The Conversation -- October 20, 2024
Maeve Reston of the Washington Post: "Kamala Harris spent the Sunday of her 60th birthday working to turn out Black voters in Georgia, where she asked congregants at two churches outside of Atlanta to choose between a country of 'chaos, fear and hate' -- represented, she implied, by ... Donald Trump -- and the 'country of freedom, compassion and justice' that she envisions.... At her first stop, at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest on Sunday morning, Harris told congregants that she was guided by the teachings of the Bible from an early age, and that growing up in the Black church in Oakland has shaped her leadership style.... At her second stop -- a Souls to the Polls event at Divine Faith Ministries International where musician Stevie Wonder serenaded her with 'Happy Birthday' -- Harris again framed the election as a choice between a leader who would denigrate others and one who would seek to lift them up.... Harris's campaign hopes that the Souls to the Polls effort ... will allow it to bank millions of early votes so it can focus on turning out lower-propensity voters, including non-churchgoers skeptical of her, in the final days before the election."
Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "In an interview on Sunday with the Rev. Al Sharpton, Vice President Kamala Harris responded to a profanity-laden insult that ... Donald J. Trump used about her tenure as vice president, saying he had 'not earned the right' to hold office again. 'The American people deserve so much better,' she told Mr. Sharpton on his show.... Ms. Harris spent much of Sunday, her 60th birthday, at churches in Georgia, as part of the campaign's 'Souls to the Polls' mobilization effort to reach Black faith communities."
Donald McDonald. Jacob Gallagher of the New York Times: " A McDonald's in Pennsylvania, [Donald Trump] manned the fry line and dispensed orders to supporters in the drive-through lane.... He did not wear a hairnet.... Beyond the apron, Mr. Trump ... [didn't wear the McDonald's] uniform.... He didn't change into the pedestrian dark shirt and slip-resistant shoes like the rest of the McDonald's staff. Mr. Trump didn't plop on a McDonald's branded visor. Certainly, he was the only 'employee' at the franchise on Sunday to be packing orders in a shirt with French cuffs.... The visual differences between Mr. Trump and the franchise's employees mostly served to underscore ... that the former president ... exists in a vastly different class of someone working a service job to get by.... His unpaid campaign stunt reaffirmed Mr. Trump's well-crafted image as a rich man with relatable, unvarnished sensibilities." ~~~
~~~ Of course there's a reason Relatable Donald put on that McDonald's apron, and it's not because he's the Hamburglar: ~~~
~~~ Heather Knight & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris has recalled her stint at a Bay Area McDonald's 41 years ago in introducing herself to voters -- a biographical detail relatable to millions of Americans who have toiled in fast-food restaurants. But ... Donald J. Trump has repeatedly accused her of inventing it. Lacking a shred of proof, he has charged that she never actually worked under the golden arches -- recalling his earlier false claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Mr. Trump's latest allegation also appears to be false.... Wanda Kagan, a close friend of Ms. Harris's when they attended high school together in Montreal, said she recalled Ms. Harris having worked at McDonald's around that time.... Ms. Kagan said that Ms. Harris's mother, who died in 2009, had told Ms. Kagan about the summer job years ago." MB: Oddly, the reporters wait till the 11th paragraph to get to Kagan's recollections. This is particularly peculiar because, as far as I know, this is the first time a major news outlet has reported out a refutation of this particular Trump invention.
Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "... on Sunday, [Donald Trump] sat for an interview on Fox News, where he was challenged directly on some of his most glaring falsehoods of the campaign.... Mr. Trump repeatedly denied knowledge of information that has long been publicly available, questioned the sources and then pivoted away to an unrelated topic. On one point, though, he stuck by his words with no deflection or equivocation: He absolutely believed, he said, that his political opponents were an 'enemy from within' who posed a greater threat than foreign adversaries. Here's a look at notable moments in Mr. Trump's interview with Fox News's Howard Kurtz[.]" Do read on if you have a NYT subscription.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "America for the first time in its history may send a criminal to the Oval Office.... What would once have been automatically disqualifying barely seems to slow Mr. Trump down in his comeback march for a second term that he says will be devoted to 'retribution.'... He has survived more scandals than any major party presidential candidate, much less president.... He has turned them on their head, making allegations against him into an argument for him by casting himself as a serial victim rather than a serial violator.... Any one of [Mr. Trump's] scandals by itself would typically have been enough to derail another politician. Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s first bid for the presidency collapsed when he lifted some words from another politician's speech." Baker runs down many of Trump's scandals & failures. It is, for that reason, quite a long article. ~~~
~~~ Daddy, What's an Oligarchy? ~~~
~~~ Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: Elon "Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, effectively dictates NASA's rocket launch schedule. The Defense Department relies on him to get most of its satellites to orbit. His companies were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts last year with 17 federal agencies. His entanglements with federal regulators are also numerous and adversarial. His companies have been targeted in at least 20 recent investigations or reviews, including over the safety of his Tesla cars and the environmental damage caused by his rockets.... [Mr. Musk] has thrown his fortune and power behind ... Donald J. Trump and, in return, Mr. Trump has vowed to make Mr. Musk head of a new 'government efficiency commission' with the power to recommend wide-ranging cuts at federal agencies and changes to federal rules. That would essentially give the world's richest man and a major government contractor the power to regulate the regulators who hold sway over his companies, amounting to a potentially enormous conflict of interest.... Instead of entering this new role as a neutral observer, Mr. Musk would be passing judgment on his own customers and regulators. Already, Mr. Musk has discussed how he would use the new position to help his own companies."
Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times asks some campaign finance lawyers to address whether or not Elon Musk's financial incentives to voters are legal. "Brendan Fischer ... said, 'There would be few doubts about the legality if every Pennsylvania-based petition signer were eligible, but conditioning the payments on registration arguably violates the law, which prohibits giving anything of value to induce or reward a person for registering to vote.'... Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and the state's former attorney general, said on Sunday on Meet the Press that the giveaway was 'something that law enforcement could take a look at.'" Schleifer did find one expert who said it was okay: former SEC chair Brad Smith. MB: I checked out Smith: he's a member of the right-wing Federalist Society, he planned to testify for Trump in his hush-money trial, he's probably the country's most prominent opponent of campaign finance laws. Oh, and Bill Clinton, formerly our sleaziest modern president, appointed him to head the FEC, an appointment which horrified campaign finance reform advocates. ~~~
~~~ Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin -- who is a lawyer -- pointed out in an appearance on MSNBC that the payments may be illegal because they appear to be unreported campaign contributions.
Down the page, Jamelle Bouie tries to reassure us how unlikely it is Trump will successfully overturn the election results if he loses. Come now Kyle Cheney and others at Politico to explain how Trump could pull it off.
Colby Hall of Mediaite: "CNN's Jake Tapper and Speaker Mike Johnson battled over former President Donald Trump's recent warning of an 'enemy within' the nation and the suggestion of using the National Guard against them.... At one point, after Speaker Johnson tried to insist he wasn't talking about American democratic officials, Tapper interjected with, 'Nope! He talked about Adam Schiff. the Pelosis....'" Tapper played a clip of Trump saying exactly that, after which Johnson had the gall to say, "... No. He's talking about using the National Guard in the military to keep the peace in our streets in the summer of 2020 that my Democratic colleagues call this summer of love...." The article includes a transcript of the full exchange between Tapper & Johnson as well as of the clip Tapper played. ~~~
~~~ At about the same time Bible Mike was lying about what he had just heard on the CNN teevee, Donald Trump was over at Fox, confirming what Bible Mike just lied about. According to Maggie Astor of the New York Times (linked above), "Mr. Kurtz asked who the 'enemy from within' was, and Mr. Trump identified Representative Adam Schiff of California and the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi." Marie: Some reporter should ask Bible Mike if his church suspends the Ninth Commandment ("Thou shall not bear false witness" [i.e., lie]) during campaign season.
