Pic Of The Day: Trump's Garbage MAGA Platform

 

This is a picture of the Malignant Loser yesterday in Green Bay, WI, hoisting himself into a garbage truck festooned with his campaign slogan:

Seeing it, we're reminded of a remark Harry S Truman made during a campaign event in Waterloo, IA, on October 29, 1952, while campaigning for Adlai Stevenson.  Referring to William Jennings Bryan, Truman said:

"I heard Bill Bryan make a statement, one time, at a country meeting. They didn't have any platform for old Bill to stand on, so they wheeled out a manure spreader, and he said that was the first time he ever made a speech from the Republican platform."

Well, they've gone from manure spreaders to garbage trucks, but it still the same lying bullshit.  (More in today's "Tweets / Xeets Of the Day.")

BONUS:  Unretouched photo via Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images;  trick or treat? --

(Top photo:  pool, via KHQA.com)

 

Closing Contrasts (And A Massive Crowd)

 

The Associated Press (!) gives us the contrast between the closing arguments of the Harris-Walz campaign and that of the Malignant Loser and the Junior Demagogue at their "Nazi Coachella"* rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday:

In the shadow of the White House, seven days before the final votes of the 2024 election are cast, Kamala Harris vowed to put country over party and warned that Donald Trump is obsessed with revenge and his own personal interests.

Less than 48 hours earlier inside Madison Square Garden, Trump called his Democratic opponent “a trainwreck who has destroyed everything in her path.” His allies on stage labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and made a baseless claim that Harris, a former prosecutor and senator who is trying to become the first woman to be elected president, had begun her career as a prostitute. 

Two nights and 200 miles apart, the dueling closing arguments outlined in stark terms the choice U.S. voters face on Nov. 5 when they will weigh two very different visions of leadership and America’s future.

Trump’s raucous rally, marked by crude and racist insults, highlighted the uglier elements of his coalition. But other parts of it underscored the former businessman’s appeal as someone who vows to fix the economy and the border, and as a political outsider eager to defy any and all conventions despite the risks.

Harris, the vice president for the last four years, chose a more formal setting — the grassy Ellipse near the White House — to underscore the seriousness of this moment in American history and the threat Trump poses to democracy. She faced a massive audience in the same place where Trump addressed thousands of his loyalists on Jan. 6, 2021, before they stormed the U.S. Capitol in one of the darkest days of modern history.  

But more than simply reminding voters of the danger that Trump poses to U.S. democracy, Harris’ remarks were designed to highlight her opponent’s record of prioritizing his personal interests instead of the nation’s.

“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say: That’s not who we are,” Harris said. “I pledge to be a president for all Americans — to always put country above party and above self.”...

That's all one really needs to absorb, especially those "feels" vs. real voters who make their decisions based on their perception of the zeitgeist.  It's been made simple.  It's "freedom" vs. "tyranny."  It's "prosecutor" vs. "felon." It's "joy" vs. "hate."  It's "the future" vs. "the past."  It's "us" vs. "us vs. them."  But if those contrasts don't matter to an exhausted electorate, well ...

BONUS:  Here's the Vice President's speech ICYMI (start at the 1:35:04 mark).

BONUS II:  Here's the scene at last night's Harris closing argument rally on the Ellipse in Washington, DC, where an estimated 75,000 people showed up there and in the overflow area around the Washington Monument.  Now that's turnout!  --

More than 75,000 people. This is what turning the page looks like. pic.twitter.com/g3LeHcRNCY

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 29, 2024

This is what democracy looks like.pic.twitter.com/bOw6aHG6tU

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) October 30, 2024

* h/t LGM.

(Photos:  top,  Kent Nishimura/ Getty Images; bottom, Evan Vucci/ AP) 

Vice President Harris' "Closing Argument" Tonight

 

The  Vice President's "closing argument" shouldn't come as a surprise -- it's likely going to repeat what she has been articulating for months now.  The expected crowd (most recent estimates now put it at 50,000 +) could be the eye- popper of the event:

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to make her final case for her bid for the presidency on Washington, D.C.'s Ellipse on Tuesday where she is expected to give an optimistic and hopeful message that's focused on moving forward, according to a senior Harris campaign official.

Standing with the White House in the background, Harris will offer a split screen and urge voters to "turn the page" on former President Trump's era by pledging to put country over party, the senior campaign official said. About 40,000 people are expected to attend the event, according to an approved permit from the National Park Service -- an increase from the 20,000 people who were expected to attend, according to the permit issued to the campaign last week.

