USA Election 2024

[Eric]

Have to admit... after seeing your post, my first thought was even trump wouldn't have been that stupid to publicly state that.

Less than ten minutes later I heard trump saying the above on NPR radio. I hope Harris' campaign is all over that today.

It's everywhere now, Reddit's front page has several stories on it. Let's hope the media cares but I wouldn't expect much from them TBH, they seem to ignore anything terrible he says now.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Have to admit... after seeing your post, my first thought was even trump wouldn't have been that stupid to publicly state that.

Less than ten minutes later I heard trump saying the above on NPR radio. I hope Harris' campaign is all over that today.

you keep underestimating stupid.

 

[Roller]

you keep underestimating stupid.

The Harris campaign is all over it. Every Republican politician in Trump’s camp should be asked about it when they’re interviewed. The MSM have failed miserably at calling Trump out, but I’m hoping this one’s so over the top they’ll do their job for once.

 

[Huntn]

Harris/Kelly vs Trump/Vance: 2 highly respectable people vs 2 shady/criminal bozos. Wtf, how is it possible Trump still is in the race? Wtf is wrong??

You should have an elevated perception of the qualities of a significant portion of fellow citizens, seeing the blatant flaws of who you are surrounded by. I mean, just look at our species treatment of the climate issue. We’ll burn protecting our piles of gold.

 

[Huntn]

Roughly half of the voting population believe being a convicted criminal, who brags about sexually assaulting women, and fomented an insurrection on the US Capitol to stop the peaceful transition of power (essentially shredding the Constitution) isn't a biggie.

I'll never understand that.

As mentioned here and trending in public media, Trump has told at least one audience “Please vote for me this time and you’ll never have to vote again” if that’s not cause for wholesale alarm. I don’t know what could be.

 

[Huntn]

That's what I thought too. They could paint him as a weak old man who can't even make up his mind. If he can't even solve "who's my VP?", how is he going to handle more complex problems? I don't think swapping him out would be a good idea. But he doesn't give a crap about "good ideas" and does things his own way. So anything is possible.

The smart move would be to have Vance "decide to withdraw" for some reason.

For the outcome we want, Vance must remain. Nothing can be worse than Trump, a sane VP pick would only help him, but that’s the thing, he’s going for the whole Emperor MAGOT enchilada, and it will be his undoing.

 

[Huntn]

Honestly, it feels like Vance is only there to avoid a repeat of Pence randomly growing a spine when it came to certifying the election results. He wants someone who will play these sorts of games as president of the Senate, and overseer of elector counts.

Agreed, Trump needs a loyal Mini-Me as one of the vital cogs of the Revolution. Your No.2 has to be loyal to whatever outrageousness you command.

 

[Citysnaps]

NYT is covering it:

At Minnesota Rally, Trump Makes Clear He Is Finished With Unity

After an attempt on his life two weeks ago, Donald J. Trump called for national unity. But he told the crowd at a campaign event on Saturday, “No, I haven’t changed.”

www.nytimes.com

 

[Huntn]

And honestly, this is the sort of thing that makes me think that Trumpism represents a slide into competitive authoritarianism. The willingness to bend, break and rewrite the rules to hold onto power, while at the same time having to keep existing democratic institutions somewhat intact. The sort of "playing dirty in order to win" that is a hallmark of Trump in business which he is bringing to government.

Spoiler: Some extra thoughts on competitive authoritarianism and the challenges ahead

A somewhat old piece from 2002 on the topic, but seems rather relevant: https://scholar.harvard.edu/levitsky/files/SL_elections.pdf



Emphasis mine. Russia is an example of how it could play out. At the time of this piece, it was calling Putin's regime a competitive authoritarian regime. But in the years since, we've seen Putin successfully clamp down on the opposition, pushing it towards full blown authoritarianism and preventing any reforms from the 90s from taking root which would have slowed the process.

The problem I see is that even if Trump is defeated, the sort of things that enable such a slide are still in place. You still have the push to co-opt the judiciary with allies rather than judges. You still have major media cozying up to a particular party and its leaders. You still have the attempts to cripple the legislature and hollow out the bureaucracy in favor of fewer decision makers despite an increasingly complex society ("You can't delegate this responsibility, or that, or that..."). You have the Trump family taking greater control of the Republican party's machine. All of this is part of the process and has to be fought and rolled back. But how do you recover the electorate from co-opted media without meddling in the media? How do you recover the judiciary from stuffing without stuffing it yourself? In a polarized environment, I think the irony is that fighting such corruption will further entrench support for the people involved. So I'm not sure how you properly de-escalate here, or when you make the call that escalation might just be a risk you have to take.

But I think we're already in the throes of the backslide due to the damage done so far. The question is more does the process continue or not.

Hands down, Putin is who Lil’Donny aspires to be, his hero idol, the strong man he so wants to be.

 

[Huntn]

NYT is covering it:

At Minnesota Rally, Trump Makes Clear He Is Finished With Unity

After an attempt on his life two weeks ago, Donald J. Trump called for national unity. But he told the crowd at a campaign event on Saturday, “No, I haven’t changed.”

www.nytimes.com

Witness illusions of revolution as fantasized by the The Head Sociopath, then we can lament the sorry state of US politics. How could this ever happen? If anything we should all have a new perception of what peril our Republic is in, for an Authoritarian JACK ASS like this, not only to be running for POTUS, but to be considered competitive. It’s as if we’ve entered an alternate reality where everything is stood on its head.

