Trump’s NRA rally has just been canceled… following him backing out of 60 Minutes, CNBC, and a 2nd debate with Kamala. Meanwhile, she’s going head-to-head with Bret Baier on Fox News. Remind me again who’s the “alpha”?
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen.bsky.social) October 17, 2024 at 4:52 PM
[image or embed]
From the Savannah Morning News, since the Atlanta Journal-Constitution won’t show me stories for GDPR reasons (and I’m too lazy to fire up the VPN right now):
The NRA has canceled a Defend the 2nd Amendment event in Savannah next week that was to feature keynote speaker Donald Trump, it said on Thursday.
The cancellation is due to a campaign scheduling conflict, the NRA says.
“The NRA is committed to ensuring Donald Trump wins in November and returns to the White House,” the organization said. “NRA-PVF just launched statewide radio ads in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia to complement a comprehensive GOTV operation and multi-million-dollar digital outreach strategy to defeat Kamala Harris.”
This is actually the third engagement the Rough Beast has scurried away from in the last 24–36 hours, if I’m not mistaken. He also bailed on CNBC’s Squawk Box and an interview with NBC’s Christine Romans.
I’m still on edge about how close things are, but this is a trend I hope to see continue.
Fresh hopium, fresh thread.
K-Mo
Counting events he’s danced away from, it is 4
Steve LaBonne
His handlers know the more people see of him the less they like him, and think they can repeat the 2016 strategy of keeping him out of sight the last couple of weeks. But with no emailz story dominating the news and a dynamic Democratic candidate (who already has plenty of bizarro Trump material for ads and to mock at rallies), ain’t gonna work.
SpaceUnit
Brave Sir Donald.
bbleh
Them What Knows tell us that when someone with NPD decompensates, it happens crisis-style.
Oh to be a fly on the wall at Mag-a-Lardo who could hear the discussions among staff and see which are furtively updating their résumés ..
@Steve LaBonne: PLUS some not-so-complimentary media coverage of TFA himself. It may not be clear or complete, but at least it’s become a good deal less glossy. And the stories support a simple Narrative — Old Guy Who’s Falling Apart — which we know from experience is widely comprehensible (see under Biden, J., Jr.)
Three weeks is a LONG time in politics …
Aimai
I think people are making a mistake in the discussion of the Dave Bautista video clip in the thread below. Some people are anxious that it won’t affect Republican voters or will cause them to cling tighter to Trump. That is not who it is aimed at and not where it could have an effect. It’s an attempt to get around the democrats, male, who are either not voting for Harris because she is a girl or sitting this election out because secretely they admire trump. If you can get just a few of those fence sitting democratic males to come out and vote for Harris that is an enormous bonus. There have been lots of ads aimed at them and Obama is specifically appealing to them as well. This serves as an attempt to “unsell” trump rather than upsell Harris.
Rose Judson
@bbleh: Or desperately hunting through their family trees to see if they qualify for citizenship abroad.
JPL
@Steve LaBonne: trump went to Wisconsin but stayed on scripts. Now he can’t do that, so they will hide him away
There was a podcast released where trump blamed Zelensky for starting the war and Biden for instigating it. Putin is blameless.
p.a.
As he descends into madness and irrelevance, his potential successors will blame lieberals, the MSM, antifa, BLM, yadda yadda… for the demise of their Lord Protector.
Steve LaBonne
@JPL: I think you nailed it. He’s no longer capable of reading (in that crazy singsong voice) more than a few lines from the teleprompter before going off into lala land.
El Cruzado
Hoping for a good old fashioned Narcissistic Collapsetravaganza.
As for the Bautista ad, it appears to be a good policy to attack your opponent’s perceived strengths. “Perceived” being the operative word here.
JPL
@Steve LaBonne:Aaron Rupar has clips of his latest podcast…
trump once again mentions that Kamala is black or Indian but no one knows which
Aaron Rupar (@aaron.rupar) on Threads
Splitting Image
@JPL:
This is them reverting to type. I remember when Pat Buchanan wrote an article blaming mean old Winston Churchill for provoking Germany into war in 1939. Poor little You-know-who was blameless then too.
If I recall correctly, he published that one on the anniversary of Germany invading Poland. These people never change.
Chris
I can understand why a guy who’s been shot at three times would feel nervous hanging out with the National Gun Humpers Of America association.
KatKapCC
“Scheduling conflict”
Sure, Jan.
KatKapCC
@JPL: No no, he’s right! Zelensky DID start the war.
By, you know…existing. Within Ukraine. Or something. How dare!!!
JPL
@Splitting Image: My mouth is still agape. I absolutely knew Buchanan was bad, but did not know that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: It should be a pretty safe place. They don’t allow guns.
Ohio Mom
Full disclosure: I say this as someone who voted yesterday.
This is why I have very mixed feelings about early voting. Things are still in play, if someone who is possibly swayable already voted, say yesterday, then even if events in the next few weeks provide ample evidence that they shouldn’t have voted for Trump, it’s moot.
It kills me that our country’s future hangs on the votes of such people but it does.
I haven’t any idea of what the optimal voting period looks like. It’s obvious to me that just having one day when the polls are open is too little. But maybe a month is too long.
jonas
Earlier this summer before Biden dropped out, I recall Trump was sort of taking it easy, golfing a lot, doing impromptu pressers at Mar-A-Lardo, and not doing a lot of rallies. The one in Butler where he got shot at was one of the first in a long time. I think his staff has been pushing him to be out campaigning in person a lot more the past couple of months and it’s clearly caught up with him. He just doesn’t have stamina anymore and the last couple of media events he’s done have been insane, particularly the 30 minute sway-a-thon the other day. The Adderall wears off and he just crumbles into a blubbering mess.