Harris has adamantly said that the speech's location near the National Mall -- the same spot where Trump delivered remarks prior to the Jan.6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol -- was to remind Americans of their choice between Harris and Trump and who would go on to the White House.

"I would and do think about that place more in the context of what will be behind me, which is the White House. And I'm doing it there, because I think it is very important for the American people to see and think about who will be occupying that space on Jan. 20," Harris recently said to CBS News' Norah O'Donnell.

"The reality of it is that most Americans can visualize the Oval Office. We've seen it on television, and this is a real scenario. It's either going to be Donald Trump or it's going to be me sitting behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office."  [snip]

Harris' campaign said she plans to paint Trump as someone who is consumed by his grievances and an endless desire for retribution, highlighting his pledge to go after those on his "enemies list" and how it contrasts with Harris' focus on her "to-do list." It's a message she often incorporates into her stump speech.

"He is full of grievances. He is full of dark language that is about retribution and revenge, and so the American people have a choice. It is either going to be that, or it'll be me there, focused on my to-do list, focused on the American people, and getting through that list of goals and plans to improve the lives of the American people," Harris said to reporters on Sunday while campaigning in Philadelphia.

Her closing argument will highlight what she claims is a desire for Americans to "turn the page" from Trump by stressing her plans and priorities for the country, namely the economy. The vice president has promised to bring down costs and prioritize the middle class in her "opportunity economy."...

We assume some cable networks will cover all or most of the speech, and it almost certainly will be streamed on the Kamala Harris YouTube channel.  We wish the campaign could've used some of their $1 billion ($118 million cash on hand) to pay to simulcast the speech on ABC, NBC, and CBS (and, yes, we know it's going to be opposite game 3 of the World Series on another network, but we think the public interest over- shadows any concerns).  Anyway, check your local listings for up- to- date information.

(Photo:  Bloomberg Images)

Latin Star Marc Anthony's Powerful Ad For Harris

Latin superstar singer Marc Anthony appears in a new hard-hitting ad, "Recuerdo," endorsing VP Kamala Harris, and reminding Latino voters what the Malignant Loser has said about them and done to them.  Feel free to share.

VP Harris To Trump: "Have You No Empathy, Man?"

 

ICYMI, Vice President Harris was Stephen Colbert's guest on the "Late Show" last night, where they talked about many issues, starting with the VP talking about the hurricane recovery efforts and the "crude cynicism" of those spreading lies about those efforts.  Here are all four segments of her appearance:

 

The Vice President talks about what differentiates her from President Biden:

The focus shifts to foreign policy, national security and the Malignant Loser's affinity for dictators like Putin:

 

Finally, it's Miller Time!

 

BONUS:  LOL here's Colbert's intro:

Trump's Shaky Get-Out-The Vote Effort

Perhaps due to a poor campaign staff and resources diverted to his legal defense teams, the Malignant Loser decided some time ago to outsource his campaign's get-out-the-vote effort to groups like Charlie Kirk's scam "Turning Point." It doesn't seem to be going well, as the Associated Press reports:

"Turning Point’s representatives have made two things clear in meetings with state and local Republican leaders — Donald Trump has blessed their conservative organization to help lead his get-out-the-vote effort, and local party officials ought to use the group’s new voter mobilization app.

Both prospects terrify fellow Republicans.

Soaring to prominence after Trump’s unexpected 2016 win, Turning Point earned a reputation for hosting glitzy events, cultivating hard-right influencers and raising prodigious sums of money while enriching the group’s leaders. They’ve had far less success helping Republicans win, especially in their adopted home state of Arizona. "  (our emphasis)

The problem with using a zealous MAGAt group like Turning Point is that their focus seems solely on getting their most fervent MAGAt faithful to the polls, not lukewarm or independent voters. More from the AP story:

"The decision by Trump to rely on untested groups such as Turning Point could have sweeping implications for November’s election. Turning Point says it’s operating statewide in Arizona and Wisconsin, two must win states for Trump. It’s also working in two competitive House districts, one in Michigan and another in Nevada, that could also help tip the balance in the presidential race.

The difference of just a few thousand votes in battleground states could mean victory or defeat for candidates up and down the ballot. It’s also a risky move that dismisses independent voters, a small but significant portion of the electorate.

