The Conversation -- October 21, 2024
Marie: Just when I think maybe the New York Times is getting a little better, somebody like Steve M. comes along and snaps me back to reality. Steve got the goods on the Times' reporting Donald Trump's Arnold Palmer-has-a-big-dick story. After a reader called out Michael Gold for "reporting" the dick story as "telling Arnold Palmer golf stories," Gold wrote back that he did report the dick story in one of his posts but his editors removed the post (or that part of it). Gold suggested the reader complain to senioreditor@nytimes.com . May that happened, because the Times then published the full story, which led with the dick remark. Steve wonders, "Did reader complaints pressure the Times to run this story? Or was it the fact that most other media organizations, including The Washington Post, AP, CNN, USA Today, and even Fox, recognized the news value of the joke?" Thanks to RAS for the link. (See also Akhilleus's commentary below on the Times "equality of outcomes" standard.)~~~
~~~ The Times is quite all right with reporting dick jokes if Democrats tell them. Here's Peter Baker, reporting on President Obama's 2024 Democratic convention speech:
"Mr. Obama scorned his successor's fixation with 'childish nicknames' and his 'crazy conspiracy theories' and 'this weird obsession with crowd sizes.' At that point, Mr. Obama held his hands together in a way that implied a certain concern over masculine proportions. When the crowd roared with laughter, he made an I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about face of faux innocence."
~~~ Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump are former presidents, even if one of them was a president*. Why is it okay to report on Obama's joke but not on Trump's vulgar remark?
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race
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 -- led by its National Advisory Board of Black Faith Leaders -- 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." (Also linked yesterday.) CNN's story is here.
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jess Bidgood, et al., of the New York Times: "... Vice President Kamala Harris is moving aggressively to make sure voters in the battlegrounds remember precisely why they rejected Donald J. Trump four years ago. Gone is the euphoria of her joyful first weeks as the Democratic presidential nominee. She is no longer trying simply to diminish the former president.... 'See for yourself,' she told a crowd in Ashwaubenon, Wis., on Thursday, gesturing to two large television screens installed at the rally. 'Let's roll a clip.' The video screens lit up with a 40-second montage of Mr. Trump bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade.... Deploying his words as her sharpest weapons, Ms. Harris is pointing to Mr. Trump's erratic behavior and increasingly outlandish and antidemocratic statements to paint him as unfit, unstable and, above all, too dangerous for another term.... His recent run of undisciplined behavior has given Ms. Harris ample material to highlight.... Mr. Trump has been delivering winding speeches that have alarmed some allies, and he has doubled down on politically toxic threats to his opponents and a dark, apocalyptic message that helps to illustrate Ms. Harris's point."
Theodore Schleifer & Albert Sun of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign set a record for the biggest fund-raising quarter ever this fall, raising $1 billion in the three-month period that ended Sept. 30. Ms. Harris's campaign and its allied party committees raised over $359 million in September alone, compared with the $160 million reported by ... Donald J. Trump's campaign and allied groups. Ms. Harris and her groups entered October with over $346 million on hand; Mr. Trump's aides said his campaign and its affiliated groups had $283 million.... Each month since Ms. Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee, she has significantly out-raised and outspent Mr. Trump, building a vastly bigger campaign than has the Republican nominee." ~~~
~~~ Politico's story, under the headine "Harris outraised Trump more than 3-to-1 in September," is here. MB: I sure hope a good portion of Harris' money is going to a GOTV effort. The Harris campaign probably can't do worse than Elon who has funded GOTV efforts in which canvassers are scamming him by not actually visiting potential voters.
