I am getting so tired of these sociopaths. People are scared of nuclear weapons because they can scour entire cities of life in an instant. (The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are basically antiques.) The fact that a generation or two later different people might rebuild where you are is no comfort. Nuclear weapons are too terrible to ever be used full stop.
Much of what is wrong with the world today can be traced back to lukewarm intellects like Musk and Thiel 'taking the long view'. Sure millions of poor people will suffer and die but it won't affect me personally and humanity will eventually recover and maybe be stronger. Because they are sociopaths who feel no empathy for their fellow humans and who are too dumb to consider any path that doesn't benefit them personally.
Trump and Musk are both definitely of the "why have such shiny weapons that we don't even use" school. But mulling it over I can't help but wonder if there isn't a simpler reason why our two most notable Russia apologists are talking about this now. Any chance Putin might be thinking about nuking Kyiv and building Putingrad on the ashes?
Taking the "long view" allows them to pretend to be above it all and aloof and somehow secretly more intelligent then the pleebs. In reality, it's just that they are so insulated from any potential consequences of their or anyone else's actions and JUST sociopathic enough to not give a shit. And the fan boys eat it up, completely missing that that attitude also means their heroes give zero shits about THEM too.
Across the board, people who take the highly academic view, whether that be the long view, the utilitarian view, or the market forces view, assume they will be fine. Every libertarian is a housecat that fancies itself a tiger.
I'm gonna add a little f--you to the mainstream media outlets covering this, who think it's more important to chatter about Dentures McFartbrain's obsession with crowd sizes rather than the fact he is delegitimizing every goddamn democratic norm we have. So now half the country doesn't trust elections, doesn't trust the Justice Dept., doesn't trust the justice system in general -- so why not normalize nuclear war, too? Maybe through some international institutions out the window while we're at it? Where is the rage??!!
The Harris press release is so baller because the tone is basically "This guy isn't worth paying any attention to, but here's a sarcastic comment because you expect some kind of response."
Same team but they were more tightly leashed and most of the Biden releases on official letterhead followed traditional Presidential style. Releasing long form slams is new and is largely down to Harris asking for and approving edgier lines of attack.
When he tried to blame a DDOS attack (hackers are getting us!!!) and all the people watching web traffic were like "yeah unsurprisingly he's full of shit." He just fired all the people that knew how to actually make twitter run.
Just a real meeting of two pea-brained minds. Both way too hopped up on their drugs of choice and narcissism to realize just how bad the whole thing looked for both of them. Just truly pathetic performances all around.
Keep going dipshits. You're even convincing your own cult members that maybe you're both wearing no clothes.
Just going to ignore Beavis and Butthead without the wit and thank whoever got that abortion referendum put on the AZ ballot. Just going off the past two years "can't hurt Democratic turnout" is an understatement. Though it won't just be Democratic voters who show up to vote for it and I hope any others have a long think about why they're having to vote for it at all before turning to the rest of the ballot.
In addition to Florida and Arizona, abortion is also on the ballot in: Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota. So some other red states in the mix where it will bring in voters.
It was going to be on the ballot in Arkansas too and they had collected double the number of signatures needed; but the Secretary of State pulled some bullshit and claimed they didn't follow procedure, when the groups behind the initiative it said they had talked to his office every step of the way....
It really is astounding how Elon has just torched his previous reputation - though what it really tells me is the degree to which it was originally unearned.
There is one, and only one area in which I will conceded Elon ever had talent: marketing. There is similarly one, and only one area in which I will concede gratitude to Elon: his undeniable role in making electric cars a viable, sought after market segment.
Now for the list of bullshit for which he gets credit and shouldn't.
- He did not invent PayPal. He made some shitty site that was apparently so bad he admits his daddy paid for real programmers to come in and make it viable. After that they merged with Cofinity to become PayPal, and he was quickly ousted as CEO due to bad decision making.
- He did not invent Tesla. Eberhardt and Tenpenning had the battery drive figured out prior to him showing up.
- He did not make space travel affordable. SpaceX is currently charging more than the Soyuz capsule, the problem Elon was solving.
- He did not invent the hyperloop, it's a 50 year old sci-fi product and his company, which failed, was by his own admission created so that he could derail (heh) California's high speed rail project.
- He did not solve traffic. The Boring Company's project is not scalable, nor is it successful at all.
- He is overpromising like crazy with Neuralink. Even if the project could work per its own parameters, the ridiculous claims for VR interfaces and all that have no reason to work. Meanwhile in reality, the one patient who has so far gotten the implant says it barely works anymore.
- Speaking of overpromises: don't even get me started on FSD, the Tesla Semi, the Cybertruck, Solar City, battery swapping, Optimus, or the new roadster.
- Twitter will never become an everything app, the US doesn't even want an everything app.
So yeah, his previous reputation was born on Reddit and died in the same grave as Twitter.
DJT is dying to use a nuclear weapon. It will cement his reputation as a tough guy in his mind. He lacks the empathy, imagination, or intelligence to understand the horror of modern nuclear weapons. He would also gladly go to a nice cushy shelter with the few people he actually cares about and let the rest of us burn. In fact, he would get a thrill out of it, because it would prove how important and valuable he is.
