2024 U.S. Election of President and Vice President

[DOR]

No such thing as rock bottom. Trump could piss on a veteran's grave and his cult would find a way to call it "fake news" or throw around "Trump Derangement Syndrome" or some such shit.

"Fertilizing the grass."

[TopHatter]

Opinion - Harris should put on her prosecutor pants when she suits up for the big Trump debate
Chris Truax, opinion contributor



Donald Trump thinks he’s showing up for a debate on Sept. 10. Kamala Harris should turn it into a trial.

Before she got into politics, Kamala Harris was a prosecutor. She’s undoubtedly handled commitment proceedings where it was necessary to convince a jury that a defendant has a mental disorder that makes them dangerous.

A good trial isn’t just about evidence; it’s about weaving that evidence together into a compelling story. Sometimes, it’s a matter of fitting the small, seemingly unrelated pieces of evidence together that really convinces a jury.

In Trump’s case, that should be easy to do.

For years, Trump’s weird statements and outright lies have been dismissed merely as “Trump being Trump.” How many times have we heard that you have to take the ex-president “seriously but not literally”? By normalizing Trump’s behavior as just the way he is, we’ve given him a pass on statements and behaviors that would have destroyed any other candidate.

In other words, even Trump’s future bad behavior has already been “priced in” by voters.

That works to Trump’s advantage — unless you can take what everybody already knows about him and reframe it. So when Trump begins lying about the 2020 election, for example, or the Biden administration’s record, or the polls, etc., Kamala Harris should look straight into the camera and say: “What you just heard is nonsense. But I don’t think Trump is lying. I think he actually believes all the ridiculous things he says. When you get that 3 a.m. call, you have to have both feet firmly planted in reality. Donald Trump doesn’t.

“The first requirement for the presidency,” she should continue, “before you get to policy, is having a firm grip on reality. Donald Trump wants to solve a whole bunch of problems that only exist inside his head. He thinks violent crime is out of control, but the crime rate is dropping and has been for years. He wants to ‘Drill, baby, drill’ to fight an imaginary energy crisis. America is producing more oil and gas now than at any time in history. He gets fixated on crowd size and ratings. He even thinks he can control the weather to his advantage.

“This is not amusing. It’s very sad. Let’s call these what they are. They’re delusions and they are getting worse. We can’t afford to have a delusional president in today’s world.”

Every time Donald Trump lies, whether it’s about election denial, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Russia or whatever, Harris should begin her response by framing the lie as part of his delusional disorder. And when Trump blows up at this treatment, as he will, his overreaction becomes yet another exhibit in the case she is building against him.

One big advantage of this approach is that you don’t have to spend your whole time fact-checking Trump. That’s a losing strategy in a debate setting because he can confidently assert lies and misinformation far faster than you can explain why he’s wrong. Confidently asserting that Trump is spouting nonsense and then explaining why that’s important — instead of trying to parse out the lies themselves — works because even his supporters recognize that Trump often lies and exaggerates.

There’s currently a dispute between the campaigns regarding whether one candidate’s microphone should be off while the other is speaking during the debate. The amusing thing is that now, contrasting the big Trump-Biden debate this summer, it’s the Trump campaign that wants to keep the microphones muted. The Harris campaign wants the microphones on so that Trump can be Trump — and everybody can hear it.

This strategy would work best with the microphones off. If Trump can’t interrupt, Harris will have a better opportunity to make her case that Trump is delusional and mentally unfit to be president. And having seen how forceful and relentless Harris can be when she wants to, there is no question that Trump will provide plenty of fireworks after he is forced to stand quietly and listen to Harris humiliate him.

You think Trump got off to a bad start at the National Association of Black Journalists? Just wait until Kamala Harris starts publicly fitting him for a straitjacket.

If you compare the Trump of 2015 with the Trump of today, it’s immediately clear that he has been progressively slipping. Eight years ago, I disagreed with his policies because I thought they were dangerous. I still do, but now many of those policies are both dangerous and untethered from reality. Wanting to build a border wall is one thing. Wanting to deploy the U.S. military against American citizens to fight an imaginary crime wave is something else.