Donald McDonald. Jacob Gallagher of the New York Times: "At 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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Of course there's a reason Relatable Don 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. ~~~
~~~ AND, as we have come to expect, Donald McDonald's stunt was even phonier than the Times let on:
~~~ Marianne LeVine & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "The restaurant was closed to the public during Trump's visit, and the motorists whom Trump served were screened by the U.S. Secret Service and positioned before his arrival. No one ordered food. Instead, the attendees received whatever Trump gave them. Trump was at the fry station for about five minutes and spent about 15 minutes at the drive-through window, much of it taking questions from reporters.... Trump ... did not answer a question about whether he supported raising the minimum wage. 'Well, I think this. These people work hard,' Trump said. 'They're great. And I just saw something -- a process that's beautiful.'... Instead, he focused on promoting his unsubstantiated claim that Vice President Kamala Harris did not work at the fast-food chain in college.... In pro-Trump media..., the absence of documentation [that Harris worked at a McDonald's in 1983] has morphed into proof that Harris lied." ~~~
~~~ Now Serving: Fries & Lies. John Bowden of the Independent: "As he took a question from a reporter through the drive-thru window, Trump once again resorted to baseless suggestions that the 2024 presidential election results would be tainted by fraud, a charge he and running mate JD Vance have repeated about the past presidential election. 'Will you accept the results of the election?' asked a reporter. 'Yeah, sure, if it's a fair election,' the apron-clad Trump declared, his head fully poking out of the drive-thru.... He now looks poised to contest the results of the race again should he lose; whether it be through legal challenges or merely rhetoric."
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. (Also linked yesterday.)
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. (Also linked yesterday.)
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. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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.
⭐ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Froomkin in Salon: "If Donald Trump wins the Nov. 5 election, the New York Times will be partly responsible. As the dominant voice in American journalism, the Times could have fundamentally changed the way Trump has been covered not just by its own journalists but by the political media as a whole. It could have stopped using soft, empty language and false equivalence, and made it crystal clear to the public that if elected Trump would turn America into a racist, authoritarian regime where facts don't matter. But ... the Times has chosen to engage in tortured euphemisms, passive construction, and poor news judgment.... The day-to-day coverage treats Trump like a normal candidate, rather than as the wildly dangerous and unhinged felon that he is. Day in and day out, the Times 'sanewashes' his dark and unintelligible ramblings.... New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger and editor Joe Kahn have made it abundantly clear time and again that they prize their so-called 'journalistic independence' over any obligation to sound the alarm that electing Trump would be a disaster for the country." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't disagree with Froomkin, except to the extent that other outlets need not mimic the Times' "standards." For instance, if you listen to "neutral" CNN through several segments covering U.S. politics, you'll see that their reports & panel discussions treat the candidates from president on down as equals. If you watch CNN, you have to already know Trump's MO to figure out when on-air personalities are reporting or alleging scary news about his latest threat.
Ruthless Rick Wilson, the former (and likely future) GOP strategist, said on his latest podcast: "This is why they're canceling [Trump's] events. He's too tired. He's too sick. His brain is too broken and he can't keep doing this. He has lost a fundamental edge.... He has for the last two weeks displayed an acute, immediate, severe mental decline. His family should frankly have him withdraw from the race and get him some immediate medical attention. This is elder abuse at this point, folks.... He's out there threatening to put his political opponents in jail, but he won't be the president for very long. JD Vance will be the president.... Now, this is the dirty little secret of this campaign. Peter Thiel and JD. Vance and Chuck Johnson and Steve Bannon and all the rest of these people around Trump. Elon. The second Trump by some chance is inaugurated, the clock starts running. They will replace him under the 25th Amendment...." There's more. Via Red State Rachel of Crooks & Liars.
Marie: Depending upon whose reporting you believe, Donald Trump drove his companies into bankruptcy four or six times (and would have done so more often if his father hadn't repeatedly bailed him out). So are we surprised that his latest plan is to bankrupt Social Security? ~~~
~~~ Julie Weil of the Washington Post: "A new report projects that the Social Security Trust Fund might run out of money within six years under a Donald Trump presidency, while Vice President Kamala Harris's proposed policies would not meaningfully change the current trajectory. Social Security faces a looming funding crisis in an aging country, with trustees most recently predicting that the retirement and disability program's trust fund will become insolvent in 2035. Many of Trump's campaign proposals would accelerate that timeline, potentially by years, said the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that opposes large federal deficits." MB: Bear in mind that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people are voting for Trump because they think -- and are willing to say out loud -- that he is better at business than Harris. Every week we get at least one stunning new story that disproves their theory of the case. Nitwits. ~~~
~~~ AND This. Steve Peoples & Linley Sanders of the AP: "Voters remain largely divided over whether they prefer Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris to handle key economic issues, although Harris earns slightly better marks on elements such as taxes for the middle class, according to a new poll. A majority of registered voters in the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research describe the economy as poor. About 7 in 10 say the nation is going in the wrong direction." MB: Gosh, too bad the reporters don't bother to report that by most measures, this is perhaps the best U.S. economy in history, and it is currently the "world's strongest" economy. I don't see much point in running a survey asking how people "feel" about the national economy without comparing or contrasting those "feelings" with the facts. The average person has no way to know the state of the economy.