Make no mistake, DJT is a sociopath. He has never had to actually struggle or worry about anything but his ego ever. Even at his lowest in the early 90s he received a stipend and lived in the Manhattan apartment he couldn't make payments on. He sees nuclear weapons as just another cool toy that he gets to use as president. He's probably got a vague idea of a tactical nuke (which really hasn't been option in a long time) and I'm sure he has joked about making parts of the middle east a sheet of glass. His supporters will tell you he didn't get close to that in his first term, but he was surrounded by military advisors who worked hard to keep him in check. Those people will not be there for the second term, because they say and do things he doesn't want to hear. The likes of Steven Miller, Seb Gorka, and possibly Cobra Commander are all he will listen to. Musk, Thiel, Vivek, all the techbros are just as dismissive of the little people. They will have his ear, and thus their fingers on the football.
I'm really surprised he didn't try to order a live-fire airburst test if he couldn't find anyone to bomb. The world has changed a lot in the 3.66 years he was last in office - Israel would possibly love Donny blowing a hole in Iran for the hell of it.
Nice troll by Glenn Close but I still remain flabbergasted at how quickly "liberals" fell over themselves for this simplistic hillbilly bullshit that elevated Vance in the first place. It was every imaginable cliche about hillybilly white trash (because in JD Vance's Appalachia, people of colour don't exist) and liberals just ate it up without a second thought while this Thiel-funded grifter used it as a launching pad for a political career. They got played, badly, but at least they seemed to have finally woken up to that fact.
Rant aside, its rather amazing the degree to which Trump seems to be flailing. What it tells me is that the issue was never that Trump was a brilliant campaigner or had a cracker jack team- the problem was always Democrats; incredible propensity for self-destruction. It was Democrats who fell into a doom loop about Biden and happily ate up the narrative being fed to them by the media and the GOP that HE was the problem, while continually ignoring the utter insanity that was Trumpworld - which has been normalized to such an extent that he's gotten away with acting like this for YEARS with barely a mention, and Biden stumbles over words in a debate (in which Trump said literally nothing of substance) and Democrats were happy to toss him overboard, loudly and publicly.
On the other hand, the huge amount of enthusiasm for the Harris/Walz ticket, is demonstrating that if Democrats can stop with the self-flaggellation and actually focus on their opponents for a change, they can win - they showed this in the 2022 midterms, and certainly the abrupt shift in the campaign narrative is showing it again, so far. Because it needs to be said again - the Democrats' voting base is larger than the GOPs, period - the GOP has been electorally successful only because they are better at encouraging their voting base to show up - because the GOP voters understand that if you want to enact your policy preferences you need to win power. Far too many Democratic voters, have historically fixated on having the "perfect" candidate. I'm happy with what I've seen of the Harris/Walz campaign, but frankly the idea that Democrats were going to stay home because they weren't "sufficiently enthused" about Biden because he's old, even though that guarantees Trump's re-election (which even the kookiest folks on the left would agree is a worse outcome by virtutally every measure) will never ever make sense to me.
I'm a simple person and even I can see that Democrats were doing it to themselves with a lot of help from the media. The narrative over the past week that prior to Harris, Trump's campaign was a winning one because it was tighter and more focused this time around is the most asinine thing I've ever read. The problem was the media refused, downright refused to focus on anything other than Biden's age. Where might we have been had the media truly done its job? It's truly baffling to me that eight years out they claim that they haven't yet figured out how to cover Trump because they don't want to promote his lies, but it's still important for us to know what's happening. Well, maybe if the owners would, you know, let journalists and reporters do their jobs, instead of dictating what five stories they'll focus on for a news cycle, we might be in a different place.
Look, I'm happy with where we are right now, but I can't help but think that all of the media, even the "left leaning" ones, and by that I mean their owners, secretly want Trump to win and were just as surprised as establishment Dems that "We The People" stood up, took the Harris ball away from them and ran like crazy. Now we just need to keep running like crazy and not fumble the ball until we get that November homerun (heh heh. Just kidding, Touchdown.).
That will never make sense to me either. And it's incredibly upsetting. There is no perfect ticket but there is a HUGE difference between the two...one is democracy and the other is fascist dictatorship. The only people who see the parties as the same (or "equally bad") are one issue voters. I understand that a lot of politicking is performative. But I've been successful in convincing some of my couch sitter friends to think of it not as politics but as policies. Because that's what it is. And then explained some of the policy differences, not the campaign speeches, but the things that enacted that will have real material effects on their lives both short and long term.
John Scalzi had an interesting theory about those endless weeks between the debate and Biden ending his candidacy. Basically that it may have started as a flail, but once they figured out their change of course, they kept it up to keep GOP in the dark and from giving them time to attack Harris. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2024/07/22/biden-harris-trump-and-2024/
Biden holding off on his announcement until after the RNC was a masterstroke that made Republican attacks against Biden in front of their single largest audience 100% neutered.
Great piece. And certainly there was something to the timing of the announcement that would lead one to think that Biden didn't JUST decide to stop his re-election campaign then- there was clearly some planning in terms of how and when to announce for maximum effect.