 

[Citysnaps]

Witness illusions of revolution as fantasized by the The Head Sociopath, then we can laments the sorry state of US politics. How could this ever happen? If anything we should all have a new perception of what peril our Republic is in, for an Authoritarian JACK ASS like this, not only to be running for POTUS, but to be considered competitive. It’s as if we’ve entered an alternate reality where everything is stood on its head.

Have we entered The Twilight Zone?

As an aside... I'm wondering if the group he was speaking to, apparently mesmerized Christians, or Christians in general as a whole, are on-board with his proclamation?

I would hope not with respect to the latter.

 

[Eric]

Elon musk himself knowlingly posted a deep fake campaign ad of Harris. This is what we're going to be up against if they don't legislate a way to stop it. This piece of shit has the biggest megaphone money can buy.

 

[Citysnaps]

 

[GermanSuplex]

Why would anyone vote for a guy when you already know he’s going to say he won? What sane and rational person can justify that?

He’s claiming “we have the votes”, “we don’t need the votes”, “we don’t need her (Haley) voters”, and now “you’ll never have to vote again!”

Stop telling me it’s acceptable to vote for this mental midget.

 

[Eric]

DOJ: "TikTok's Chinese Government could influence the election, so we're forcing them to sell".

Meanwhile Elon Musk on X: "LOL look at this AI deep fake of Kamala Harris".

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

'I fell asleep listening to him': Trump Bitcoin speech attendees say he was 'embarrassing'

Donald Trump on Saturday spoke at a Bitcoin conference, after which attendees ridiculed the former president's "rambling" speech. Trump over the weekend gave his usual stump speech at the cryptocurrency event, along with some special "Bitcoin" lines sprinkled on top. One expert said the...

www.rawstory.com

 

[fooferdoggie]

'I fell asleep listening to him': Trump Bitcoin speech attendees say he was 'embarrassing'

Donald Trump on Saturday spoke at a Bitcoin conference, after which attendees ridiculed the former president's "rambling" speech. Trump over the weekend gave his usual stump speech at the cryptocurrency event, along with some special "Bitcoin" lines sprinkled on top. One expert said the...

www.rawstory.com

I doubt he has a clue what it I. his toadies want to exploit it that's the only reason he is talking about it.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

DOJ: "TikTok's Chinese Government could influence the election, so we're forcing them to sell".

Meanwhile Elon Musk on X: "LOL look at this AI deep fake of Kamala Harris".

And expect more of this type of hyperbolic bullshit.

Kamala Harris’ harsh criticism of Israel is turning out to have deadly results

Hezbollah, in effect, in striking Israel, declared war on the Druze – and Harris is about to find out that this is a Pandora’s Box not easily closed no matter how many progressive and Gen Z votes s…

nypost.com

It’s so over the top it borders on comedy.

 

[MEJHarrison]

'I fell asleep listening to him': Trump Bitcoin speech attendees say he was 'embarrassing'

Donald Trump on Saturday spoke at a Bitcoin conference, after which attendees ridiculed the former president's "rambling" speech. Trump over the weekend gave his usual stump speech at the cryptocurrency event, along with some special "Bitcoin" lines sprinkled on top. One expert said the...

www.rawstory.com

"It was my first time watching him speak live. He sounds like a low IQ conman to me..."

If this was 2016, that wouldn't have caught my attention. But it's 2024. Where the hell has that guy been for the past 8 years that he's just now getting clued in? He was the president for 4 years. A lot of BIG things happened. He was in our lives more than any other president by a large margin and still is thanks to his court cases and his need to be the center of attention. Was he in a coma during all that? I used to be clueless like that back when politicians were just your run-of-the-mill scumbags, but damn, that's taking it to a whole new level. I'm impressed, disappointed, and frightened all at the same time.

That's like getting shot and suddenly realizing you're a soldier in the midst of a war.
That's like having your roof ripped off only to discover there's a hurricane outside.
That's like watching your wife give birth and realizing they got you good with the stork thing.
That's CLUELESS.

If the guy wasn't at a BitCoin convention, I admit I would have made some incorrect assumptions about his IQ.

 

[dada_dave]

"It was my first time watching him speak live. He sounds like a low IQ conman to me..."

If this was 2016, that wouldn't have caught my attention. But it's 2024. Where the hell has that guy been for the past 8 years that he's just now getting clued in? He was the president for 4 years. A lot of BIG things happened. He was in our lives more than any other president by a large margin and still is thanks to his court cases and his need to be the center of attention. Was he in a coma during all that? I used to be clueless like that back when politicians were just your run-of-the-mill scumbags, but damn, that's taking it to a whole new level. I'm impressed, disappointed, and frightened all at the same time.

That's like getting shot and suddenly realizing you're a soldier in the midst of a war.
That's like having your roof ripped off only to discover there's a hurricane outside.
That's like watching your wife give birth and realizing they got you good with the stork thing.
That's CLUELESS.

If the guy wasn't at a BitCoin convention, I admit I would have made some incorrect assumptions about his IQ.

A lot of people simply don’t pay attention. And our news organizations often do a huge disservice and make him seem more coherent than he really is. I remember halfway through his presidency a foreign reporter who was covering him live for the first time said the exact same thing. She was shocked and horrified by just how incoherent he actually was (and is now even worse) and realized just how sanitized the version of Trump the news media was presenting, even as a reporter she had been unaware just how bad he was.

For instance @Citysnaps linked to the NYT talking about his fascist election comments but here is how they originally framed his speech when they first wrote about it:

As this is on Twitter, I can’t read any more of this so I can’t see how she follows it up, but this is an extreme example of the above though hardly the only one this bad. And in general the news media often chops up his words and intersperses commentary - not to debunk lies but to explain his meanings - which actually makes him seem more intelligible and his ramblings more internally connected.