'Their strategy is bad. They know how to talk MAGA, they know how to message the base,' said Tyler Montague, a Republican strategist from Arizona and a longtime Turning Point critic, referring to the former president’s Make America Great Again movement. 'But they literally don’t know what to say to a swing voter. They alienate these people.'”  (our emphasis)

Of course, we're happy to see the Turning Point cultists botch their leader's get-out-the-vote effort by making sure that the most zealous of them vote, when that was already an assured thing. A note of caution for Charlie Kirk: you may want to make sure the Malignant Loser's checks are clearing before you do more work.

(photo: Con man and apprentice / Getty Images)

 

Gen. Stanley McChrystal Endorses VP Harris

 

Retired four star Gen. Stanley McChrystal -- former Commanding General Joint Special Operations Command, Director of the Joint Staff, Commander of US and Allied forces in Afghanistan, and Army Ranger -- endorsed Vice President Harris in an op/ ed in the New York Times today, "Why Kamala Harris Has Won Me Over" ($$):

"...Each of us must seriously contemplate our choice and apply the values we hope to find in our president, our nation and ourselves. Uncritically accepting the thinking of others or being swayed by the roar of social media crowds is a mistake. To turn a blind eye toward or make excuses for weak character from someone we propose to confer awesome power and responsibility on is to abrogate our role as citizens. We will get — and deserve — what we elect.  [snip]

“ I’ve concluded that it isn’t political slogans or cultural tribalism; it is the best president my vote might help select. So I have cast my vote for character, and that vote is for Vice President Kamala Harris."

It's another, important permission structure for former military flag officers who've seen both candidates up close and can speak directly to the subject of character (or, in the Malignant Loser's case, lack of same).  Perhaps more of them can show some character and stand up and be counted.

(Photo: Gen. McChrystal / J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

Trump's Swing State Ground Game Is Pathetic

The Malignant Loser's get-out-the-vote efforts in swing states is dwarfed by VP Harris' volunteer army, according to a report in The Guardian. Joy and enthusiasm for the Dem candidate and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz, and passion on issues ranging from womens' reproductive rights and survival of our democracy are surging, with thousands of volunteers to make calls, knock on doors and get Harris' message out. From The Guardian's Hugh Lowell:

"Republican officials are raising the alarm that Donald Trump’s campaign has invested far fewer resources for its voter turnout operation in battleground states than previous presidential election races, and attempts to bridge the gap with political action committees have come too late.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) once envisioned an extensive field operation for the 2024 election, including having about 90 staffers in the must-win state of Pennsylvania.

But the Trump campaign scrapped those plans when it took over the RNC in March, redirecting the focus on field operations to combating supposed voter fraud and pursuing a twin voter turnout strategy of relying on several political action committees and ardent Trump volunteers.

The result has been that the Trump campaign has put fewer resources into its ground game in battleground states, according to people familiar with the matter – and Republican officials have derisively said the Trump operation is more comparable in size to a midterm cycle than a presidential."  (our emphasis)

The Malignant Loser, once feeling cocky about running against President Joe Biden, told his cult that they didn't need to vote because he had so much support without them. Now, against a revitalized Dem Party and nominee who has closed the gap with him, he's likely regretting not having a robust get-out-the-vote at least in several swing states. Of course, it doesn't help that his Christofascist / forced birth loyal shock troops don't trust him on reproductive rights, with his shifting positions and outright lying. Nevertheless, the Malignant Loser will make it an extremely close race, particularly in the swing states, and that's why we need to ratchet up the effort there and in every state, taking nothing for granted.

Artists To Trump: Unplug Us!

 

Perhaps Chopin's heirs won't mind you playing this at your sad rallies.

 

Morning Campaign Bits

 

McCain's son blasts Trump on Arlington photo op "violation"

When former President Donald Trump held a campaign event at Arlington National Cemetery last week, 1st Lt. Jimmy McCain says he viewed it as a “violation.”

The youngest son of the late Sen. John McCain had already been moving away from the Republican Party — just weeks ago, he changed his voter registration to Democrat and plans to vote for Kamala Harris in November, he told CNN in an exclusive interview this week.

But he is speaking out now for the first time about Trump because of the former president’s conduct at the hallowed ground where several generations of McCain’s family, including his grandfather and great grandfather, are buried.

