Thank you, Tom. Great article, you last paragraph says it all: 'Being energized and joyful in support of Kamala Harris, a candidate who epitomizes the renewal of optimism and embodies our America motto of “e pluribus unum,” is the perfect place from which to go forth into the fight of our lives.' And we certainly will fight for our lives.
Remember that Trump baby blimp the Brits had? I picture a crowd of people blowing up their Trump baby balloons and releasing them to blast into the air above the crowd in goofy directions, the deflated balloons falling to the ground limp. That makes me smile 😁
“Over ONE MILLION WOMEN have signed up for tonight’s Women For Harris zoom call.”
My wife and I laughed, cried, howled with delight, fell in love with Anna Navarro.
Now, reading live tweets from the Men’s Call. They are straight talking and funny as hell. Trump’s ears must be experiencing hellfire and damnation cause they are sending it.
Oddly enough, I had thought we would win, but now I'm even more confident.
Part of the problem with Biden not being willing to call republicans the treasonous lunatics they are is that that is the world he comes from, but also that is how he campaigned in 2020--that he could build bridges. He did build some. But I think he did believe at some level that it was possible to cure the republican party. It's not. We have needed treason prosecutions, and might have had them if Merrick Garland were alive.
Will Harris go in that direction? I doubt it. But consider this: Bret Stephens claimed to be a never-Trumper and now says he won't vote for her, but it's ok because he lives in New York anyway. Charlie Sykes, who claimed to be a never-Trumper, proved he is one by calling him out. It's a reminder that those who remain republican are as racist, sexist, and traitorous as ever. Every. Last. One. Of. Them.
Your analysis of President Biden -- and other Democrats of his generation -- is exactly right. Despite the evidence, which has been out in plain sight for several decades now, they can't accept that the venerable two-party system -- where the two parties had different priorities but were both committed (more or less) to democracy -- is gone gone gone. The question now is about what *principles* you're loyal to, not what *party*. It should be a no-brainer. It is a no-brainer -- and those who hesitate will wind up on the ash heap of history.
Agreed, but with an asterisk. Biden campaigned on the idea that he could reach across the aisle, and it would make sense for him to cite examples where that succeeded--just as his campaign let everybody know it when republicans claimed credit for what they didn't do, which unfortunately didn't get enough attention thanks to Nepo Baby Sulzberger, Maggie Judith Miller Haberman, and the rest of The New York Times non-journalists involved in election "coverage."
I’m glad you brought up Mitt, Michael. What the fuck is up with him anyhow? While he’s rich beyond measure he’s been paying 5K a day for personal security for himself and his family. He knows that the threat he feels isn’t coming from democrats but is located in the maggot base of the repugnantkin party that ran him for president. While to me any Mormon is a strange duck, Mitt did pretty good in Massachusetts and rescuing the Salt Lake City Olympics, unlike the orange turd he’s not a traitor, even flybait says he won’t vote for him and he’s close to spineless.
I think people tend to forget that in 2012, political experts--real ones--said he ran the most dishonest presidential campaign they had ever seen. And the photo of him dining with Pol Potbelly while sucking up in hopes of getting secretary of state is a classic.
Another thing about him that struck me. I loved The West Wing. When Bartlet won reelection, he asked Toby, who had just given him his victory speech, for "the other speech." Toby said he didn't write one. Bartlet said he knew better, and Toby gave it to him. Well, in 2012, Rmoney supposedly didn't prepare a concession speech because he couldn't conceive of losing to Obama. I have the funny feeling I know what colored his judgment on that one.
I guess there is less there there than I had thought. He seemed to be the last sane member of the repugnantkin party. He did vote to impeach the orange turd, twice, which is why I thought he had a backbone in there somewhere. He can’t possibly think he’s going to live forever, so why not live his life with dignity, instead of just keeping quiet and keeping his head down when half or more of the country feels that we are in a battle for our souls. I was a republican in the John McCain vein, there is absolutely nothing that the repugnantkin party espouses that I in any way agree with, I’m happy to vote with the democrats, they care about the nation like I do, and I’m not alone.