But, I'm still not convinced that there was "agreement" on Harris stepping in - the large donors (who with the acquiescence of party leadership) were still pushing for a brokered convention/abbreviated primary. I do think Biden, in announcing his endorsement of Harris did an end run around them - if it was truly coordinated and agreed on, the leadership would have presumably and concurrently offered their endorsements too - instead, they waited, which suggests that they wanted to see how it played out before jumping or that they were caught off guard. It was only when it was clear that the groundswell was overwhelmingly in her favour (evidenced through the various calls and MASSIVE fundraising from small donors) AND the other serious potential candidates (the Whitmers/Shapiros/Newsoms, not Manchin) made clear they were not jumping in and therefore any potential primary would be lacklustre at best and embarrassing at worst (Remember, RFK was apparently toying with the idea of jumping in as well as Manchin), did they then offer their endorsements.
That it happened so quickly can let them try to sell the story that it was "the plan" but given the haphazardly way in which they sought to push out Biden makes me think there was no real "plan" for afterwards. Biden just saved them from themselves by helping take the decision out of their hands.
So my senator (state not in DC) is very good friends with the head of our states democratic party. The head of our state and Nancy Pelosi are very good friends. I believe my friend when she tells me Pelosi did not want Harris, they 100% wanted a brokered convention and that Biden and Harris out played Pelosi. Pelosi and everyone else within 5 years of Biden's age telling him to sit down, need to sit down themselves. Pelosi deserved every bit of dragging I saw her getting yesterday on social media. I remember everyone coward who waited to see where the wind was blowing before coming out and supporting Harris. They can all get bent.
There was no part of me that believed for leadership/big donors Harris stepping in for Biden was "the plan" after pushing him out. Biden outflanked them, because they're panicky idiots.
I believe it. It's been interesting watching Pelosi do the rounds of talk shows to ostensibly talk up her book, but instead using all of her time, with insane wide eyes and a fake plastered grin on her face lie about how enthusiastic she is about Harris. Every show she's on she says Harris is "politically astute." Yeah, she admits she wanted a mini primary because she thought it best for the country, but that Harris was so fast in locking it up it was a done deal. She's playing word games saying she never called a singe person. People called her. *eye roll* She is eating shit right now and she should. She also knows she is on Biden and Harris's shit list, and she should be. When asked if her relationship with Biden will survive she said in part that she cries at night about it. Oh boo hoo Nancy. You're saying that for two people and they are not taking your calls. I don't think she knows what do to right now. Way to damage your legacy, Nancy.
And by endorsing Harris and helping her secure the nomination he secured his legacy even more than a second term would. Especially if she is elected as the first female President. Great Statesman will be permanently engraved next to his name.
Yeah, I can't say I agree with all of it, but I think some of it could make sense, especially with how quickly the rest Dems fell in line endorsing her, even if Schumer/Jeffries/Pelosi/Obama waited; just because how often do the Dems that quickly agree on anything??
Regardless, I definitely think Biden deliberately timed his stepping down to be after the RNC and keep the focus off Harris or whoever else was going to step in.
I also think that endorsing Harris immediately (with or without knowledge of the other party leaders) was his way of heading off the brokered convention and the influence of the donors on who will be the new candidate. And maybe even a fuck you to the ones pushing him out.
Whether it was a "fuck you" or simply done to pre-empt what would have been an epically stupid brokered convention, Biden absolutely saved them from themselves - and the worst part is they'll never admit it.
This is n't unique to Trump. W paved the way with his low expectations, sense of entitlement and love of dirty tricks. After everything he did, all the missteps, preventable disasters, corruption and incompetence, he still got a redemption arc just because the NEXT GUY WAS WORSE!!
Dems will always have a harder time because they are expected to govern like grown ups, play fair, and fix the messes left them. Republicans are just expected to be tough and fellate the flag.
I love it when things blow up in Elon's face. Like the baseball through the window on one of his dumbass 'trucks', this Twitter (I will not call it X) stuff is amazing. He is such a bumbling oaf, it's fun to watch. Trump is gonna Trump, a walking bag of grievances.
I do worry about an October surprise. I don't put anything past the goblins that run his campaign, and if they're already starting to get desperate in August, what will they resort to in October. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they tried some truly heinous stuff, like paying someone to make up awful claims about Walz, or saying Kamala is tied to terrorism. All nonsense, of course, but they will stop at nothing, and we have a gullible electorate. The dumbest shit took down Hilary, so why not try it again?
The meet up of the malignant narcissists club for men. Founding members. Birds of a feather, may they rot in hell etc. Also, trump letting us know he’s going to do a runner in November was an interesting piece of info. I think he’s going to be too busy in court after the election so may not have time to lounge around Venezuela and hopefully secret service will keep him in the US.
There's a frightening scenario. He won't run in November precisely - he'll stay as long as it profits him and drives his sabotage of the results for as long as it seems to work. But I can see a day where he does run because his bid for a coup d'etat has fallen flat and he's got a court summons he can't ignore. Does the Secret Service escort him on his runner and keep US Marshalls at bay? Or do they seize him and cooperate? Marshalls are under the Dept. of Justice; Secret Service is under the Dept. of Homeland Security.
