Least Shocking Headline of the Year
Meanwhile: rain is still wet; sun is still hot.
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, July 24, 2024
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41 comments
Via Politico: Trump is back to insulting his opponents despite reported transformation.
TBH: that happened during his RNC “unity” speech.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Pig’s gonna oink.
After spending the last 5 years attacking Joe Biden, and having all that work destroyed by a single move on Sunday, you’d think a guy would learn.
But this is a guy who went bankrupt running a casino.
@Tony W: and a short-haul air shuttle between NY & DC which had been a cash machine before him.
His gross managerial incompetence is matched only by his sheer and not to be underestimated animal cunning in marketing.
I couldn’t get past this line. They are all awful scumbags.
He’s calling Harris “Lyin’ Kamala.” You’d think he could at least alliterate and call her “Kacklin’ Kamala” or “Krazy Kamala.”
No creativity.
“sheer animal cunning in marketing”….the perfect description! For Trump the presidency is a TV role and an opportunity to line his own pockets, hence his disregard of – if not disdain for – substance and policy. To him it’s all about putting on a show, and ad hominems are more entertaining, and easier to master, than actually learning how government works. He’s the PT Barnum of politics….getting the rubes to pay for his lawyers is the equivalent of getting them to pay a nickel to see the egress.
@Charley in Cleveland: Donald Trump is far and away the cleverest reptile in America. If you want a reptile as a leader, he’s your man and here’s your opportunity.
I’ll reiterate what I wrote in the other thread: The transition to Harris has been a lot smoother than I expected and I think a lot of pundits were expecting, which leads me to think Biden didn’t suddenly decide to exit the race on Sunday, but made the decision much earlier and was coordinating with other Dems behind the scenes to make sure they had a plan in place when he finally made the announcement so that it didn’t devolve into chaos. This is quite different from how the media depicted the process, where they made it sound like they were gradually convincing Grampa to give up the keys until he finally relented on Sunday.
EDIT: I actually intended this post for a different thread and posted it here by mistake, but I suppose it’s okay here as well, so I’ll leave it at that.
@Tony W:
And peddling booze. Remember Trump Vodka? Anyone who goes belly-up selling liquor and gambling is NOT an astute businessperson.
@Tony W: Yeah, they invested all those years in the “Biden’s got dementia” narrative. So now they’re trying to repurpose it into a “Biden’s got dementia and Harris has been covering it up” narrative.
Biden’s shown that he can still serve, such as hosting the NATO summit and conducting the hour-long press conference and Q&A (which was after the disastrous debate), but the repurposed attack will be relentless. Also, it may not hurt to point out that the TFG is clearly mentally unfit, so maybe his side should do something about that.
My daily exercise in futility. I live in a 55+ community and just came from a pickleball lesson. I was talking with someone, turns out he still works part-time and sells annuities. I listened to him for 15 minutes afterwards and he gave his pitch, but once he realized there was no sale as we talked he made some pro-Trump comments. Started with the nonsense about how NYC is now unlivable because of violent crime (I was there for five days two months ago and it seemed fine) he talked about how Trump is the right guy for the country right now.
I asked him if he ran a company would he hire Trump as an employee. Of course he said yes. I pointed out the lying, the lack of any morals, the felonies, the civil judgements for fraud and defamation. It was liberal judges and juries. The lying – all politicians lie. I specifically asked about the insults and the answer that is just Trump being Trump. And that is what it comes down to for his supporters – Trump having a complete lack of a moral core – that’s Trump being Trump.
Nothing wrong with Jeffrey Dahmer killing 17 people, committing necrophilia and cannibalism on the side. That was just Dahmer being Dahmer.
So, we’re back to those days that end in “y”.
@Lucysfootball:
So Trump just being Trump qualifies Trump to be president?
@Michael Reynolds: Yep, as I’ve been saying since 2016: Trump is a classless pig. Always has been, always will be.
@Lucysfootball:
The nonsensical misinformation about the state of things is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. If you can convince people of some massive threat and present yourself (and only you) as the solution, then people will justify away all manner of BS. It’s Authoritarianism 101.
@CSK:
He needs a nickname that he can remember.
About two weeks ago, after a post-assassination attempt, @JKB wrote the following about the new tone.
This was my reply:
I will never understand why his supporters think that fable only applies to the Democrats.
Note: I expect the retort, if this is even acknowledged, is that the Democrats forced Trump to go back to his old tone. This would, of course, be in keeping with the ongoing narrative that Trump and his fellow travelers are always sinned against and never responsible for their choices.
@CSK:
Why aren’t Democratic proxies for Harris out there with nicknames for Trump?
Why not go beta with, ‘Big Rump Trump’ or ‘Diaper Don’ or ‘Jeffrey’s Friend’ ?
Try it out. Seriously, have some fun defining him.