When Rove and the other GOP tricksters started their whisper campaign against McCain in SC because he'd beaten their guy Bush in Iowa and NH, I knew then that the GOP was on the moral and ethical skids. And it's been plummeting to new lows ever since then.
2012 was when they decided to go totally rogue. The Rove crew had revived the onslaught of dirty tricks, and the tea party had stymied Obama but they decided that the end justified the means. It has been deliberate and calculated. Putin may have courted chump, but so did repubs.
The timing coincides with what Jane Mayer documents in DARK MONEY: the plutocrats and the fascist wannabes were shocked into action in 2009 by Obama's election and 2010 brought the Tea Party wave. Crashing the economy during the Bush II administration, not to mention screwing up the Middle East worse than it already was screwed up by going after Saddam Hussein, wasn't enough for them.
Frankly, I am willing to trace it to 1964, and I'm willing to go back to Herbert Hoover demanding after the 1932 election that FDR renounce anything he intended to change when he became president.
Don’t forget the Coup of 1933. Rich dudes (including Prescott Bush) planned to kick FDR to the curb. Guess a review of our history is necessary. Wait, there is an historian on substack…
BRet Stephen’s never fails to be an idiot. Wonder why? Must be his core…. Note to Dems, find another place for Garland. Prosecutions may be useless with this SC.
I've been trying to figure out if he turned out this way from being married to Pamela Paul, or if she turned out that way from being married to Bret Stephens. I think the answer was yes.
"Biden’s selflessness has led to Biden himself enjoying a popularity bump all his own."
"Defining Trump and Vance as a couple of twisted weirdos with extremist policies, the Harris campaign has taken the argument that Trump isn’t normal and stripped it down to a feeling."
Insights.
Reaching down into the goop and pulling out a handful of insights.
This is a landmark insight for the Dems. For too long Dems tried to campaign on facts and long-winded explanations of policies and the extrapolated results of policies. We Dems loved and nominated "eggheads", intellectual figures who spoke eloquently but lacked the ability to inspire regular folks (think Adlai Stevenson), Americans who are products of 50 years of Republican underfunding of and "teach to the test" mandates for public education. Alas, this approach hasn't ever worked.
Finally, the Bright Young Things who work with Vice President Harris as her junior advisors and managers of her digital campaign have convinced Dem leadership (so it appears, anyway) that inspiring FEELINGS with campaign speeches is the way to go. YES! Finally they have tumbled to and accepted that the key to political success are people's feelings. When you get people excited and involved, THEN you can explain policy and results.
Exactly!! We were living in Copenhagen in 2008. We voted absentee. We stayed up all night watching the election returns, and in the morning all went out for breakfast and people kept coming over to our table to congratulate us on Obama’s victory. It was such a celebration… and not just in the US!! I want to have that feeling again!!
Since 1968, some suggest, and I think they have a point. I was just coming of political age in 1968 so I had nothing to compare it to, but it was still traumatizing.
Another killer, TC. At long last Trump has become the laughing stock figure you always portrayed him as, but hard for people to see because of the media propaganda barrage. The truth was finally revealed in the shocking moment of recognition provoked when Harris came on stage replacing Donny the Loser as the preeminent candidate and relegating his Holy Weirdness to his proper role as the cult leader of George Takei’s WEIRD PARTY, founded by Donny’s good friend Hannibal Lecter for the purpose of making weirdness the new normal.
Well, it looks like Trump and people like Moonface and that “rich pile of fundamentalist shit” MAGA Mike are just too fucking weird for most Americans to stomach. And as for the media’s “bothsideism” scam — that’s now turned into “backsideism,” — the term that describes the overpowering desire of the majority of the people in this country to see nothing but the backsides of Trump and his army of fascist maggot weirdos as they waddle off the political stage into oblivion.
It is the fight for our lives and to never see, hear, or look upon the likes of Trump/Vance ever again will be well worth every ounce of energy necessary to defeat them and their oligarch backers as well.