Well, my fervent hope is that he loses by a lot and repubs turn on him and secret service acts responsibly. In some ways even more then the court cases, I’m looking forward to the civil war that will be erupting with the gop and all the desperate trump wanna be’s fighting over his deplorable base. White nationalism is their main platform under trump but demographically that will become a losing battle so they have to expand. I’m sure Cruz and Rubio and Haley have their battle plans in place.
I don't think that the Secret Service likes being part of Homeland. They used to be part of Treasury where they were a big fish (or at least a prestigious fish) in a smaller pond. Since moving to Homeland standards have dropped significantly and they have to fight for resources with all the other agencies.
I did a quicky search; while there are shenanigans regarding DHS funding, there's nothing coming up for Trump and GOP outright wanting to dissolve DHS.
Venezuela was a misdirect, a joke that inadvertently revealed what is on his mind. He will run to Moscow or Saudi Arabia. He won't even be the only one, the Blackwater DeVos has been holed up in UAE for years and the media has been all but radio silent even when his sister was a cabinet member.
1. Pretty sure Venezuela was one of his "shithole" countries. Or at least he crapped on it constantly, so it's interesting he would choose that one.
2. As much as I would like to lose him, haven't the people of Venezuela been through enough?
3. I looked it up a few months ago with his felonies and the thought of him doing a runner, I don't think the law specifically says the former president has to live in the US to get coverage, although the former prez can decline it if they want and perhaps that move could be interpreted as declining? Jackie Kennedy is the only example, as when she married Ari Onassis and moved to Greece, she lost her detail. However, the big caveat is that spouses of presidents always lose coverage if they ever remarry anyway.
"those unlucky enough to listen in tonight to whatever that was on X.com"
That's not just shade; it's eviscerating snark. Brav-fucking-o!
That interview definitely will not get more publicity, unfortunately, because: (1) mainstream journos will sugar coat it as just another campaign event and then move on as soon as someone shouts "squirrel;" and (2) twitter dot com is a dying platform with virtually no impact outside of the small circle of "unlucky" users.
Just saw a USA today poll that has Harris within 5 pts (the margin of error) in...wait for it...FLORIDA! It's not likely but how delicious would it be if Florida was the state to give her the electoral victory!!!
Shocked they haven't tried to blame the problems with the feed last night on some Democratic operatives.
Did you see that Voldemort aka Rick Scott is sitting at a 35% approval in an R+8 poll and under water with White, Black and pretty much everyone under the age of 65. My MIL lived in FL for almost 25 years before moving to be closer to us, her FL friends who were not maga but voted Republican are suddenly talking to her about Harris/Walz and disgusted with the state of politics in FL. For many abortion ban was the final straw. I don't care what the final straw was as long as it moves them away.
I will try to find it but I read an interesting article that one of the most damaging things to happen to voters was telling them that their vote does not matter. Either because you are in a very blue or very red state or because you are in a state that does not bring "enough" electoral votes. Most states are closer to purple than people want to admit. Our issue as a country is that we have low voter turn out, we are 31st in the world. So campaigns need to treat every state as they are in play every election.
I thoroughly enjoyed the bits and pieces I heard, mainly because I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy. Trump slurring and lisping, although mildly shocking that he was allowed to proceed sounding like Sylvester the cat, made me laugh out loud. And then hearing all the excuses for that shitshow like the imaginary DDOS attack and how Trump's loose dentures and super tweaked out speaking were from an audio problem? Chef's kiss. I hope that mess gets more play time so more voters can hear what an utter fool Trump is. "No way" "Way"
I am getting so tired of these sociopaths. People are scared of nuclear weapons because they can scour entire cities of life in an instant. (The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are basically antiques.) The fact that a generation or two later different people might rebuild where you are is no comfort. Nuclear weapons are too terrible to ever be used full stop.
Much of what is wrong with the world today can be traced back to lukewarm intellects like Musk and Thiel 'taking the long view'. Sure millions of poor people will suffer and die but it won't affect me personally and humanity will eventually recover and maybe be stronger. Because they are sociopaths who feel no empathy for their fellow humans and who are too dumb to consider any path that doesn't benefit them personally.
Correct. The nuclear weapons used on those cities were of a relatively low payload. Hydrogen based weapons are a thousand times more powerful.
The person with the nuclear codes should know that.
Our current crop of nukes are way scarier than what we had decades ago. This is such a stupid thing to say regardless if the context.
Twenty bucks says that Musk is downplaying the devastation of a nuclear attack because he thinks it would be "cool" to see a mushroom cloud.
Trump and Musk are both definitely of the "why have such shiny weapons that we don't even use" school. But mulling it over I can't help but wonder if there isn't a simpler reason why our two most notable Russia apologists are talking about this now. Any chance Putin might be thinking about nuking Kyiv and building Putingrad on the ashes?
Or Dump thinking about finishing Gaza off. :(
Taking the "long view" allows them to pretend to be above it all and aloof and somehow secretly more intelligent then the pleebs. In reality, it's just that they are so insulated from any potential consequences of their or anyone else's actions and JUST sociopathic enough to not give a shit. And the fan boys eat it up, completely missing that that attitude also means their heroes give zero shits about THEM too.