Harris shouldn’t debate Trump, she should prosecute him in the court of public opinion. If she does, God knows there’s no shortage of evidence.

Chris Truax is an appellate attorney who served as Southern California chair for John McCain’s primary campaign in 2008.
________

[TopHatter]

Trump and Vance: The Misogyny Is Intentional
As they pursue young men they’re disparaging women.


Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance walks on stage during a campaign event at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, on Monday, July 22, 2024.

HILLARY CLINTON DIDN’T “HAVE THE LOOK,” Donald Trump said in 2016. Kamala Harris “doesn’t look like a leader,” he said last week.

Clinton was a former secretary of state. Harris is currently vice president. To Trump they both look . . . like women.

On the day Harris sat down with CNN for an interview, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, posted a famous 2007 clip of a Miss Teen USA contestant bumbling through an answer to a pageant question. He wrote: “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”

It wasn’t subtle. Vance implied Harris is unable to answer questions, so she can’t be qualified for the second-most-powerful job in the country, let alone the first. The man hoping to convince Americans to make him the next vice president chose to be offensive and disrespectful. It was purposeful. When asked about it on CNN—and told that the Miss South Carolina Teen USA in the video had gone through a period of deep depression after that humiliating episode—Vance said people should be able to laugh in politics, which, he added, has become “way too lame and way too boring.”

Why would Vance back down? This is a Trump–Vance campaign theme. The same day that Vance posted his meme, Trump described Harris this way: “She didn’t look like a leader to me, I’ll be honest. I don’t see her negotiating with President Xi of China, I don’t see her with Kim Jong-un.”

That hit on Harris, at a campaign appearance with Tulsi Gabbard, echoed Trump’s belittling of Clinton eight years ago. To him, females are weak and can’t serve as the chief executive and commander-in-chief.

“She doesn’t have the look. She doesn’t have the stamina. I said she doesn’t have the stamina. And I don’t believe she does have the stamina. To be president of this country, you need tremendous stamina,” Trump said during a debate with Clinton.

Trump has already called Harris “nasty” and “sick,” and questioned whether she is black. But now he is denigrating her with vile sexual attacks, recently sharing a post on Truth Social that included a vulgar oral sex joke under a screenshot of Harris and Clinton.

Another crude post Trump circulated was about Harris and Willie Brown, whom she dated decades ago. Trump mentioned their relationship at a rally, saying: “She had a very good friend named Willie Brown. . . . He knows more about her than anybody’s ever known. He could tell you every single thing about her, could tell you stories that you’re not going to want to hear.”

WTF?

When asked about Trump’s posts, Vance chuckled again and said he prefers a candidate who “likes to have some fun and likes to tell some jokes” over “boring scolds telling people they can’t laugh.”

---

IT MAY NOT BE FUNNY, OR FUN, but it’s also not new. Demeaning women is trademark Trump. He is fond of trashing their looks—“horse face” is a favorite—has been accused of sexual assault by dozens of women, and was found legally liable for sexual abuse in the civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll. His first wife, the late Ivana Trump, once accused Trump of raping her, before walking it back.

Between Trump and Vance—with his deeply held contempt for women who don’t bear children—the Republican presidential ticket is working hard to repel female voters in November. As they do, they are seeking to turn up the vote share from young men, including first-time voters, who are increasingly identifying with the GOP and flocking to Trump.

In between appearances with Dana White at UFC events, Trump has made sure to hang out online where young men do, granting interviews to podcasters like Logan Paul and on live streamed shows like Adin Ross’s. Vance recently appeared with the Nelk Boys, who later released a video of one of them smashing a sledgehammer into the television screen as Harris delivered her nomination speech at the Democratic convention.

While MAGA relishes the sexism—with rallygoers donning their “Say No to the Hoe” shirts, and even dressing their kids in them—it’s still breathtaking. In an election this competitive, the GOP is courting a backlash from women voters. Trump and Vance have done little to broaden their appeal to women since Harris became the Democrats’ candidate, unless repeatedly flip-flopping on abortion is supposed to be appealing.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade and the Harris candidacy seem to have supercharged what was a decades-old gender gap. That divide went from 7 points in 2008 to 10 points in 2012; then from 11 points in 2016 to 12 points in 2020, according to Politico. It is expected to be larger this year and has grown since President Joe Biden left the race. A new ABC News/Ipsos poll showed an 18-point gap, with Harris up 13 points among women and Trump up 5 points among men, with the biggest shifts among white voters.

