"I am writing this midday Friday, so it’s unlikely Trump will find another way to self-immolate politically between now and when you read this post."
Haha!! Well, he saw this comment and said, "Hold my tube of orange makeup!" and performed the most vulgar, crude re-enactment of oral sex at his rally last night. I want to know why THAT isn't a screaming headline in the Post and Times this morning?
When I read it, I had to wonder if it was a typo from Dan! The oral sex clip of Trump - a complement to his sex doll in garbage vest photo - has been fun to sprinkle in the Twitter threads of various MAGAs. Maybe it can depress some Trump turnout!
But you could barely hear what he was saying in your video because of the crowd. In the video I saw the audio was way clearer and he was just enraged about his mic not working and raging at the technicians. I agree w/o audio it looks certainly like simulating oral sex but not sure if that’s true. And I detest Trump.
I detest Trump. And already voted for KamalA, but when I observed that portion of the video and heard the audio he was ranting about how his mic broke and how event technicians screwed up. He was handling the mic and nodding his head while screaming about the mic and how incompetent the technicians were. But I started by just seeing the video without the audio and I too was appalled by what I saw. I went looking for the video and audio of this insane action by Trump only to find what I described above.
Trump has done and threatened so many crude things like shooting Liz that we have plenty of material to constantly bring to the forefront for undecided voters. If you are wrong about this and say so on platforms like this, his people can distribute the video with the audio and likely to convince the voters we are just going after Trump with lies, which Trump and surrogates always claim. Best we stop spreading this.
If any one of you saw the video with sound and you disagree with me, please respond to me and tell me how and why you do. I’m willing to change my mind.
Yes—at that point in his, er, presentation to the crowd he was indeed berating the event staff over a supposed problem with the microphone and/or stand he had been provided with. What does that have to do with anything? Adjacent to that tirade, he was pantomiming oral sex, apparently for lulz. Why in the world can't we perfectly accurately point out that fact?
If the economy is the big deal, then maybe we need to hear more about all the great economic numbers (minus the jobs report) from last week. There’s also the issue of ANOTHER woman dying in Texas from pregnancy complications after doctors were afraid to treat her. And then there’s the statements by surrogates about how women should do what their husbands say. That’s also a big deal.
Dan, I know you're a self-described pessimist, so I really appreciate your clear-eyed optimistic takes in the final few days. We have the candidate and the muscle to win this. Here are a few additional reasons why 2024 is not 2016 or 2020:
1. In 2016 Trump greatly benefited from decades of slander against Clinton and a late announcement from that idiot Comey.
2. In 2020 Trump benefited from being the incumbent. Even though he totally mismanaged COVID (and everything else), many voters gave him he benefit of the doubt. It is extremely hard to defeat a sitting president but we pulled it off.
3. This year Trump is running as an "outsider" but that doesn't work nearly as well as 2016 because now he has a huge record we can point to, most obviously trying to repeal the ACA and appointing the justices that overturned Roe.
4. Since the 2020 election we've had January 6 and Dobbs, two titanic events and both negative for Trump. We've also had 40-something felony indictments/convictions, multiple civil judgements, dining with Nazis, stealing national secrets, and countless other things. Each of these matters on the margins.
5. Our grassroots is infinitely stronger than in 2016 or 2020. People are working their asses off and have been doing so for months. Many people have been writing postcards/letters since January.
6. Harris/Walz has energized our coalition and brought in new voters that were likely unavailable to Biden.
I could go on but the point is no election is like any other. Many of Trump's strengths have largely evaporated. Nothing is guaranteed and no one is complacent but I'd much rather be us than them.
Yesterday I realized that we haven't had a huge "rainbow fentanyl in Halloween candy" freakout this year and wrote about it, linking back to this one freaking funny Fox News clip from 2022.
It started with a clip of Bill Clinton telling Fareed Zakaria on CNN that "Republicans always close well. Why? Because they always find some new way to scare the living daylights out of swing voters about something. That's what they did in 2021 where they made Critical Race Theory sound worse than smallpox" and then back to Ronna Not-Romney in the Fox News studio laughing it off saying "Newsflash Bill, your party's doing a fine job of scaring voters on your own" and literally in the next sentence she starts talking about moms being scared that their kids could get rainbow fentanyl in their Halloween candy... Probably my favorite Fox News clip from the past four years.