Across the board, people who take the highly academic view, whether that be the long view, the utilitarian view, or the market forces view, assume they will be fine. Every libertarian is a housecat that fancies itself a tiger.
I'm gonna add a little f--you to the mainstream media outlets covering this, who think it's more important to chatter about Dentures McFartbrain's obsession with crowd sizes rather than the fact he is delegitimizing every goddamn democratic norm we have. So now half the country doesn't trust elections, doesn't trust the Justice Dept., doesn't trust the justice system in general -- so why not normalize nuclear war, too? Maybe through some international institutions out the window while we're at it? Where is the rage??!!
The Harris press release is so baller because the tone is basically "This guy isn't worth paying any attention to, but here's a sarcastic comment because you expect some kind of response."
VERY on brand for Gen-X.
Raised on hose water and neglect, we have passive-aggressive down to a science.
I first read that as "raised on rosewater" and I was like, your Gen X childhood was very different from mine.....
They had same people doing Biden’s social media and there was some funny stuff, but it’s clearly leaving a mark under Harris.
Also neglect is part of every generation, my 30 something kids got a lot more attention than I did growing up. We’re all ok.
Same team but they were more tightly leashed and most of the Biden releases on official letterhead followed traditional Presidential style. Releasing long form slams is new and is largely down to Harris asking for and approving edgier lines of attack.
Heh. Would 100% agree with your last line, except apparently Gen Z gets to take credit for that one. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/08/politics/harris-social-media-tiktok-dg/
Then to them, I doff my cap!
Thank you for that link!
I think gen Z has a secret crush on gen X.
"...and who cannot run a live stream in 2024."
Perfection. No notes.
Kamala’s social team is straight fire but may I suggest “whatever that was on *twitter.com*.” Two thin-skinned shitbirds, one stone.
When he tried to blame a DDOS attack (hackers are getting us!!!) and all the people watching web traffic were like "yeah unsurprisingly he's full of shit." He just fired all the people that knew how to actually make twitter run.
Just a real meeting of two pea-brained minds. Both way too hopped up on their drugs of choice and narcissism to realize just how bad the whole thing looked for both of them. Just truly pathetic performances all around.
Keep going dipshits. You're even convincing your own cult members that maybe you're both wearing no clothes.
Just going to ignore Beavis and Butthead without the wit and thank whoever got that abortion referendum put on the AZ ballot. Just going off the past two years "can't hurt Democratic turnout" is an understatement. Though it won't just be Democratic voters who show up to vote for it and I hope any others have a long think about why they're having to vote for it at all before turning to the rest of the ballot.
Democrats also got it on the ballot in Florida, along with marijuana legalization.
Oh! That is great! A two-fer.
My wife told me about abortion being put on the ballot there last night and my first reaction was "Democrats just won Arizona."
In addition to Florida and Arizona, abortion is also on the ballot in: Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota. So some other red states in the mix where it will bring in voters.
It was going to be on the ballot in Arkansas too and they had collected double the number of signatures needed; but the Secretary of State pulled some bullshit and claimed they didn't follow procedure, when the groups behind the initiative it said they had talked to his office every step of the way....
Elon Musk is the world record holder for pissing away good will, and we all know how Trump feels about piss-adjacent recorded media…
It really is astounding how Elon has just torched his previous reputation - though what it really tells me is the degree to which it was originally unearned.
There is one, and only one area in which I will conceded Elon ever had talent: marketing. There is similarly one, and only one area in which I will concede gratitude to Elon: his undeniable role in making electric cars a viable, sought after market segment.
Now for the list of bullshit for which he gets credit and shouldn't.
- He did not invent PayPal. He made some shitty site that was apparently so bad he admits his daddy paid for real programmers to come in and make it viable. After that they merged with Cofinity to become PayPal, and he was quickly ousted as CEO due to bad decision making.
- He did not invent Tesla. Eberhardt and Tenpenning had the battery drive figured out prior to him showing up.
- He did not make space travel affordable. SpaceX is currently charging more than the Soyuz capsule, the problem Elon was solving.
- He did not invent the hyperloop, it's a 50 year old sci-fi product and his company, which failed, was by his own admission created so that he could derail (heh) California's high speed rail project.
- He did not solve traffic. The Boring Company's project is not scalable, nor is it successful at all.
- He is overpromising like crazy with Neuralink. Even if the project could work per its own parameters, the ridiculous claims for VR interfaces and all that have no reason to work. Meanwhile in reality, the one patient who has so far gotten the implant says it barely works anymore.
- Speaking of overpromises: don't even get me started on FSD, the Tesla Semi, the Cybertruck, Solar City, battery swapping, Optimus, or the new roadster.
- Twitter will never become an everything app, the US doesn't even want an everything app.
So yeah, his previous reputation was born on Reddit and died in the same grave as Twitter.
DJT is dying to use a nuclear weapon. It will cement his reputation as a tough guy in his mind. He lacks the empathy, imagination, or intelligence to understand the horror of modern nuclear weapons. He would also gladly go to a nice cushy shelter with the few people he actually cares about and let the rest of us burn. In fact, he would get a thrill out of it, because it would prove how important and valuable he is.