@Kylopod: The timing was as good as it was going to get. The GOP just spent their convention attacking Biden and stocking up anti-biden merch when suddenly….
I just hope everything else goes as smoothly. I would LOVE to eat a big ol pie of crow here in a few months.
Somewhat more surprising headline: Trump told nephew to let his disabled son die, then move to Florida, book says
I think we knew about this before, but it’s hard to keep track.
@al Ameda:
I always liked “Lardass” but that’s verboten on OTB.
@Gustopher:
No surprise there. Trump didn’t want disabled veterans in his military parade.
@al Ameda: IIRC, the hashtag #DiaperDon pissed him off in 2020.
Something that I’ve always been impressed with is the extent to which people will criticize a political figure with being low, cruel, and churlish and then decide that the correct reaction is to be lower, more cruel, and more churlish.
SM(f)H.
@Scott F.:
That’s something that bugs me. After WWII some psychology types studied why the Germans went fascist. They developed the A Scale to measure authoritarian tendencies. Then they gave it to Americans and were shocked to find no difference.
Germany, with very little experience of democracy, went fascist after WWI and the Great Depression. We’ve had 200+ years of democracy and we’re about the safest and most prosperous people who have ever lived. But half of us are scared of the other half and we’re tending fascist. What the hell is wrong with us?
@al Ameda: I always liked Biden’s “the former guy”. Not really a dig, but not granting him an inch.
@Mike in Arlington:
And then his acolytes started wearing Depends over their pants at rallies. Gobsmacking.
@Lucysfootball: Did you tell him you wouldn’t buy an ice cream cone from a morally vacant person such as he?
@just nutha: Seems perfectly logical to me. Fck that “take the high road shit.” In any fight one should beat them down into the dirt and stomp the sht out of them because that is what they will do to you if they get the chance.
But than, I’m an a-hole.
@OzarkHillbilly: I didn’t quite put it that way, I used my go to line regarding Trump. I said that if I went to the Florida State prison and picked 100 inmates at random I would guess that at least half would be more qualified than Trump to be president. I think he was surprised at my level of hatred towards Trump.
He was the epitome of the fast-talking salesman, at one point he even used the phrase “what I’m saying is the gospel truth” when discussing what a great opportunity fixed income annuities were.
Trump will no longer be doing outdoor rallies because it’s too dangerous, per NBC.
@gVOR10: Nothing. Uniting against a perceived enemy is as natural as breathing. In the absence of external enemies, we shift to internal ones–people who are “not like us.” Either way, there has to be an enemy. Presence/need of an internal enemy –> fascism. Every. Damn. Time.
@gVOR10: It’s his crew sending the message “Don’t let it bother you! We have your six!” Nothing gobsmacking about it at all–other than how ridiculous they look, but if that’s what it costs to stand against the enemy…
@OzarkHillbilly: Be whoever you want to be but remember that the game you signed up for in this case is “Race to the Bottom,” and the prize is getting to be the worst.
@CSK:
I read a throwaway line to the effect that many outdoor venues have cheaper fees, and sometimes no fees at all.
If that’s the case, the Convicted Felon might wind up having fewer rallies seeing as how much of his campaign money is taken up by criminal lawyers.
@Kathy:
Interesting. The MAGAs are saying that this is some sort of plot against him, because Trump is fearless.
No politician, Trump and Kamala Harris included, should be holding rallies outside unless the weather is cooperating. It has been nasty hot and/or humid in CA for most days the past several weeks, and I know that many of the MAGA states have had weather that is or a combination of nasty, humid, extreme heat, or torrential rain, so with the climate being what it is indoors with air conditioning is the the only venue for a rally, in my humble opinion.
I may not like Trump, but yeah…stick to indoor rallies, that way when he goes off on a 90 minute non-sensical rant his worshippers will not drop dead of heat exhaustion.
Also, that post about folks wearing depends on the outside of their pants, no judgement, I just pointed out that sometimes Trump’s worshippers are stuck listening to him for 2+ hours, and if they need to drop a deuce or pee, it would be dumb for them to have an accident while wearing depends outside of their garments, that would be beyond awkward and what should have been a very avoidable accident. Wear the damn diapers as intended and hey, unless you tell someone you are wearing adult diapers no one will be the wiser or care.
@CSK:
Frankly I don’t blame Trump at all for that decision.
I would do the same thing.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: I didn’t sign up for it, but that’s the way the game is played. I had that lesson demonstrated to me quite forcefully by a guy who loved to play the game that way. If you’re in it, and want to win, there’s no other way. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t get in the game.
Per the Secret Service is what I read.
@mattbernius:
Certainly, but the MAGAs seem to feel it’s some sort of deep state globalist plot to suppress his campaign.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I got the news via NBC. The Secret Service don’t tell me nuthin’.
@OzarkHillbilly:..“take the high road”.
You take the high road and I’ll look up your dress!