “Like, what?” she said in a post on TikTok describing her new discovery: The Olympic Village offers free healthcare.

    The United States, of course, does not. So in the days following her victory, Ramsey made appointments with the Village gynecologist, dentist and ophthalmologist. According to the Paris 2024 organizing committee, the Village also offers cardiology, orthopedics, physiotherapy, psychology, podiatry and, of course, sports medicine—all at no cost to the athletes. (Paralympic athletes will also have access to dermatology.)

    Ramsey came to Paris as a rugby player. She is leaving as a healthcare influencer. More than 135,000 people have watched her initial TikTok, and another of the half-dozen follow-up videos she has made has pulled in more than 570 views. That is fine with her. The more she thinks about it, the more frustrated she is that she’s so astonished by the concept.

    “That’s just America and their privatized healthcare system,” she laments in an interview, adding, “I’ll fight for universal healthcare.”

    . . .

    Because the U.S. is one of three countries whose elite athletes receive no government funding, athletes know that they need to find opportunities to build their brands to try to earn enough money to continue competing. Ramsey, for example, came to the Olympics planning to focus on both rugby and making videos, because, she says, “The only other job for women in sports, really, is social media.”

    So the ease of the Village system has been enlightening. Ramsey has 20/20 vision, but sometimes her eyes blur at night. The doctor gave her glasses. At her teeth cleaning, they did an X-ray. She paid for none of it. “They really go above and beyond,” she says.

    All this means that athletes are beginning to adjust their plans after competition is over. Instead of going to Disneyland, skateboarder Steven Piñeiro, representing Puerto Rico, says, “I’m gonna go to the dentist.”

  130. 130.

    Soprano2

    @New Deal democrat: I agree that they should hit back hard and fast and not let up on the attacks back. You can’t depend on the press to report your side of the story, you have to make them report on it based on what you say. Walz needs to change his stump speech to do all of what you say, and they’ll be forced to report on it. Plus doing that whenever he’s interviewed whether they bring it up or not. Don’t let this impression be made with the voters. We think the attacks sound stupid, but we’re politics followers, not normal people.

  132. 132.

    NotMax

    @TBone

    No sh*t. Posted a link here a few weeks ago which included a quote from a proponent which flat out said it allows stores to instantly increase prices on hot days on stuff like bottled water and ice cream.

    That particular article also included the nugget that the price labels could be changed “by employees” as fast as every ten seconds.

  134. 134.

    Another Scott

    @Soprano2: The press doesn’t want to make any conclusions these days (“Sun rises in the East?  Opinions differ!”).

    PPP and similar outfits should be doing relentless polling on TCFFG’s statements and actions, and pushing the results.

    The press loves, loves polls.  “Numbers are objective!  We can’t be accused of ‘liberal bias’ by reporting numbers!!  Give me more numbers!!11ONE”

    In a new poll, 73% of likely voters think that TCFFG is dangerous and would not allow their minor children or grandparents to be alone with him.  TCFFG said that American voters are dangerous and he will take vengeance.  Back to you Ailsa!

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  135. 135.

    Soprano2

    @oldgold: I agree, my respect for the press has dropped A LOT since TCFG came onto the scene. I’m not sure they could make it more obvious that they want him back as president. They babble about asking “the hard questions”, then when they get an opportunity to do that with TCFG they don’t. Did they ask even one question about the other cases against him, or about his upcoming sentencing on 34 felony counts?

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: I think it’s along the lines of what I alluded to earlier in the thread (#74) and just now (#123)…he has come completely undone by the combination of President Biden leaving the race (so, no cakewalk, no revenge, no automatic get-out-of-jail free) and VP Harris/Gov Walz doing so incredibly well (so, a black woman is kicking trump’s ass once again, and doing so joyfully)

    He’s cracking up.  His over-the-top rhetoric (per that piece at #73) is beyond anything he’s ever tried to pull before.  You’d think the planet was about to blow up, like Krypton, according to trump!

  137. 137.

    Gvg

    @Jeffro: OH. He is thinking of the 25th amendment! Now he wonders if those around him are just using him and will depose him after he wins. Goody. I hope so.

    All his former aids who are now urging republicans to vote for Harris could encourage paranoia too.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    100% valid criticism. The NYTimes cleaned it and literally turned it into a policy speech – 3 minutes where he said “Left, Left she’s on the Left nobody has seen anything like it, well, you saw it .”

    Then he forgot Walz’s name. Then he forgot the word “man”. They’re all hacks.

  139. 139.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: He may be starting to worry that two days after he’s sworn in, there will be a freak “accident” with an exploding sharpie and, viola! President Vance.

  140. 140.

    NotMax

    @Ken

    Count me out. Don’t care for the stuff at all, the lone exception being German’style potato salad.

    Diff’rent strokes and all that.

  142. 142.

    Geminid

    @Quinerly: Joe Biden did deaw down the strategic Oetroleum Reserve when oil prices surged acouple years ago. I beleive tge administration has made a couple limited purchases to refill it since. Each time the federal government turned a nifty profit. They can do that again next month if they want to generate some positive news.

    The U.S. is now the world’s top oil producer by a wide margin over Russia and Saudi Arabia, so a topped-off Reserve is not as important as it was a a couple decades ago. Still, Republicans like to gripe about the Reserve so maybe Biden will show them up with another partial refill.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    What shocks me about the coverage is they’re adding words. Not adding words in a quote (too obvious) but adding words in analysis.

    A barbed critique of Left wing ideology – what? He said “Left, Left, trans” eleven times in a row. It’s no longer cleaning up- now they create an alternate fantasy press conference with a normal candidate.

  144. 144.

    TBone

    @NotMax: I remember that (I bitched about it at the time) and it’s why my hackles are raised.  I’m glad the scam is still getting some press coverage and I love Senator Casey so could not resist.

    I seem to remember Walmart was (is) involved.

  145. 145.

    hueyplong

    @Quinerly: He himself sees it in his face.  Note how the orange cake is thicker and darker now.  Apparently he thinks that will better hide the deepening crevices on his face.

  146. 146.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro:  Lacking joy himself, all he can counter with is darkness and permanent rain.

    I think it’s even worse than that. It seems that he can’t feel happiness unless he’s hurting, people, so when he sees people who don’t like him feeling joy it makes him want to hurt them even more. It’s gross.

  147. 147.

    geg6

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Completely agree.  Anecdotally, it’s what the normies in my life have been saying, almost incredulously.  That they’ve forgotten how bad the vibe of this guy is and how it’s even worse now than before.  Even a couple of nominally Republican (aka, non-MAGA) co-workers have commented on it.

  149. 149.

    BR

    @Kay:

    As one reporter pointed out, NYT reporters have their email addresses in their profiles and they do read emails even if they won’t reply. That reporter encouraged ordinary people to work the refs and send in their thoughts on individual articles.

  150. 150.

    Jeffro

    @Gvg: he might be thinking of that, but I bet the prospect of flat-out losing (and to her especially) is top of mind.

    Win, and he can keep firing people at the slightest whiff, real or imagined, of treachery.  He can self-pardon and no one can stop him, and the massive grift resumes & continues until his dying day.

    Lose, and he potentially spends his final years in prison.  No riches, no power, no adoring crowds.  America’s greatest loser.

  151. 151.

    JCJ

    @Baud:   Ha ha.  That is what I thought when you wrote “google Sisi” – I thought maybe you were planning a group trip to Vienna

  153. 153.

    Kay

    Trump telling us we all face a dark and catastrophic future under a …guy whose name he can’t remember just doesn’t pack the same punch.

  154. 154.

    catclub

    @Ken: he thinks you have a certain amount of exercise you can do during your life, and die when it’s used up.

     

    This is actually interesting. It was put as “your heart has a finite total number of beats, and once you use them up, it stops.” Unlikely to be true.

    HOWEVER, if you do exercise and lower your resting heart rate, you will extend your life by this theory.

  155. 155.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2:It seems that [trump] can’t feel happiness unless he’s hurting people

    that, or being flattered by his inner circle, or being adored by his beloved MAGA rally crowds

    truly psycho stuff

  156. 156.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    He’s not quitting because…jail.

    He’ll never see the inside of a cell but he’s scared shitless of that possibility nonetheless.

    He’s simply running another of his legal “run out the clock” tactics he’s been doing for decades.

    We’ve mused about who comes after Felonious D, how they won’t be able to “keep the nutjob base”, etc.  I’m not so sure it’ll be that hard plus every Never Trumper will faithfully go back to being a RWNJ.

  157. 157.

    Quinerly

    @Jeffro:

    I will lay odds he won’t make it to election day. Or if he does, there will be something* that happens with him that will deliver us a Kamala landslide.

    *he says the N word, the C word, collapses, or does something so bizarre the press can’t ignore. I feel it in my bones. Trump is going to implode. It’s coming.

    And remember 9/18 is just around the corner.

  160. 160.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: That’s what I mean, there won’t be any reaction to him doing that AT ALL. Their reaction to anything TCFG does it “It’s TCFG, that’s how he is, what can we do?”

  161. 161.

    Kay

    @BR:

    I know you watched it. Has to be experienced to be understood. I’ll be honest – I was thrilled. I think he’s a wholly malicious and negative force and I think it’s great that whatever happened to him makes it harder to obscure that. He’s Bad News. The cultists, like the NYTimes, will create a fantasy press conference but any normie watching that sees it.

  163. 163.

    catclub

    I will repeat my rhetorical question:
    If Kamala Harris said this to the press: “If you asked me about the peaceful transition of power and instead I told you that I had the greatest crowds and mine on January 6th was even bigger than at ML King’s speech at the March on washington, How crazy would you think I am?”

    What would happen?

  164. 164.

    NotMax

    Wee hours fumble fingering strikes again. Fix.

    @TBone

    And when a hacker manages to infiltrate the system and reduce the price of every item to a nickel….
    ;)

  165. 165.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    No. I know. But I can’t keep making the same observation about the media for years on end. I know we need to because so many libs still don’t get it, but it does become tedious.

  167. 167.

    Quinerly

    @Geminid:

    Yes. I remember. As an aside, I heard some MSNBC pundit in the background while I was in the yard late yesterday say that when Trump was talking “policy” about oil and the reserves in that presser he was “at his best.”