Steve LaBonne
@Ohio Mom: Early voters are usually people like us who are very decided and not to be swayed. Fence-sitters wait until November because they can’t make up their so-called minds.
Chris
@Splitting Image:
Yeah. The internationalist aspect of Eisenhower Republicanism is probably the one that stuck with the party the longest. And you can see why: it’s hard to ask any president to walk away from a chance at recapturing the patriotic rush of WWII, and from titles like “leader of the free world.” But the isolationists finally managed to get back in the saddle again.
Chris
@KatKapCC:
To be “fair,” this is literally what Republicans believe about almost everyone they’ve based their whole identity around hating. Certainly about everyone they hate on identity grounds. It’s not hard to see how they’d latch onto Putin’s rage at Ukraine.
Anoniminous
@Splitting Image:
Father Coughlin blamed the Communists for bombing Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
UncleEbeneezer
This is good news for
John McCainDonald Trump!- The NYTimesChris
@Omnes Omnibus:
I know that. Not sure if Trump does! The first thing one thinks of when one thinks of the NRA is, after all, “gun.”
JPL
@Ohio Mom:There’s a real push to get GA republicans to the pollls. Since trump is self destructing, they might want t get that vote counted.
scav
@Aimai: I think also it’s more aimed at the audience of one. It will destabilize him. It will get under his skin. It might get him to lash out and embarrass himself. If it’s popular and possibly viral, even better but again, better in that will eat even more at the thin-skinned orange one. For that purpose, making it funny and OTT to the broader audience is perfect.
zhena gogolia
@Aimai: It’s also not exactly a political ad but a comedy bit. As such it is brilliant.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: I can’t think of any actual fact that Trump actually knows.
Anoniminous
@jonas:
Adderall may be causing or exacerbating Trump’s cognitive decline.
Pilot study suggests ADHD drugs do not improve cognition in healthy college students
Note the study was on healthy students and Lard Butt Donnie is far from healthy which suggests a greater impairment.
Melancholy Jaques
@Steve LaBonne:
And that is especially true of the people who have not decided whether they will vote. Our Democratic inclined electorate has too many of that kind of voter.
Trollhattan
The NRA rally format of handing Trump a loaded AR-15 and sending him out on stage to do his Trump poetry jam and interpretive dance recital, sounded fantastic. Very sorry we don’t get to see it live.
The Audacity of Krope
To be fair, I don’t think I have the stamina and I’m barely over 40.
Fair Economist
Quite a contrast with demented Reagan, who could continue to read a speech beautifully even when he was so addled he could read from the same page twice in a row and not notice.
The Audacity of Krope
@Fair Economist: It helps to know how to read first.
KatKapCC
@Chris: Yeah. “I’m very angry that trans people exist possibly somewhere in my vicinity!!”
Geminid
@jonas: That NRA event in Savannah should have been a lay-up for Trump; a friendly audience in a battleground state. In light of Trump’s bizarre performances in his last few events, the cancelation raises the possibility that Trump is cracking up mentally, has had a neurological event like a stroke, or both. Between his legal troubles and this campaign he’s been under pressure like he’s never seen and that may have caught up with him.
Trump was scheduled to participate in a Charlie Kirk/Turning Paint event the next day in Duluth, Georgia. That’s in Atlanta’s western suburbs. I guess we’ll have to wait to see if he shows up at the Gas South Arena.
Eolirin
@Anoniminous: Healthy, in this case, means does not have ADHD. All that study seems to be showing is that adderall is maybe not an effective study enhancing drug unless you’re using it to treat an executive function disorder.
And no, Trump’s health doesn’t suggest greater potential impairment from it on that basis, in absence of way more information as to his conditions and the effects of adderall on them.
KatKapCC
@Anoniminous:
This could be fun to turn into a Mad Libs line.
[Public figure] blamed the [plural noun] for [action verb] [city] during the [historical event].
Claude Monet blamed the foxes for kicking Tokyo during the Dust Bowl.
HumboldtBlue
lollipopguild
@The Audacity of Krope: We know that the black/indian lady can not be President because she has …..allergies.
terraformer
The more his clear psychological issues and general incoherence, the more it sure does seem likely, as I’ve read across various sites recently, that Republicans and their enablers are planning to invoke the 25th Amendment soon after he takes office and install Vance. I mean, either of them is bad for sure, but this does seem like the action they could be planning. Comparatively, Vance is surely the more competent authoritarian.
The Audacity of Krope
Meaning the more dangerous one.
Eolirin
@terraformer: They don’t need to do that, they can just run the government behind his back, and there’s a real downside to doing it in that his base doesn’t see him as having any of theses flaws or issues, so they’d view it as a betrayal.
Betty Cracker
I wonder if the cancelation has anything to do with the recent revelation about the new NRA CEO. While a college student, he tortured a cat to death at his frat house. (Not gonna link the story. I wish I hadn’t read it because it’s so disturbing.)
On the other hand, Trump’s dance party town hall was emceed by noted puppy assassin Kristi Noem, so sharing a stage with a cat torturer probably isn’t a problem for Trump.
Quinerly
Hope this link works.
LMAO.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/swxeaVgUJymWTqmW/
Ohio Mom
@Steve LaBonne: I like to think you are right, but do we have data on this? I want to see the political science equivalent of Mayhew/Anderson weigh in with numbers. I want my policy developed based on data.
Eolirin
@Ohio Mom: The dynamic you were describing cuts both ways in any event; early votes banked for our side are also immune to last minute bullshit.
SatanicPanic
@Eolirin: I agree. I don’t think there’s any benefit to removing Trump for them. They don’t actually care if he does crazy things, and if he wins again they’re not concerned about losing in 2028.
Dangerman
I’ve got BINGO!