Lauren Irwin of the Hill: "President Biden released a statement mourning the 'devastation' after a bridge collapsed on Georgia's Sapelo Island, killing 7 people. 'We are heartbroken to learn about the ferry dock walkway collapse on Georgia's Sapelo Island. What should have been a joyous celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation,' Biden said in a statement Saturday evening." ~~~
~~~ Vice President Harris's statement, via the White House, is here. See stories under Sunday's Ledes.
Michael Bender of the New York Times: Donald Trump "says that his [speaking] style is to 'weave' from one subject to the next.... His critics say such detours are a troubling sign of his incoherence and raise questions about his age and cognitive health.... Here are four examples of Mr. Trump's rambling from just this past week. Schoolchildren asked him about boyhood heroes. He ended up at the border wall.... Asked about inflation, he roamed to his annoyance with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's college experience.... Asked about climate change, he drifted to his golf course and then to World War III.... He started discussing tax breaks for car loans. He found his way to a nerve-racking rocket landing." In each case, Bender transcribes Trump's quite crazy meanderings. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I realize that when most of us speak extemporaneously, our remarks don't sound as if we're reading from a well-edited textbook. On the other hand, politicians should be able to anticipate a high percentage of the questions they'll be asked, and they should be able to give coherent answers that more-or-less address the questions. At the same time, politicians -- unlike most of us -- are accustomed to answering questions, so they should know how to do it, even when they don't like the questions, or even when they're unprepared for particular questions. I don't care if Trump's groupies find him entertaining or even mesmerizing; I find his incoherence in and of itself disqualifying.
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race
Brianna Tucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Vice President Kamala Harris criticized ... Donald Trump over the issue of abortion access at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday, pointing out that the family of Amber Thurman -- a Georgia woman who died in 2022 after she did not receive proper medical care because of abortion restrictions -- was in the audience.... Harris played a clip of Trump at an all-women Fox News town hall, in which the moderator said Thurman's family had just participated in a call hosted by the vice president's campaign. 'Oh, that's nice,' Trump said in the clip. 'We'll get better ratings, I promise.' Harris said Trump had 'mocked' Thurman's family in the clip and later asked, 'Where is the compassion?'... Harris also repeated her assertion that Trump is exhausted from campaigning after several canceled appearances, and called into question Trump's coherence.... At a smaller campaign event earlier Saturday in Detroit, Harris said that voters need to 'just watch' Trump's rallies if they remain undecided.... In Atlanta, R&B singer Usher rallied for Harris."
Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris let her T-shirt do the talking in Detroit on Saturday. The black shirt ... bore the words 'Detroit vs. Everybody.' The attire was a clear response to ... Donald J. Trump, who last week disparaged what is one of the nation's largest majority-Black cities, portraying Detroit as a decaying harbinger of America's future under Ms. Harris. In brief remarks to the crowd on the inaugural day of early voting in the city, Ms. Harris urged her supporters to reject Mr. Trump's division and insults. 'We stand for the idea that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it's on who you lift up,' she said, saying that her campaign was seeking the kind of 'grit' and 'excellence' possessed by 'the people of Detroit.'... Speaking before Ms. Harris at the rally in Detroit, [singer & Detroit native] Lizzo also challenged Mr. Trump's attacks on the city. 'They say if Kamala wins, this whole country will be like Detroit,' she said. 'Well, I say proud like Detroit. I say resilient like Detroit. This is the same Detroit that innovated the auto industry and the music industry. So put some respect on Detroit's name.'"
Zachary Leeman of Mediaite: "NBC News correspondent Yasmin Vossoughian spoke with a panel of Arab American viewers, all of whom refused to back Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming election." MB: I do understand their anger; however, there is not a whiff of a chance xenophobic Muslim-Ban Donald would be a better president for Arabs or Arab-Americans. "Gosh, you guys don't 'look American.' Off to the detention/deportation camp you go." Think clearly, people.