  168. 168.

    catclub

    @Quinerly: ​
     

    I will lay odds he won’t make it to election day.

    Not me. I took that bet in 2016 between the end of the primaries and the conventions. and lost.

  169. 169.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Quinerly: There is literally nothing he could do. He was right about Fifth Avenue. He’s been musing fondly about Hannibal Lecter. If he appeared on national television naked and announced he was going to eat everyone’s firstborn baby, he’d still get 45%

    Predictions that he was going to drop out or stroke out were rife in 2016. Didn’t happen.

  170. 170.

    catclub

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    Their reaction to anything TCFG does it “It’s TCFG, that’s how he is, what can we do?”

    That is why my rhetorical question.

  171. 171.

    Suzanne

    @gene108: That’s bringing rational thinking to an irrational habit of mind. He’s known to be at least somewhat “weird” about germs. I agree that he doesn’t behave in coherent ways about it, but I do think he’s displayed phobic tendencies about infections.

    Anyway, I have been thinking more about the potential for a trauma response to the shooting. The wheels are definitely coming off the guy. Even more than expected.

  172. 172.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    In 2024 undecideds hear him and think “Hitler must be stopped.”

    Exactly.  I spent a year dealing with the “Trump of Denver with all the associated psychological issues”, an asshole developer (who even the City’s notoriously tight asshole developer community hate) on an historic preservation battle.  That description is from a former City Council person.

    We learned that with the press, he could prattle on endlessly, not unlike the Orange Fart Cloud, but they’d edit him down for written and televised media so that he didn’t come across as the loony asshole he is.

    But it worked to our advantage in public meetings in front of commissions and City Council where he’d spew nonsense and we’d look at each other and say “Please let this guy continue, he’s our best weapon”.  It also helped that when he’d lie (which was basically when he opened his pie hole), people were there to fact check and contradict him from the City side.

    Again, I learned up close and personal just how awful people like that are and when allowed to go unedited when they’re being unhinged, damn that’s powerful stuff.  Keep it coming without something like the Totebagger Radio filter.

    Another reason the media is an impediment.

  173. 173.

    hueyplong

    @Kay: “The cultists, like the NYTimes, will create a fantasy press conference but any normie watching that sees it.”

    Sadly, not 100% sure that any normies watch press conferences.

    The good news is that if they do, it will probably be in October, when we expect Trump to be even more incoherent than now.

  174. 174.

    Quinerly

    @danielx:

    It was a little flat yesterday. Looked like that ferret had spent a lot of time frozen flat in RFK Jr’s roadkill freezer. Under a bear cub.

    Ferret needed a fluff before being arranged on his head.

  176. 176.

    NotMax

    @Soprano2

    Their reaction to anything TCFG does it “It’s TCFG, that’s how he is, what can we do?”

    Call it out as the bullsh*t it is. Repeatedly. Every goddam time.

  178. 178.

    Kay

    Garrett Haake

    @GarrettHaake

    14h

    Here’s my full exchange with former President Trump on mifepristone. I understand the questions at today’s news conference were very hard to hear.

    This was the only good question. A completely ordinary policy question. Trump has no idea what mifepristone is. If they had asked him questions like this since 2015 he would be gone. Ask him what NAFTA stands for, ask him what HUD does, ask him about EMTALA. He doesn’t know what any of it is.

  183. 183.

    Quinerly

    @Matt McIrvin:

    8-9 years makes a big difference once you hit 70. He is under probably the most mental and physical stress in his entire life. I won’t even speculate about what medications he is on. And whether he is abusing them. He eats crap. There are reasons he is hunkered down and hasn’t left Florida…..and not campaigning.

    We’ll see.

    If he gets 45%, isn’t  that a landslide for us?

  184. 184.

    Ivan X

    @rikyrah: same dude also called Trump’s press conference “flawless.” Flawless! Flawless. Without flaw! That guy’s jaw must be tired. But, even better that he just outs himself as a straight racist with that hat BS.

  186. 186.

    Jeffro

    @Quinerly:I will lay odds [trump] won’t make it to election day.

    short of him actually keeling over dead, he’s going to make it to Election Day.  he HAS to run to stay out of prison, his failsons HAVE to keep him propped up or their whole grift/fortune goes kablooey, and his evil minions HAVE to stay all-in because no one else will give them the opportunity to harm the people they want harmed.

    Or if he does, there will be something that happens with him that will deliver us a Kamala landslide.

    Maybe there will be one thing that happens, but more likely he’ll just keep deteriorating steadily and turning more and more people off until the GOP is down to its hardest core.  Not 27% unfortunately – that’s what Fox is for, to prevent a total collapse – but even in the low 40%s that’ll be enough to produce a landslide.

    Biden 2020 + North Carolina gets us to 319 EVs.  After that, there’s not too much that can realistically be picked up – Texas?  Florida?  That one district in Maine?

    I’ll be interested to see if he loses it publicly and clearly enough that he outright calls for violence against his opponents and gets arrested for it.  I don’t want that to happen, but I don’t think he’ll be able to control himself as the walls close in.

  189. 189.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro: It sounds like Georgia and North Carolina are the main swing-ish states that have Trumpy election officials who might just nullify the vote. That makes the “southern route” harder and also makes a landslide less likely.

    I honestly think a Trump win is more likely than a Harris landslide. If we go to bed on Election Night thinking Harris is running away with it and wake up to find that Trump mysteriously won, I won’t be that surprised.

  190. 190.

    Jeffro

    Hakeem Jeffries’ Twitter account:

     

    House Democrats are fighting hard to lower costs, grow the middle class and defend freedom.

    Meanwhile. Can someone do a wellness check on the former President?

  193. 193.

    Kayla Rudbek

    Mr. Rudbek woke me up this morning with the news that there was a tornado watch. We had to go down to the basement and listen to the weather announcements for the all-clear.  And the governor of Minnesota is running for VP – I felt like I was a kid again. Although the local weather announcers here in Northern Virginia don’t hold a patch on WCCO or KSTP.

  194. 194.

    oldgold

    Has any explanation been given as to why Trump has remained in Florida this summer as opposed to moving up to New Jersey as he has done for many years?

  197. 197.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    If you only read the celebrity “prestige” reporters on that press conference you would have no idea what actually happened during it. Jeffries is right. It was that bad.

  198. 198.

    Geminid

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I think the one thing certain about the aftermath of a Trump defeat is that there will be one hell of a lot of recriminations flying around the Republican Party.

    Party leaders will do well just to stave off the grudge-fest until after the election. They’ll try to because they still hope to salvage down-ballot candidates.

  199. 199.

    catclub

    @Jeffro: After that, there’s not too much that can realistically be picked up – Texas? Florida?

     

    Of course, those  would be amazing. Time for my perennial observation. If Obama wins 17% of the white vote in Mississippi in 2008, he wins.  he won 11%.

  203. 203.

    NotMax

    Wasn’t going to mention it, ascribing it to a one time glitch except have been receiving this message multiple times during the past several days when refreshing a page here.

    Error establishing a Redis connection

    To disable Redis, delete the object-cache.php file in the /wp-content/ directory.

  205. 205.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Quinerly: Trump at 45% would be a solid win for us, given the way the third-party candidates are polling. “Landslide” is a word I reserve for the kinds of wins Republicans got in the 1980s. That hasn’t happened since then.

    (Dukakis actually got 45.6% in 1988. But the electoral map was a beating on a level I can’t imagine happening to a Republican today.)

  206. 206.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jeffro: Don’t think in terms of an EC landslide.  Think in terms of an up and down the ballot landslide.   Retake the House, improve our margin in the Senate, recapture state legislatures, etc.   That’s the landslide goal.

  208. 208.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: That’s a lame excuse for Trump on twitter.

    He must have had pre-PTSD from before the shooting because he looked pretty damn awful before, and he was barely campaigning before.

  209. 209.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: yup

    I thought that Firestone piece was spot-on though…trump was so over-the-top with his comments that it’s like, “what planet are you on, sir?”  He was definitely describing Mordor.  I dunno…when I look out the window (or check my 401k, or read the latest jobs report, or…), I do not see Mordor.

  212. 212.

    Leto

    @rikyrah: I’ve spent some time thinking about how the campaign can respond to the attacks on Walz, without denigrating JV’s service, and I think I found one that does it and keeps a theme going:

    Both JD Vance and Tim Walz are 9/11 veterans who honorably served our country. But there’s a quality difference between the two. Selecting JD is similar to picking your best JV football player, while selecting Tim is calling up your most experienced NFL veteran. The differences are obvious.

    For the military members, we absolutely understand this. Junior enlisted (E3) versus senior enlisted (E9). For civilians, they should get the football reference. JV versus professional. And it’s a bit of an extra burn there too. Skipped past varsity, college, straight to NFL.

  213. 213.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly: I was using Matt’s referenced 45%.

    Obviously, no crystal ball here. I do think we are completely in unchartered territory. Who on June 9 would have predicted that Biden would step aside? That we as Democrats would transition to Harris with such ease? That our ticket would include a camo wearing veteran, ex football coach?

    Every day seems to bring something new.

  214. 214.

    Leto

    OT: Olympic break dancing starting now!!!!!

    Edit: first competitors they showed were the women from India and Afghanistan. The woman from Afghanistan is having to compete under the Refugee status. This is really cool.

  215. 215.

    BR

    We need big enough margins to prevent Fox News from being able to credibly present the election results as too close to call. That’s it. I think the best way to that outcome is a breadth of states, which it seems like the Harris campaign is doing. Because we don’t know which state election officials will go rogue yet, so we have to hedge our bets.

  216. 216.

    Geminid

    @Quinerly: My Atlanta friend suggested that if Trump decides to bail on hls campaign he’ll manufacture a medical emergency to justify it. That might save a little face, and JD Vance would book the “L” instead of Trump.

    I still think the more likely outcome is Trump staying in until Election Day, but a lot can happen in the next 12 weeks. I am starting to look at this as a Republican problem though, and not a national one.

  217. 217.

    Kay

    I tend to think the value of Dobbs is over rated in this cycle – I think it will help but no more than a lot of other things will help, but medication abortions are to me an underexplored topic and probably have the capacity to hurt Republicans in a whole new way. When we talked to women during the Ohio referendum younger women focused on medication abortions. It’s how they understand abortion – it’s 40% of all abortions and it means the abortion is early and the person who goes that route IMO values privacy and agency more than the average person. These are women who make their own decisions. Harris can’t go wrong telling them that Trump said in that press conference that he would be willing to ban medication abortions without Congress.