My other cards had some involving extraterrestials, so I figured that was a sure loser, and a Weekend at Bernie’s scenario, which I think is still possible (at some point, we might be asking for proof of life from that piece of shit).
No One You Know
@Eolirin: Yes. Thank you for addressing that.
The Audacity of Krope
I don’t really care, do you?
Chris
@terraformer:
Frankly, I don’t see how that works. He’s not going to allow himself to be removed, Republican primary voters aren’t going to stand for him being removed, and then what? Contest of wills between him and Vance for the loyalties of the party? The weird, awkward, creepy little couchfucker with the charisma of a dried-out jellyfish isn’t going to be the one who walks away from that one. I don’t think he’s even got the spine to get into the contest in the first place.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Have not verified but saw a comment online, that a planned interview with nbc was canceled.
Rose Judson
@Betty Cracker: Maybe the NRA tried to veto parts of his playlist?
KatKapCC
@Quinerly: *snort* :D
JPL
@JPL: The interview, CNN reported, would be in Philadelphia with NBC News’ senior business correspondent, Christine Romans. CNN’s Brian Stelter said one source suggested that it had only been “postponed.”
The Audacity of Krope
The 25th amendment requires the President to assert his ability to resume leadership in a written document. I’m not sure this is a barrier Trump can make it over.
Villago Delenda Est
So, it’s treason, then.
Steve LaBonne
@Ohio Mom: I don’t know of studies that ask the question; there are data that Democrats are more likely to vote early. But we do know that there are late deciders and there is reason to believe that in 2016 they broke for Trump after the Comey letter and handed him the election. On straightforward pro-democracy grounds I am in favor of every possible measure that makes it easier to vote, including generous early voting periods. Let’s leave trying to game the voting process to Republicans (and of course fight them when they try).
Villago Delenda Est
@Rose Judson: “Saturday Night Special” is right out.
Captain C
@Splitting Image:
I’m pretty sure Churchill was not Prime Minister until 1940 and a Wiki search shows he was appointed First Lord of the Admirality in 1939 after Hitler invaded. Of course, Buchanan is borderline Nazi himself and a love-your-abuser (for others) type, so this is not surprising.
Villago Delenda Est
@Betty Cracker: TCFFG/PAB has this negative thing about pets that people here at Balloon Juice find abhorrent. It’s no wonder that his minion wannabes kill and torture animals.
Villago Delenda Est
@Splitting Image: Pat Buchanan is a Nazi, he’s just missing Hugo Boss and an armband from being full cosplay.
Captain C
@Anoniminous:
Father Coughlin should have been ducktaped up and dropped from a B-17 over a German armaments factory. That would have been the only time in his adult life he was useful.
JoyceH
Trump is supposed to attend the Al Smith dinner tonight- wonder if he’ll show. This afternoon they have him visiting a barber shop and talk about weird! They have this big old tent positioned outside the shop with an enclosed walkway to get in. I guess it’s for security, but geez, it looks like hazmat containment only opaque. And I’d think it would make the shop interior mighty dark. Strange times we live in…
HumboldtBlue
@JPL:
Comment #40
Captain C
@JoyceH:
I think that’s all he can talk about these days.
cmorenc
@JPL:
Buchanan is (very) indirectly responsible for Bush winning Fla and the Presidency in 2000, the most consequential damage he inflicted on this country, simply because he decided to run and was on the ballot in Fla – although the Palm Beach Election Board (which democrats controlled) was far more directly responsible. Their inexcusably bone-brain stupid, confusing “butterfly ballot” design they used, just to save a relative handful of bucks on paper and printing – caused several thousand people in heavily Jewish precincts to mistakenly vote for Buchanan. True, arrogant Nader voters for whom Gore wasn’t lefty enough were also responsible, as was Gore himself for refusing to employ Bill Clinton in the home stretch to help drive out a few thousand extra black voters.
But for present purposes, let’s blame Buchanan for Gore’s loss, even though there were many other factors as well. With a Gore presidency, we would not have had even remotely such a RW court (Alito was a Bush Jr pick).
Layer8Problem
@Aimai: As a long-term former lurker, good to see you here!
Anoniminous
@Eolirin:
1. we know Trump snorts Adderall
2. we know long term abuse of Adderall causes cognitive decline because …
3. we know long term abuse of amphetamine causes cognitive decline because …
4. we know amphetamine disrupts basal ganglia functioning that will, eventually, lead to poor internal control of attention, working memory, set shifting, planning, inhibitory control, dual task performance, and a range of decision‐making and social cognition functions
Captain C
@Anoniminous: In other words, TCFG is a near-end-stage tweaker.
Ishiyama
This is good news from the Onion (if only): https://theonion.com/new-york-times-to-cease-publication/
Sherparick
@Villago Delenda Est: You mean the NRA led by the cat torturer?
bbleh
Anecdata fwiw: with the FEC deadline past, the fundraising text and emails to me — I got ’em from both parties (somehow I got on the Reps’ lists) — have STOPPED from the Dems but NOT the Reps. I’m also getting prompts to go look at tweets by Elmo about TFA.
I’m sure a lot of them are just being generated by grifters who charge TFA by the message, but just the tempo and tenor of them recently, and the fact that they haven’t abated, are starting to smell a little of flop-sweat to me. Like they know the ice is fine because global warming is a hoax, but they still aren’t happy with that cracking sound under their feet.
Brant Lamb
@JPL: Pick anything awful that you hadn’t thought Buchanan had done, and odds-on, he did it. Also, see: Gingritch, Newt.