Yesterday, 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. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday.)
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. (Also linked yesterday.) CNN's story is here. ~~~
~~~ 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.
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. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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. ~~~
~~~ Kelby Vera of the Huffington Post: "Jake Tapper couldn't get a straight answer from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) when he asked him Donald Trump's recent rally riff about golfer Arnold Palmer's penis on Sunday's episode of 'State of the Union.'... Though the speaker tried to deflect, Tapper pressed on.... After a bit of back and forth, Johnson reluctantly relented. 'I'll address it. Let me answer it. OK. Don't say it again,' the clearly uncomfortable speaker told Tapper, before dismissing the Palmer penis comments as mere 'lines in a rally.' 'You can cherry pick a few words or lines out of a two-hour event,' he later added, then criticizing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris' communication style as 'word salads.'"
60 Minutes, in a statement: "... Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false. 60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment. Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated."
Hannah Nichols & Stef Kight of Axios: "In a biography set to publish a week before the election, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell backed special counsel Jack Smith and said he hopes former President Trump will 'pay a price' for his role in Jan. 6th.... 'If he hasn't committed indictable offenses, I don't know what one is,' the longest-serving Republican leader told journalist Michael Tackett in an interview for 'The Price of Power,' weeks after Smith brought the charges against Trump in August 2023. 'From the start, McConnell thought the charges brought by federal prosecutors against Trump had merit.' Tackett writes. McConnell told him 'there's no doubt who inspired it, and I just hope that he'll have to pay a price for it,' referencing Jan. 6." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Axios now requires readers to "subscribe" to its content and to provide Axios with their email addresses. It took maybe 10 seconds for Axios to send me a verification email and another 15 seconds to send me their first "regular" email. I'm afraid this may become (at least) a daily thing.
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Vice President Harris's statement, via the White House, is here. See stories under Sunday's Ledes. (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Ohio Senate Race. Julie Smyth of the AP: "Former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, scion of one of the state's best-known Republican families, threw his support Sunday behind Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in his hotly contested reelection race against GOP nominee Bernie Moreno. Taft, 82, made known his intention to vote for Brown over Moreno, a Donald Trump-backed Cleveland businessman, in a letter to the editor of the Dayton Daily News. The grandson of 'Mr. Republican' Robert A. Taft Sr. and great-grandson of William Howard Taft, the only person in American history to have been president and chief justice of the United States, praised Brown in the letter without mentioning Moreno. Taft cited, among the reasons for his decision, Brown's collaboration with U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, on behalf of the Dayton area, including Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Brown's 25 years of experience in public office; and Brown's committee assignments as a result of his senior status in the Senate.... Bob Taft is the only politician in Brown's long political career to ever defeat him in an election. Taft beat Brown in his 1990 bid for reelection as secretary of state."
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in Israel's wars are here: "Israel launched a string of airstrikes across Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, saying it was targeting the financial operations of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah."
News Ledes
New York Times: "John Kinsel Sr., a World War II veteran who was one of the last surviving Navajo Code Talkers, a group of Marines whose encrypted wartime messages based on the Navajo language helped secure an Allied victory in the Pacific, died on Saturday. He was 107.... An estimated 400 Navajo Code Talkers served during World War II, transmitting a code crafted from the Navajo language that U.S. forces used to confuse the Japanese and communicate troop movements, enemy positions and other critical battlefield information.... The code was never broken." The AP's obituary is here.