Though women favor Harris and men favor Trump, the vice president has not chosen to alienate men the way Trump is angering women with his gratuitous attacks. And there will be more of them. Harris is a more challenging target for Trump than Clinton was. Clinton had plenty of baggage, and was—like him—under criminal investigation by the FBI at the time of the election. So Trump will likely continue to use racist and sexist taunts to undermine Harris’s viability as the first female American president. He’s guessing loads of cranks like him will refuse to vote for a woman to hold the highest office in the land.

He will have to get by millions of American women who are scared of what rights they could lose in a second Trump term and angered by his attempts to diminish the vice president.

Trump will take the stage next to Harris at the presidential election debate next week. The moderators should ask him why Harris “doesn’t look like a leader.” How he talks about Harris, and talks to her, should matter to the men watching—and not just to their wives and daughters.

If Trump loses the election by a few thousand votes like he did four years ago, maybe he’ll regret sharing blowjob memes and choosing a running mate who shits all over childless women.

But it probably won’t occur to him.
__________

They know their base. It always gets dismissed as "Oh Trump just says mean things, boo hoo, that's no big deal, I'm voting for a president, not a priest"

[TopHatter]

4 possible outcomes of the Trump vs. Harris debate

Appropriately, given the general vibe of 2024, former President Donald Trump announced last week that he had agreed to the Sept. 10 presidential debate in a chaotic Truth Social post that took aim at the “Radical Left Democrats” and “ABC FAKE NEWS.”

This was followed up a few days later with an X post from Vice President Kamala Harris taunting Trump over whether the microphones should be unmuted. “If his own team doesn’t have confidence in him, the American people definitely can’t. We are running for President of the United States. Let’s debate in a transparent way—with the microphones on the whole time,” she wrote.

In the end, the ABC debate next week will have the same rules agreed to by the two sides back when a different person was the Democratic candidate — and the mics will remain muted while the other debater is speaking.

But the social media nonsense is just an appetizer ahead of the coming political and cultural feast — the most consequential presidential debate in decades.

Or at least since June.

Yes, the June 27 CNN debate proved to be a game-changer, upending the presidential cycle and the course of history. President Biden performed so poorly that he was nudged, then pushed, to step aside. It took a few weeks, but those 90 minutes were eventually enough to complete the political extraction.

Back in June, I laid out four possible outcomes for the debate between Trump and Biden — including the one that ultimately unfolded.

So here we go again. The participants in the debate have changed by 50 percent, but the stakes remain equally high in what will likely be the only meeting between Trump and Harris. Here are four possible outcomes, and the political fallout that could come from each:

1. A Harris meltdown could shake up the race one last time

It won’t be the sort of mentally unfit moment crystalizing in front of our eyes that finished Biden, but there’s a scenario where Harris appears flustered, entirely out of her depth and simply not ready for prime time. If Trump remains the relatively disciplined debater that he was in June, it would leave the legacy media no choice but to bite the bullet and admit the truth — that Harris failed in a big way, on the biggest stage.

If that happens, don’t completely rule out the possibility that Harris could find herself off the ticket in short order. As I wrote in July when she was rapidly anointed to the top spot, there are legitimate questions about Harris’s role in covering up Biden’s cognitive decline. Yes, we’re very late in the game now, but there is still a scenario where she could be swapped off the ticket, and the Democratic National Committee selects the new nominee.

Of course there’s a time crunch relating to the ballots and early voting, but as we’re seeing with RFK Jr. now, this is not a settled issue. Considering the existential fight the Democrats believe they’re facing in a second Trump presidency, don’t dismiss something shocking happening…like DNC star Michelle Obama stepping in, in a race where she has to do zero debates with Trump?