Gin & Tonic
@Chris:
Trump hasn’t been shot at three times.
lowtechcyclist
@Eolirin:
This makes the most sense to me – they’d let Trump continue to sit behind the Resolute Desk and give orders that they’d ignore but tell him were carried out. They’d need him to sign the occasional document, but they could BS him about what it’s for. And Vance or Stephen Miller or whoever could be doing the actual running of the government behind the scenes.
Since that’s at least as scary as Donald Fucking Trump actually being President, let’s win this thing.
Sherparick
After that UNIVISION townhall, I doubt Trump’s team wants him to do anymore unscripted encounters like that.
Villago Delenda Est
@Sherparick: Aye, the same.
lowtechcyclist
@Rose Judson:
:snicker:
Villago Delenda Est
@Brant Lamb: That picture of him grinning with his Cardassian wife at the gates of Auschwitz sort of sums it all up.
Eolirin
@Anoniminous: We do not know those things, and we do not know if Trump has ADHD, and either way, that study you linked has nothing to do with any of that.
If you have any studies showing amphetamine salts (adderall) are causing significant basal ganglia dysfunction, as opposed to methamphetamine, that’d be helpful too. I’m not gonna go look too hard but every reference I’m seeing is for meth. They’re not interchangeable chemicals.
Layer8Problem
@Chris:
“I’m sorry sir,” said the Secret Service agent, with tears in his eyes. “Acting President Vance’s orders are that you stay here in this locked room for your own safety, indefinitely. Because reasons. Now, this button gets you a Coke, this button gets you your standard McDonalds order, and this one gets you the KFC.”
Eolirin
@Captain C: Adderall and meth are not the same things.
matt
Villago Delenda Est
@Captain C: As my t-shirt sez, “Weird(top, big font) Weirder (below, smaller font) is all they have.”
Bill Arnold
@Chris:
There’s always the, ehem, Section 1 (of the 25th) approach.
JD Vance doesn’t present as having it in him, but he’s a chameleon, he is backed by someone who Elon Musk (allegedly) called a sociopath, and he has some seriously bent philosophical positions.
Mr. Trump should fear> Mr. Vance.
matt
@Betty Cracker: I read a piece that drew that connection here https://thereload.com/nra-trump-cancel-georgia-event-in-wake-of-cat-killing-story/
Villago Delenda Est
@KatKapCC: Pretty much the same as how Poland provoked the Nazis in 1939.
Trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Nothing calls for a grin and hearty thumbs up quite like “Arbeit Macht Frei.”
Booger
@Villago Delenda Est: I have a hard time Keeping Up With The Cardassians.
Brant Lamb
@Chris: I wouldn’t be all that surprised if someone got shot outside that venue, with an “unloaded, safetied” gun that someone brought, to show off.
lowtechcyclist
@Ishiyama: I think that wins the Internet for the day!
JPL
@HumboldtBlue: Thanks… missed that
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic:
Just give it time.
Geoduck
@lowtechcyclist: Certainly simpler than trying to jump through all the hoops that the 25th Amendment requires.
Brant Lamb
@Trollhattan: “The NRA rally format of handing Trump a loaded AR-15 and sending him out on stage to do his Trump poetry jam and interpretive dance recital, sounded fantastic. Very sorry we don’t get to see it live.”
I wish I knew someone who did animation, that would make a WICKEDLY FUNNY cartoon!
Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
You forgot FelonMusk’s position in “The Cabinet”, so it will be even worse than a “Weekend at Mar a Lago” with just Miller and Vance.
Aimai
@Layer8Problem: hey! I still read everyday! I take lurking to new depths!
Layer8Problem
@Villago Delenda Est: SS or Luftwaffe rig? Old Pat strikes me more as a full-figured Göring type.
Brant Lamb
@The Audacity of Krope: Yeah, but your brain isn’t leaking out of your arse, either.
jlowe
Why bother campaigning when you’re just planning to steal the election anyway?
Nettoyeur
Trump is looking quite low energy…..
laura
Why, oh why must I wait? He’s just shit the bed in public all dang week, and yet, and yet, there has been no flurry of fresh new Downfall clips? Come on content creators- do “The Thing.”
Old School
@Gin & Tonic:
Sort of. While only one of the three incidents over the past few months resulted in gunfire, the first one had the gunman fire eight shots in Trump’s direction.
Nettoyeur
Harris-Walz should stay on the caffeine train and out hustle the aging, fading Trump who is so tightly wound he’ll lash out.
Chris
@The Audacity of Krope:
He’ll turn over a written document put together by his intern, and then dare everyone to doubt he wrote it. Which takes us right back to the standoff, and whether Republican officials have the stones to stand against him and their voter base.
Of course, the real reason the 25th amendment won’t be invoked is even cruder: if they wouldn’t invoke it on January 6th, when Republican legislators who thought they were in real danger were making panicked calls to the White House begging him to call off his mob and Trump was just laughing in their faces, they’re not going to do it for anything. It’s a cult, and Trump’s the messiah.
Jay
@Old School:
Or, the gunman shot 8 shots into a Dolt45 Rally, so it was just another spree mass shooting , and it’s just a coinkidink that Dolt45 was there.
Chris
@Captain C:
Any time a conservative accuses somebody of being a warmonger, it’s because they’re proactively in favor of that person’s enemy. None of these people have a problem with the use of force on general principle, not even the unprovoked use of force. If they say the Nazis’ enemies started World War Two, it’s because they’re Nazis.
ETA: also, can we just have a rule saying that no one named “Buchanan” is allowed anywhere in U.S. politics?
Trollhattan
@Chris:
Sadly, Roy has left the building.
Brant Lamb
@Villago Delenda Est: I haven’t seen that one, but following my theorem, I would have predicted it.
rikyrah
Mark Cuban (@mcuban) posted at 0:20 AM on Thu, Oct 17, 2024:
The beautiful thing about the @BretBaier interview is that @KamalaHarris understood and responded to each question.