  218. 218.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Quinerly: I was using trump’s words.

    eta: tho for accuracy I should have left the “ex” out. trump still thinks he’s president.

  221. 221.

    Jeffro

    @Omnes Omnibus: Don’t think in terms of an EC landslide.  Think in terms of an up and down the ballot landslide.   Retake the House, improve our margin in the Senate, recapture state legislatures, etc.   That’s the landslide goal.

    good point – will do

    I’m excited about 2 months of NFLTG “Immune” Uncle Joe followed by a President Harris with House and Senate majorities might do.

    I think Tim Walz has been saying “we can sleep after the election” (or after we’re dead?)…we’re going to need to keep going like gangbusters after the election, too!

  224. 224.

    BR

    @Kay:

    Walz said as much during the UAW speech yesterday — that Trump would ban abortion without congress no matter what he says now.

  225. 225.

    Kay

    And of course using federal agency or executive action to effectively ban medication abortions means the ban operates in states that now allow abortion. She should say “in all 50 states”.

  227. 227.

    NotMax

    @Leto

    Break dancing is a sport?

    What a world, what a world.

    Bonus quote.
    “Sport, as I have discovered, fosters international hostility and leads the audience, no doubt from boredom, to assault and do grievous bodily harm while watching it. The fact that audiences at the National Theatre rarely break bottles over one another’s heads, and that Opera fans seldom knee one another in the groin during the long intervals at Covent Garden, convinces me that theatre is safer than sport.”
    – John Mortimer
    ;)

  231. 231.

    Kay

    @BR:

    Make a clip on just that – for social media – and use both the name of the drug and “medication abortion”. I would say “a federal ban – all 50 states” Dobbs blowback is fueled by women talking to other women. These women are younger and private. They have to pass it around their networks.

  232. 232.

    Leto

    @NotMax: that’s the same thought that I had! I read an article on how it got here, and apparently the World Dancing Federation wanted tango or salsa added, but the IOC was looking to bring in a younger audience. And I gotta tell you, so far this is really cool.

    OMG, the Australian woman breaker (they’re called breakers) has a damn PHD in breaking. She earned it from the University of Australia, where she also teaches on the subject. Like… whaaaaaa? Haha so cool!

  234. 234.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Kemp and Raffensperger wouldn’t go along with Trump’s scheme to negate Georgia’s presidential vote in 2020, They both won their 2022 primaries afterward, so I don’t see why they would help Trump out this year.

  235. 235.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    What shocks me about the coverage is they’re adding words. Not adding words in a quote (too obvious) but adding words in analysis.

     

    Why are you shocked. Just more of the gaslighting bullshyt in order to continue to normalize him. In order TO NOT report what is the obvious. Because, if they did,

    If they did him like they had done Joe Biden…

    This entire race would be over.

  237. 237.

    Leto

    @Matt McIrvin: they don’t, but if they feel they should this is simply another way to highlight a difference but without the perception of calling his service into question. Plus it’s another way to call him JV :)

  241. 241.

    rikyrah

    @Quinerly:

    *he says the N word, the C word, collapses, or does something so bizarre the press can’t ignore. I feel it in my bones. Trump is going to implode. It’s coming.

    He is definitely gonna call her the N word.

    And, he’s gonna try and stalk her like he did Hillary at the debate.

    And, the Vice President is SO not going to tolerate it.

    Not only that, she’ll fight back, and slice him up. Emasculate him, right on that stage, and that’s when he’s going to blow.

  242. 242.

    Jeffro

    only slightly off-topic: George Conway keeps talking about trump’s “Cluster B” of personality disorders, and I wasn’t familiar with the term, so I looked it up

    yup, he’s right!

    What Are Personality Disorders?
    A personality disorder is a mental disorder that’s caused by an unhealthy pattern of thought and behavior. People with personality disorders often struggle to interact with the world. Their disorder makes it hard for them to understand social situations and relationships.‌

    Clusters A and C. There are several “clusters” of personality disorders. Each cluster has different symptoms in common. Cluster A disorders are defined by “odd” thinking and behaviors like paranoia or a lack of emotional responses. Cluster C disorders are defined by anxious thoughts and behavior.

    Cluster B. Cluster B disorders involve unpredictable, dramatic, or intensely emotional responses to things. The four main cluster B disorders are: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic

    so…it’s pretty much “all of them, Katie”  The entire cluster.

    Thanks GOP!

  244. 244.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Saw a poll this week that has support for Florida’s Amendment 4 (codifying Roe) at 69%! As folks here probably know, FL requires a 60% supermajority to pass ballot amendments. DeSantis and the Christian nationalist weirdos who support him and Trump are lying about it nonstop, but that’s a strong level of support that necessarily includes a ton of Repubs and Indies. I’m not sure it will pass but feel hopeful.

  245. 245.

    Leto

    @Omnes Omnibus: they basically just had that song playing for these two women. Same beat, same rhythm. There were 300 songs approved for the competition, and they’re all selected randomly. That’s part of the difficulty for the competitors. They need to be able to adapt to the music that’s played.

    And because closed captions were enabled for the YouTube video, as soon as the first note was plucked, the caption “groovy rap music” popped up on the screen. Luuul

    Edit: for the next two competitors here, they have this Latin-Spanish infusion mix going. It’s good! People in the crowd head bobbin along with the music, cheering, having fun. Good stuff!

  246. 246.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro: The fact that NC was the only state I could even see as a plausible potential pickup in 2024 was the thing that made me nervous about this cycle from the beginning. It makes the path to winning narrow. There aren’t too many states the Democrats can afford to lose. We could get to a win without Georgia, to name the most likely loss of Biden’s 2020 states, but that’s basically it.

    The surge of enthusiasm for Harris makes it possible to dream about getting other states, but it’s hard to see the mechanism. They’re also likelier to have Republican election officials who will be an obstacle.

  247. 247.

    TerryC

    @oldgold: Agreed. It was pathetic. I kept waiting for one tough question.

    And what was with the lack of microphones for the reporters? Trump looked hard of hearing all night. Was it to keep reporters from making statements or does Mar-a-Lockup not have modern AV?

  249. 249.

    BR

    @rikyrah:

    I’ve watched Harris for two decades, and she really has risen to the occasion in such a way that even I’m surprised — she is now exuding confidence and command in every room she’s in. Whereas Trump is looking a bit frumpy and tired. The visual contrast at the debate will be of a future president vs a has been.

  251. 251.

    Kay

    @BR:

    She’s a much better messenger on abortion than Biden was. BJ’ers will get mad at me but I think it’s true. He could never really get past his religious training on it.

    Obama was excellent too. Obama chose this route where he focused on the agency and dignity of women that was like getting a drink of water after a long thirst. I used to tear up listening to him- it’s so nice to finally be understood.

  253. 253.

    CaseyL

    @catclub: ​

    I think that’s a reasonable question, but if Harris spends her press time talking about Trump, or responding to Trump, then she’s not using it talking about her plans, her governing philosophy, and what she will do as President.

    It’s the same problem as saying “Harris should respond to his lies in the debate” – NO. No she should not. She can and should say one thing – “He’s lying. If his lips are moving, he’s lying” – and that’s ALL.

    She should spend her time in the debate talking about what SHE will do, what SHE believes, and what HER ADMINISTRATION will be about.

    Responding to Trump makes this all about Trump.

  256. 256.

    Jeffro

    @Matt McIrvin: I’m going to think very positive and work very hard for the ticket while also noting that even if we a) don’t add NC and b) lose both GA and AZ from the Biden 2020 totals, we’re still at 276 EVs.

  258. 258.

    Leto

    Here’s an article on it: Everything you need to know for breaking’s Olympic debut

    At last, the B-boys of summer — and B-girls — are here, and they’re bringing their unique blend of dancing, gymnastics, and hip-hop culture to Paris. On August 9, breaking — don’t call it breakdancing — makes its hotly anticipated Olympics debut in the sport’s highest-profile moment to date.

    The entrance of breaking into the Olympics is a huge milestone for a sport and a dance style that has fought long and hard for social acceptance. After all, you don’t get to be an Olympic athlete without approaching a mindblowing level of physical stamina and ability. And when you match that with the level of agility required of great dancers, plus the heady competitiveness of a sport that was honed through street battles, you have the recipe for a truly unique, groundbreaking Olympic sport — and the mainstreaming of this American-born street dance on a whole new global level.

    What is breaking?

    To understand breaking, you have to understand the roots of hip-hop culture. On the sidewalks and back yards of the Bronx, where hip-hop was born in the late ’60s and ’70s, there were four main streams, or elements, of hip-hop artistry: DJ-ing, emceeing, graffiti art, and breaking. All of them evolved into cornerstones of contemporary mainstream culture. DJing is everywhere, from your average wedding to the megastars who play clubs and arenas, and has evolved further into producers who develop beats and sounds. Emceeing became more commonly known as rapping, which has evolved further into a varied and rich poetic language. Graffiti influenced modern art and pop aesthetics for decades and influenced “guerilla” art and other subversive underground art movements. It’s now a regular installation in museums and galleries and a crucial element of public art in urban areas. And breaking, growing alongside other related but individual street dance styles, became one of the most famous and popular dance forms around.

    Over the decades, breaking and other street dance styles have benefited from popular dance media like the Step Up franchise, K-pop and other popular Asian dance groups, and shows like Street Dance of China. Simultaneously, the rise of high-profile international street dance circuit competitions like Juste Debout and Red Bull’s annual BC One challenge have sent breaking and its associated culture on an ascendant trajectory that shows no signs of stopping.

  259. 259.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Wow. Ours never polled better than 60. Election was dead-on with the polling too, so that’s a good sign for you. There’s no comparison between Fl and OH though. There’s almost no commonality between the two states, IMO.

    It’s just that if referendums actually tracked candidate elections the United States would have been 60% D long ago. They don’t.

  262. 262.

    Leto

    @Quinerly: I didn’t see that, but I’ve seen where people are calling this the Snoop-Lympics because dude is basically everywhere! He’s been spotted at so many of the events, just hyping all the athletes, having the best time. Just the thought of that, along with breaking in the Olympics, are just so funny to me.