Make no mistake, DJT is a sociopath. He has never had to actually struggle or worry about anything but his ego ever. Even at his lowest in the early 90s he received a stipend and lived in the Manhattan apartment he couldn't make payments on. He sees nuclear weapons as just another cool toy that he gets to use as president. He's probably got a vague idea of a tactical nuke (which really hasn't been option in a long time) and I'm sure he has joked about making parts of the middle east a sheet of glass. His supporters will tell you he didn't get close to that in his first term, but he was surrounded by military advisors who worked hard to keep him in check. Those people will not be there for the second term, because they say and do things he doesn't want to hear. The likes of Steven Miller, Seb Gorka, and possibly Cobra Commander are all he will listen to. Musk, Thiel, Vivek, all the techbros are just as dismissive of the little people. They will have his ear, and thus their fingers on the football.
I'm really surprised he didn't try to order a live-fire airburst test if he couldn't find anyone to bomb. The world has changed a lot in the 3.66 years he was last in office - Israel would possibly love Donny blowing a hole in Iran for the hell of it.
Nice troll by Glenn Close but I still remain flabbergasted at how quickly "liberals" fell over themselves for this simplistic hillbilly bullshit that elevated Vance in the first place. It was every imaginable cliche about hillybilly white trash (because in JD Vance's Appalachia, people of colour don't exist) and liberals just ate it up without a second thought while this Thiel-funded grifter used it as a launching pad for a political career. They got played, badly, but at least they seemed to have finally woken up to that fact.
Rant aside, its rather amazing the degree to which Trump seems to be flailing. What it tells me is that the issue was never that Trump was a brilliant campaigner or had a cracker jack team- the problem was always Democrats; incredible propensity for self-destruction. It was Democrats who fell into a doom loop about Biden and happily ate up the narrative being fed to them by the media and the GOP that HE was the problem, while continually ignoring the utter insanity that was Trumpworld - which has been normalized to such an extent that he's gotten away with acting like this for YEARS with barely a mention, and Biden stumbles over words in a debate (in which Trump said literally nothing of substance) and Democrats were happy to toss him overboard, loudly and publicly.
On the other hand, the huge amount of enthusiasm for the Harris/Walz ticket, is demonstrating that if Democrats can stop with the self-flaggellation and actually focus on their opponents for a change, they can win - they showed this in the 2022 midterms, and certainly the abrupt shift in the campaign narrative is showing it again, so far. Because it needs to be said again - the Democrats' voting base is larger than the GOPs, period - the GOP has been electorally successful only because they are better at encouraging their voting base to show up - because the GOP voters understand that if you want to enact your policy preferences you need to win power. Far too many Democratic voters, have historically fixated on having the "perfect" candidate. I'm happy with what I've seen of the Harris/Walz campaign, but frankly the idea that Democrats were going to stay home because they weren't "sufficiently enthused" about Biden because he's old, even though that guarantees Trump's re-election (which even the kookiest folks on the left would agree is a worse outcome by virtutally every measure) will never ever make sense to me.
I'm a simple person and even I can see that Democrats were doing it to themselves with a lot of help from the media. The narrative over the past week that prior to Harris, Trump's campaign was a winning one because it was tighter and more focused this time around is the most asinine thing I've ever read. The problem was the media refused, downright refused to focus on anything other than Biden's age. Where might we have been had the media truly done its job? It's truly baffling to me that eight years out they claim that they haven't yet figured out how to cover Trump because they don't want to promote his lies, but it's still important for us to know what's happening. Well, maybe if the owners would, you know, let journalists and reporters do their jobs, instead of dictating what five stories they'll focus on for a news cycle, we might be in a different place.
Look, I'm happy with where we are right now, but I can't help but think that all of the media, even the "left leaning" ones, and by that I mean their owners, secretly want Trump to win and were just as surprised as establishment Dems that "We The People" stood up, took the Harris ball away from them and ran like crazy. Now we just need to keep running like crazy and not fumble the ball until we get that November homerun (heh heh. Just kidding, Touchdown.).
That will never make sense to me either. And it's incredibly upsetting. There is no perfect ticket but there is a HUGE difference between the two...one is democracy and the other is fascist dictatorship. The only people who see the parties as the same (or "equally bad") are one issue voters. I understand that a lot of politicking is performative. But I've been successful in convincing some of my couch sitter friends to think of it not as politics but as policies. Because that's what it is. And then explained some of the policy differences, not the campaign speeches, but the things that enacted that will have real material effects on their lives both short and long term.
John Scalzi had an interesting theory about those endless weeks between the debate and Biden ending his candidacy. Basically that it may have started as a flail, but once they figured out their change of course, they kept it up to keep GOP in the dark and from giving them time to attack Harris. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2024/07/22/biden-harris-trump-and-2024/
Biden holding off on his announcement until after the RNC was a masterstroke that made Republican attacks against Biden in front of their single largest audience 100% neutered.
Great piece. And certainly there was something to the timing of the announcement that would lead one to think that Biden didn't JUST decide to stop his re-election campaign then- there was clearly some planning in terms of how and when to announce for maximum effect.