She used examples of policies. She gave real world context.
When Brett went hard after her. She didn’t call him names. She didn’t quit the interview. She didn’t make things up. She never once complained the questions were tough. She never played the victim card. She didn’t lose her temper. She didn’t take the bait to diminish or talk down to Trump supporters.
She stood up to him with force and never backed down.
He has been the President and campaigning for 9 years. Kamala Harris has caught up to him in just 100 days . That speaks volumes.
It’s why people want to vote for her. That’s why so many Republicans and Independents are supporting her
She is everything her opponent is not and will never be.
Strong, Smart and Measured
(https://x.com/mcuban/status/1846783351278944439?t=1eu7-3gDUT9PtoesL2LUaA&s=03)
Kosh III
@SpaceUnit: Ni Ni
Soprano2
@jonas: Just the level of activity we do is hard on my husband sometimes. He does OK on the day we do it, but he’s more tired the next day. I cannot imagine him doing even a ten minute interview with anyone. TCFG’s staff cancelling things when it’s three weeks before the election is a sign that they know he can’t do it anymore. The last few things he’s done have been mostly disasters.
frosty
@Ishiyama: That was hilarious! Although I wonder about Global Tetrahedron being in charge of all the world’s print news. Their other business lines are a little sketchy, to say the least.
Kosh III
@Omnes Omnibus: I can’t think of any actual fact that Trump actually knows.
I can. He’s the best-est, greatest-est, beautiful-est, smartest-est, stable-est genius-est ever-est.
Layer8Problem
@laura: “He’s just shit the bed in public all dang week, and yet, and yet, there has been no flurry of fresh new Downfall clips?”
I must say I am in full agreement here. And TFG needs to see them, repeatedly, vigorously, and firmly.
Baud
BREAKING: In the ultimate boss move, Harris agrees to speak to the NRA.
Kosh III
@Betty Cracker:recent revelation about the new NRA CEO. While a college student, he tortured a cat to death
Shades of Senator Herr Doktor Bill Frist R-TN who dissected live cats in Med school for practice.
scav
@Layer8Problem: At this point, the Nazis huddled in their final bunkers are over-dubbing Trump campaign events to prove the Reich isn’t doing so bad.
Chet Murthy
@Betty Cracker: Hey, so he tortured a cat. So what? It’s not like he murdered somebody: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/07/nras-murder-mystery/
Baud
@Ishiyama:
Oh, yeah, the feeling is spreading.
artem1s
We’ve entered the stupid phase of the campaign season where the most dysfunctional parties do everything in their power to make us pay attention to them whether it’s in their best interest or not (looking at you MSM).
Peale
Isn’t this when they’re supposed to arrange a trip to show him duck hunting or wind surfing?
UncleEbeneezer
Magdi Jacobs (Twitter link) explains Trump’s rambling from a clinical perspective:
Trollhattan
@Baud: She should agree to it then send Maya Rudolph.
Will start with the obvious: they won’t be able to tell.
Citizen Dave
Haven’t read every post in the thread, so apologies if someone else posted this. But checking his website, it lists 5 rallies starting Friday and ending Wed. Plus the MSG one on the 27th. The more he is out there, the better the chance for dementia hiccups or a total meltdown.
KatKapCC
@Baud: She gonna bring her Glock?
JMG
@bbleh: Dems have not stopped emails and texts to me. I have to clear out the messages almost hourly.
Layer8Problem
@Peale: Clearing brush at Mar-a-Lago, as manly men do in their off-hours and Executive Times.
artem1s
@Ohio Mom:
Early voting optimizes participation in democracy. Only the MSM and pundits who are desperately trying to find a Hail Mary October Surprise should be skeptical of early voting. Shortening voting days only encourages the usual suspect to invent some scandal to keep the horserace narrative going. Shorten the campaign season the way Europe does and lengthen the days people have to cast their ballots.
Captain C
@Chris:
I would support such an amendment.
JaySinWA
Be careful out there – ActBlue has removed a number of “scam PACs” from their platform.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/actblue-boots-democratic-scam-pacs-harris-criticized
wjca
Perhaps you aren’t aware that guns are strictly forbidden at the NRA’s own events. And they are really rigorous about enforcing it. An NRA event would be among the safest he could attend.
EDT omnes got there first. But it bears repeating early and often. The NRA is extremely aware of the dangers of a bunch of nuts with guns. They just don’t care about the world outside their little safe spaces.
Eduardo
@K-Mo: i would count that one thrice.
Scout211
In other news, Ken Paxton is the worst kind of human.
. . .
zhena gogolia
@laura: I think the estate of Bruno Ganz put out a cease-and-desist letter. (j/k)
SFBayAreaGal
@Booger: ISWYDT
Trollhattan
Christ on a cracker.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
@KatKapCC:
“Say hello to my little friend“
Layer8Problem
@wjca: I sense deeply conflicted feelings on the part of the NRA. Lack of firearms would hardly be helpful for ensuring decorum and comity among the participants. After all, to paraphrase noted etiquette authority Robert A. Heinlein an armed event is a polite event, and we can see how well that has worked out in the past.
Baud
@Trollhattan:
Very few people say “Oh my gosh” these days.
Old School
@JaySinWA:
After they raised $9M. The article says they have given “virtually nothing” to Harris-Walz, $1.1M to other Democrats, and $2.5M to companies related to the operators.
They could have put the Balloon-Juice North Carolina fundraisers over the top. Both have about $300 left to their goal!
Edit: And it looks like one fundraiser made it while I was typing this comment.
Chief Oshkosh
@p.a.: Well, if they want to be buried along with their King Nut in his Pyramid Scheme, I say their proposal is acceptable.