  263. 263.

    Quinerly

    @Kay:

    Biden could NEVER carry the abortion message. His faith got in the way. I always thought he got tripped up trying to discuss it.

    Obviously, a different story with Pelosi and the same faith.

    Edited to add…I love how Walz talks about abortion with such ease.

  264. 264.

    BR

    @Kay:
    Though it is an argument for Dems to bear hug the referendum in Florida and force the GOP to come out against it. Trump could surprise folks and come out for it if the polling is good enough, but my guess is he will just issue word salad statements on it.​

    And yeah, Harris is a really strong voice for reproductive freedom. It’s the one line in her stump speech that she says with such force and passion that it’s like she’s going to break the microphone.

  265. 265.

    NotMax

    @Leto

    They need to be able to adapt to the music that’s played.

    “All right, ‘fess up. Who’s the wisenheimer who sneaked Ave Maria into the mix?”
    :)

  267. 267.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    They were passing around someones internal Florida polling for a district that includes part of Miami – is that Dade county? Anyway – it was a good Latino number. Not enough to start winning FL again but better than it has been. We’ll see if more of that shows up.

  268. 268.

    TBone

    @Kayla Rudbek: we’re under the same, plus flash floods have inundated the strip of land between my house and neighbors.  Thank gawd the dirt guys showed up last week to complete the regrading we had done to reroute water away from our foundation/basement!  We won the water war in the nick of time!  It came down in literal sheets of rain.

    Celebratory 🎶

    https://youtu.be/odJEsYjcHbg

    All around apropos

  269. 269.

    Geminid

    @Kayla Rudbek: I heard about those tornado warnings when I was listening to WTOP* yesterday evening. There were also tornados in the Maryland suburbs last month. Those DC weather people are earning their pay this summer!

    * I can’t pull in WTOP’s home station, 103.5 FM, but their Fredericksburg transimitter comes in fine here at 107.7 FM; here being Greene County 50 miles to the west.

    WTOP is a good news source. They feature the CBS network news twice an hour, and national politics is local news for them. They have their own “Capitol Hill” and “National Security” correspondents who yak away about their news beats (although these might be shared with CBS).

  270. 270.

    BR

    I’m hoping that the normie “wine mom” world is still buzzing about Harris and that Walz adds to that buzz (because he comes across as a real ally), and that that there’ll be real volunteering that comes of it.

  271. 271.

    Kay

    @BR:

    Right. And IMO Florida still holds potential for Dems and Ohio really doesn’t.

    Marcy Kaptur used to say “Ohio has a choice” – we could have gone with MI and WI and MN or with IN and KY. We chose the second option. It’s a damn shame.

  272. 272.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro: Fair enough.

    There’s a real shortage of actual state polling from after the switch to Harris, except in a few swing states like Pennsylvania which still looks hairy and close. I saw some scary polls that showed Trump beating Harris in Virginia, but they were hypothetical matchups from almost a month ago taken while Biden was still the candidate, so under current conditions they might as well have been from the Triassic.

  273. 273.

    Captain C

    @Quinerly:

    *he says the N word, the C word, collapses, or does something so bizarre the press can’t ignore. I feel it in my bones. Trump is going to implode. It’s coming.

    He may implode this way, but based on the last 10 years, the FTFNYT will report such verbiage as “Dear Leader Bestest Preznit Ever Trump excoriated Kamabla for her racial and gender views.”

    Or if he physically collapses the FTFNYT will run a headline and six paragraphs about his accusations of a ‘Democratic stun ray’ before getting to his actually keeling over.

    Hell, if he starts dry-humping Maga Habs in the middle of a televised interview, she herself will write it as , “Trump creatively expresses love and support for women.”

  275. 275.

    Scout211

    As a retired mental health professional, I know it’s fun to make armchair diagnoses, but here’s a warning from the Alzheimer’s Society UK that I agree with:

    Donald Trump, Joe Biden and dementia: Why not to diagnose from a distance
    1. The diagnosis often wrong
    2. It stigmatises people living with dementia
    3. It normalises unhelpful language
    4. Diagnosing without a proper medical assessment is unethical

    And the DSM version of “personality disorders” is a far cry from the DSM version of “personality traits,” no matter what George Conway asserts.

  276. 276.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Geminid: Uh, they and the rest of the GA Republican Party have put into place many, many new laws and rules that will suppress voting and will allow for chaotic vote tallying and chaotic certification. They aren’t doing this to help Trump. That might be a side effect. They are doing it to increase the probability that a Republican-controlled GA state apparatus will be able to nullify several elections, whether local, state, or federal.

  278. 278.

    Jeffro

    here’s Brian Kemp, still walking that fine line:

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) joked that his state had weathered two natural disasters in recent days after Donald Trump renewed their feud at his Atlanta rally Saturday, calling Kemp a “disloyal guy” and “very average governor.”

    “We had a big storm coming through the state this week…and now we’re dealing with Tropical Storm Debby,”, said Kemp at a conference hosted by conservative media personality Erick Erickson.

  283. 283.

    Kay

    @Scout211:

    I just don’t think it’s necessary. Voters can and should make a decision on an appearance of capacity and competency. They are on wholly solid ground doing that. It’s part of an ordinary evaluation of a candidate. No one has to diagnose anything. They can simply watch and say “he doesn’t seem up to this” and that can be a perfectly rational decision. No one has to defend an ordinary voter analysis with a fake science gloss. Of course they don’t need a professional evaluation to make a decision on competency. They’re not having him committed. They’re making a hiring decision.

  287. 287.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chief Oshkosh: I expect to see a serious move away from popular election of the President, toward the original 18th-century norm of having electors selected by state legislatures, in Southern states that have increasing Black Democratic votes.

  288. 288.

    Paul in KY

    @Geminid: His minions would try ‘Weekending at Bernies’ him before admitting that he had to drop out. All their evil careers are completely bound up with his.

  289. 289.

    Kay

    If I have two candidates for a job and one seems competent and mentally fit in the interview and the other doesn’t I don’t need a medical opinion to make that decision. I have enough information.

  290. 290.

    Dave

    @Quinerly: Depending on the sentence I am very curious how that is going to play; signs point to uh not great.

    Can’t lie kinda pleased that sentencing was delayed.

  293. 293.

    Dave

    @Quinerly: This is the curse of feeling obligated to be fair; it’s technically true it was “the best” he did least obviously deranged would be a more accurate and honest frame but it was the area where a random listener would be least likely to assume he is wholly deranged.

    Interesting how the mirror image of this obligation is regularly applied to Democrats maybe telling is a better description than interested.

  294. 294.

    Paul in KY

    @CaseyL: Agree. You can’t get down in the ‘details’ about whatever whopper he spews up.  Just have a goto phrase like you said and then pivot to the many, many ways you are a better choice than him.

  295. 295.

    rikyrah

    When I say that I am SO GLAD that Illinois is a decentralized system, voting-wise. Each county controls what happens as far as voting is concerned. And, that includes cancellations/voting purges. The thought that anyone outside of Cook County could think that they could purge the voter rolls of Cook County – is infuriating.

    They made an attempt a few years ago to move to a more centralized system, and folks were like, ‘ nah, we good. ‘

    Matt Murphy

    @MattMurph24

    Glenn Youngkin, Jason Miyares, and Winsome Sears are laying the groundwork to steal the election for Trump in Virginia.

    8:05 AM · Aug 9, 2024
    https://x.com/MattMurph24/status/1821895513202921932

  297. 297.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Geminid: Agreed, but point is, Kemp and Raffy won’t need to take a direct actions outside of the law. They and their ilk have already put structural tools in place that increase the probability that the actual election outcome can be set aside, if not permanently, at least for a good long while.

  298. 298.

    Kay

    Who here has heard about the “Washington primary” method of predicting national political trends?

  302. 302.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I watched part of it, but he seemed the same to me. What am I missing?

    Ah, I see you answered it. I didn’t see much of that part, so I missed it. He’s so, so needy, like a 1-year-old constantly needing reassurance from mom and dad.

  303. 303.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    The whole ease in front of a camera is gone. He’s visibly upset thru the whole thing – his face is mask like too. That might be the weight loss drug. Something happened to him. He’s rattled.

  304. 304.

    rikyrah

    @Chief Oshkosh:

     Agreed, but point is, Kemp and Raffy won’t need to take a direct actions outside of the law. They and their ilk have already put structural tools in place that increase the probability that the actual election outcome can be set aside, if not permanently, at least for a good long while.

     

    Georgia enrages me.

    That entire thing from a couple of weeks ago, with the phucking website where you can CANCEL SOMEONE’S VOTER REGISTRATION WITHOUT A SIGNATURE

    is a big deal with me. The thought that someone could sit, with a Voter List, and just pay people to cancel folks’ voter registration electronically is terrifying.

    Will remind people – this is the state that allows for voter’s registration status to be CHALLENGED…and, it doesn’t have to be done in person, and can be done THOUSANDS AT A TIME.

  305. 305.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I saw that part where he was groping for the word “man”, and I wondered how many stories the NY Times would do about that. Then I decided it would be none.

  306. 306.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: They want him back so badly it’s becoming too obvious for even the casual observer to deny it. All those softball questions from yesterday, it makes me wonder if they were provided by the campaign or agreed to beforehand.

  307. 307.

    Kay

    Well, it’s a D plus 6 national environment according to “the Washington primary” (which might be crackpot).

    Washington the state, not DC. Supposedly we need a D +6 environment to have a shot at winning the Tester race.

    Just wanted to impart that cryptic good news.

  309. 309.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    They really do. But we have no choice. We have to get around them. I don’t think normies credit complaining about media, it sounds like whining, so Harris and Walz shouldn’t do it, but their surrogates absolutely can just so media will hear it.

    We just don’t have the belief that all media is “fake” is on our side and frankly I don’t want it. It’s a dead end.

  310. 310.

    Jeffro

    Jamelle Bouie: here’s why trump, Vance, and the GOP hate being called “weird”

    “Weird” doesn’t sound like much. But of all the attacks Democrats have levied against Republicans since Trump came down that escalator, this one appears to hit the hardest. Republican politicians seem taken aback by the idea that they’re outside the mainstream, by the charge that their interests and priorities are alienating to the average American.

