Dan, the sanewashing is really vexing me. Instead of headlines blaring "TRUMP ACCUSES IMMIGRANTS, DEMS OF EATING PETS, KILLING BABIES IN UNHINGED DEBATE PERFORMANCE", we get "Who won the debate? We talked to three swing voters." (Or my favorite, and their go-to: "Harris, Trump offer very different visions of America.")
Can you help us understand why the normalization of Trump has gotten this bad? The more honest story would actually get MORE clicks. Do these people honestly still cling too some misguided idea of neutrality, nine years in? Is it the politics of the corporate bosses? Do they think they'll avoid going to jail if Trump wins by not telling it straight? It baffles me.
I would be fascinated to hear the news sources you favor. ABC, CNN, NPR, WaPo and The Guardian — their “Trump lost badly / Harris dominated” stories have outnumbered the stories you describe by ten to one.
Not sure about your message about upgrading subscription. I am paid subscriber. Does this mean I have to upgrade that to get the chats? Old girl here...
I think that was directed to unpaid subscribers. The rest of us have to navigate the very user-unfriendly substack app. I think I am just going to revert to reading.
I got stuck on the website with the QR Code. Eventually, I found a small link with the words : Go to Website or similar at the bottom of the page. That took me to the actual Substack chat
In reaction to the debate, I've heard a number of pundits and journalists say that Kamala needs to do more interviews to build on the momentum of the debate - I am skeptical. I mean, they were saying this before the debate, too, So, it isn't new. The argument they offer is that she was stalling before the debate because she wasn't giving the media enough to chew on, and so they reverted to covering Trump because he gave them something to talk about. What do you think about this?
It is irritating--and especially when I hear this from the "undecided voter." Sometimes you just wonder what it will take for them to stop feeling "special." Sigh. I mean the choice is between drinking lemonade or turpentine. I know which one I would drink. BUT: clearly thuis is something Kamala Harris will continually need to do--and honestly--I think in the end it makes her stronger? Does that make sense?
Kamala has two full time jobs: Vice President and candidate for President! I don’t know how she does it. However, if she went on the Sunday talk shows, including Fox, that would be good. More tomorrow.
Why do you think more isn't being made of the fact that, if Trump wins reelection, and the Hamburger of Fate finally finds him, we'll suddenly have President J. D. Vance? I realize that in the big Jenga tower of things to worry about, it's not at the top, but it seems like it might have a lot of leverage with undecideds.
What does America have now that we want to keep, strengthen, grow, improve?
Our laws, our government, our Constitution, our schools, our environment, clean air and water, our economic power, the dollar as the world’s currency, our resources, our power, our alliances, a world class university system, to name a few.
Our economic inequality needs attention and incentives, carrots and sticks, to bring it into balance…all of our strengths named above need improving, too.
Dems promise to make improvements and preserve these powers, treasures, institutions and resources.
trump and Republicans promise to decimate them.
I do not see the picture of what decimation of all our foundational strengths, resources, structures, institutions, alliances, treasures looks like being articulated, described, made plain, explicit.
Again, trump’s caddy, bodyguard, children and lackeys will oversee weather forecasting, meat safety, the nuclear arsenal and the supply chain, as they, as promised in Project 2025, take over the federal government. And, the donald and his putin loving lackeys will have full access to our national secrets while insulting, threatening and alienating our allies and neighbors….we will have no safe and secure borders, no national or domestic security and no functional economy without good relations with our neighbors and allies, and our democracy will be a relic of the past.
Putting a torch to America, our economy, our democracy, our alliances, our secrets will destroy and endanger the survival of America and the American people.
Whatever people’s beefs with Kamala and Dems, they pale in comparison to the cost of a trump presidency…where national secrets will be useless as our allies refuse to share anything with us — as they likely have already begun to do with the prospect of trump accessing them once he returns to power in 2025…where everything we hold dear will be undermined and left to twist in the wind.
It seems it should be plain and irrefutable that even considering electing trump would be not only dangerous, it is an unnecessary choice when Kamala has proven herself a worthy, commanding and devoted leader who will serve the American people well and faithfully.
Honestly, I feel we are fortunate to have someone so well equipped, so dedicated and courageous to step into the vortex at this juncture to serve, protect and defend our nation.
And yet, her success is not a certainty.
trump maintains all the advantages of the electoral college and a divided and traumatized nation he has capitalized on with his nonstop scapegoating, gaslighting, fear and hate mongering and brutish reign of terror.
So we carry on, we push hard, relentless, we leave absolutely everything on the field, selfishly and courageously, for ourselves, our family, our neighbors, our communities, our country.