Layer8Problem
@zhena gogolia: “(j/k)”
Phew, you had me worried there for a moment.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Ishiyama: but will the Onion hire Paul Krugman? And what about Wordle? I’d pay them for that.
Belafon
@Scout211: Maybe the doctor has decided its their mission to challenge this statement: “Texas passed a law to protect children from these dangerous unscientific medical interventions that have irreversible and damaging effects,”
Chet Murthy
@Trollhattan: Does anybody remember when the G(r)OPers’ answer to the ACA was “we already have that: it’s called EMTALA” ?
CliosFanBoy
I just voted in my very, very blue northern Virginia voting place. There was a long line that moved quickly. Most people seemed to be taking Democratic sample ballots, but too many were taking the republican one. When the old white guy asked me if I wanted a Republican ballot, I just flipped him the bird and turned my back on him.
CliosFanBoy
@Trollhattan:
he’s an idiot. He thinks climate change is fake but witchcraft is real!!!!!
The Audacity of Krope
Wait. Is that real?
The Audacity of Krope
I know they’re staunch advocates for the toxic side of masculinity, but did Republicans need to literally nominate a well-endowed bovine for Senate?
zhena gogolia
@The Audacity of Krope: No.
rikyrah
Well meaning Republicans?
Phuck outta here.
Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) posted at 11:02 PM on Wed, Oct 16, 2024:
Carl Bernstein: In this election, there is either going to be “a reaffirmation of regular political order in this country,” or “there’s going to be a real triumph of fascism, in which good, well-meaning Republicans have allowed themselves to get carried down this path…” https://t.co/YMWbI5iqaZ
(https://x.com/brianstelter/status/1846763760075034802?t=R1Hl_4J8z21joMjzQWrnXQ&s=03)
ColoradoGuy
Just voted! Dropping off the lengthy CO ballot at the county drop box in a few minutes.
K-Mo
@KatKapCC:
Liberace blamed the dalmations for researching DeMoine during the storming of the Bastille
Ruckus
@p.a.:
Yep, blame anyone and everyone other than the person aging out, and doing it rapidly, badly and in public if he’s allowed by his handlers.
Think of those handlers who know he’s aging out rapidly and not at all gracefully and still support him for office, like he’s going to get better. As I’ve stated here before, I am the oldest in my extended family now and I’ve seen aging out in most of the ways and speeds it goes and I’ve taken a small step down the road myself. It’s no less a part of life than the other end of the process, that first breath. And shitforbrains is on that one way road. He may not be up to no light speed yet but he’s getting there.
Old School
Via DougJ, the Hill runs a column about Trump’s Dance Party the other night:
zhena gogolia
@Old School: OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE
This is so depressing.
zhena gogolia
CAN YOU IMAGINE IF KAMALA HARRIS HAD STOPPED ANSWERING QUESTIONS AT A TOWN HALL AND JUST TURNED ON MUSIC AND SWAYED TO IT FOR 39 MINUTES
The Audacity of Krope
Swayed for 39 minutes…lamely and off-beat. Just so much failing, I’m tired of all the failing.
TBone
Isn’t Donold supposed to cosplay at a McDonald’s here in PA? I thought I read he was supposed to be using the fryer. Yes, here it is 😆
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/decision-2024/trump-to-visit-a-mcdonalds-in-philly-on-sunday/4000131/
Gawd, it’s me, TBone. Please let him keel over into the fryer. While wearing a kitchen hairnet. I see that Your sense of humor is frequently as twisted/silly as mine, so I thought You wouldn’t mind. Thanks for your consideration.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
There are good, well meaning republicans?
OK I know there are, but they are seemingly getting fewer and fewer in number. They elected shitforbrains, not all that long ago in presidential time, and they’d seemingly do it again, even given his rapid decline and his imminent failing. (Yes it’s a decline, even if he was most of the way there. Just because his position in humanity is very close to bottom, there’s always a deeper hole to find)
Nora
@TBone:
A la Scotland, PA perhaps?
TBone
@Nora: yes, exactly! 💙
UncleEbeneezer
@Old School: Charles Manson used music too.
Booger
@Trollhattan: Hung Cao is an embarrassment, though a slight twist on Virginia’s infatuation with mediocre white men. And his comments are clearly those of someone with no freaking idea how our healthcare system works AT ALL. I mean, seriously…
Also, and I may have said this before, but Hung Cao does believe in witches but does not believe in freedom of religion.
Chris
@rikyrah:
To go back to what I said this morning about Eisenhower, it can’t be said enough how much every bit of this shit-show is happening because of “good” Republicans. “Good” Republicans like Ike and most of his party, who were “good” in the sense that they weren’t fascists themselves, nevertheless thought it was a good idea to put the fascists – the McCarthyists and John Birchers and China Lobbyists and National Reviewers – front and center in our politics. All those freaks, like the original Nazis in Germany, didn’t exactly have a majority by themselves. “Good” Republicans who knew exactly who and what they were dragged them into the spotlight, put them on a soapbox, give them a loudspeaker, and give them every inch of support they could. They tossed a dog with rabies into their neighbor’s back yard, they didn’t give a shit how many people might get killed, and they thought it was okay simply because they didn’t like that neighbor very much. And then they did it again and again and again and again for the next seventy years, each time letting the fascists do more and more damage, until we got to where we are today and the fascists are running everything.
“Good” Republicans is exactly the wrong word. Like the guy from Judgment At Nuremberg said, these people are the worst of them all, because they know exactly who and what they’re enabling, and they do it anyway.
Ruckus
@TBone:
Gawd, it’s me, TBone. Please let him keel over into the fryer. While wearing a kitchen hairnet. I see that Your sense of humor is frequently as twisted/silly as mine, so I thought you wouldn’t mind. Thanks for your consideration.
