The (no longer) much too early 2024 election thread

[N.E. Brigand]

Hmm: "Elon Musk backs down from $45 million a month pledge to Trump, says he doesn’t ‘subscribe to cult of personality’" (Fortune).

Elon Musk now says that the report nine days ago that he said he was going to donate $45 million per month -- which would amount to $180 million over four months -- to support Donald Trump's campaign was "a fiction made up by the Wall Street Journal." But as noted here, on July 16, Musk responded affirmatively on Twitter to someone who said that his $180 million donation showed the failings of the "woke left".

Edited to note that Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post suggests that Musk may instead be donating to PACs that support Trump.

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For reasons unknown, NBC conducted a focus group with some Wisconsin women who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 and found, to no one's astonishment, that they're going to vote for Trump rather than Kamala Harris. This is notable only to show that the mainstream media is weird.

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Kevin Roberts is the president of the Heritage Foundation, which created the Project 2025 template for Donald Trump's second term.

Trump, trying to distance himself from Project 2025, has, thanks to the Streisand Effect, brought Project 2025 to the attention of many voters.

Kevin Roberts has written a book titled Dawn's Early Light to be published next year. Originally it was to have had the subtitle "Burning Down Washington to Save America" (as shown at that link) but now the subtitle is "Taking Back Washington to Save America." The message is the same either way: "Global elites -- your time is up."

And the foreword to the book was written by...

Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance.

[N.E. Brigand]

Watching President Biden's address to the nation (which was about 11 minutes long), I noticed something that was also evident in the call-in to the Harris campaign earlier this week: at times, his voice catches and slurs. Lots of swallowing noises too. Swollen glands, perhaps?

As we saw in the debate, and to some degree in the subsequent press conference and the interviews, he also struggles to find the words he wants when he goes off script. In this case, there was just one such moment. It came when he quoted Ben Franklin's famous line, "A republic, if you can keep it," but the script apparently didn't note that this was said at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, so he ad-libbed that in, but seemed unable to get out the specifics.

[N.E. Brigand]

Filed under things I don't want clarified - why posts critical of Trump's running mate Vance imply that he had a carnal relationship with a couch.

Then don't read this fact check by the Associated Press, which says it's just a dumb internet hoax and not true. (Strictly speaking, despite the headline on that piece, what it actually says is that Vance never wrote that in his book, which was the specific false claim being circulated.)

Edited to note that I've seen two different people write that the AP has retracted that article. It still comes up when on click on the link, but that may be due to it being stored in my cache. So in the interests of, um, posterity, I'll note that the headline read: "No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch."

[N.E. Brigand]

This is a good question:

Let’s say I:
— Don’t trust the mainstream media that is in the tank for Democrats
— Am interested in tax and health care policy in the 2024 election

What’s my best source of information on the candidates’ plans? What should I read?

The point is: how can Kamala Harris reach people like that? She needs to!

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Look at J.D. Vance just nodding along as Donald Trump says "the wind, it kills our birds":



This is clearly a man with a mental impairment.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is a good question:

Let’s say I:
— Don’t trust the mainstream media that is in the tank for Democrats
— Am interested in tax and health care policy in the 2024 election

What’s my best source of information on the candidates’ plans? What should I read?

Who, Matthew Yglesias? I don't think she needs to reach him.

[Frelga]

The loveliest, purest thing in the last few days was Kerstin Emhoff, Doug Emhoff's first wife, tweeting in support of her husband supporting his second wife.

As we saw in the debate, and to some degree in the subsequent press conference and the interviews, he also struggles to find the words he wants when he goes off script.

He stutters. So do I. Stutter is not always the cartoonish repetition of a consonant. It can mean a difficulty getting a word out and having to search for a substitute that would work. This happens more often when ad-libbing, although I can have even more difficulty reading off a page.

When I do it, people think I can't speak English. When an older man does it, people think he is going senile.

Incidentally, I noticed that it's been happening to me more often since I've had covid.

[N.E. Brigand]

This is a good question:

Let’s say I:
— Don’t trust the mainstream media that is in the tank for Democrats
— Am interested in tax and health care policy in the 2024 election

What’s my best source of information on the candidates’ plans? What should I read?