Well, if existential threat didn’t resonate with voters I guess weird will have to do. One just has to remember that “Met Gala” weird hardly explains what we are up against. It’s (as another commenter said) smoke and mirrors with reality TV. I add, WWE extravaganza with a side of Jesus. Putin must be impressed, and mystified. His brand of authoritarianism is so bland, cruel and boring. But the result is the same,
You've perfectly caught the spirit in words. And you're right: we pro-democracy folks can certainly relish our current euphoria (politics is suddenly FUN!) but we can't let it make us the teensiest bit complacent. A rabid dog is most dangerous when cornered, and that's the MAGA GOP now. They'll try anything.
The entire GQP gives off "weird" vibes...which is damning enough in politics; but both Trump and Vance give off REALLY "creepy weird" vibes which (should) be an absolute death knell in 'Merikan politics.
Project 2025 to end policy work, as attacks on the right-wing group spurred backlash from Trump. Its director is also departing.
The right-wing policy operation that became a rallying cry for Democrats and a nuisance for Republican nominee Donald Trump is winding down its policy operations, and its director, former Trump administration personnel official Paul Dans, is departing. The Heritage Foundation also recently distributed new talking points encouraging participants to emphasize that the project does not speak for Trump.
🤣🤣🤣🤣...Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation 'don not speak for Trump'...HAH!!! That is the ripest mound of bullshit I've smelled in a long while--and I LIVE in the rurals!
Perfect article TC. You put into words what I have been seeing. Young voters and Independents.
Trump/Vance have galvanized the democratic base. It's good to see.
And of course George Takei's weirdos.
“Trump and Vance are just too weird for America. And I attend Star Trek conventions.” So did I. LOL
Best line evah!
George Takai don't mess around.
Thank you, Tom. Great article, you last paragraph says it all: 'Being energized and joyful in support of Kamala Harris, a candidate who epitomizes the renewal of optimism and embodies our America motto of “e pluribus unum,” is the perfect place from which to go forth into the fight of our lives.' And we certainly will fight for our lives.
Remember that Trump baby blimp the Brits had? I picture a crowd of people blowing up their Trump baby balloons and releasing them to blast into the air above the crowd in goofy directions, the deflated balloons falling to the ground limp. That makes me smile 😁
“Over ONE MILLION WOMEN have signed up for tonight’s Women For Harris zoom call.”
My wife and I laughed, cried, howled with delight, fell in love with Anna Navarro.
Now, reading live tweets from the Men’s Call. They are straight talking and funny as hell. Trump’s ears must be experiencing hellfire and damnation cause they are sending it.
Oddly enough, I had thought we would win, but now I'm even more confident.
Part of the problem with Biden not being willing to call republicans the treasonous lunatics they are is that that is the world he comes from, but also that is how he campaigned in 2020--that he could build bridges. He did build some. But I think he did believe at some level that it was possible to cure the republican party. It's not. We have needed treason prosecutions, and might have had them if Merrick Garland were alive.
Will Harris go in that direction? I doubt it. But consider this: Bret Stephens claimed to be a never-Trumper and now says he won't vote for her, but it's ok because he lives in New York anyway. Charlie Sykes, who claimed to be a never-Trumper, proved he is one by calling him out. It's a reminder that those who remain republican are as racist, sexist, and traitorous as ever. Every. Last. One. Of. Them.
Yes, you too, Mitt Rmoney.
Your analysis of President Biden -- and other Democrats of his generation -- is exactly right. Despite the evidence, which has been out in plain sight for several decades now, they can't accept that the venerable two-party system -- where the two parties had different priorities but were both committed (more or less) to democracy -- is gone gone gone. The question now is about what *principles* you're loyal to, not what *party*. It should be a no-brainer. It is a no-brainer -- and those who hesitate will wind up on the ash heap of history.
Agreed, but with an asterisk. Biden campaigned on the idea that he could reach across the aisle, and it would make sense for him to cite examples where that succeeded--just as his campaign let everybody know it when republicans claimed credit for what they didn't do, which unfortunately didn't get enough attention thanks to Nepo Baby Sulzberger, Maggie Judith Miller Haberman, and the rest of The New York Times non-journalists involved in election "coverage."