AP: "Thelma Mothershed Wair, one of the
AP: "Two crew members who were missing following the crash of a fighter jet in mountainous terrain in Washington state during a routine training flight have been declared dead, the U.S. Navy said Sunday. The EA-18G Growler jet from the Electronic Attack Squadron crashed east of Mount Rainier on Tuesday afternoon, according to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Search teams, including a U.S. Navy MH-60S helicopter, launched from the air station to try to find the crew and crash site. Army Special Forces soldiers trained in mountaineering, high-angle rescue and technical communications were brought in to reach the wreckage, which was located Wednesday by an aerial crew resting at about 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) in a remote, steep and heavily wooded area east of Mount Rainier, officials said."
New York Times: "Hundreds of people were rescued in eastern New Mexico late Saturday and Sunday, as torrential rains dumped more than a third of the city of Roswell's annual rainfall total in just a few hours, causing at least two deaths, officials said. Search and rescue efforts were still underway on Sunday morning, as forecasters warned that storms were expected to continue in the area, carrying the threat of more floods, large hail and possibly tornadoes. As of Sunday morning, nearly 300 people had been rescued by county and state agencies and 38 people had been taken to local hospitals, the New Mexico National Guard said."
Share Article
Reader Comments (17)
Following the article by Dan Froomkin (linked above) in which he measures AG Sulzberger and his head of Both Sides “jurnelizm”, Joe Kahn, for their “J’Accuse!” suits for promoting fascism (there’s no other way to describe it…if a house was on fire and you stood there watching, declining to call the fire department, claiming your job was just to watch the conflagration and report on the dead, you could hardly disavow any responsibility for the tragedy), and Marie’s additional comment, I offer this article from Time Magazine(!), a piece which displays an appalling double standard.
The writer takes Democrats and the Harris campaign to task for not being nice enough to Dementia Fatty, stating that pointing out Trump’s ever lengthening litany of his mental problems is bad, bad, bad! It’s AGEISM!!
Oh, shit! Ageism? I guess Time and CNN and the AG times and every other fucking corporate media outfits who were laser focused on Joe Biden’s tiniest slips weren’t indulging in AGEISM!!, they were just being journalisticky.
See, it was fine to give Biden daily rectal exams, even though he clearly has all his marbles, but daring to say anything about Fatty’s Dementia Dance Party is just wrong!
It’s par for the fucking course. Attack Democrats for any and every thing, including repeating PoT and Trump lies, as “People are saying” reports, but in every possible way, go easy on Trump.
This Times idiot warns that attacking poor Donnie would piss off older voters cuz they would be turned off by AGEISM. Dear moron, no one is “attacking” Trump for being old. They’re pointing out his acute and hysterically obvious mental disabilities. Plenty of people older than that tub of fascist lard are sharp as a tack and could put voters half their age on the losing end of any Jeopardy tournament. Trump would be lucky to spell CAT on Wheel of Fortune.
But be nice to him. You evil Democrats.
Time Magazine isn’t what it used to be when we were kids, but it was once one of the premier news outlets in the world. Now? It’s just another “Help Poor Donnie” water carrier.
Hey, while McFascist was doing his phony photo-op, did he stop to “wash” some pots and pans that were already clean, à la Lyin’ Ryan? What is it about Republicans that makes lying and gaslighting such an elemental part of their makeup?
Here’s another thing the MAGA horde and the chimerical undecideds miss about this phony baloney bullshit stunt. A high school friend of Harris corroborates her report of working at McDonald’s as a teenager. But here’s the thing. Even if Harris didn’t work there, she could have. Like most of us, as a young person, she probably had a number of part time jobs. She had to.
So did I. So did all of you. You wanted to buy something? Go to the movies? See a ballgame? Purchase books or records? You needed a job. I had a bunch, including working at a burger place not unlike McDonald’s.
Trump? He was riding around in limos with daddy making sure blah people weren’t trying to sneak into their KKK-only slum lord apartments. Think Trump ever worked a part time job as a teenager? Fuck no. Oh, but he’s “relatable” because he stages this Potemkin fry cook bullshit for fifteen minutes, serving people strip searched by the Secret Service stuff they didn’t order.