But, I'm still not convinced that there was "agreement" on Harris stepping in - the large donors (who with the acquiescence of party leadership) were still pushing for a brokered convention/abbreviated primary. I do think Biden, in announcing his endorsement of Harris did an end run around them - if it was truly coordinated and agreed on, the leadership would have presumably and concurrently offered their endorsements too - instead, they waited, which suggests that they wanted to see how it played out before jumping or that they were caught off guard. It was only when it was clear that the groundswell was overwhelmingly in her favour (evidenced through the various calls and MASSIVE fundraising from small donors) AND the other serious potential candidates (the Whitmers/Shapiros/Newsoms, not Manchin) made clear they were not jumping in and therefore any potential primary would be lacklustre at best and embarrassing at worst (Remember, RFK was apparently toying with the idea of jumping in as well as Manchin), did they then offer their endorsements.
That it happened so quickly can let them try to sell the story that it was "the plan" but given the haphazardly way in which they sought to push out Biden makes me think there was no real "plan" for afterwards. Biden just saved them from themselves by helping take the decision out of their hands.
So my senator (state not in DC) is very good friends with the head of our states democratic party. The head of our state and Nancy Pelosi are very good friends. I believe my friend when she tells me Pelosi did not want Harris, they 100% wanted a brokered convention and that Biden and Harris out played Pelosi. Pelosi and everyone else within 5 years of Biden's age telling him to sit down, need to sit down themselves. Pelosi deserved every bit of dragging I saw her getting yesterday on social media. I remember everyone coward who waited to see where the wind was blowing before coming out and supporting Harris. They can all get bent.
There was no part of me that believed for leadership/big donors Harris stepping in for Biden was "the plan" after pushing him out. Biden outflanked them, because they're panicky idiots.
I believe AOC when she said that there was not consensus around Harris in upper leadership prior to Biden stepping down.
I believe it. It's been interesting watching Pelosi do the rounds of talk shows to ostensibly talk up her book, but instead using all of her time, with insane wide eyes and a fake plastered grin on her face lie about how enthusiastic she is about Harris. Every show she's on she says Harris is "politically astute." Yeah, she admits she wanted a mini primary because she thought it best for the country, but that Harris was so fast in locking it up it was a done deal. She's playing word games saying she never called a singe person. People called her. *eye roll* She is eating shit right now and she should. She also knows she is on Biden and Harris's shit list, and she should be. When asked if her relationship with Biden will survive she said in part that she cries at night about it. Oh boo hoo Nancy. You're saying that for two people and they are not taking your calls. I don't think she knows what do to right now. Way to damage your legacy, Nancy.
And by endorsing Harris and helping her secure the nomination he secured his legacy even more than a second term would. Especially if she is elected as the first female President. Great Statesman will be permanently engraved next to his name.
Yeah, I can't say I agree with all of it, but I think some of it could make sense, especially with how quickly the rest Dems fell in line endorsing her, even if Schumer/Jeffries/Pelosi/Obama waited; just because how often do the Dems that quickly agree on anything??
Regardless, I definitely think Biden deliberately timed his stepping down to be after the RNC and keep the focus off Harris or whoever else was going to step in.
I also think that endorsing Harris immediately (with or without knowledge of the other party leaders) was his way of heading off the brokered convention and the influence of the donors on who will be the new candidate. And maybe even a fuck you to the ones pushing him out.
Whether it was a "fuck you" or simply done to pre-empt what would have been an epically stupid brokered convention, Biden absolutely saved them from themselves - and the worst part is they'll never admit it.
This is n't unique to Trump. W paved the way with his low expectations, sense of entitlement and love of dirty tricks. After everything he did, all the missteps, preventable disasters, corruption and incompetence, he still got a redemption arc just because the NEXT GUY WAS WORSE!!
Dems will always have a harder time because they are expected to govern like grown ups, play fair, and fix the messes left them. Republicans are just expected to be tough and fellate the flag.
I love it when things blow up in Elon's face. Like the baseball through the window on one of his dumbass 'trucks', this Twitter (I will not call it X) stuff is amazing. He is such a bumbling oaf, it's fun to watch. Trump is gonna Trump, a walking bag of grievances.
I do worry about an October surprise. I don't put anything past the goblins that run his campaign, and if they're already starting to get desperate in August, what will they resort to in October. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they tried some truly heinous stuff, like paying someone to make up awful claims about Walz, or saying Kamala is tied to terrorism. All nonsense, of course, but they will stop at nothing, and we have a gullible electorate. The dumbest shit took down Hilary, so why not try it again?
The meet up of the malignant narcissists club for men. Founding members. Birds of a feather, may they rot in hell etc. Also, trump letting us know he’s going to do a runner in November was an interesting piece of info. I think he’s going to be too busy in court after the election so may not have time to lounge around Venezuela and hopefully secret service will keep him in the US.
There's a frightening scenario. He won't run in November precisely - he'll stay as long as it profits him and drives his sabotage of the results for as long as it seems to work. But I can see a day where he does run because his bid for a coup d'etat has fallen flat and he's got a court summons he can't ignore. Does the Secret Service escort him on his runner and keep US Marshalls at bay? Or do they seize him and cooperate? Marshalls are under the Dept. of Justice; Secret Service is under the Dept. of Homeland Security.