“It just blows me away,” McCain, who has served in the military for 17 years, told CNN. “These men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice” of whether to be a backdrop for a political campaign, he said.

“I just think that for anyone who’s done a lot of time in their uniform, they just understand that inherently — that it’s not about you there. It’s about these people who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country.” 

McCain’s decision to speak out now is part of his broader shift away from the Republican Party and his family’s famously conservative roots. After years as a registered independent, he says he registered as a Democrat several weeks ago and plans to vote for Kamala Harris in November, adding that he “would get involved in any way I could” to help her campaign.  [snip]

“It was a violation,” McCain said. “That mother, that sister, those families, see that — and it’s a painful experience.”...

VP Harris not playing by Trump's or the media's rules

...As last week’s CNN interview demonstrated, Harris has learned from Clinton’s experiences. Instead of accepting Bash’s framing and “admitting” that she had “flip-flopped,” Harris stated repeatedly that her “values have not changed.” Indeed, as Harris asserted, her willingness to alter her positions on certain matters when presented with new evidence and new realities demonstrates a consistent adherence to her “values,” not a willingness to compromise them.

The result? Bash’s line of questioning lost its punch for much the same reason that her effort to bait Harris to engage with Trump’s racist taunts failed: because Harris has refused to play by the tired old rules.

It’s hardly a coincidence that over the past several weeks, the power of the press to impact the tenor and focus of the presidential campaign — and the power of Trump to do the same — has been suddenly thrown into question. By refusing to engage with Trump’s taunts or play by journalists’ rules, Harris has upended presumptions about politics that have dominated during most of the past decade. And that’s a good thing...

Republicans want Trump gone

The best possible outcome in November for the future of the Republican Party is for former President Donald Trump to lose and lose soundly. GOP leaders won’t tell you that on the record. I just did.

Trump will never concede defeat, no matter how thorough his loss. Yet the more decisively Vice President Kamala Harris wins the popular vote and electoral college the less political oxygen he’ll have to reprise his 2020 antics; and, importantly, the faster Republicans can begin building a post-Trump party...

We hope to help them along in their quest.

 

Stats Of The Day -- The Enthusiasm Gap

 

"Americans’ enthusiasm about voting in this year’s election has surged in recent months, with 69% of U.S. adults now saying they are “more enthusiastic than usual” about voting. This is up from 54% in March.

"The Aug. 1-20 survey was conducted mostly before the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention but after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection bid on July 21. Party leaders quickly coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee in the days after Biden's announcement.

"Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are largely driving the surge in enthusiasm nationally. In March, 55% of Democrats and Democratic leaners said they were more enthusiastic than usual about voting; now, 78% are. Republicans and Republican leaners, who held a slight edge in enthusiasm in March, now trail Democrats by a significant margin, with their current 64% enthusiasm score up slightly from 59% in the spring.

"As a result of these changes, election enthusiasm has shifted from being at an average level in March to the highest Gallup has measured during a presidential election campaign. Gallup measured similarly high enthusiasm -- 67% -- in September 2020, October 2008 and August 2004 surveys..." (our emphasis) -- Gallup, Inc., with results of polling from August 1-20 (this is before the wildly successful DNC and its joyful, robust rollout of the Harris-Walz campaign).   Enthusiasm generally translates into turnout.  Make no mistake -- the MAGAts will turn out.  That means Democrats, Democrat- leaners, anti-Trump Republicans, and independents need to turn out in unprecedented numbers to ensure the dominant victory needed to thwart the Malignant Loser and his cult's plans for an American Reich.

(Image: the "joyful warriors" / via the New Pittsburgh Courier)

Reactions ...

 

... to the convention, to the speeches, to the state of the race:

Axios on the convention

The DNC was a rousing ratings success, and it went off without a hitch in Chicago, a city that has been preparing for over two years...

Associated Press on the convention

... Harris’ nominating convention has been a four-day romp imbued with a party-like atmosphere and a sense of optimism. It’s safe to say that it would have been a much different gathering were Biden the party’s nominee.

Democrats have been through emotional whiplash since Biden bowed out of the race last month, clearing the path for Harris.

For months Democrats had been despondent about Biden’s polling and his underwhelming speaking appearances. And many Democrats were convinced that Trump could run away with the election.

Contrast that with the convention being held to nominate Harris in Chicago: Laughter filled the air, the mood was electric and searing jokes at Trump’s expense flowed freely. The event has also drawn an A-list slate of talent, from John Legend to Pink.