    Now, stepping back a bit, they shouldn’t be. The signature obsessions of Republican politics since 2020 — election denialism, book banning, abortion bans and the crusades against trans and other gender-nonconforming people — are either unpopular with most Americans or electoral dead weight. Democrats in local, state and federal elections have scored win after win in opposition to these and similar preoccupations. In fact, if not for its commitment to this divisive, far-right cultural agenda, the Republican Party might have gotten the “red wave” of its dreams in the 2022 midterm elections.

    Through all of this, Republicans still insist that they’re the party of normalcy. This is why they can’t quite deal with the charge that they’re weird. There’s a reason for this. For years, in the American political imagination, Republicans were the normal party and Democrats were the party of weirdness.

    This was one of the major themes of the 1972 presidential election, when the Republican Party of Richard Nixon framed itself as the party of normalcy and of faith in America as it is…the Democratic Party of George McGovern was, in this narrative, the party of “acid, amnesty and abortion,” the party of chaos, disruption and overreach. Out of touch with the vast American middle, it had cast its lot with cultural elites and antiwar militants. 

    Nixon did not just win re-election; he crushed the Democratic Party in a landslide victory that set the stage for two decades of liberal retreat, as Democrats ran as far and fast as they could away from the specter of McGovern. And while Nixon ended his presidency in disgrace, he still managed to give the Republican Party a set of images and ideas they could use against any Democrat who so much as looked in the direction of the left edge of their party.

    Just over a decade later, Ronald Reagan would win another landslide victory for the Republican Party against a liberal and, it seemed, out-of-touch Democratic Party. It was settled: Republicans stood for the nation’s great majority, for normal people with normal families and normal views. Democrats, on the other hand, were, well, weird.

    This is where things stood through the 1980s, 1990s and even the 2000s. The Republican case against Bill Clinton, a moderate Democrat who largely drew within the Reaganite political order, rested as much on Clinton as an alien to mainstream American values as it did on opposition to his priorities in Washington. Clinton, Republicans said, worked for McGovern, smoked weed and dodged the draft. His wife, they screamed, was a radical leftist.

    Through all of this, Democrats rarely tried to contest the notion that Republicans represented, in some sense, the mainstream of American society. The political press also took the idea that the Republican Party spoke to the so-called heartland of the United State for granted. Trump’s surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election — on the strength of narrow margins in a handful of postindustrial swing states — only enhanced the sense that Republicans were still the party of a silent majority, even if they hadn’t actually won a majority.

    But a funny thing happened after Trump won. He purged the old-line Republicans and brought to prominence a new crop of far-right politicians, activists and media personalities who stood well outside the mainstream. As Trump strengthened his hold on the Republican Party so too did these figures come to dominate conservative politics nationwide. Out with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan; in with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.

    Besides Trump, there is one other living former Republican president. There are three living former Republican vice presidents. There are any number of former high-ranking Republican officials, from cabinet members to party leaders.  Few were at the RNC last month.  Instead, when the Republicans gathered to nominate Trump a third time for the presidency of the United States, they marked the occasion with conservative celebrities, Silicon Valley reactionaries and a wide assortment of far-right extremists, culminating in the introduction of Senator Vance as Trump’s running mate and heir apparent.  In their minds, they’re only fighting back against a domineering cultural left. But the truth is that Republicans are alienating a large part of the American public and they just don’t see it.

    And because they don’t see it, they’ve given Democrats an opportunity to do what Nixon did: to make their party the party of the silent majority and to define Republicans as one of the worst things a party can be in modern American politics.

    Weird.

  314. 314.

    Quinerly

    @Kay:

    For what it is worth:

    Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, Thursday morning before the news conference wrote: “He’s panicking. I’ve seen this play many times. He thinks his team is failing him & no one can speak better/’save’ his campaign/defend him but him. He hates the coverage Harris is getting & thinks only he can fix it.”

    https://www.alternet.org/trump-mar-a-lago-meltdown/

    This is why I think more press appearances like this from his $18 million room is good for us.

  315. 315.

    rikyrah

    See….

    oh hell no to a ‘ centralized’ system. Nope.

     

    Pesach Lattin (@pesach_lattin) posted at 8:44 PM on Thu, Aug 08, 2024:
    Texas has suspended the voter registration of 2 million (democratic) voters until they “verify” themselves.

    The New York Times is the #VichyPress (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 8:37 AM on Fri, Aug 09, 2024:
    This event exists in the context of TX AG Ken Paxton openly admitting that Biden would’ve won Texas had his office not acted to suppress the vote.

    This massive voter purge is happening only because the TX GOP fears a late voter surge that could finally put Harris over the top.
    (https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1821903619236483127?t=AbDBA290c0wWTOYytAQdQA&s=03)

  316. 316.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: They’ve always “interpreted” what he says, it’s just getting worse and more obvious because he’s worse.

  317. 317.

    Mousebumples

    @Trivia Man: that district is WOW counties, right? I grew up in that district and while I’d vote for you, it’s tough for any Dem to win when Sensenbrenner was in office.

  318. 318.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Geminid: climate change is definitely here. I remember Mr. Rudbek’s youngest brother asking me when I first started dating Mr. Rudbek if I (Minnesota Yankee) had ever been near a tornado, that was how infrequently Northern Virginia had tornadoes back then

  321. 321.

    Quinerly

    @KatKapCC: it was the softest of soft ball questions meant for Trump to rant on that Kamala is where she is because she fucked Willie Brown over 30 years ago. And the horror….he was still married.

    Trump is so compromised that he blew it. He could have used up a good 15 minutes saying she is a DEI slut.

    I want to know who asked the question.

  323. 323.

    Soprano2

    @catclub: The press literally seems to believe that they cannot question any of the crazy things he says or ask any questions about what him being like that means about him mentally. Any normal person who had never been exposed to him before would ask if he were crazy after listening to him ramble on for a half-hour. I think they’re so used to hearing it that the craziness doesn’t even register for them anymore.

  324. 324.

    rikyrah

    LarryO, Roland Martin, Maybe Maddow and Joy Reid.

    I wouldn’t do shyt with CNN
    Nothing with Stephanopolous- phuck him

    Maybe Leslie Stahl

    Fox is a non-starter

    Armando

    @ArmandoNDK

    My recommendation to the Harris/Walz campaign, not that they need my advice, is to absolutely play favorites in the Media. For every “conventional reporter” interview do 3 with your favorites. If they get mad, point at Trump.

    8:23 AM · Aug 9, 2024
    https://x.com/ArmandoNDK/status/1821900108646019106

  325. 325.

    catclub

    @CaseyL: Georgia’s Voting FAQ website says you need to be registered at least 30 days before the election, which would be September 5

     

    I would have guessed October 5th

  327. 327.

    Geminid

     

    @rikyrah:  This is just some window dressing from Youngkin. USA Today’s article starts out:

       In a largely symbolic move…

    ….Youngkin’s Executive Order 35 codifies the use of paper ballots in Virginia’s elections and ensures “non-citizens” are disqualified from voting. These election security mechanisms are already in place in the Commonwealth, however.

    Glenn Youngkin has achieved nothing of consequence as Governor and is unlikely to do so the remainder of his one term. He couldn’t even get a measly basketball arena for Alexandria. That was the latest Youngkin project to be stopped cold by Senate leader L. Louise Lucas.*

    But when Youngkin finishes his term and hits the county and state Lincoln-Reagan Dinner circuit, he’ll tell audiences, “… and then I issued Executive Order 35 protecting election integrity, and then I issued Executive Order 43 which….” Youngkin is a very plausible man and they’ll lap it up.

    * Last October, after Youngkin and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis told a press conference about their arena scheme, many observers believed the project would go through. Not so Senator Lucas, who posted:

       Anyone who thinks I will allow taxpayer money to be spent on this arena project, without bridge toll relief and better funding for Tidewater schools, must think I have “Dumbass” written across my forehead.

    Senator Lucas is not in fact a Dumbass and Youngkin didn’t get his arena either.

  330. 330.

    Eolirin

    @Matt McIrvin: I mean, Georgia probably won’t do that and while NC might, we don’t need NC if we’ve won MI, WI and PA, and we control those states, so they’d have very little incentive to try to flip or nullify their votes when the Harris DoJ will go after them for it and it won’t change the outcome. 

    Florida is potentially in play if Trump sees a 3-4 point collapse in support. It’d need to be 5-6+ to put Texas into play. So I could see a sequence of events that puts Florida into play. Less sure about Texas. But if Allred runs a couple of points ahead of Harris it’s possible he could knock Cruz out if it’s close there.

  333. 333.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:

    I served in the USN 1/70-7/73. I was discharged 5 months early  because Vietnam was over and the military had to down size from war level numbers. And it screwed with the new captain of the last ship I was assigned to for my last 2 weeks, who was a complete pompous jackass and had pissed off most everyone who worked in the Pentagon – from the top down.

    And I didn’t mind one second or one bit.

    All of us in the various segments of the military did different things, were assigned to different posts, but we were all a small part of the whole. Some went to war, some scrubbed pots and pans. Some operated and maintained ships. I had to work on equipment from the pointy end to the back end, from the bottom of the ship to the top of the mast, and run a department for that. Some did other stuff. Everyone had a part in the overall business of ship warfare.

    Others did other jobs other places at other times. Including this ass JDV.

  334. 334.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Geminid: I am very glad that Senator Lucas prevailed. There wasn’t any room to put that arena in at Potomac Yard. And I agree with her that there are better ways to spend the money.

  335. 335.

    Geminid

    @Chief Oshkosh: This will certainly bear watching Election Day, but I still doubt that Kemp will let the Trump forces steal the Georgia election even if he can.

    But here we are getting into predictions which will prove out one way or another in 12 weeks, so I will leave it at that.

  336. 336.

    Dave

    @Eolirin: Clearly putting the cart ahead of the horse but Cruz losing because Trump collapses would be such a sweet perfect nightcap to this entire business.

    Beyond the obvious in that it would gain an extra and vital Senate seat for six years.

    My personal schaden would be freuded.

    Apply all necessary caveats about wish-casting but I’m going to wish-cast this.

  337. 337.