Wiles is famous for her incredible GOTV activities that seem to go from nothing to incredible overnight.
In DeSantis’s first governor’s race, she came in late and among other things in the last month of the election, sprung up (seemingly out of nowhere) a canvassing operation that knocked on three million doors in the 30 days before the election.
She has handicaps here: disorganized state parties and a campaign that seems to have outsourced most GOTV activities to pacs.
Am I worrying about nothing? Can they surprise and out-resource us late?
I'm tired of hearing mainstream journalists casually propagate the lie that Harris was the "border czar" -- her focus was on addressing the root causes of migration in Central America, not managing border security directly. I'm guessing the campaign has calculated that the juice of trying to alter that perception is not worth the squeeze, but I wish something could be done about it.
A newscaster suggested that Harris do a focused speech on the immigration issue to dispell the misinformation about and importance of immigrants to the country. Given the headlines on the "Haitians eat pets" Trump comment, I think this is a good idea, either in an interview or a speech or both. She should really dig in to capture the immigrant vote and others.
Dan--this might not be relevant to us here, but we are not going to have a government shut down--are we? I get the impressioin that Trump might encourage such a disaster. If it happens--can the Democrats control the narrative? Will it happen? The idea of a shut down makes me ill.
How much of the debate looked to you like Harris having a plan and following it versus Harris seeing in the moment what was working and going with that?
Great question. I have been wondering the same thing. For example--the crowd size thing was clearly planned. But--the rest seemed more in the moment. Although everything was prepared for, Kamala seemed to be thinking well on her feet. It happened so seamlessly that it was difficult to fully appreciate in real time.
My guess: Maybe to help save the several congressional seats Dems lost to GOP in last election? Mayor of NYC is struggling. Texas and Florida bussed migrants to NYC and overwhelmed the system at one point. Hotels were taken over for migrant housing.
Large Haitian community in Nassau - we’ll see how THAT plays out - also the county supervisor and one of the house reps are MAGA so good luck saying the county went to shit when they were in charge
Dan, the sanewashing is really vexing me. Instead of headlines blaring "TRUMP ACCUSES IMMIGRANTS, DEMS OF EATING PETS, KILLING BABIES IN UNHINGED DEBATE PERFORMANCE", we get "Who won the debate? We talked to three swing voters." (Or my favorite, and their go-to: "Harris, Trump offer very different visions of America.")
Can you help us understand why the normalization of Trump has gotten this bad? The more honest story would actually get MORE clicks. Do these people honestly still cling too some misguided idea of neutrality, nine years in? Is it the politics of the corporate bosses? Do they think they'll avoid going to jail if Trump wins by not telling it straight? It baffles me.
Thank you for all that you do!
I would be fascinated to hear the news sources you favor. ABC, CNN, NPR, WaPo and The Guardian — their “Trump lost badly / Harris dominated” stories have outnumbered the stories you describe by ten to one.
Not sure about your message about upgrading subscription. I am paid subscriber. Does this mean I have to upgrade that to get the chats? Old girl here...
I think that was directed to unpaid subscribers. The rest of us have to navigate the very user-unfriendly substack app. I think I am just going to revert to reading.
I got stuck on the website with the QR Code. Eventually, I found a small link with the words : Go to Website or similar at the bottom of the page. That took me to the actual Substack chat
I hope not!
In reaction to the debate, I've heard a number of pundits and journalists say that Kamala needs to do more interviews to build on the momentum of the debate - I am skeptical. I mean, they were saying this before the debate, too, So, it isn't new. The argument they offer is that she was stalling before the debate because she wasn't giving the media enough to chew on, and so they reverted to covering Trump because he gave them something to talk about. What do you think about this?
It is irritating--and especially when I hear this from the "undecided voter." Sometimes you just wonder what it will take for them to stop feeling "special." Sigh. I mean the choice is between drinking lemonade or turpentine. I know which one I would drink. BUT: clearly thuis is something Kamala Harris will continually need to do--and honestly--I think in the end it makes her stronger? Does that make sense?
Kamala has two full time jobs: Vice President and candidate for President! I don’t know how she does it. However, if she went on the Sunday talk shows, including Fox, that would be good. More tomorrow.
How long before Trump’s frustration pushes him to fire LaCivita or Wiles and puts Lewandoski or Manafort in that place?
Why do you think more isn't being made of the fact that, if Trump wins reelection, and the Hamburger of Fate finally finds him, we'll suddenly have President J. D. Vance? I realize that in the big Jenga tower of things to worry about, it's not at the top, but it seems like it might have a lot of leverage with undecideds.
What does America have now that we want to keep, strengthen, grow, improve?