Not to be forgotten: There also have been words of caution about the hard work ahead...

CNN on VP Harris' acceptance speech

Vice President Kamala Harris capped one of the most extraordinary months in modern political history Thursday night with a speech that rallied Democrats around themes of patriotism — and cast Donald Trump as the enemy of classic American principles.

“In the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand. And I know where the United States belongs,” she said.

With the cadence of a courtroom prosecutor, Harris delivered on the promise many Democrats saw in her when she launched her first presidential campaign five years ago, and when Joe Biden chose her as his running mate in 2020.

Harris went directly at her Republican rival. She laid out the former president’s legal troubles. She blamed him for the horrors some women have faced amid the implementation of strict state-level abortion laws. She issued a reminder of what she called the “chaos and calamity when he was in office.”

“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she said. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”...

David Rothkopf on VP Harris' acceptance speech

... It was a virtuoso performance that unfolded as what you might have expected from the kind of big star performer who was rumored to join the stage Thursday night but in the end, did not appear. It began in close up, intimately, with warmth and humanity. Then it steadily built, each section topping the one before it. From the personal recollections of her own origin story she built to not just telling about her time as a prosecutor and attorney general but revealing the steely resolve that distinguished her in those careers.

From there, in describing the threat posed by her opponent and by bad actors around the world and her commitment to America’s strength, she grew stronger and stronger, almost transforming herself in the course of 40-plus minutes from the girl who grew up in Oakland to the woman who should be, who must be, America’s next commander in chief...

J.V. Last on the state of the race

... The proposition Democrats offered, over and over, was that Trump voters were good people who had been led astray by bad leaders. And instead of hectoring them or criticizing them, Walz and company welcomed them as friends and called them home.

Donald Trump’s ceiling is somewhere in the neighborhood of 46.5 percent of the national vote. His only path to victory is a narrow band in which he’s able to turn out just enough of his low-propensity voters in three to five states to draw a slim Electoral College victory.

The Harris campaign served notice last night that it is not interested in fighting trench warfare in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. This campaign is comfortable enough with its base that it sees the opportunity to take from Trump and blow the map wide open. This is a ticket that wants to compete in North Carolina, Nevada, Georgia, and maybe even Texas...

Jessica Piper on the state of the race

Vice President Kamala Harris activated a flood of Democratic donors who had been on the sidelines, new data shows: More people donated to her campaign in its first 10 days than in the entire 15 months of President Joe Biden’s.

And most of the donors were new not only to the campaign but to giving to any Democrats this cycle. [snip]

That surge reflects an unprecedented level of Democratic enthusiasm — and is a stark illustration of how Harris was able to tap into a portion of the party’s base that Biden simply was not reaching. Further underscoring that: About one quarter of the new Harris donors, a bit shy of 400,000 people, had actually given to Biden’s 2020 campaign but not to his reelection bid.

The flood of money has equipped Harris with the financial resources to rapidly revamp her campaign ahead of what remains a highly competitive general election with former President Donald Trump, and has allayed Democratic fears about their party’s enthusiasm...

We'll have more reactions, and where we go now, later in "Tweets." 

Fundraising And Crowds: Trump's Smaller Size

Some reports from July's fundraising, the Democratic National Convention, and trolling Trump in Milwaukee:

July fundraising:

"Kamala Harris’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised three times as much as Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee in July, and ended the month with a cash advantage that positions the newly minted Democratic presidential nominee to air more ads and maintain a larger payroll than her Republican opponent in the final months of the race for the White House. [snip]

But the Harris campaign and her allied committees said they raised more than $300 million last month in total and had $377 million on hand heading into August. [snip]

The Trump campaign and his allied committees said they raised nearly $139 million in July and had $327 million in cash on hand heading into August."  (our emphasis)

Convention viewership: 

 "20 million viewers tuned in to watch the Democratic National Convention across networks on Monday, according to Nielsen.

This puts Night 1 of the DNC above each of the first three nights of last months Republican National Convention, which reached 18.1 million, 14.8 million and 18 million viewers, respectively."  (our emphasis)

Harris' Milwaukee rally: 

"Vice President Kamala Harris held a raucous rally Tuesday night in Milwaukee -- in the middle of the Democratic National Convention -- at the same arena where former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination just a month ago. [snip]

'If she can fill up that arena that can hold some 18,000 people -- that could get under Trump's skin,' the campaign official said -- a reference to Trump's focus on crowd size."