    Scout211

    @Kay: I agree. That’s why the “weird” word is so efffective.  It’s vague and can’t be disproven because it’s so vague and every person has their own definition of weird so the power is in the person observing the weird behavior.  Armchair psychiatric diagnoses are easily disproved or at least questioned.  And the focus should be on Trump’s behavior and how he doesn’t seem to be able to answer questions, tell the truth or remember facts, not on the accuracy of some armchair diagnostician’s diagnosis of Trump.

  338. 338.

    Geminid

    @Kayla Rudbek: We still haven’t gotten big tornados like they do out West. Ours typically are f1s of short duration. One hit a community near me a couple years ago, and when I drove past a couple days later I saw a big oak that was uprooted and a little ways down the road a row of pines had their tops halves snapped off. No injuries were reported. It was a nice, moderate Virginia tornado.

  339. 339.

    brantl

    @rikyrah: “It’s a dangerously cynical game and JD Vance knows better.” Any phrase with JD Vance knows better is a sure loser, that assumes facts that not only aren’t in evidence in this case, but aren’t likely to be true in ANY case. He’s a professional ignoramus. He PRACTICES.

  340. 340.

    Trivia Man

    @Mousebumples: It was a long time ago, before redistricting. I knew i had no chance* but I refused to let him run unopposed as a House impeachment manager.

    *I confess that for about, literally, ten minutes  i thought i had a chance. I gave a barn burning speech that brought the house down and i saw a glimmer of hope. But mostly i was nothing more than a symbolic nuisance and i knew it,

  342. 342.

    K-Mo

    @CaseyL: I’m with you.  First and foremost she should keep presenting her positive vision for the future and nurture the ++++ vibes of her campaign.  Let the contrast be evident.

    If on top of that she flags his lies as such and promises to follow up on them, all the better.  But she shouldn’t let his rambling  be the focus of the debate.

  343. 343.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:

    Very good find.

    Everyone that serves is supposed to do the job they are trained for and assigned. Some go here and do this and some go somewhere else and do that. Some stuff is dangerous, some extremely dangerous and some basically a walk in the park. Climbing the mast of a ship and then climbing out the yardarm to work on equipment, the safety harness being a rope you tied around your waist, may not be the same as a firefight in a jungle but if anything goes wrong it is extremely likely that you will die. I did that on several occasions. My in port watch was carrying a loaded .45 caliber pistol with orders to shoot to kill any one coming on board who didn’t belong – my decision if they did or not. The military is not a place to play games. Even I respect someone who did similar – even if he is an absolute first class jackass.

  344. 344.

    Kay

    @Scout211:

    It’s also obnoxious because Conway’s own opinion is enough. He doesn’t need to bootstrap it off an “expert” to give it some borrowed authority. Elections are about voters impressions of a candidate. They don’t need any more authority than to say “I think he’s unwell”. We’re not using a medical or legal standard here. I thought John Edwards was shifty and unreliable. I can not support him for just that reason alone – I don’t need a criminal conviction or a psych eval.

  346. 346.

    Kay

    @Scout211:

    It’;s like when non lawyers say they disagree with a SCOTUS decision and lawyers say “oh? are you an expert?” They don’t need to be an expert. The onus is not on them to do an expert analysis. They have enough information to make a perfectly rational decision as to their own opinion.

  347. 347.

    Eolirin

    @Matt McIrvin: Too bad for them that we have a near lock on enough states with over 270 EVs that what they do will be basically irrelevant.

    GA and NC will need federal intervention so we can turn them into VA. We’ll need that for the senate. But as long as PA doesn’t go the way of Ohio, we don’t need to worry that much about what the red states do with their electors.

  349. 349.

    MomSense

    @K-Mo:

    I loved when she called his interview the same old show and I can picture Walz saying aren’t you sick of it.  Trump is exhausting.  It’s all whining and complaining and bragging.  He’s so damned needy.  He’s an emotional black hole and I think everyone but the cultists are tired of it.

  350. 350.

    Ruckus

    @Suzanne:

    It may be true.

    Being shot at is not all that pleasant. (This I know of personally) Being hit even less.

    But to me the major issue is his mental health and ability. The shooting may have brought on a tad bit of reality to him and that would likely affect him a lot, seeing as how his view of reality is dim at best.

  351. 351.

    Soprano2

    @Kay:  She’s a much better messenger on abortion than Biden was. BJ’ers will get mad at me but I think it’s true. He could never really get past his religious training on it.

    Oh no I totally agree, it was easily his worst issue as far as how he addressed it. He’s uncomfortable with legal abortion but can’t say so, that’s why he did all the mealy-mouthed statements about it.

  352. 352.

    JaySinWA

    @NotMax: Damn, what a useless end user error message for someone who doesn’t have admin privileges. Word Press for the win /s

  353. 353.

    CliosFanBoy

    I apologize if this had been posted already, but no Democratic candidate for president has won the white vote since LBJ in 1964.

  354. 354.

    rikyrah

    I saw a TikTok where a woman was like..

    Trump is broke.

    He don’t pay his bills.

    Nobody will let him rent their place without $$$$ upfront.

    The Secret Service doesn’t want him doing anything outdoors. So, they want him to do indoor rallies.

    And, those cost more $$$.

    Yesterday’s ‘Press Conference’ was just a way for him to do a rally.

  356. 356.

    Soprano2

    @Scout211: Boy I agree, most people who haven’t dealt with this in the real world have no idea. Even people who have dealt with it don’t get this. I think Biden shows normal signs of aging, not dementia, but no amount of talking about this can convince some people who think they saw dementia during the debate.

  357. 357.

    Ruckus

    @Scout211:

    Many people live in their own world(s). They are mostly worlds of impossibility and have little to do with reality. SFB lives in his own world, he is the classic personality for that. And when reality intervenes into that world, it’s like a 4 alarm fire at 2 am – in a huge pot dispensary. Nothing makes any actual sense.

  358. 358.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: It’s working the refs. The Republicans hammered away at the “liberal media” for 40 years and eventually it had an effect of cowing them.

  359. 359.

    Dave

    @Ruckus: Yes the impact of traumatic or intense events has aot to do with where the individual is at physically and mentally when they occur. As well as their history.

    I’ve been in enough situations that when well rested and not otherwise stressed that events that may have otherwise had a major long term impact can roll of you and the opposite holds true.

    As well as th context that those things occur in.

    So I wouldn’t be surprised if our boy Don is absolutely shook by what he experienced and has zero healthy ways of processing it. Wouldn’t be surprised if this adds an extra layer of desperation and acting out on his part as the campaign ticks away.

  360. 360.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Tell that to my friend who posted on FB that Biden’s family was engaged in elder abuse for letting him run for president because according to her it’s OBVIOUS that Biden has dementia and cannot make decisions for himself. Both of her parents had dementia, so that’s why she believes this.

  362. 362.

    sdhays

    @Kayla Rudbek: The billionaires want a bidding war for the public to cover most of their expenses. Taking Virginia out of the competition reduces the deal team owners can get. Win win.

  364. 364.

    trollhattan

    @CliosFanBoy: ​
    He was right about the aftereffects of the Voting Rights and Civil Rights acts, just wrong about for how many generations it would last.

    The Confederacy remains quite enamored of the Republicans.

  366. 366.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Maybe he was affected by being shot at and almost killed, although I think it’s more about how their whole election strategy was completely upended. All the attacks on Biden they had planned are no longer useful. There was an article by Tim Alberta in some publication where his campaign managers were crowing about how easy it was going to be for them to win this election. All of that, down the drain now. It’s gotta be eating at him.

  369. 369.

    SatanicPanic

    Was it just me that heard Trump say gas was $7 a barrel?  Because if so I want to buy some barrels of gas

  371. 371.

    Baud

    WAPO headline on my feed. I didn’t click and not linking.

    Harris rallies get edgy with four-letter words

    The vice president, known to curse liberally behind closed doors, is one of the few not swearing onstage at rallies that are growing in size — and spiciness.

  373. 373.

    Dave

    @Soprano2: Why not both though I do suspect that the turning of the campaign has played the larger role in his mental and emotional state.

  375. 375.

    Leto

    @Dave: he absolutely won’t get the help he needs to process what took place. He’s definitely someone who views getting any help as looking weak, and “you can’t look weak”. It’s been his mantra for 77 years now, and it won’t change.

  376. 376.

    raven

    @Quinerly:

     

    May 23

    Rising gas prices in California and the Bay Area have been making headlines. That’s perhaps putting it lightly.

    With the median gasoline price in the U.S. hovering around $3.66 per gallon at the time of writing, reports that some gas stations in California are now showing prices of more than $7 per gallon for regular are certainly concerning.

  377. 377.

    sdhays

    @Baud: Seriously, though, if Trump hears about this, we are literally 1 minute to midnight on him dropping the n-bomb.

    “You want ‘spicy’? I’ve been wanting to say this for years!!!”

  379. 379.

    K-Mo

    @Soprano2: They should leave the clinical diagnoses to those with expertise and access.

    But Trump is losing some cognitive ability over time, and he didn’t have that much to start with.  Here’s some analysis:

    https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/07/trump-mental-health-linguistic-analysis-suggests-potential-cognitive-decline-experts-say/

    Is it normal aging or is it an early sign of something worse?  That’s not ours to say.  Is it likely to affect his performance over the next 4 years?   We are allowed, nay, encouraged to form an opinion.

  383. 383.

    K-Mo

    @raven: Yep.  My overriding take on this whole thing is that Vance and his intended audience have a childish notion of what service to your country is.  (And Ruckus, thank you for yours)

  384. 384.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay: There is a difference between disagreeing with a legal decision because you think the end result is bad and being able to say that the result is legally incorrect.  Lots of things are legal that IMO shouldn’t be and vice versa.  The same is true of making a call about someone’s health.  Saying you don’t think someone is up to the job is very different from saying tje obviously have dementia or Parkinson’s.  Layman can make one of those calls but not the other.

  385. 385.

    Scout211

    Headline just now  onCNN.com

    Trump attacked Harris.  She said he had a “public meltdown.”  

    That’s how you do it, team Harris.  I approve of that message.

  390. 390.

    Geminid

    @sdhays: I thought it was bad policy for Virginia to steal the Wizards from DC. The Commonwealth needs an economically healthy District of Columbia for its own good. Regional relations are not a zero-sum game anymore, if if they ever were.

    Anyway, as good or better a user for the Alexandria site will show up before too long. Youngkin just wanted a feather in his cap.