Wicked relatable.
Steve M. shows how the NYT was as initially reluctant to talk about Trump's Arnold Palmer locker room talk as Bible Mike. It was only after everyone else started reporting it that they stopped censoring their reporter covering the rally to actually mention it.
Steve M. looks at the 25th amendment and why it is unlikely to be used on Trump.
Adam Cochran on Jack Smith's newly unsealed evidence
"Summary tweet:
11/11 So Trump and his team *in their own words*:
-Knew they lost
-Knew it was not legal for Pence to over turn
-Knew the states did not have fraud issues
-Researched "alternative electors" a month in advanced of those claims
-Knew the documents were unofficial
-Took part in the transfer process
-And attempted to pass off forged documents directly to the VP
-Because of a pre-meditated plan to steal the election."
Supreme Court protects Trump again.
"Supreme Court rejects Michael Cohen's civil rights claim against Trump over tell-all book
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen’s last-ditch effort to revive a civil rights claim against his former boss Donald Trump.
The justices left in place lower court rulings that said Cohen could not pursue his allegation that then-President Trump and other officials violated his rights by putting him in solitary confinement for writing a tell-all book."
Semantically, DiJiT's comments on Arnold Palmer are not "jokes." Third-party anecdotes, yes, urban legends, yes, but not jokes.
The rich are different. In dozens of locker rooms and communal showers, high school, college, army, I never once heard anyone talk about anyone else's physical attributes of any kind. And in those days "communal" meant no partitions or curtains anywhere.
I do remember in basic training one guy, one of McNamara's 100,000, who would stand in a corner of the shower area and watch while the platoon showered and scraped off the mud and sand. He was a perpetual "recycle" -- he couldn't pass his field tests and get through basic. But the Army had sworn him in as a soldier who could be made fit for duty ... further than DiJiT got in the draft process.
Maybe DiJiT is also one of those guys who like to watch other guys shower? Creep.
Following up on Patrick’s comment, I’m reminded of the 2016 election cycle when the Access Hollywood tape came out displaying Fatty’s vicious misogyny and exposing his myriad and regular sexual predations, the right tried to pass this incredibly graphic, violent, and presumptuous expression of sexual entitlement off as nothing more than “locker room talk”.
I tell ya kids, I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms over the years and never once have I heard anything close to that type of jaw dropping vulgarity.
Sure, back in high school and college, there were always the guys who had a store of off color jokes (actual jokes, not icky and bizarre anecdotes about some other guy’s pecker) but I never heard anyone tossing off a jocular prescription for what amounts to rape. That’s not locker room talk. That’s the kind of stuff you probably hear on violent sex chat rooms. Jesus. But even way back when, it was “Oh it’s just Donald. The rich are different!” Yeah, but “the rich are different” doesn’t mean rape, and admissions of sexual attacks are perfectly okay.
AG would fire me for saying so. There goes my career as a Times opinionator. More room for AG’s traitor pals.
Peg Palmer
"Peg Palmer told author Thomas Hauser her dad, who was a political conservative, was "appalled" by Trump's lack of civility and character. Hauser, who wrote a book about Palmer in 1994, spoke to Peg in 2018 for a story on what her father would have thought about Trump at that time, about two years into his presidency.
“My dad didn’t like people who act like they’re better than other people,” Peg Palmer said. “He had no patience for people who are dishonest and cheat. My dad was disciplined. He wanted to be a good role model. He was appalled by Trump’s lack of civility and what he began to see as Trump’s lack of character.”"
A threat to be president forced a daughter to respond to talk about the size of her father's dick. Trump brings us all down with him. He is crude and disgusting human trash.
The New Republic is offering a list of the 100 Worst Things Trump has Done.
All of them are disqualifying, as the editors point out. Today presents 100 to 81. More in a few days. My first thought was “Only a hundred? Christ, he does that in a week.” Scrolling through, you’ll find some are weird, some bizarre, some truly horrific, but they all open a window onto the dank, dark inner life of a damaged and very dangerous person.