Who, Matthew Yglesias? I don't think she needs to reach him.

Yglesias has already said several times that he's voting for Kamala Harris and he's made the reasons clear, as for example:

"I’m voting for Kamala Harris to protect abortion rights, low-income people’s access to health care, and the long-term viability of Social Security and Medicare and because I think Donald Trump’s vision of higher deficits, higher tariffs, and a smaller workforce is bad."

And he previously cited the same reasons when explaining why he was going to vote for Joe Biden.

But now he's asking how the Harris campaign can reach that kind of voter who doesn't trust the mainstream media and convey those points to them.

[Maria]

Incidentally, I noticed that it's been happening to me more often since I've had covid.

That's been happening to me since Lyme disease. With my family- instead of fruitlessly continuing to search for the word I just describe the thing (sometimes in ridiculous detail) until they get the concept.

[N.E. Brigand]

What is wrong with him?

[N.E. Brigand]

Congratulations to all the mainstream journalists who reported that Donald Trump was a changed man after being shot at. You got played. Again:

[N.E. Brigand]

Speaking on Fox News tonight, Kayleigh McEnany, who was Donald Trump's last White House press secretary, bemoaned the coming mythology of a Kamala Harris presidency by invoking a term that had been applied to John F. Kennedy's presidency:

"Prepare for Kamala Camelot. Prepare for Kama-lot."

[Frelga]

They are just handing her the best lines.

[N.E. Brigand]

Here's a bit of trivia about another U.S. president who withdrew from his reelection campaign: John Tyler was born in 1790 and elected as vice president in 1840. His running mate, newly elected President William Henry Harrison, died in April 1841, only a month into his presidency (from 1788 to 1932, the presidential term of office started in March rather than January). Tyler thus succeeded to the presidency. He had been elected as a Whig but broke with the party and ran for reelection in 1844 as an independent before dropping out and endorsing the Democrat, James Polk, who won. (Polk himself had pledged to only serve one term and kept his word: he didn't run again in 1848.)

One of Tyler's grandsons, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, is still alive. He's 95. (He's also descended from Pocahontas.)

[Snowdog]

This is clearly a man with a mental impairment.

Which is why the millions of trumpshirts support him so blindly. He is like they are.

[Alatar]

Speaking on Fox News tonight, Kayleigh McEnany, who was Donald Trump's last White House press secretary, bemoaned the coming mythology of a Kamala Harris presidency by invoking a term that had been applied to John F. Kennedy's presidency:

"Prepare for Kamala Camelot. Prepare for Kama-lot."

Randy Rainbo already did it 4 years ago

[Alatar]

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Look at J.D. Vance just nodding along as Donald Trump says "the wind, it kills our birds":



This is clearly a man with a mental impairment.

This is what I mean when I complain about negative journalism. Its patently clear that he's referring to Wind Turbines, not Wind specifically. By going after him on stupid gotcha's like this, they make the real issues less credible.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

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Look at J.D. Vance just nodding along as Donald Trump says "the wind, it kills our birds":



This is clearly a man with a mental impairment.

This is what I mean when I complain about negative journalism. Its patently clear that he's referring to Wind Turbines, not Wind specifically. By going after him on stupid gotcha's like this, they make the real issues less credible.

Generally speaking, I agree with you, but in this case, in my opinion his comments are just as wrong when you take into account that he is referring to turbines.

[Frelga]

This is clearly a man with a mental impairment.

Which is why the millions of trumpshirts support him so blindly. He is like they are.

No, it's not that. It's the authoritarian mindset. The Great Leader defines what is wise, true, and virtuous. By definition, he can do no wrong. Any insult to the Leader is an insult to all his followers.

Authoritarian and democratic (small d) mindsets are not mutually comprehensible. In a democratic mindset, leaders work for us. We try to get the best one on the market, yell at them to do better, and (try to) fire them when we think they fail.

That's why the right is flailing so badly. What do you mean Biden just stepped down? You were just all saying you stand behind Joe, how are you supporting Kamala now? Why isn't there a fight for the place of the Leader? But don't you know she's a woman?

The problem is, many so called undecided voters would like a Leader, they just are aware enough to think Trump may not be the one. And Harris doesn't fit the profile.

[Voronwë the Faithful]