  391. 391.

    trollhattan

    Oh boy, popcorn time. Queen Liz at the helm fires torpedo at Musk.

    Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is accusing Tesla’s board of directors of “neglecting its duty” and asking if it has reviewed CEO Elon Musk’s plans to use the company’s resources to help his other companies.

    “Regardless of his personal pursuits and his vast personal wealth, Mr. Musk has legal responsibilities to Tesla — a publicly traded company — and its shareholders,” Warren wrote in a letter addressed to Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm on Thursday. “The Tesla Board must act to ensure that Mr. Musk is meeting all of these responsibilities.”

    The outreach from Warren comes after a wave of concern over Musk’s handling of his portfolio, which includes aerospace firm SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI. He also leads brain chip startup Neuralink, social media company X Corp., and tunneling venture The Boring Co.

    Warren, like other critics of Musk, said she is concerned with Musk’s launch of xAI as a separate venture, even as he continues to bill Tesla as an AI company and plots its future based off advancements in that industry, not electric vehicles. Much of Tesla’s future value is expected to be derived from self-driving vehicles, humanoid robots, and the “Dojo” supercomputer. Musk has also threatened to build future AI projects outside of Tesla if he doesn’t get more control over the company.

    Musk had also reportedly asked Nvidia to prioritize its shipment of AI chips to X and xAI over Tesla. And, last month, asked his social media followers if Tesla should invest $5 billion into xAI, “assuming the valuation is set by several credible outside investors.” After a majority of the more than 958,000 accounts — including many of which likely have no relationship to Tesla — that took his poll said he should, Musk said he would “discuss” it with the board.

    In June, Musk was sued by Tesla shareholders for his “brazen disloyalty” for prioritizing xAI over his EV maker; Musk has denied those claims.

    Warren asked the board to answer a series of questions by Aug. 23, including whether there are protections in place to protect Tesla from conflicts of interest involving xAI. She also inquired about whether Tesla employees were used to benefit xAI; Several Tesla engineers have left the automaker to join xAI, in what, Musk says, was a necessary move to prevent them from joining rival OpenAI.
    https://qz.com/elon-musk-tesla-board-conflict-of-interest-xai-warren-1851618083?utm_source=quartz_newsletter_breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2024-08-09_breaking

    MuchExactly like Trump, Musk thinks he’s above any law or regulation.

  393. 393.

    Shalimar

    @CaseyL: A few nice quips would be fine. Like listening to a Trump lack-of-response and saying something like “wow. does he get another chance if he fails to answer the question at all?  i don’t know what that was.”

  394. 394.

    Ruckus

    @Soprano2:

    There can be an element of truth to this. Easily. Having dealt with this in elders I am a bit more used to it than many others. However it does depend on the person. I know a 98 yr old woman who a year or Maybe two ago would not be considered all that old – from a standpoint of mental agility. But she is aging out, as all humans who last long enough do. I call it senioritus. If you live long enough you will get this.

  395. 395.

    Another Scott

    @Betty: Made me look.

    Ozempic.com – Side Effects:

    low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Your risk for getting low blood sugar may be higher if you use Ozempic® with another medicine that can cause low blood sugar, such as a sulfonylurea or insulin. Signs and symptoms of low blood sugar may include: dizziness or lightheadedness, blurred vision, anxiety, irritability or mood changes, sweating, slurred speech, hunger, confusion or drowsiness, shakiness, weakness, headache, fast heartbeat, and feeling jittery.

    Checks out. [/unqualified remote diagnosis]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  396. 396.

    Citizen Alan

    @Scout211:

    The same journalists who were obsessed with proving that al gore was a serial liar will have absolutely no interest in Donald Trump claiming to have discussed Kamala Harris’ relationship with willie brown in a helicopter while it was crashing when it was actually jerry brown and the helicopter did not crash. No democrat could survive telling a story that was such obvious nonsense.

  398. 398.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: I speculated on the late-night thread that the popular reaction to the assasination attempt may have disappointed Trump. There wasn’t that much sustained sympathy and support, certainly not as much as Trump thinks he deserves. After a day or so most people were like, “Meh, another security SNAFU…too bad about the firefighter though.”

    My basic reaction was, “Good thing that kid missed. This could have been awkward if he hadn’t.”

  399. 399.

    SatanicPanic

    @Omnes Omnibus: my father died of dementia a week ago and honestly dementia is pretty easy for people to diagnose. I did. It was a full eight months after I was convinced he had dementia that a doctor finally got around to diagnosing. When someone talks to you like you’re someone else, what other disease would it be?

    Trouble is Trump hasn’t done anything that obvious. He’s always had a loose grip on reality so his nonsense doesn’t really tell us much. People are going to hate this but I think Biden seemed worse to me. Freezing up and staring into space was something my dad did a lot.

  401. 401.

    Another Scott

    @Chief Oshkosh: @Matt McIrvin:

    They’re trying, but it’s not clear that they will succeed (or if they do succeed that it will last).

    Made me look. Wikipedia:

    1840

    Voter turnout soared during the 1830s, reaching about 80% of adult white male population in the 1840 presidential election.[13]

    1841

    The Dorr Rebellion takes place in Rhode Island because men who did not own land could not vote.[14]

    1843

    Rhode Island drafts a new constitution extending voting rights to any free men regardless of whether they own property, provided they pay a $1 poll tax. Naturalized citizens are still not eligible to vote unless they own property.[14]

    Things go in cycles, on many things, and progress often invites pushback. But humans as a whole continue to get smarter and continue to demand progress. They see what is possible and want it for themselves and their progeny.

    The reactionary forces are losing.

    We have to keep pushing forward.

    Amazing things can happen with just a few more seats in the House and Senate. That’s the beauty of representative government. If good people want it and work for it, they can make it happen no matter what the reactionary monsters want.

    There are many, many more good people than monsters. We have to remember that.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  402. 402.

    Geminid

    @K-Mo: Whatever Trump’s neurological status is, there is an overlay of emotional stress that is also a factor. He’s under stress like he’s never been before, and that can mess with a person’s mind.

  403. 403.

    Citizen Alan

    @Starfish: The issue is not that he is rationally or irrationally afraid of being in a helicopter crash. The issue from what I have heard of the story is that he apparently believes he was in a helicopter crash that did not, in fact, crash.

  404. 404.

    Fair Economist

    @Ken: He *should* worry. Based on this latest press conference, they’ll 25th him on the 21st of January if he gets elected. He is not competent to be President.

    Vance would be nice and compliant, too. He put up with being one of Peter Thiel’s blood cattle. He won’t cause nearly as much trouble for the Republican’s paymasters as Trump does.

  405. 405.

    Ruckus

    @Jeffro:

    Lost his bearings?

    SFB has lost far, far more than his bearings. I call this aging out. It’s like a car with far too many miles on it. It burns oil, rattles, leaks oil that it hasn’t burned, runs like a 98 yr old sprinter (which BTW is not in any way running), and costs more to run and keep running than just buying a new car.

    Joe Biden is not that old in the bigger picture but he is not a teen either. And I give him credit for seeing the bigger picture, that sure he may have gotten elected again, but far more important, should he even run. I really do appreciate what he has done for this country, but everyone at some point has to step down. And he has seen and understood this. Many people never do. Take SFB and Joe Biden. Joe is 4 yrs older than SFB – in time. In aging he is several years younger. I had a cousin who made 6 months and known other humans who are over 100. It is an individual thing, this aging process. I know a woman 20 yrs older than SFB and she is smarter and a far better human. (But then that’s not all that difficult….)

  406. 406.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SatanicPanic: Dementia could have been a reason for Biden’s debate performance.  But it wasn’t.  I can respect people who said the guy who showed up for the debate couldn’t win.  I will disagree with them.  I will not respect those who diagnosed dementia, Parkinson’s, or any other medical condition.  I don’t think this is an unreasonable take on my part.

  408. 408.

    Jeffro

    I’m a little surprised at folks being hesitant to comment on trump’s mental state, personality disorders, dementia, sociopathy, etc etc.  We’re spitballing (albeit on a top 10,000 blog ;)  But whatevs.

  409. 409.

    Citizen Alan

    @Quinerly: He would have to say the N-word or whatever on live TV. Otherwise, the media we’re just edited out of the recording and deny that he ever said it.

  412. 412.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @SatanicPanic: Are you a doctor? Any sort of clinician? Have you assessed him in person? No?

    You don’t make rulings one way or the other.

  414. 414.

    SatanicPanic

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: there are plenty of conditions that don’t require medical training to recognize.

    If you spend an hour in midday sun with no shirt on do you need a doctor to tell you why your skin hurts?

    If you’re downtown and there’s a young guy having a loud conservation with someone not there do you need a doctor to diagnose or do you have a pretty good idea what he’s suffering from?

    We diagnose Trump with all sorts of maladies and no one goes “gee we need a psychiatrist to know if he’s a narcissist “.

  416. 416.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    @Jeffro:

    Earlier in my life I was a pre-med student and a mental health counselor. (I didn’t end up going farther)

    And I fully agree.

    First one has to be taught how to do those things properly. Second one has to see more than reporting AND see it up close to diagnose. And even as a mental health counselor I couldn’t make actual diagnoses of mental health. And we discussed our mental health clients with shrinks, to learn to be better counselors – but diagnose them? NFW.

  417. 417.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    I’ve never once in 9 years attempted to diagnose Trump’s physical or mental condition.

    I don’t care if others want to because Trump is scum who can find others to speak up for him.

  418. 418.

    Leto

    @SatanicPanic:

    If you’re downtown and there’s a young guy having a loud conservation with someone not there do you need a doctor to diagnose or do you have a pretty good idea what he’s suffering from?

    He’s suffering from having an asshole think he has a mental disorder, instead recognizing he has ear buds in and is talking on the phone. Stop being an asshole. MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS.

  422. 422.

    JaySinWA

    @rikyrah: I tried to track down info on the normal closing of Maralago for summer. Apparently it is usually closed from just after Mother’s day to Halloween. The question I have is who is with him there? is the clubhouse closed? Is it open now?

    Here’s the only reference I could find to summer closings from an article in 2022.

    It’s a private club so generally Mar-a-Lago is not open to the public. Mar-a-Lago closes on Mother’s Day after the traditional final brunch of the social season and reopens on Halloween.  link

  425. 425.