Benjamin Oreskes of the New York Times: "For [Nevada] Democrats [on the first day of early voting], Saturday culminated with an appearance in Las Vegas by former President Barack Obama, who has been visiting battleground states to energize Democrats. Speaking in a high school gym filled to capacity with 3,000 people and another thousand watching in an overflow area, according to the Harris campaign, Mr. Obama acknowledged the struggles Nevadans were facing -- how people are 'treading water,' as he put it, from high housing and consumer prices.... 'I get why people are looking to shake things up,' he told the crowd. 'What I cannot understand is why anyone would think Donald Trump would shake things up in a way that's good for you.' He added, 'We do not need a president who makes problems worse just to make his politics better.'" Democrats are holding several events in Nevada, including one with Sen. Alex Padilla (Cal.) and Rep; Nanette Barragán (Cal.) in Reno on Saturday and another with Gwen Walz & actor Jennifer Garner in Reno, scheduled for Sunday.
A Genuine New York Times Front-Page Headline: "At a Pennsylvania Rally, Donald Trump Descends to New Levels of Vulgarity." Michael Gold: "... Donald J. Trump on Saturday spewed crude and vulgar remarks at a rally in Pennsylvania that included an off-color remark about a famous golfer's penis size and a coarse insult about Vice President Kamala Harris. The performance, 17 days before the election in a critical battleground state, added to the impression of the Republican nominee as increasingly unfiltered and undisciplined.... Mr. Trump opened his speech at the airport in Latrobe, Pa., with 12 minutes of reminiscing about the golfer Arnold Palmer, who grew up in the Western Pennsylvania town and for whom the airport was named. His monologue culminated in lewd remarks about the size of Mr. Palmer's penis.... [After goading the audience to shout the word 'shit,'] Mr. Trump urged his supporters to vote, telling them that they had to send a crude message to Ms. Harris: 'We can't stand you, you're a shit vice president.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Funny how the Gray Lady can twist her sensible underthings in knots over vulgarities but quietly sip her tea & nibble on scones while contemplating the impending inauguration of a racist, nationalist dictator and his host of enablers in Congress and the courts. ~~~
~~~ The AP's report is here.
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times tries to calm the anxieties of everyone who fears Donald Trump will try to steal the election if he loses. Yeah, he will. BUT "His ability to reverse a loss is limited to his ability to inspire others to commit crimes on his behalf. Remember, the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 clarified that congressional counting of the electoral votes is a formality and has no real bearing on the outcome. The Jan. 6 method is off the table. More important, Trump is not the president. He has no legal authority. If he loses, he'll be just another private citizen.... Trump has a better chance of winning outright than he does of overturning a defeat.... [So] you might want to focus more on putting him out to pasture on whether he can break out of the enclosure."
MoDo Is Not Amused. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: Cardinal "Timothy Dolan let a white-tie charity dinner in New York showcase that most uncharitable of men, Donald Trump. At the annual Al Smith dinner, Dolan suffused the impious Trump in the pious glow of Catholic charities. Dolan looked on with a doting expression as Trump made his usual degrading, scatological comments about his foils, this time cloaked as humor.... As he did in 2016 when he crudely attacked Hillary Clinton as she sat on the dais, Trump added a rancid cloud to what used to be a good-tempered bipartisan roast.... Instead of telling Trump he was over the line, Dolan enabled him in his blasphemous effort to cast his campaign as a quasi-religious crusade and himself as a saintly martyr saved by God.... Al Smith ... would have detested Trump, a bigot cynically stoking racial fears and bloodthirsty impulses to get elected.... The pols on the dais looked like a Last Supper for this unnerving election. Hopefully, it's not a Last Supper for the Republic."
