US Politics, September 2024 -- “I’m Not Going to Apologize For Posting a Joke”

Completely unmoored thinking that leads you to think the right number of people to kill is 3m, because one side wanted 0 and one side wanted 6m.

There was an article a while back (maybe in the Atlantic) about the MSM’s “bias towards coherence” being a key factor in their normalisation of Trump.

When you think about Trump, the incoherence is at (at least) two levels: his explanation of how tariffs will enable better funding for childcare was both incoherent in the sense of being actual gibberish and also in the sense that whatever point he was trying to make also wouldn’t make sense even if delivered clearly.

I think one reason that the coverage of Biden’s declining coherence felt so oppressively omnipresent is that it’s a lot easier to calibrate and emphasise the incoherence of a phrase like “we finally beat Medicare” when you know what he was trying to say and also think that the underlying concept basically makes sense a positive policy achievement.

It’s almost like a reporting equivalent of the narcissism of small differences.

Also: when a party positions itself -- rightly -- as the only opposition to ethnofascism it's going to be treated as if it were normal times.

people with brains do tend to get held to a higher standard. nobody called trump on his shit for so long because everyone thought his base was so dumb it didn't matter to them what trump said. people still say this now on the news! and, again, that was their fatal mistake. there were a lot of fatal mistakes. what if you just decided to treat trump supporters like they had brains and held trump to the same standard as every other person running for high office. it might have made a difference. maybe not though.

does that even make sense? it might not. my brain is turning into trump mush.

it was partly snootiness too. "ah, trumpers are rabid dogs. you can't tell them anything." but what if every trump lie was explained in detail for nine years instead of hand-waved away as hyperbole...and trump was called on them everywhere he went...

(then again, the news likes to make money. so, there is that gain for them in just letting the dark juggalo circus play out...)

I mean, there was a tremendous amount of fact-checking of Trump while he was in office. It was a whole industry. It produced equally tremendous blowback from the right, which I think was sadly effective. Now I think a lot of places are kind of cautious about it. They shouldn’t be, obviously, they should just do it. I think this little wave of pressure on them is good.

sometimes i think dems should just hit trump hard on the tariffs non-stop, really drive it in that they're going to lead to a new massive wave of cost-push inflation. trump is very committed to the tariffs; his policy team have signalled that they're very serious about doing it, and he can easily implement it all by executive order. it would put trump on the defensive on the dem's weakest issue

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/07/us/politics/harris-trump-rally-crowds-size.html

NYT wants Trump to win so much that they did an article showing that Harris has bigger crowds

at least his hands are bigger than hers, right?

It’s hard to know how much of the “media needs to talk about Trump’s incoherence more” talk is reacting to a real thing and how much is just an expression of frustration at how little any negative framing of what Trump does seem to matter.

Much of it is the disconnect between how Trump is handled vs. How Biden was handled.

good morning!

It was also the case that Trump talks to the press often and blathers whatever is on his mind constantly, whereas Biden was seen to be hiding, his handlers trying to conceal his decline.

The second is more of a story.

The times would never publish this https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-stumbles-whether-prioritize-child-care-costs-rcna169922

No? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/us/politics/trump-vance-child-care.html

“Their Non-Answers Said a Lot”

What did the non answers say? I’ll read the article to find out.

“Mr. Trump’s rambling answer handed Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign an opportunity to press one of its central messages”

Oh you’re not going to tell me what the “non answers” say. You’re going to say what “the other side” would say. Joke approach to journalism.

that Mr. Trump is so out-of-touch with normal problems facing most Americans that he cannot be expected to find the solutions.”

They quoted him verbatim.

I think you’re looking for something that isn’t journalism.

quoting him verbatim is not sufficient. they're not stenographers.

i'm looking for them to write about US politics the way they write about politics in other countries.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/09/07/latino-voters-shift-election-00177812

i just need to get this off of my chest: AOC AND DICK CHENEY ARE VOTING FOR THE SAME PRESIDENT.

"unprecedented"

*vomits*

Much of it is the disconnect between how Trump is handled vs. How Biden was handled.

It’s not like the media were devoting a lot of inches to Biden’s obviously melting brain until the debate made it unavoidable.

Lol, that makes me question my choice, skot.

well then lets see how they report on this

CEASE & DESIST: I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2024

Skullduggery!

"Your honor, my client can't be charged with a crime that he's not actually done committing yet"

in 2016 the media was pretty happy just to treat everything he said as a joke but the one thing they did kinda take seriously was his threats to put Hillary Clinton in jail, that was like no no you can't do that, that's just dictator language straight up. wonder how they respond to his threat to put uh...everybody in jail

If you don’t want to go to jail just don’t vote

if you dont wanna go to jail just get elected president

Kamala Harris just went to Penzeys Spices and bought Creamy Peppercorn Dressing Base, Fox Point Seasoning, Trinidad Lemon-Garlic Marinade, Turkish Seasoning, and Tuscan Sunset Salt Free Italian Seasoning.

— James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) September 7, 2024

That Fox Point blend is good

Laura Loomer is convinced that Harris's visit to Penzey's, which included a photo-op with some visibly emotional customers, was staged because ... the CEO of Penzey's is an outspoken liberal. As though it would be unusual to encounter Harris supporters in Summer Lee's congressional district.

Suddenly convinced that Allan Lichtman is a Michael Showalter character

https://i.imgur.com/KSb4oCc.png

I mean, not a spice connoisseur or anything, but that tweet was exciting

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/07/walz-vance-school-shooting-00177872

If you want to find Harris fans in any town in America a Penzey’s Spices is a decent place.

I mean, not a spice connoisseur or anything, but that tweet was exciting

She's thiiiis close to going on Hot Ones

A canvasser came to my door for Harris yesterday, and asked whether we would commit to voting for Harris in November. I replied “we’ll commit to voting for the vice president when she commits to ending the genocide of Palestinians.” didn’t even think before i said it.

canvasser said “i understand “ and walked away.

<3

Worth the read: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/09/07/latino-voters-shift-election-00177812

Some of the observations track with what I deal with in Miami-Dade.

Worth a listen for a sense of (some of) Trump’s strategy, such as it is.

https://crooked.com/podcast/trump-tours-the-manosphere-russia-funds-maga-influencers-and-hawk-tuah-girl-cashes-in/

Trump will be better for Palestinians. Good for you sticking it to the Harris team.

Yeah, he’ll probably arm the hell out of the IDF genocide machine.

i don't like reading this. i don't want trump to be popular with harris voters for any reason. people are notoriously greedy.

"Among Harris voters, Trump’s proposal to end taxes on Social Security benefits is wildly popular, drawing about 80% support."

Most people already pay minimal income tax on SS benefits, because most people don’t get that much from them. My parents live on SS+IRA and haven’t paid any income tax in years. But sure, it sounds good to say I guess.

Saw this on Twitter and it made me laugh.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWz7RRAXkAE4Tcf.jpg

Democrats should try promising people unworkable or irrelevant shit that sounds like free money.

free snow tires for everyone. that would do the trick.