All of these things are sure to get under the mentally ill, felonious Malignant Loser's thin orange skin and launch him into further conspiracy theories and lies as he flails against a growing tide.

 

These Are Good Times To Be A Democrat

 

Let's have some positive news this morning, shall we?

Harris' "joyful realism" resonating...

,,, And her "honeymoon" isn't over.

Shifting polls?

Voter enthusiasm soaring.

Florida (!) in play?

Abortion rights on ballot in Arizona!

Trump's racist new ad showing desperation. 

Wisconsin voters say no to Republican obstruction.

Doom for the Republican/ MAGAt party/ cult?

There's still hard work ahead and an election to fight and win, but we'd rather be in our shoes right now than those of the MAGAt Republican cultists, wouldn't you?

Keep calm and carry on!

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

President Biden’s withdrawal and Vice President Harris’s selection as the presumptive Democratic nominee have reset the 50-state race for the White House.

Former president Donald Trump had gained in national and state-level polls after a June debate in which Biden appeared confused and was at times unable to answer questions.

But in the two weeks since Biden dropped out and Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, Democrats’ poll numbers — and their chances of holding the White House — have rebounded. The path to victory for Harris once again runs through seven key swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“The Democratic base is coming home,” said Amy Walter, publisher and editor in chief of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. “In states that we know that are evenly divided and have been very, very close for these last few elections, they kind of snap back to being very, very competitive and will be the focus of the 2024 campaign.”

Although Trump’s paths to victory were expanding in late June and early July, the race “is now contracting back to the original six or seven battleground states,” Walter added...

With the impending choice of her running mate, who'll join her on a seven- State campaign blitz, and the spotlight on the Democratic National Convention starting on August 19, Vice President Harris will continue to take over the spotlight from the increasingly desperate Malignant Loser.  Watch the ticket's poll numbers go up heading into the last two months of the campaign.  Bet.

The bad:

For the first time in as long as anyone can remember, Arizona’s largest public school district isn’t opening its schools to voters as polling sites.

The reasons have been building for years, but the final straw for Mesa Public Schools officials came last November with a small, low-turnout election that became mired in misinformation and menace. [snip]

In the eight years since Donald Trump was first on the ballot, hundreds of schools throughout this fiercely contested battleground county are no longer willing to assume the risks associated with holding elections. In 2016, 37 percent of county polling locations were schools, according to a Washington Post analysis of data obtained through a public records request. So far this year, it’s 14 percent.

Heightened school safety protocols and sustained attacks on voting systems and the people who run them — largely by Trump and his supporters — have prompted school leaders across America in both red and blue states to close their doors to the democratic process, according to interviews with nearly 20 school district leaders, county officials, school safety officials and election experts. In at least 33 states, the law says public buildings, including schools, can or should be made available as polling locations. In many districts, administrators now cancel classes on Election Day.

The challenge has been especially acute in Arizona, where Trump’s narrow loss in 2020 inspired ceaseless conspiracies, false assertions that his and other GOP losses were illegitimate and death threats against county leaders who oversee voting and the workers on the front lines of running elections. Trump allies like Kari Lake, a Republican who lost her 2022 race for Arizona governor and is now running for the Senate, have empowered self-styled election-fraud detectors who are critical of both elections and the public school system...  (our emphasis)

The violent morons of MAGA world are succeeding in their intimidation tactics in this critical battleground state, and elsewhere.  Much more pushback is needed by State and local officials, and if that fails, by the Federal Government to safeguard our elections, both the ballot and the voter.

The ugly:

Former President Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, just days after the massive prisoner exchange between the U.S., Russia and other nations.

“By the way, I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal. Did you see the deal we made?” the Republican presidential nominee said at a campaign rally in Atlanta.

The historic prisoner swap, the largest such exchange involving the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War, saw 16 people, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, be released from Russian custody.

It’s been described as a massive win for President Joe Biden’s administration in the days since.

Trump, who has shown love to Putin before and once claimed the Russian leader wouldn’t release Gershkovich “for anyone else” but him, didn’t mention any Americans who returned home as part of the deal at his Atlanta rally.