But we don't have that this year or Critical Race Theory or the caravans or Antifa or emails or anything on that level as the central "theme" of MAGA bullshit. It's just a slurry of nine years of grievance with MAYBE the economy as the main ingredient but even with that Trump has to do this bullshit dance where he's trying to take credit for the stock market because investors are pricing in a win. Tren de Aragua is just the new MS-13. Shoplifting in San Francisco peaked too early.
I don't know if the lack of a central meme-y scare tactic matters. I do notice the whole MAGA propaganda-industrial complex seems a bit a adrift without one and it might be what's causing Trump to punch himself in the dick repeatedly during this final stretch.
It seems to me Trump peaked in some sense the week before last. Then came the Post & LA Times, Musk antics, and the culmination with the shout-out to Nuremberg at MSG. It felt to me that some sort of realization of what was at risk started to hit home. Trump himself seemed to hit some kind of critical mass and began decomposing more each day. I'm sure his handlers would like to lock him away. If they had souls they might want to encourage him to get out even more and do the full Trump! Hopefully these events have set off a tidal wave of folks deciding to vote for Kamala and it'll be more than enough for a very convincing win for her. There must be some number of wavering folks who see the oral sex simulation and finally understand they're voting for Vance and recoil from that.
Agree, Greg. This week has got me thinking about the final weeks of 2016 and 2020. In the former, Trump was relatively quiet and just let Clinton have all the negative press, and it worked. In 2020, I honestly don’t remember Trump’s “closing message,” but I do remember the fact that he was out campaigning, being visible as president, and did avoid being wildly offensive or scary, while Biden barely campaigned in a visible way because of Covid restrictions. Late deciders went for Trump in both instances. But now, it’s unhinged, frightening, misogynistic Trump, not making any effort to hide it, vs a capable and well-liked Democratic candidate who is not falling apart at the seams, and it’s hard to see late deciders, or at least the majority of them, seeing the former and not feeling very unsettled, irrespective of their politics. I think it makes the difference.
Dan, the strategy of running out the clock may at last be backfiring. The ultimate Clock of aging:
diminishing mental and physical health has caught up with Drumpf. He couldn't land the plane, he is lost in his own fog of vile thoughts. He is a hostile, angry old man. His handlers couldn't hide him or control him long enough. He is a wannabe king with no clothes -- a naked, flaccid, failed tyrant.
I’ve been phone banking into PA. It’s amazing but there are quite a few voters who are still undecided! Yes, I’d say at least 10% of the hundreds of people I spoke with are undecided. There is still work to be done!
That ad is just appalling. The whole thing is a lie. I wish there were some way that ads could be policed for at least a modicum of honesty before being allowed on the airwaves. Otherwise, it's just blanket slander.
Trump to let RFK Jr. 'go wild on health'. We mapped the number of COVID deaths by county under Trump. Vote to make sure, RFK Jr. doesn't break that record.
I’m not on TikTok but one of the cooked shows was discussing how it was popular to stream yourself watching that video for the first time on that platform.
Well, my experience with the three Latino gentlemen who installed my Christmas yard and house lights yesterday indicates that “I don’t follow politics” and “don’t plan to vote” may be code for a Trump vote in Texas. I think I might have caused the one with a mother, wife, and daughters in the crosshairs of aggressive reproductive rights suppression to reconsider. The horrible truth is that I would rather have a potential vote for Trump fail to participate.
After months and months and months of this, I still can't believe that so many voters think the president controls "the economy" or have a clue about what factors do affect it. Yes, I know that going back to the 19th century, talking economics usually got you branded a commie socialist pinko. I wish Harris, Walz, and team could address this, but I also know why they can't. We've got to do better than this.
You make two points: (1) Trump being Trump is driving the political news, and (2) Trump's campaign is blanketing the sports-watching public with an ad stressing his strengths on economy, border, and Bidenomics. Late-deciders aren't watching the political news, but they are watching football. So Trump's strengths are getting eyeballs and his fumbles are not.
"I am writing this midday Friday, so it’s unlikely Trump will find another way to self-immolate politically between now and when you read this post."
Haha!! Well, he saw this comment and said, "Hold my tube of orange makeup!" and performed the most vulgar, crude re-enactment of oral sex at his rally last night. I want to know why THAT isn't a screaming headline in the Post and Times this morning?
If he wins, this nation is moribund.
When I read it, I had to wonder if it was a typo from Dan! The oral sex clip of Trump - a complement to his sex doll in garbage vest photo - has been fun to sprinkle in the Twitter threads of various MAGAs. Maybe it can depress some Trump turnout!
I think k it was a typo.
Just came to say this exactly same thing. What the heck was he doing?