This needed to be repeated. Possibly on a billboard.
We all of course end up the same way. For some it is way, way too soon, and for some it is earned, for some it is well deserved. For most it’s just the end of the often reasonably good and long road.
columbusqueen
@JPL: Old Pat wrote an entire book blaming Churchill for WWII.
SatanicPanic
@Old School:
Did this person listen to that mix of music? It was fucking weird. It was definitely not rocking.
NoraLenderbee
Dropped off my ballot at the library drop-box today.
SatanicPanic
@zhena gogolia: Kamala Harris knows how to dance
Barbara
@The Audacity of Krope: Swayed to Ave Maria (assume it was Schubert’s)? I just can’t even.
CliosFanBoy
trump on the fryer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yizu6wP1Qw
The Audacity of Krope
@Barbara: Given his druthers, he probably also swayed to some melodramatic shit about a cat not being a dog.
Baud
@SatanicPanic:
She can dance if she wants to.
SatanicPanic
@Baud: Trump can’t dance and since he can’t dance he’s no friend of mine
Citizen Alan
@SatanicPanic: Yeah, I did not have “Dancing to Ave Maria and Con Te Partiro” on my “what stupid shit will Shitgibbon do today?” bingo card.
Sister Golden Bear
@Scout211: We were fully expecting this… but it’s still a fucking gut punch.
I’m refraining from sharing any more do my thoughts least they lead to a visit from the authorities.
ETA: I will add that the doctor is being arrested for giving trans kids the exact same drugs/hormones that are given to cisgender kids. Not sure about Texas, but several states with trans healthcare bans for kids specifically have exemptions for cisgender kids on things banned for trans kids.
Scout211
Axios has another one of their countless “scoops.”
Chris Cuomo will moderate a townhall with JD Vance on his NewsNation show.
TIL that Chris Cuomo has a show on a network called NewsNation and
I don’t think I’ll be checking it out. But I’m sure it will matter because Axios said it would.
NotMax
@Citizen Alan
It’s my party
And I’ll sway if I want to
Sway if I want to
You would sway too
If it happened to you
//
Jinchi
Are any elected Democrats still campaigning as members of the NRA? Because it seems liked they’ve explicitly picked a lane at this point.
Steve in the ATL
I’m in DC and just had a chat with the chief counsel to [high ranking senator—I’ll let you guess which party]. She loves RFK jr and recommended his new book on Anthony Fauci. “If even half of what he says is true, public healthcare in the US is in serious trouble!” Well, dear, I’ll take the under on that bet, and remind you that healthcare in the US is already a clusterfuck, and it’s not Fauci’s fault.
Even better, she told me that Trump is in fantastic physical health, and she recently saw a video of him bench pressing and he was really strong! Bigly strong, no doubt. Reminded me of Putin’s über manly fake photos and hockey matches.
If I weren’t already cynical, I sure as hell would be now.
Scout211
@Sister Golden Bear: If there is a fund to contribute to the doctor’s legal fees, please post that on balloon-juice if you find that information.
Melancholy Jaques
@Nora:
Love that film.
NotMax
@Melancholy Jaques
Christopher Walken was an excellent Macduff.
Steve in the ATL
@Rose Judson: AJC article:
West of the Rockies
@Scout211:
I wish Paxton would transition into something that isn’t hideous.
Rose Judson
@Steve in the ATL: Thank you! I can’t believe you guys are still in this thread. Let me see if I can scrounge up something else to talk about.
ETA: I think WaterGirl is cooking up something in the back room right now. Stand by.
rikyrah
@Old School:
this is one of the ultimate sanewashing attempts that I have ever read.
Chet Murthy
@rikyrah: “music soothes The Savage Beast”
Steve in the ATL
@Rose Judson: I just checked in for the first time in a couple of days, and this was the newest thread! Plus, yours tend to get a lot of comments. And not just from your fanboi Omnes!
Nora
@NotMax:
“You think I’d let Ed put bullets in his gun?”
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
She should share the video. It could put Trump over the top.
Chris
@Scout211:
Seconded.
Jinchi
Why are they handing out partisan ballots in the general election?
Chief Oshkosh
@Steve in the ATL:
Conservative acquaintances have been pulling some form of that line on me since Reagan. When I bother to respond, it’s usually something like:
So half of what he says are lies. How do you know which half? Just the half that you already believe in? Yeah? Do you not see the problem with that?
Of course, they never see the problem with that.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: I found it highly erotic. May be appropriate for Balloon Juice After Dark. Or inappropriate for anything anywhere.
Baud
@Jinchi:
In a lot of places, the parties can set up outside the polling location. Probably the Dem table handing out ballots.
The Audacity of Krope
I took this to mean those sample ballots showed the partisan recommendations. Presumably they are handing those out at least 100 feet from the entrance to the polling place, because that sounds like campaign activity to me.
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
We don’t want no PornHub rejects.
Steve in the ATL
@Chief Oshkosh: I’m guessing this book falls under “every word was a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’”.
The Audacity of Krope
An “If” so big it can be seen with the naked eye from orbit.
CliosFanBoy
@Steve in the ATL:
Cult? What cult?
The Audacity of Krope
My views are in the tens of thousands. Not great, but certainly not shabby.
CliosFanBoy
@The Audacity of Krope:
Yes, I meant the sample showing the suggested votes.
scav
@rikyrah: Mark Ha-arvey
went to The Hill
to carry Trumpty’s water
Harvey knelt down
and polished Trump’s crown
while Mark he went even farther.
Baud
Can’t believe Fox is likely going to get Yankees vs. Dodgers. They must be over the moon.
Ruckus
@Steve LaBonne:
He lives in LaLa Land.