“Across the aisle” is a joke these days. When chump said he was going to be a president for all the people, I expected a lightening strike.
The magas are irredeemable and should be quarantined socially because they represent a severe malignancy in the body politic.
They pretty much are in my world.
I’m glad you brought up Mitt, Michael. What the fuck is up with him anyhow? While he’s rich beyond measure he’s been paying 5K a day for personal security for himself and his family. He knows that the threat he feels isn’t coming from democrats but is located in the maggot base of the repugnantkin party that ran him for president. While to me any Mormon is a strange duck, Mitt did pretty good in Massachusetts and rescuing the Salt Lake City Olympics, unlike the orange turd he’s not a traitor, even flybait says he won’t vote for him and he’s close to spineless.
I think people tend to forget that in 2012, political experts--real ones--said he ran the most dishonest presidential campaign they had ever seen. And the photo of him dining with Pol Potbelly while sucking up in hopes of getting secretary of state is a classic.
Another thing about him that struck me. I loved The West Wing. When Bartlet won reelection, he asked Toby, who had just given him his victory speech, for "the other speech." Toby said he didn't write one. Bartlet said he knew better, and Toby gave it to him. Well, in 2012, Rmoney supposedly didn't prepare a concession speech because he couldn't conceive of losing to Obama. I have the funny feeling I know what colored his judgment on that one.
I guess there is less there there than I had thought. He seemed to be the last sane member of the repugnantkin party. He did vote to impeach the orange turd, twice, which is why I thought he had a backbone in there somewhere. He can’t possibly think he’s going to live forever, so why not live his life with dignity, instead of just keeping quiet and keeping his head down when half or more of the country feels that we are in a battle for our souls. I was a republican in the John McCain vein, there is absolutely nothing that the repugnantkin party espouses that I in any way agree with, I’m happy to vote with the democrats, they care about the nation like I do, and I’m not alone.
When Rove and the other GOP tricksters started their whisper campaign against McCain in SC because he'd beaten their guy Bush in Iowa and NH, I knew then that the GOP was on the moral and ethical skids. And it's been plummeting to new lows ever since then.
2012 was when they decided to go totally rogue. The Rove crew had revived the onslaught of dirty tricks, and the tea party had stymied Obama but they decided that the end justified the means. It has been deliberate and calculated. Putin may have courted chump, but so did repubs.
The timing coincides with what Jane Mayer documents in DARK MONEY: the plutocrats and the fascist wannabes were shocked into action in 2009 by Obama's election and 2010 brought the Tea Party wave. Crashing the economy during the Bush II administration, not to mention screwing up the Middle East worse than it already was screwed up by going after Saddam Hussein, wasn't enough for them.
Glad she remembers it as I do. Wonder how Rupert managed to pull a fast one on the whole country. Money, money, money
Frankly, I am willing to trace it to 1964, and I'm willing to go back to Herbert Hoover demanding after the 1932 election that FDR renounce anything he intended to change when he became president.
Don’t forget the Coup of 1933. Rich dudes (including Prescott Bush) planned to kick FDR to the curb. Guess a review of our history is necessary. Wait, there is an historian on substack…
Another non-substack type, Sally Denton, did a book on FDR, The Plots Against the President.
BRet Stephen’s never fails to be an idiot. Wonder why? Must be his core…. Note to Dems, find another place for Garland. Prosecutions may be useless with this SC.
I've been trying to figure out if he turned out this way from being married to Pamela Paul, or if she turned out that way from being married to Bret Stephens. I think the answer was yes.
Birds of a feather…
"Biden’s selflessness has led to Biden himself enjoying a popularity bump all his own."
"Defining Trump and Vance as a couple of twisted weirdos with extremist policies, the Harris campaign has taken the argument that Trump isn’t normal and stripped it down to a feeling."
Insights.
Reaching down into the goop and pulling out a handful of insights.