Opheodrys, you beat me to it! I hope Dan circles back and comments!
Can you enlighten me what this is about?
https://x.com/i/status/1852558584573239588
But you could barely hear what he was saying in your video because of the crowd. In the video I saw the audio was way clearer and he was just enraged about his mic not working and raging at the technicians. I agree w/o audio it looks certainly like simulating oral sex but not sure if that’s true. And I detest Trump.
Yeah, no.....if he did that reflexively, he's even more demented that we realize. That's where his brain went.
Oh its true. It was posted all over twitter right when it happened.
I am hopeful our boy Elon goes down in flames.
I detest Trump. And already voted for KamalA, but when I observed that portion of the video and heard the audio he was ranting about how his mic broke and how event technicians screwed up. He was handling the mic and nodding his head while screaming about the mic and how incompetent the technicians were. But I started by just seeing the video without the audio and I too was appalled by what I saw. I went looking for the video and audio of this insane action by Trump only to find what I described above.
Trump has done and threatened so many crude things like shooting Liz that we have plenty of material to constantly bring to the forefront for undecided voters. If you are wrong about this and say so on platforms like this, his people can distribute the video with the audio and likely to convince the voters we are just going after Trump with lies, which Trump and surrogates always claim. Best we stop spreading this.
If any one of you saw the video with sound and you disagree with me, please respond to me and tell me how and why you do. I’m willing to change my mind.
I don't understand: are you contending that, at that point in his speech, Trump did NOT pretend to stroke and then fellate a microphone stand?
But it's true. That's what he did: https://x.com/Acyn/status/1852543627534414086
Yes—at that point in his, er, presentation to the crowd he was indeed berating the event staff over a supposed problem with the microphone and/or stand he had been provided with. What does that have to do with anything? Adjacent to that tirade, he was pantomiming oral sex, apparently for lulz. Why in the world can't we perfectly accurately point out that fact?
If the economy is the big deal, then maybe we need to hear more about all the great economic numbers (minus the jobs report) from last week. There’s also the issue of ANOTHER woman dying in Texas from pregnancy complications after doctors were afraid to treat her. And then there’s the statements by surrogates about how women should do what their husbands say. That’s also a big deal.
Dan, I know you're a self-described pessimist, so I really appreciate your clear-eyed optimistic takes in the final few days. We have the candidate and the muscle to win this. Here are a few additional reasons why 2024 is not 2016 or 2020:
1. In 2016 Trump greatly benefited from decades of slander against Clinton and a late announcement from that idiot Comey.
2. In 2020 Trump benefited from being the incumbent. Even though he totally mismanaged COVID (and everything else), many voters gave him he benefit of the doubt. It is extremely hard to defeat a sitting president but we pulled it off.
3. This year Trump is running as an "outsider" but that doesn't work nearly as well as 2016 because now he has a huge record we can point to, most obviously trying to repeal the ACA and appointing the justices that overturned Roe.
4. Since the 2020 election we've had January 6 and Dobbs, two titanic events and both negative for Trump. We've also had 40-something felony indictments/convictions, multiple civil judgements, dining with Nazis, stealing national secrets, and countless other things. Each of these matters on the margins.
5. Our grassroots is infinitely stronger than in 2016 or 2020. People are working their asses off and have been doing so for months. Many people have been writing postcards/letters since January.
6. Harris/Walz has energized our coalition and brought in new voters that were likely unavailable to Biden.
I could go on but the point is no election is like any other. Many of Trump's strengths have largely evaporated. Nothing is guaranteed and no one is complacent but I'd much rather be us than them.
Yesterday I realized that we haven't had a huge "rainbow fentanyl in Halloween candy" freakout this year and wrote about it, linking back to this one freaking funny Fox News clip from 2022.
It started with a clip of Bill Clinton telling Fareed Zakaria on CNN that "Republicans always close well. Why? Because they always find some new way to scare the living daylights out of swing voters about something. That's what they did in 2021 where they made Critical Race Theory sound worse than smallpox" and then back to Ronna Not-Romney in the Fox News studio laughing it off saying "Newsflash Bill, your party's doing a fine job of scaring voters on your own" and literally in the next sentence she starts talking about moms being scared that their kids could get rainbow fentanyl in their Halloween candy... Probably my favorite Fox News clip from the past four years.
youtu.be/vYrNuzpmzk0
But we don't have that this year or Critical Race Theory or the caravans or Antifa or emails or anything on that level as the central "theme" of MAGA bullshit. It's just a slurry of nine years of grievance with MAYBE the economy as the main ingredient but even with that Trump has to do this bullshit dance where he's trying to take credit for the stock market because investors are pricing in a win. Tren de Aragua is just the new MS-13. Shoplifting in San Francisco peaked too early.