Kipp Jones of Mediaite: Donald Trump & Elon Musk insulted billionaire Mark Cuban (and Musk insulted not-billionaire Rachel Maddow), presumably because Cuban is supporting and campaigning for Kamala Harris. MB: I won't bother running down the insults, but you can read 'em at the link.
Jason Koebler of 404 Media: "An Elon Musk-funded group called Future Coalition PAC is targeting Muslim voters in Michigan and Jewish voters in Pennsylvania with diametrically opposed political advertisements about Kamala Harris. In areas of Michigan with relatively large Muslim populations, the Super PAC is painting Harris as a close friend of Israel and is suggesting that she is beholden to the beliefs of her Jewish husband Doug Emhoff; in parts of Pennsylvania with relatively large Jewish populations, the advertisements call Harris antisemitic and say she 'support[s] denying Israel the weapons needed to defeat the Hamas terrorists who massacred thousands.' Meanwhile, a related PAC also funded by Musk is microtargeting likely Black voters on Snapchat with ads that says Kamala Harris is trying to ban menthol cigarettes (surveys have shown that 81 percent of Black smokers use menthols, and big tobacco has disproportionately marketed menthol cigarettes to Black Americans)." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm not familiar with 404 Media, but I've seen this story elsewhere, so I think it's solid. Update: I see Josh Marshall of TPM also cites 404's reporting, so we're in good company. So does digby, beneath a swell headline and subhead: "Move Over Roger. There's a new ratfucker in town." As for Elon, I know he's one of the richest people on the planet, but if money could buy that guy a conscience, I'd start a GoFundMe page for him. ~~~
~~~ Oh, not only immoral, but also criminal, according to election law expert Rick Hasen: ~~~
~~~ Rick Hasen on his Election Law Blog cites Hugo Lowell on X: "Elon Musk says on stage at a town hall that America PAC will be awarding $1 million every day until the election to a registered Pennsylvania voter who has signed his petition. Musk awarded the first $1 million this evening to someone at the town hall, bringing the guy onto the stage and handing him a jumbo check, lotto-style. Musk is essentially incentivizing likely Trump voters in PA to register to vote: Petition is to support for 1A [First Amendment] and 2A [Second Amendment], so basically R voters. But they also have to be registered to vote, so if they weren't already, they would do it now." ~~~
~~~ Hasen: “Though maybe some of the other things Musk was doing were of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal. See 52 U.S.C. 10307(c): 'Whoever knowingly or willfully ... pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both...." (Emphasis [Hasen].) ~~~
~~~ And This. Arianna Coghill of Mother Jones: "On Thursday, [Elon Musk] tweeted to more than 200 million followers that he's offering $100 to registered Pennsylvania voters who sign his pro-Trump petition." MB: Here again, the offer incentivizes people to register to vote. So if $1MM to a few lucky voters is unlawful, then so is $100 to everyone who signs the petition. BTW, Monday is the last day one can register to vote in Pennsylvania.
Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's campaign may be failing to reach thousands of voters they hope to turn out in Arizona and Nevada, with roughly a quarter of door-knocks done by America Pac flagged by its canvassing app as potentially fraudulent, according to leaked data and people familiar with the matter. The potentially fake door-knocks -- when canvassers falsely claim to have visited a home -- could present a serious setback for Trump.... The Trump campaign earlier this year outsourced the bulk of its ground game to America Pac, the political action committee founded by Elon Musk.... Paid canvassers are typically not as invested in their candidate's victory compared with volunteers or campaign staff.... The Trump campaign took a gamble this cycle when it outsourced the bulk of its ground game to political action committees, after the Federal Election Commission earlier this year for the first time allowed campaigns to coordinate its voter turnout efforts with outside groups." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wouldn't it be a terrible shame if these lowly temps were ripping off multi-billionaire Elon Musk and probable billionaire Donald Trump, who is himself the Scam King?