2. Lose-lose is a slight win for Harris

If Harris fails, but Trump also performs poorly — perhaps returning to his worst instincts and habits — then Harris likely walks away from the debate with a slight edge heading into November. Her surrogates — her buddies in the Acela media — would immediately jump into overdrive, and the entire post-debate conversation would turn to the “lies” and “danger” of Trump.

If we’re being honest, the race is really only going to come down to a small number of swing voters in swing states. These still-somehow-persuadable voters will likely cast their ballot either “for Trump” or “against Trump.” Harris can afford to lose a debate — as long as Trump loses too.

3. Win-win gives Trump a November edge

If Harris hits her talking points, and ABC’s hosts don’t force her off of them, she could easily walk away with a “win” declaration from the left and the press. But if Trump performs like he did in June, that will overshadow Harris’s performance in the eyes of voters who matter.

Politico’s Matthew Kaminski wrote this week that Harris’s “secret power” is that “she is whatever you want her to be.” That may be a “secret power” to the D.C. elite, but to American voters who cares about substance over style, being intentionally vague won’t resonate. And it especially won’t if Trump is his best self — self-assured, strong and precise. Harris can’t get away with being everything to everyone, even if her canned lines and scripted answers land well with cable news pundits.

4. Harris thrives, Trump falters — then get ready for chaos

James Carville gave some advice to Harris in the New York Times this week, including how to “goad” Trump into devolving into “personal attacks.” It’s certainly a path we could see, and if Harris follows the playbook her campaign and advisors lay out for her, and Trump flails through petty tantrums, it’s clearly good for the Harris campaign.

But if that happens, and Trump ultimately knows he lost — look out. He’s not going to go down without a fight, and we’ll have ample time for significant wild circumstances to shake up the race. Sept. 10 is still more than two weeks before the first presidential debate took place in 2016 or 2020. We’ve got time for a September surprise before we even reach October surprise range.

In that sense, the only scenario where the debate doesn’t matter much at all might just be if Trump loses big. That would bring about even more insanity to blunt the potential debate fallout.

Political observers will forever remember Biden saying “we beat Medicare” at the June debate. Next week, we could get another touchpoint for the 2024 chaos time capsule.
________

Place your bets ladies and gentlemen, place your bets....

[tbm3fan]

Harris was prosecutor so does anyone really think she would crack and falter. If she goes after him, as though he was taking the stand and make him uncomfortable, we all know Trump won't be able to contain himself.

Speaking of Trump it seems he now believes putting tariffs on all foreign goods will solve the child care issue as it will bring in trillions. Yep, trillions out of the MAGA pockets. Of course, they are too stupid to see the end result of that.

Oh, and he can find even more money by setting up a Commission on government waste in spending. Naturally we want a sane person to head that up and the logical choice, for Trump, would be Elon Musk.

So fasten your seat belts as it is going to be a bumpy ride...

[TopHatter]

1 in 4 Republicans supports political violence if election is 'compromised,' study says

More than one in four Republicans and nearly one in three Republicans with a favorable view of former President Donald Trump say political violence is acceptable, a new study found.

The study from Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit research organization, found that while only one in six Americans supports political violence, the numbers are much higher among Republicans than Democrats.

The survey comes during the first presidential election since violent rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to overturn the election that Trump lost to President Joe Biden — and two months after Trump was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt.

“This is not just a partisan issue,” said Robert Jones, the president of the organization. “It’s a Trump and MAGA issue. It’s the kind of Trumpian takeover of the Republican Party.”

Anna Kelly, spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement, " President Trump and Republicans stand for safer communities and keeping violent criminals off the streets."



Violence and authoritarianism linked

According to the survey, 27% of Republicans and 32% of Republicans with a favorable view of Trump agree that “patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” Only 10% of independents and 8% of Democrats said the same.

Jones linked that support for political violence to support for authoritarianism. The study found that 67% of Republicans scored high on an authoritarian scale, including 75% of Trump-favoring Republicans, compared to 35% of independents and 28% of Democrats.