“Now look, we want to get people in. You know we got 59 hostages, I never paid anything,” said Trump, who has falsely claimed that he gave “nothing” to secure the return of American prisoners in exchanges with other countries under his administration... (our emphasis)

Who possibly could have predicted that the racist convicted felon Malignant Loser would give credit for the hostage release to his fellow autocrat and puppetmaster Putin?!   It almost makes you think he could be a self- serving, sociopathic traitor to his country.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

... The Harris campaign, working to redefine the race with particular attention to the youth vote, including colorizing online HarrisHQ banners lime green after Charli xcx’s “brat” endorsement, has sought to draw attention to Trump’s rally storytelling. Particularly, they have highlighted his frequent but references to fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter of Silence of the Lambs fame as well as the choice between being shocked by a sinking electric boat or being eaten by a shark.

But “weird” is what seems to be sticking, in part as an apparent simplification of warnings about the threat to democracy that Trump poses – which dominated 15 months of Biden’s re-election campaign.

Minnesota’s Democratic governor Tim Walz appears to have started the “weird” political trendline. He posted on X, “Say it with me: Weird,” in response to a video of Trump speaking about Lecter. Walz later followed up with “these guys are weird” to describe Trump and Vance.

During a Sunday appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Walz was asked if “weird” had replaced existential threat to democracy as a more effective attack strategy. The retired high school educator and football coach replied: “It’s an observation because being a schoolteacher I see a lot of things.”

Walz added that a second Trump presidency could indeed put women’s lives at risk over reproductive rights after three of his US supreme court appointees helped eliminate federal abortion rights in 2022. He also said Trump could end other constitutional liberties – but musing about his embodiment of a threat to democracy “gives him way too much power,” Walz argued.

“Listen to the guy. He’s talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and whatever crazy thing pops into his mind,” Walz said.

“I think we give him way too much credit. If you just ratchet down some of the scariness and just name it what it is. Have you seen the guy laugh? It seems very weird to me that an adult can go through six-and-a-half years of being in the public eye and when he laughs it’s at someone – not with them.”

“That’s very weird behavior,” Walz explained on State of the Union. “I don’t think you call it anything else. It’s simply what we’re observing.”...

Weird.  Sick.  Deranged.  Fascistic.  It all works for us.  And Gov. Walz?  He's got chops, so don't sleep on him as our VP candidate.  We're grateful Democrats have such a deep and deeply normal bench.

The bad:

During her rise through America’s most prestigious schools, law firms and judicial clerkships, Usha Vance rarely — if ever — volunteered her opinions on the nation’s bitterly partisan politics to friends and colleagues.

But she did express revulsion at former president Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

Vance told friends she was outraged by Trump’s incitement of the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol and lamented the social breakdown that fueled his political support, according to one friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations. Her view at the time contrasts with the later pronouncements of her husband and Trump’s newly minted running mate, JD Vance, who has downplayed the storming of the Capitol and called participants who were jailed “political prisoners.”

“Usha found the incursion on the Capitol and Trump’s role in it to be deeply disturbing,” the friend recalled. “She was generally appalled by Trump, from the moment of his first election.”

Speaking the morning after Usha Vance introduced her husband at the Republican National Convention and watched his speech from the same VIP box as Trump, the friend added, “It was surreal to see her sitting next to him last night.”

That sensation is widely shared among her friends, former co-workers and fellow alumni, more than two dozen of whom spoke to The Washington Post for this story. Some watched in disbelief on July 17 when Usha Vance, 38, addressed an overwhelmingly White crowd on the convention floor that tittered uneasily as she joked about her husband learning to cook Indian food and audibly gasped when she mentioned her vegetarian diet.  [snip]

Jai Chabria, a Republican strategist for JD Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign and a family friend, said Usha’s views of the former president have changed, mirroring the evolution of her husband, once a fierce Trump critic.

“Usha has had a similar shift in views and fully supports Donald Trump and her husband and will do whatever she can to ensure their victory this November,” Chabria said in a statement provided by the Vance spokesperson. A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not comment for this story...

"A similar shift in views" caused by extreme ambition, misplaced loyalty, and a serious lack of convictions. Yet another example in MAGA world of the bad things people will do for access to power.

The ugly:

For a time, Donald Trump would have made for an unlikely headliner at a cryptocurrency confab.

As president, Trump declared bitcoin “not money” and criticized it as “highly volatile and based on thin air.” He cautioned that crypto assets helped facilitate illegal underground markets.