One that stuck out was an example of Trump’s abiding belief in his own wonderfulness, dovetailed (shouldn’t that be vulture-tailed for this guy? Doves don’t quite bring the juice) with an equally endemic sense of unfair affliction, and in this case we get a coda of sociopathic punishment for those unwilling to bow before him.
In the 2018 SOTU, a typically dark, chaotic bit of Trump chest beating and threat casting, Democrats were mostly silent while the burgeoning MAGA Republicans applauded wildly as if their mothers had just been cured of cancer.
The Orange Monster was not amused. “Traitors!” he called the silent Democrats. “Treasonous!” and of course, we know the punishment for treason (unless you’re a Republican).
They don’t applaud me? Off with their heads.
This mindset is what spawned brilliant ideas like crocodiles and venomous snakes in the Rio Grande, and shooting protesters who piss him off.
Can’t wait for the Top Ten. Bet I can guess No. 1.
Mary Trump has this week's list of Trump disqualifiers
One thing Trump has going for him is his orange powdered nose for publicity. Good, bad, stupid, it don’t matter to him.
Some are planned, some just happen because, well, because Trump. But just recently we have Trump’s Demented Dance Party, dick stories, threats to sic the military on his enemies, Old McDonald had a French Fry, ei-ei-o, calling Harris a “shit Vice President”. In the meantime, what has the MSM reported about Kamala Harris? Sure, she’s working hard on the campaign trail, pressing the flesh, going on Fox, rebutting Fatty’s lies. But Trump gets more press for staying home, canceling appearances, doing phony baloney stunts for which he’s praised to high heaven.
His fat, stupid, orange puss is everywhere, even when he’s home lolling around, spitting out dozens of lies a minute on his broke-ass antisocial media thingy.
Today is National Apple Day.
If fatso is elected, people are saying that he"ll change that to
National Rotten Apple Day in honor of himself, himself being
rotten to the core, and beyond.
Digby's Blog
"Noah Smith (Noahpinion) published a grim picture of what the world might look like if Donald Trump regains the U.S. presidency."
From the Just When You Thought You’ve Seen it All Department:
Trump, with shattered buildings destroyed in a hurricane in the background, proudly accepts a French Fry Award.
Shit gets stoopider every day. People are homeless, hungry, distraught, but here’s this fat moron grinning like an idiot, loving the attention his phony baloney McDonalds stunt pulled in, getting an award for being an outstanding fry cook.
He can put it next to his medal for making the bed and his Order of Lenin pin from Putin.
This is what passes in the Party of Traitors for leadership. He even gets extra points for having “dust on his shoes”. I’m sure NC residents still cleaning off the mud from the storm are impressed by this asshole’s dusty shoes.
Jesus fucking Christ.
A French Fry medal. How will AG Both Sides this?
From a commenter hearing about Trump showing off his French Fry Award in a disaster zone after pretending to work at a McDonald’s for about 45 minutes.
"There are folks who work for minimum wage at McDonald’s locations around the country that can’t get a pat on the back for a job well done, but this guy’s out here giving a conservative pin to a felon who couldn’t get hired to work there. We live in the worst times."
Got that right. McDonald’s, like many businesses, does background checks and it’s not at all clear that a cheap fraudster with a background in scams and sexual assault would get a job there. Not to worry though, Trump has never worked hard in his life except to stiff, scam, assault, and lie about others for his own benefit.
One final thought about this French Fry fiasco. How needy is this orange toddler? 99.99% of politicians, even someone running for dog catcher, would consider the situation and the location and say thanks but no thanks. Getting some kiddie pin from a fast food joint while standing in front of the ruined homes and destroyed dreams of so many residents? How is that a good look? They’d think “I can’t do that. It’d make me look like a galactically insensitive douchebag.”
But not Donald “It’s all about ME!” Trump. “A French Fry pin? For me? I get to be on camera honored for being a French Fry Guy? Bring it on! Oh, and can we move those dirty homeless people out of the shot? This is my time, not theirs. Fuck them.”
I don’t think this is dementia, this is pure Trump.
Just incredible.