This is a landmark insight for the Dems. For too long Dems tried to campaign on facts and long-winded explanations of policies and the extrapolated results of policies. We Dems loved and nominated "eggheads", intellectual figures who spoke eloquently but lacked the ability to inspire regular folks (think Adlai Stevenson), Americans who are products of 50 years of Republican underfunding of and "teach to the test" mandates for public education. Alas, this approach hasn't ever worked.
Finally, the Bright Young Things who work with Vice President Harris as her junior advisors and managers of her digital campaign have convinced Dem leadership (so it appears, anyway) that inspiring FEELINGS with campaign speeches is the way to go. YES! Finally they have tumbled to and accepted that the key to political success are people's feelings. When you get people excited and involved, THEN you can explain policy and results.
I’m here for the joy. The thing that’s been missing since 2016.
Since 2008.
Exactly!! We were living in Copenhagen in 2008. We voted absentee. We stayed up all night watching the election returns, and in the morning all went out for breakfast and people kept coming over to our table to congratulate us on Obama’s victory. It was such a celebration… and not just in the US!! I want to have that feeling again!!
Since 1968, some suggest, and I think they have a point. I was just coming of political age in 1968 so I had nothing to compare it to, but it was still traumatizing.
Another killer, TC. At long last Trump has become the laughing stock figure you always portrayed him as, but hard for people to see because of the media propaganda barrage. The truth was finally revealed in the shocking moment of recognition provoked when Harris came on stage replacing Donny the Loser as the preeminent candidate and relegating his Holy Weirdness to his proper role as the cult leader of George Takei’s WEIRD PARTY, founded by Donny’s good friend Hannibal Lecter for the purpose of making weirdness the new normal.
Well, it looks like Trump and people like Moonface and that “rich pile of fundamentalist shit” MAGA Mike are just too fucking weird for most Americans to stomach. And as for the media’s “bothsideism” scam — that’s now turned into “backsideism,” — the term that describes the overpowering desire of the majority of the people in this country to see nothing but the backsides of Trump and his army of fascist maggot weirdos as they waddle off the political stage into oblivion.
It is the fight for our lives and to never see, hear, or look upon the likes of Trump/Vance ever again will be well worth every ounce of energy necessary to defeat them and their oligarch backers as well.
Well, if existential threat didn’t resonate with voters I guess weird will have to do. One just has to remember that “Met Gala” weird hardly explains what we are up against. It’s (as another commenter said) smoke and mirrors with reality TV. I add, WWE extravaganza with a side of Jesus. Putin must be impressed, and mystified. His brand of authoritarianism is so bland, cruel and boring. But the result is the same,
You've perfectly caught the spirit in words. And you're right: we pro-democracy folks can certainly relish our current euphoria (politics is suddenly FUN!) but we can't let it make us the teensiest bit complacent. A rabid dog is most dangerous when cornered, and that's the MAGA GOP now. They'll try anything.
Spot-on, again, TC. Spot on!
You pretty well nailed it, covered all the bases, etc., etc. Let's GO!
The entire GQP gives off "weird" vibes...which is damning enough in politics; but both Trump and Vance give off REALLY "creepy weird" vibes which (should) be an absolute death knell in 'Merikan politics.
Pressure works. This just floatd in..:
The Washington Post
Breaking News
37 minutes ago
Project 2025 to end policy work, as attacks on the right-wing group spurred backlash from Trump. Its director is also departing.
The right-wing policy operation that became a rallying cry for Democrats and a nuisance for Republican nominee Donald Trump is winding down its policy operations, and its director, former Trump administration personnel official Paul Dans, is departing. The Heritage Foundation also recently distributed new talking points encouraging participants to emphasize that the project does not speak for Trump.
Except the project IS Trump.
The fascist trial balloon called Project 2025 blew up on them like the Hindenberg.
And Kamala wrapped it around their necks tonight in Atlanta.
🤣🤣🤣🤣...Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation 'don not speak for Trump'...HAH!!! That is the ripest mound of bullshit I've smelled in a long while--and I LIVE in the rurals!