“We have only one real currency in the USA, and it is stronger than ever,” Trump wrote on Twitter in 2019. “It is called the United States Dollar!”

But on Saturday, Trump addressed the cryptocurrency industry’s largest annual gathering here in Nashville not as a cynic but as one of its best-known supporters – the culmination of a total reversal on the issue during the former president’s latest White House bid.

Despite cryptocurrency’s troubling recent history and his own past reservations, Trump has fully embraced the hype and hopes of the nascent industry. His campaign now accepts bitcoin donations – and has collected about $4 million worth, a source with knowledge of his fundraising said. He has attacked the Biden administration’s efforts to regulate the industry as a “war on crypto” without acknowledging the massive fraud schemes that have shattered public confidence in digital currencies. And he has vowed as president to make it easier for cryptocurrency mining companies to operate in the United States...

Con artist recognizes a con, amirite?  His appearance at the convention of the credulous was also marked by more *weird* stuff coming out of his cryptohole: 

"... [W]e will be creating so much electricity that you'll be saying, Please, please, President, we don't want any more electricity. We can't stand it. You'll be begging me, no more electricity, sir, we have enough. We have enough."  

Yikes!

To Defeat The Danger Ahead, We Fight The Fight We're In

 

Two former Republicans offer their thoughts on the cult of the Malignant Loser and the stakes involved. Here's Tom Nichols in ThreadReader:

I know it's obvious that Trump changes positions on a dime and how it's mystifying that his cult doesn't care, but picking all this apart is a fool's errand. They stick with him because he channels their diffuse anger about their lives at other Americans. But it's worse now:

After 2016, Trump voters thought they'd really made their point, pushed back change in America, and gained respect by electing a POTUS. All that blew up in their faces: They found out they're not a majority, and worse, the disdain of their fellow citizens only intensified.

2020 and J6 compounded their sense of humiliation and grievance. The know Trump is making fools of them, but they will never admit it. And Biden winning was like a national slap in the face. So now they're with him no matter what. They don't care about policy or positions. 

And this time, they'll support him as he does even more desperate and hideous things. He could call for open borders and free abortions and most of them wouldn't care. All they care about is that he's promising to go after people they hate even more now than in 2016.

Talking about how he and Biden "differ on Issues X/Y/Z" is pointless and a distraction. It's all part of the "normal political horse race" narrative that is blinding people to the danger ahead.

Former Republican ad man with Lincoln Project Reed Galen on Substack:

Donald Trump, he of the would-be coup, the 91 indictments, and willingness to admit he’d be a dictator on “day one” is going to be the Republican nominee for president, again. Despite all the words, deeds, disasters, and death, the GOP can’t quit him, and his opponents have struggled for years to understand how to beat him. It’s simple, really: Attack him. All day, every day.  [snip]

During a townhall with Sean Hannity earlier this week, Trump admitted he’d be a dictator if he retakes the White House. He was excited by Robert Kagan’s Washington Post op-ed warning of Trump’s tyrannical tendencies. MAGA goon Kash Patel threatened the media on Steve Bannon’s podcast this week. The men likely to occupy leadership posts in a second Trump term are for mass deportation, a system of organized camps, and unleashing the military on anti-Trump demonstrators as reported by Axios today.

As 2024 dawns on us, remind yourself and your organizations what we’re up against. Yes, we must defeat Donald J. Trump 48 weeks from now. He’s just the beginning. As Speaker Mike Johnson told a crowd in Washington on Tuesday that we are “engaged in a battle between worldviews” and “a great struggle for the future of the Republic.” He believes the White Christian nationalists will win.

If you’re not willing to go after the man who will make this dystopian worldview a reality, what are you willing to fight for? This isn’t about whether you like a certain way of campaigning or not. We fight the fight we’re in, not the one we’re used to. Next year is not a referendum, it’s a choice: America or Trump...

We're about a year out, and primary season is looming.  This is the time in a campaign cycle when everyone starts providing their opinion about strategy, messages, etc.  Both of these writers are essentially telling us not to waste time on the Malignant Loser's cultists;  they're a long lost cause.  You have to focus instead on your own base and on the distracted/ persuadable voters (how that is a thing these days is boggling, but it's reality).  It's going to be another close race (again, boggling) and, paraphrasing Galen, if you're not willing to go after the Malignant Loser and his dystopian worldview, what are you willing to fight for?

BONUS:  Also, don't be a "Doom Junkie!"