Marco Margaritoff of the Huffington Post: "Dominion Voting Systems released a pointed statement Saturday following remarks from billionaire Elon Musk and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who have reiterated debunked conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from Republican nominee Donald Trump.... Musk ... promoted the false assertion that Dominion manipulated the election in 2020 at his first solo event to support Trump's campaign on Thursday, insinuating without proof that 'some very strange things' happened to people's votes.... Dominion ... reacted strongly to Musk's comments [citing what the company said were facts that countered Musk's claims].... Separately, Greene ... appeared on Alex Jones' InfoWars network on Friday, where she claimed that a Dominion machine 'changed' the ballot of a voter in her district [this past week]." On its Website, Dominion debunked Greene's claim.
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Palestine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here: "On Sunday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said it struck about 175 militant targets in Gaza and Lebanon in the past day. At least 73 people were killed when an Israeli airstrike pummeled a group of homes in the northern border town of Beit Lahia on Saturday, according to Gaza's Civil Defense. Rescue operations continued through the night, with many people still buried under the rubble, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the Civil Defense."
Aaron Boxerman, et al., of the New York Times: "Israeli forces pounded targets in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya on Saturday, killing at least 33 people and injuring dozens of others in the bombardment, a Palestinian emergency services group said.... Fighting also escalated in Lebanon on Saturday, as the Israeli military targeted several areas outside of Beirut in airstrikes that covered the area in clouds of dust."
Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The leak of a pair of highly classified U.S. intelligence documents describing recent satellite images of Israeli military preparations for a potential strike on Iran offers a window into the intense American concerns about Israel's plans. It also has U.S. officials working to understand the size of the improper disclosure. The two documents were prepared in recent days by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for analyzing images and information collected by American spy satellites. They began circulating on Friday on the Telegram app and were being discussed by largely pro-Iran accounts. The documents, which offer interpretations of satellite imagery, provide insight into a potential strike by Israel on Iran in the coming days. Such a strike has been anticipated in retaliation for an Iranian assault earlier this month, which was itself a response to an Israeli attack." CNN's story focuses on the leak.
News Lede
New York Times: "At least seven people were killed on Saturday when a ferry dock gangway collapsed on a Georgia island where hundreds had gathered to celebrate the heritage of a community of slave descendants, the authorities said. The deaths on Sapelo Island were confirmed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which manages the island and operates its ferry service. The island is about 70 miles by road south of Savannah, Ga. The department said late Saturday that at least 20 people went into the water when the gangway collapsed, and that it was not immediately clear how many people had been injured." A CBS News story is here.
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Reader Comments (12)
Trump and Musk have developed an interestingly (and disgustingly) symbiotic relationship. They take turns playing the role of a scavenger bird who rides the back of some larger animal, pecking insects out of its fur. The scavenger gets a meal while the larger beast gets rid of pests in its hair.
Right now, Musk is using his immense wealth and power to deflect pesky Americans who would point out Fatty’s criminal and authoritarian goals (past and future), in exchange, the musky man expects that once he helps Demented Donnie waddle back into the White House, he will rid Musk of pesky things like laws and controls that might keep citizens from being defamed, debased, even attacked and killed by My so’s most extreme users of his antisocial media tool.
Plus, Musk has now learned that attaching himself to this fat, rampaging water buffalo allows him to go to fascist rallies where lunatics will cheer him madly for hopping around like a portly cartoon character. He has always longed for the spotlight, for the kind of fan base that will scream his name in adulation, ignoring his worst proclivities and most dangerous actions.
The two of them can be as disgusting and mendacious as they please, and the drooling MAGAts want more. It’s a drug. Who cares about anything else as long as these two narcissistic nihilists claim more money, more power, more cheers from the rabid rabble, and get to destroy their enemies along the way?
What’s democracy, what’s rule of law, what’s decency, morality, humanity, what is America compared to that?
Democracy
Like some increasingly insolent, surly, and petulant 15 year old, Dementia Fatty has been ramping his already bilious and perverse mendacious and curse filled monologues.