Well, my fervent hope is that he loses by a lot and repubs turn on him and secret service acts responsibly. In some ways even more then the court cases, I’m looking forward to the civil war that will be erupting with the gop and all the desperate trump wanna be’s fighting over his deplorable base. White nationalism is their main platform under trump but demographically that will become a losing battle so they have to expand. I’m sure Cruz and Rubio and Haley have their battle plans in place.
Wait, forgive my ignorance here, but SS is under Homeland? And he wants to abolish Homeland? And yet the SS still support him?
I don't think that the Secret Service likes being part of Homeland. They used to be part of Treasury where they were a big fish (or at least a prestigious fish) in a smaller pond. Since moving to Homeland standards have dropped significantly and they have to fight for resources with all the other agencies.
Yup, I don't know that, and I'm pretty sure.
I did a quicky search; while there are shenanigans regarding DHS funding, there's nothing coming up for Trump and GOP outright wanting to dissolve DHS.
I thought it was in Project 2025. But maybe I'm wrong?
Venezuela was a misdirect, a joke that inadvertently revealed what is on his mind. He will run to Moscow or Saudi Arabia. He won't even be the only one, the Blackwater DeVos has been holed up in UAE for years and the media has been all but radio silent even when his sister was a cabinet member.
1. Pretty sure Venezuela was one of his "shithole" countries. Or at least he crapped on it constantly, so it's interesting he would choose that one.
2. As much as I would like to lose him, haven't the people of Venezuela been through enough?
3. I looked it up a few months ago with his felonies and the thought of him doing a runner, I don't think the law specifically says the former president has to live in the US to get coverage, although the former prez can decline it if they want and perhaps that move could be interpreted as declining? Jackie Kennedy is the only example, as when she married Ari Onassis and moved to Greece, she lost her detail. However, the big caveat is that spouses of presidents always lose coverage if they ever remarry anyway.
Yes please, more of this. https://uaw.org/uaw-files-federal-labor-charges-against-donald-trump-and-elon-musk-for-attempting-to-intimidate-and-threaten-workers/
Maybe don't go threatening and intimidating workers...
"those unlucky enough to listen in tonight to whatever that was on X.com"
That's not just shade; it's eviscerating snark. Brav-fucking-o!
That interview definitely will not get more publicity, unfortunately, because: (1) mainstream journos will sugar coat it as just another campaign event and then move on as soon as someone shouts "squirrel;" and (2) twitter dot com is a dying platform with virtually no impact outside of the small circle of "unlucky" users.
Harris/Walz social media team is so good I have to assume they have several someones from Gen Z on it.
Just saw a USA today poll that has Harris within 5 pts (the margin of error) in...wait for it...FLORIDA! It's not likely but how delicious would it be if Florida was the state to give her the electoral victory!!!
Shocked they haven't tried to blame the problems with the feed last night on some Democratic operatives.
Did you see that Voldemort aka Rick Scott is sitting at a 35% approval in an R+8 poll and under water with White, Black and pretty much everyone under the age of 65. My MIL lived in FL for almost 25 years before moving to be closer to us, her FL friends who were not maga but voted Republican are suddenly talking to her about Harris/Walz and disgusted with the state of politics in FL. For many abortion ban was the final straw. I don't care what the final straw was as long as it moves them away.
It feels like an exercise in futility, but maybe there should be *some* effort to flip Senate seats that are within the margin of error.
I will try to find it but I read an interesting article that one of the most damaging things to happen to voters was telling them that their vote does not matter. Either because you are in a very blue or very red state or because you are in a state that does not bring "enough" electoral votes. Most states are closer to purple than people want to admit. Our issue as a country is that we have low voter turn out, we are 31st in the world. So campaigns need to treat every state as they are in play every election.
I think there were people trying to create a conspiracy surrounding the technical issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgYRad1Hsis
That is probably implied as part of the BS DDOS excuse. Who else would be hacking a Trump interview except the Democrats?
I thoroughly enjoyed the bits and pieces I heard, mainly because I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy. Trump slurring and lisping, although mildly shocking that he was allowed to proceed sounding like Sylvester the cat, made me laugh out loud. And then hearing all the excuses for that shitshow like the imaginary DDOS attack and how Trump's loose dentures and super tweaked out speaking were from an audio problem? Chef's kiss. I hope that mess gets more play time so more voters can hear what an utter fool Trump is. "No way" "Way"
Oh my God, that exchange about Putin invading Ukraine...
"I told him not to do it, I said, it'll be bad, and he said no way. Way." It was like someone doing a Trump impression...
I thought that one was a parody of him, just someone being completely ridiculous. But once again, I've set the bar too high.
Jeez...you're going to make me look for a clip now. lol
He went on about how he will shut down the department of education and how 35 states will be ok and 15 will be like Norway. WTF does that even mean?
He's said a lot that Norway has great education and the US should be more like them. So I guess he's saying only 15 states will have good schools?
And it wouldn't be any of the states that vote for him.