    Bill Arnold

    @Suzanne:
    PTSD is likely.
    Maybe more amusing: if [elderly felonious] DJT’s ear was actually grazed by a bullet, he came within a centimeter (or two) of a serious head wound of the sort described for one of the heads of the Beast in Revelation 13
    If he forked Christian eschatology by chickening out on a proper head wound (or it was just pathetic [demonic] combat heuristics), he’s in deep trouble with Satan et al.

  426. 426.

    Soprano2

    @Another Scott: Low blood sugar can look like someone being drunk or high. One of the main things I saw in my husband, though, was an inability to articulate anything verbally. I could tell he wanted to say something, but he was unable to form the words. It’s scary as hell the first couple of times you see it, especially if no one has told you it can happen so you have no earthly idea what’s going one. He put his vehicle in the ditch and totaled it as a result of having a low blood sugar episode. It was a miracle that all that happened to him was a broken nose and soreness from the impact. It doesn’t happen anymore now that I manage his insulin and most of his diet.

  427. 427.

    Scout211

    @Jeffro: I’m a little surprised at folks being hesitant to comment on trump’s mental state, personality disorders, dementia, sociopathy, etc etc.  We’re spitballing (albeit on a top 10,000 blog ;)  But whatevs.

    That is a misreading of what I said. Commenting on his behavior in laypersons’ terms is good.  Making an armchair diagnosis from the ICD or DSM is not useful for many, many reasons.

    Ex: he seems confused, weird, can’t remember, makes it about him, melt down, temper tantrum, looks tired, isn’t all there, talking gibberish, can’t complete a thought, etc, etc, etc versus using actual ICD or DSM diagnoses.

    But YMMV.

  428. 428.

    SatanicPanic

    @scribbler: give me a break. You got Leto up there claiming I’m talking about some random young man, when you all know what I’m talking about. Go to the downtown of any large city and you’ll see young people, usually men in terrible shape, in fucked up dirty clothing having loud, angry conversations with people not there. Sure it could be they’re on PCP or something weird or they just have schizophrenia but it’s not really a mystery that it’s one of the two.

    People here get hooked on the term diagnosis as if I’m talking about placing Biden or Trump in a mental institution. But in reality we diagnose people all the time with a good enough reason to make decisions about how to interact. If you need directions do you bother the man yelling at ghosts? No, you do not. And if your presidential candidate is showing worrying signs and people are saying “I think he’s got something going on” you can ignore that, but then you end up blindsided by a shitshow of a debate performance.

  429. 429.

    Soprano2

    @SatanicPanic: Problem is, it’s not always so obvious. Different types of dementia are different, and people display it differently. My husband still knows who I am and who other people are, but he cannot remember that our cat died until I remind him of it. If you talked to him for five or ten minutes it might not be obvious to you that he has dementia, you’d just think he was old and slow.

    ETA – sorry for your loss, it’s a tough road we’re on.

  431. 431.

    wjca

    @Matt McIrvin: The surge of enthusiasm for Harris makes it possible to dream about getting other states, but it’s hard to see the mechanism.

    Start with every state that has something related to abortion on the ballot.  There will be folks who normally vote Republican,  if they at all, who will turn out for that.  And the “Mind your own damn business” line will resonate.  Certainly not all.  But even in quite red states, a few percentage points can make a world of difference.

    If I were on the Trump campaign staff, I would be freaking out over those.  Also the various Republican Congressional campaign committees.

  432. 432.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @wjca: Local candidates can be helped even in red states that seem out of reach. If they are elected and prove effective, it may even gradually improve the lot of Democrats across the whole state over time.

    It ain’t all about the President.

  433. 433.

    SatanicPanic

    @Soprano2: the last few weeks of his life were so awful. I’m going to sign up for trauma counseling. I’m so sorry about your husband, this disease is cruel.

    I agree with everything you said, I’m just taking issue with the idea you have to be a doctor to recognize what you see. When my aunt saw my grandma shrink away from someone she’d known her whole life at a family event, she knew my grandma had some sort of memory disease. And she was right, it was Alzheimer’s.

    It’s just like that- some days they’re normal, some days it’s so obvious that anyone could see it. What would be the alternative explanation for my dad talking to me like I was someone else? What else could it be? If there’s no other possibility then you kind of have to admit that people can accurately guess what’s wrong.

  434. 434.

    scribbler

    @SatanicPanic: I am very sorry for your loss.  I have dementia in my family too and it’s devastating to deal with.  But I just fundamentally disagree that we can or should be trying to diagnose in either case, whether it’s Biden having a difficult debate performance or a scary young man yelling at himself in a park.

  435. 435.

    Soprano2

    @SatanicPanic: I’m getting therapy now, it helps me stay sane. Plus I joined a FB group for spouses who are caregivers, they’ve been very helpful. Good on you to get some therapy, you need it after going through that.

  436. 436.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @SatanicPanic: @Soprano2: first, I offer my sincere condolences and best wishes to you both.

    Both of Bemused Senior’s parents suffered strokes and a long, slow slide. It was difficult and painful. She was deathly afraid of the same happening to herself.

  437. 437.

    wjca

    @Matt McIrvin:  I expect to see a serious move away from popular election of the President, toward the original 18th-century norm of having electors selected by state legislatures, in Southern states that have been carefully gerrymandered to neutralize increasing Black Democratic votes.

    Added a couple of critical (IMHO) words you missed.

  438. 438.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:

    I’m not sure that JDV knows much more than how to breathe and to crap out his mouth. (Sorry if that offends anyone, but that’s how I hear it)

    As someone who served during the Vietnam war, although I was sent elsewhere, I see no advantage to anyone on the right side of politics. My best friend, who I met 2 days after I was discharged, was in Vietnam, in the Marines. I’ve heard stories for over 50 yrs of what it was, from an on the ground Marine.

  439. 439.

    Bill Arnold

    @CaseyL:

    She can and should say one thing – “He’s lying. If his lips are moving, he’s lying” – and that’s ALL.

    An alternative is something like “I counted at least N lies[falsehoods], but the fact checkers can handle them”, then continue on with her answer to the question.

  440. 440.

    karen gail

    @Ruckus: Reminds me not just of my father, he was USN during the Korean mess; he worked in the boiler room in bowels of ships. He always said his biggest fear was an idiot with a wrench.
    But also a good friend served during Vietnam (he put in 28 years before calling quits.) He was a supply sergeant; one of those forgotten soldiers that made sure the bullets got to the people who needed them.

  441. 441.

    SatanicPanic

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: I hope theres legal euthanasia if I ever get dementia. At least in the end stages. I had a lot of great days with my dad before it got really bad. We were bodysurfing together two months ago. But his time in the hospital was too much

    @scribbler: I didn’t watch the debate because I’d seen his Juneteenth performance and I knew something was deeply wrong. For the record I don’t know if he has dementia I just don’t think you can rule it out.

    @Soprano2: I’m lucky the hospice care company is offering me a year of grief counseling, hopefully we can talk about the trauma because I’m struggling with that. I don’t know if I can truly grieve yet.

  442. 442.

    Another Scott

    @Bill Arnold: Biden was good with Ryan in 2012.

    NPR.org:

    […]

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Am I going to get to say anything here?

    REP. RYAN: — it makes us more weak. It projects weakness, and when we look weak, our adversaries are much more willing to test us, they’re more brazen in their attacks, and our allies are less willing to —

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey. In fact —

    MS. RADDATZ: And why is that so?

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Because not a single thing he said is accurate. First of all —

    MS. RADDATZ: Be specific.

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: I will be very specific. Number one, the — this lecture on embassy security — the congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for, number one. So much for the embassy security piece.

    Number two, Governor Romney, before he knew the facts, before he even knew that our ambassador was killed, he was out making a political statement which was panned by the media around the world. And this talk about this — this weakness, I — I don’t understand what my friend’s talking about here.

    We — this is a president who’s gone out and done everything he has said he was going to do. This is the guy who’s repaired our alliances so the rest of the world follows us again. This is the guy who brought the entire world, including Russia and China, to bring about the most devastating, most devastating — the most devastating efforts on Iran to make sure that they in fact stop with their — look, I — I — I just — I mean, these guys bet against America all the time.

    […]

    MS. RADDATZ: Vice President Biden.

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Incredible. (Chuckles.)

    Look, imagine had we let the Republican Congress work out the sanctions. You think there’s any possibility the entire world would have joined us, Russia and China, all of our allies? These are the most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions, period, period.

    When Governor Romney’s asked about it, he said, we got to keep these sanctions. When they said, well, you’re talking about doing more, what are you — are you — you’re going to go to war? Is that you want to do now?

    REP. RYAN: We want to prevent war!

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: (Inaudible) — and I — the interesting thing is, how they’re going to prevent war. How are they going to prevent war if they say that there’s nothing more that we — that they say we should do than what we’ve already done, number one?

    […]

    MS. RADDATZ: Is he wrong about that?

    REP. RYAN: He is wrong about that. There are — you can —

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: How’s that?

    REP. RYAN: You can cut tax rates by 20 percent and still preserve these important preferences for middle-class taxpayers —

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Not mathematically possible.

    REP. RYAN: It is mathematically possible. It’s been done before. It’s precisely what we’re proposing.

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: (Chuckles.) It has never been done before.

    REP. RYAN: It’s been done a couple of times, actually.

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: It has never been done before.

    REP. RYAN: Jack Kennedy lowered tax rates, increased growth. Ronald Reagan —

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Oh, now you’re Jack Kennedy.

    REP. RYAN: Ronald Reagan — (laughter) — (chuckles) — Republicans and Democrats —

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: This is amazing.

    […]

    [ snort! ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  449. 449.

    Geminid

    @wjca: It’s worth noting that Voting Rights Act lawsuits have created a second Black-majority district in both Alabama and Louisiana this year.

    Virginia got its second Black Representative by means of a VRA lawsuit in 2016. That was the 4th CD won by the late Don McEachin. Rep. Jennifer McClellan represents the 4th CD now.

  451. 451.

    Ebony

    @Scout211: Thank you for this. Unfortunately my grandma has dementia and I was very upset when people use it as an insult. My grandma and people living with dementia do not deserve to be compared to Trump in any way.

Comments are closed.