Our laws, our government, our Constitution, our schools, our environment, clean air and water, our economic power, the dollar as the world’s currency, our resources, our power, our alliances, a world class university system, to name a few.
Our economic inequality needs attention and incentives, carrots and sticks, to bring it into balance…all of our strengths named above need improving, too.
Dems promise to make improvements and preserve these powers, treasures, institutions and resources.
trump and Republicans promise to decimate them.
I do not see the picture of what decimation of all our foundational strengths, resources, structures, institutions, alliances, treasures looks like being articulated, described, made plain, explicit.
Again, trump’s caddy, bodyguard, children and lackeys will oversee weather forecasting, meat safety, the nuclear arsenal and the supply chain, as they, as promised in Project 2025, take over the federal government. And, the donald and his putin loving lackeys will have full access to our national secrets while insulting, threatening and alienating our allies and neighbors….we will have no safe and secure borders, no national or domestic security and no functional economy without good relations with our neighbors and allies, and our democracy will be a relic of the past.
Putting a torch to America, our economy, our democracy, our alliances, our secrets will destroy and endanger the survival of America and the American people.
Whatever people’s beefs with Kamala and Dems, they pale in comparison to the cost of a trump presidency…where national secrets will be useless as our allies refuse to share anything with us — as they likely have already begun to do with the prospect of trump accessing them once he returns to power in 2025…where everything we hold dear will be undermined and left to twist in the wind.
It seems it should be plain and irrefutable that even considering electing trump would be not only dangerous, it is an unnecessary choice when Kamala has proven herself a worthy, commanding and devoted leader who will serve the American people well and faithfully.
Honestly, I feel we are fortunate to have someone so well equipped, so dedicated and courageous to step into the vortex at this juncture to serve, protect and defend our nation.
And yet, her success is not a certainty.
trump maintains all the advantages of the electoral college and a divided and traumatized nation he has capitalized on with his nonstop scapegoating, gaslighting, fear and hate mongering and brutish reign of terror.
So we carry on, we push hard, relentless, we leave absolutely everything on the field, selfishly and courageously, for ourselves, our family, our neighbors, our communities, our country.
It is a worthy fight.
God help us.
There is nothing like real-time daylight to clarify critical issues. The Harris Trump debate certainly fit the bill.
It was a pleasure watching our brilliant, highly qualified, next President take apart our former, out to lunch, president pervert.
I can't think any more commanding performances than Harris' utter destruction of Donny without getting into one-off sports analogies.
Psychiatrists can start using "did you vote for Trump in 2024? as a sanity test.
Go Kamala Walz. It will be wonderful welcoming you into office in Jan 2025.😊
Wiles is famous for her incredible GOTV activities that seem to go from nothing to incredible overnight.
In DeSantis’s first governor’s race, she came in late and among other things in the last month of the election, sprung up (seemingly out of nowhere) a canvassing operation that knocked on three million doors in the 30 days before the election.
She has handicaps here: disorganized state parties and a campaign that seems to have outsourced most GOTV activities to pacs.
Am I worrying about nothing? Can they surprise and out-resource us late?
I'm tired of hearing mainstream journalists casually propagate the lie that Harris was the "border czar" -- her focus was on addressing the root causes of migration in Central America, not managing border security directly. I'm guessing the campaign has calculated that the juice of trying to alter that perception is not worth the squeeze, but I wish something could be done about it.
A newscaster suggested that Harris do a focused speech on the immigration issue to dispell the misinformation about and importance of immigrants to the country. Given the headlines on the "Haitians eat pets" Trump comment, I think this is a good idea, either in an interview or a speech or both. She should really dig in to capture the immigrant vote and others.
Dan--this might not be relevant to us here, but we are not going to have a government shut down--are we? I get the impressioin that Trump might encourage such a disaster. If it happens--can the Democrats control the narrative? Will it happen? The idea of a shut down makes me ill.
How much of the debate looked to you like Harris having a plan and following it versus Harris seeing in the moment what was working and going with that?
Great question. I have been wondering the same thing. For example--the crowd size thing was clearly planned. But--the rest seemed more in the moment. Although everything was prepared for, Kamala seemed to be thinking well on her feet. It happened so seamlessly that it was difficult to fully appreciate in real time.
Anyone have a theory as to why Trump plans to hold a rally on Long Island NY next week????
My guess: Maybe to help save the several congressional seats Dems lost to GOP in last election? Mayor of NYC is struggling. Texas and Florida bussed migrants to NYC and overwhelmed the system at one point. Hotels were taken over for migrant housing.
Large Haitian community in Nassau - we’ll see how THAT plays out - also the county supervisor and one of the house reps are MAGA so good luck saying the county went to shit when they were in charge