He’s the senior citizen of LaLa Land.
He thinks he’ll be the next president of LaLa Land. And he might be and will do the same nothing job he did of being the real president. Shitty. Bad. Worse Than Useless. Far Worse. He’s not a normal human being and has only gotten worse from his starting point of being abbynormal. (That’s abnormal to the nth degree.) He’s got a black belt in abnormal. He kicks abnormal’s ass. He’s the spokesperson for abbynormal. If he had walked in the mental health clinic I worked in, I’d have run out the back door so I wouldn’t have to be in the same room with him for 50 minutes. And yes I sat with people that made me think – I never want to do this again and yet I did. Not most, just the occasional patient. It’s a big world and it takes all kinds – at least that’s what I was told….. and was proven to me.
KatKapCC
@Old School: You know what. Maybe we should just throw this whole country in the shitter and start over.
KatKapCC
@West of the Rockies: Like dead?
The Audacity of Krope
I think we’re better off trying to fix the country we have than start a whole new one. Besides, where will we find another place to settle? On the moon?
K-Mo
@SatanicPanic: both true and hilarious
Bill Arnold
@UncleEbeneezer:
Thanks! As a threadreader thread:
As a threadreader thread:
Magdi Jacobs@magi_jay 2024/10/17 – I hope people take what I am about to say very seriously; I am not spouting off. I am speaking as an expert. Trump’s linguistic ability has deteriorated over time. The fact that he is in what we could call “linguistic” decline is objective and measurable.
frosty
@Chris: I won’t argue that the Good Republicans may have opened the doors to the Tea Party / MAGA types, but as others have noted, they have always been there, including as the Taft wing. However, I don’t think Eisenhower was one of them based on this excerpt from one of his letters:
K-Mo
@Chris: I mean, you’re not wrong but I’d still gladly take some votes from some Republicans who have a moment of inspiration, to get through the next few years
Chet Murthy
@frosty: My memory is that one of the reasons Ike chose to become an R, was in order to stifle the Taft (isolationist) wing of the R party.
Scout211
I don’t think we need to throw the country in the shitter and start over. I think if we all simultaneously hold our breath for 30 seconds, the country will restart and all the problems will be fixed. Presto!
Gloria DryGarden
@NotMax: sw-aaay, just a little bit longerrr…
KatKapCC
@Scout211: I don’t have the lung capacity for that. Can I just hit the country on the side like I used to do with our old behemoth TV?
Scout211
@KatKapCC: That works, too.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
Kamala is on MSNBC right now and she rocking the house🌋
Bill Arnold
@TBone:
There are dress rules (sort of a uniform). If he does not comply with them (including no-slip shoes, name badge, shirt), he would just be faking it. (Google says that management personnel can wear business casual, but presumably not at a fryer.)
[I have never worked at a fast-food place, TBH]
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
She is killing it!
Some Trump hole tried to interrupt her and she used the moment to mock Dumps tiny crowd size.
The Audacity of Krope
Of all things that should never have been a campaign issue…
I’ll grant that such comments have been effective, but WHY?!?!?!?
Eolirin
@The Audacity of Krope: This is why I have no faith in humanity anymore.
hoppie
@Chris: Actually only “shot at” once, since the other two were stopped. It also looks like the third “attempt” was just a trump-fluffer who was sacrificed for the cause.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: Axios is just a gussied up version of Tiger Beat on the Potomac. VandeHei and Allen are both Villager valley girls.
sdhays
@Geoduck: Yep. It’s much simpler to mess with the Secret Service detail and just get someone to take him out, especially in a way that makes it a call for doing something they want to do like deporting millions of people or invading Iran.
But the easiest way is to just let him sit on his toilet and watch Newsmax or whatever floats his boat now and let the shadow Presidency do the work. That’s what Elon thinks he’ll get to do if Trump wins.
But all these asshole dreams don’t mean anything because Trump is going to lose.
Uncle Cosmo
Jesus wept.
Could it possibly be that there are things like referenda, initiatives, bond issues etc/usw/atd on the ballot that are ostensibly non-partisan but which the Democratic Party has taken positions on (to support or oppose)?
ETA: In the first general election where I worked the polls (November 1970) there were no less than three sample ballots being handed out that claimed to be “the Official Democratic ballot.” One of them listed the Thuglican running for Congress against the Democrat Parren J Mitchell, who won anyway and became MD’s first African American Representative. The other also dropped the incumbent Democratic US Senator, Joe Tydings, in favor of Thuglican J. Glenn Beall Jr, and unfortunately Tydings was denied reelection by the SOBs.
Ruckus
@Steve LaBonne:
more than a few lines from the teleprompter before going off into lala land.
more than a few lines from the teleprompter before going home to lala land.
Fixed It For You.
Ruckus
@Quinerly:
Doesn’t work for me but then I haven’t been on FB in few years. Was an early participant but it seems to me that the start was the high point and the rest has been down hill.
Msb
@Chris: thirded.
Chris
@frosty:
As you say: from one of his letters. That wasn’t something he ever said in public, it was a private letter to his brother. In a more public kind of way, he was perfectly happy to let McCarthy et al run wild, until the election was safely over and even then, until McCarthy actually turned against him and started accusing him of being a communist
ETA: and again, that’s my whole point. Ike wasn’t one of them, “in his heart” as the saying goes: he knew exactly what they were. He decided they’d make fine attack dogs anyway. He picked Richard Nixon as his vice-president, for God’s sake – hated the man, but picked him anyway.
Chris
@K-Mo:
Sure, but the original post is specifically talking about “good, well-meaning Republicans” who have allowed themselves to be carried into fascism.
I’m happy to welcome any Republican that’s willing to turn the page, but that’s not what these people are.