He’s the asshole juvenile who tries to get a rise out of the adults in the room by talking trash. Trump prides himself on being first ever to do so many things. He’s wrong about most of those claims, but the first presidential candidate (and former president) to publicly talk about “getting schlonged”, dwelling at length on the size of a late golfer’s penis (sounds like some not very well endowed teenager is jealous), calling his rival “retarded”, importuning supporters to scream “shit”, getting so-called godly evangelicals to shout “bullshit” in a church?
Yeah. He’s definitely got those First Ever crowns.
But just imagine the public outrage if a Democrat did these things.
He’s way beyond “disqualifying”. He IS Dementia Fatty. And millions of equally demented juveniles are lining up to put President Schlonged back in the White House.
Disheartening doesn’t begin to cover it.
Just typed something and lost it somehow... let's try again.
Today is the day when the Fat Felon waddles into town to "speak" in downtown Lancaster, PA, and I just can't wait. Nope, not wanting to go downtown-- there will be hundreds more MAGA hats and 2,000 more rusty pickup trucks trundling around the square tonight. It will be useless to be there as a resident, as the city is Democratic, but since the county (2 out of 3 commissioners are MAGA idiots) is red, it will be a madhouse with ignorant low-information voters and nonvoters cramming themselves into the convention center/hotel to scream and froth at the mouth in joy to see their idol. I will wait for the movie.
And anyway, what does “Harvey Weinstein getting schlonged” and Arnold Palmer’s penis have to do with running the nation? Or screaming “Shit, shit, shit”!!?
Nothing, of course. But it does emphasize how little MAGA voters care about boring stuff like policy, good governance, democracy, and the Constitution (except for four words in the Second Amendment). They love Fatty’s “regular guy” vibe, like their drunk, senile Uncle Charlie who curses through Thanksgiving dinner, uses words like “broads”, “niggers”, “spics”, and tells dick jokes.
But do they really want Uncle Charlie to run the country? Make economist decisions? Have the nuclear codes?
Yes. They do. He’s “one of us”, even though Trump would step over any one of them if they were lying on the street.
Better than letting some black lady run things, no matter how smart, competent, and honest. Better a word slurring, barbaric, profane, salacious crook.
“You get the government you deserve” is an increasingly accurate promise.
But Arnold Palmer was good at whacking balls.
Too bad he didn't get a chance to whack Trump's.
Forrest,
He’d have needed a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers.
Test
Just wondering what in the hell is this?
The latest MAGA marketing scudge is a MAGA hat with a picture of a MAGA hat on it. Is this some Dadaesque idea? Kind of like Magritte’s painting of a pipe with the caption “Ceci c'est ne pas une pipe”?
One could get into some deep epistemic waters about self reference but then it becomes a whole big magillah, and that fat slob is not worth a quarter of a magillah.
Anyway, check out this tres stupid MAGA hat hat.
They’re still weird.
@Akhilleus: Really stupid! I guess it is supposed to be kind of a meta thing, but I'm sticking with "Really stupid!"
Speaking of stupid, my French sucks so much that when you wrote about Magritte's pipe, I immediately thought not Magritte but Maigret, Simenon's fictional detective, who smokes a pipe. Of course the pronunciations of Magritte & Maigret are quite different, but in my defense, they share every consonant!
Marie,
I’m pretty sure Simenon’s detective would prefer a dozen locked room murders to having a go at figuring out the MAGA mind. Bosch would blanch, Dupin would demur, Sherlock would shuck his fiddle, Miss Marple would make for the coast, Father Brown would bolt, Easy Rawlins would head east, the Hardy Boys would hightail it, Freud would fuck off home. Anything rather than trying to make sense of the impenetrable MAGA brick brains.
That's one weird hat!
I believe there's a spelling error. It should be Make America
Grate Again. As in: Why do I keep grating my teeth every time I
see a picture of that fat bastard?
I'm thinking about producing T-shirts with a picture of a shirt printed
on for those places that require a shirt to dine. Makes as much
sense as a hat with a hat printed on it.