To measure authoritarianism, the study asked respondents if they agreed with four statements, including whether the country should "do what the authorities tell us to do, and get rid of the 'rotten apples,'" and whether the country needed to "put some tough leaders in power, and silence the troublemakers spreading bad ideas."

“Even those Americans who see themselves as a Republican but have an unfavorable view of Trump, they are far less likely to have this kind of authoritarian orientation that goes along with support for political violence,” Jones said.

On political violence more specifically, 24% of Republicans and 27% of Trump-favoring Republicans say that “if the 2024 presidential election is compromised by voter fraud, everyday Americans will need to ensure the rightful leader takes office, even if it requires taking violent actions.” Only 15% of independents and 10% of Democrats agreed with the statement.




There was also wide support on the right for having armed citizens serve as poll watchers ensure a fair presidential election. Twenty-four percent of Republicans supported that, compared to 28% of Trump-supporting Republicans and 10% of independents and Democrats.

Candidates and major political parties have a long history of recruiting and training poll watchers to be their eyes and ears, but the poll watchers aren’t armed. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University warned that poll watching is ripe for abuse. In 2022, Bloomberg reported armed people were showing up at voting sites.

“A tinderbox of a country”

Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago who tracks views on political violence, told USA TODAY there has been a consistent trend since 2021 of millions of people supporting violence to meet political objectives.

“The fundamental fact is we have been a tinderbox of a country for years, and we are heading into not just the most contentious election in our lifetimes but probably the most dangerous of our lifetimes,” Pape said.

In June, the University of Chicago’s poll found that 7% of American adults, including almost 12% of Republicans, support the use of force to return Trump to the presidency. On the other hand, 10% of Americans, and about 12% of Democrats, support the use of force to prevent Trump from becoming president again.

“The real danger starts on Nov. 6,” Pape said. “Most people right now are very focused on Nov. 5 but the real danger here is likely to start Nov. 6.”
_______

[TopHatter]

Catching a few comments about the debate in progress: "Gish Gallop of lies from the sphincter-lipped rancid cantaloupe."

[statquo]

Is Trump trying to win an Oscar for a drama? There's sensationalism and there's Trump.

[Monash]

The key question though is how did each candidate do overall i.e. who appeared to come out on top of the debate and to what degree?

[tbm3fan]

I counted at least 30 lies by Trump. He pretty much lied all the way through not that his loyal followers care since none of them can think for themselves anyway. He was so easy to bait and took about everyone of them hook, line, and sinker. When he went off on defending his rallies I bet every dictator in the world took notice as to how to manipulate him even more. I can see it now. Putin says I am going to take Poland and your rallies were absolutely amazing. Trump responds that yes they were amazing. I still am not able to process how addled minded so many Americans are. That, more than division, is what bothers me. If you can't think rationally on your own then we are IN trouble.

[Monash]

I counted at least 30 lies by Trump. He pretty much lied all the way through not that his loyal followers care since none of them can think for themselves anyway. He was so easy to bait and took about everyone of them hook, line, and sinker. When he went off on defending his rallies I bet every dictator in the world took notice as to how to manipulate him even more. I can see it now. Putin says I am going to take Poland and your rallies were absolutely amazing. Trump responds that yes they were amazing. I still am not able to process how addled minded so many Americans are. That, more than division, is what bothers me. If you can't think rationally on your own then we are IN trouble.

Whose this 'we' your talking about paleface?

[Bigfella]

I am seeing a LOT of Trump supporters not only whining about the moderators (losers whine about umpiring) and even more actually conceding he lost (while still mostly blaming the moderators). If the cult members are saying he lost then he got hammered.

I am just watching it now, so I'll have my own view soon.

[tbm3fan]

Whose this 'we' your talking about paleface?

We as in nation.

Paleface? I'll have you know I have lived in California since I was 12 so I have had a tan ever since 1966...

[Albany Rifles]

To quote Thomas Jefferson in "Hamilton"...So, what'd I miss?

[TopHatter]

To quote Thomas Jefferson in "Hamilton"...So, what'd I miss?

I'm given to understand there was a murder committed on live TV last night: A woman clubbed a baby seal over the head with a sledgehammer.

Other than that, not much.