I don't know if the lack of a central meme-y scare tactic matters. I do notice the whole MAGA propaganda-industrial complex seems a bit a adrift without one and it might be what's causing Trump to punch himself in the dick repeatedly during this final stretch.
It seems to me Trump peaked in some sense the week before last. Then came the Post & LA Times, Musk antics, and the culmination with the shout-out to Nuremberg at MSG. It felt to me that some sort of realization of what was at risk started to hit home. Trump himself seemed to hit some kind of critical mass and began decomposing more each day. I'm sure his handlers would like to lock him away. If they had souls they might want to encourage him to get out even more and do the full Trump! Hopefully these events have set off a tidal wave of folks deciding to vote for Kamala and it'll be more than enough for a very convincing win for her. There must be some number of wavering folks who see the oral sex simulation and finally understand they're voting for Vance and recoil from that.
Agree, Greg. This week has got me thinking about the final weeks of 2016 and 2020. In the former, Trump was relatively quiet and just let Clinton have all the negative press, and it worked. In 2020, I honestly don’t remember Trump’s “closing message,” but I do remember the fact that he was out campaigning, being visible as president, and did avoid being wildly offensive or scary, while Biden barely campaigned in a visible way because of Covid restrictions. Late deciders went for Trump in both instances. But now, it’s unhinged, frightening, misogynistic Trump, not making any effort to hide it, vs a capable and well-liked Democratic candidate who is not falling apart at the seams, and it’s hard to see late deciders, or at least the majority of them, seeing the former and not feeling very unsettled, irrespective of their politics. I think it makes the difference.
Dan, the strategy of running out the clock may at last be backfiring. The ultimate Clock of aging:
diminishing mental and physical health has caught up with Drumpf. He couldn't land the plane, he is lost in his own fog of vile thoughts. He is a hostile, angry old man. His handlers couldn't hide him or control him long enough. He is a wannabe king with no clothes -- a naked, flaccid, failed tyrant.
I’ve been phone banking into PA. It’s amazing but there are quite a few voters who are still undecided! Yes, I’d say at least 10% of the hundreds of people I spoke with are undecided. There is still work to be done!
That ad is just appalling. The whole thing is a lie. I wish there were some way that ads could be policed for at least a modicum of honesty before being allowed on the airwaves. Otherwise, it's just blanket slander.
One word: Demoines Register Poll. Holy moly.
Check the harm from the Republican abortion ban with this interactive casualty map
https://embed.kumu.io/8086e550b68fcd5a7bf3d20f457c73bf
Trump to let RFK Jr. 'go wild on health'. We mapped the number of COVID deaths by county under Trump. Vote to make sure, RFK Jr. doesn't break that record.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/10/31/trump-rfk-jr-health-policy-map-covid-deaths/
Since you penned" TikTok blowing up over "just grab 'em" comment, which was made when the average TikTok user was nine. They can now vote.
I’m not on TikTok but one of the cooked shows was discussing how it was popular to stream yourself watching that video for the first time on that platform.
Well, my experience with the three Latino gentlemen who installed my Christmas yard and house lights yesterday indicates that “I don’t follow politics” and “don’t plan to vote” may be code for a Trump vote in Texas. I think I might have caused the one with a mother, wife, and daughters in the crosshairs of aggressive reproductive rights suppression to reconsider. The horrible truth is that I would rather have a potential vote for Trump fail to participate.
After months and months and months of this, I still can't believe that so many voters think the president controls "the economy" or have a clue about what factors do affect it. Yes, I know that going back to the 19th century, talking economics usually got you branded a commie socialist pinko. I wish Harris, Walz, and team could address this, but I also know why they can't. We've got to do better than this.
You make two points: (1) Trump being Trump is driving the political news, and (2) Trump's campaign is blanketing the sports-watching public with an ad stressing his strengths on economy, border, and Bidenomics. Late-deciders aren't watching the political news, but they are watching football. So Trump's strengths are getting eyeballs and his fumbles are not.
Is that right?
Will we get a short message box or pollercoaster this evening after Seltzer drops? I feel like my nerves will need some reassurance. Or whatever.
Ok...but it seems that even a gaffe a mere 7-10 days prior to the election (MSG debacle) gets memory holed...