Let’s be careful out there …
The political world is still processing Tuesday night’s debate. I understand the Harris campaign is putting out television ads featuring debate highlights. And not everyone on the Right is closing ranks around Trump. Some long-time GOP operatives — Frank Luntz and Karl Rove, for example — gave frankly accurate assessments that Trump got owned. Not that many people listen to Karl Rove any more.
My sense of things is that the effects of Tuesday night are still in play. Although Trump’s obviously impaired mental state still is not being as openly discussed as it ought to be, it is being discussed even in mainstream media outlets. I predict from here on Trump’s verbal disconnects from reality will not be so utterly “sanewashed” except in right-wing media. His mental state will finally become part of the narrative. No more ignoring the obvious out of some misguided sense of “fairness.” Let’s hope, anyway.
See also Philip Bump at WaPo, Donald Trump no longer knows how to talk to anyone outside his base. He’s so insulated and isolated inside his own MAGA-world he can’t function outside of it.
Programming note: The debate between Walz and Vance will be Tuesday, October 1. Given that it’s unlikely Trump would be able to fake his way through another presidential term, people who are still undecided really need to take a closer look at Vance.
One related story I haven’t been watching as much as I should have involves House Republicans. Nicole Lafond, Talking Points Memo:
Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson are very proud of their plan to link a must-pass piece of government funding legislation to a bill that lays the groundwork for Trump to blame undocumented immigrants for his potential defeat in November. The only problem, we’re now learning, is that no one of any influence is on board with this plan besides the two of them.
Johnson hatched the plan at the beginning of the month, caving to pressure from members of the House Freedom Caucus (the Trumpy tail wagging House-Republican-conference dog) to attach the SAVE Act to any funding bills the House passes to keep the government open. The Act would outlaw non-citizen voting in federal elections, which is already illegal and statistically rarely happens, and require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote; experts say it is both unnecessary and would suppress the vote. For this reason, the bill could not pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, and so would risk a government shutdown.
The bill isn’t completely dead in the House, but Johnson apparently doesn’t have the votes. I take it one big impediment is that there are House Republicans with enough sense to realize they don’t want a government shutdown right before the election, which would be blamed on them, which is what would happen if a spending bill isn’t passed. They aren’t all taking orders from Trump, apparently.
And then after Trump absurdly called himself “the leader on fertilization,” in reference to IVF, Chuck Schumer is cornering Senate Republicans by introducing an IVF protection bill very similar to one they’ve already rejected. Repubicans can’t support IVF without angering the Fetus People, you know.
See also:
Yesterday, Taylor Swift again delivered a plug for Harris at the MTV VMA ceremony. I hear there are billboards on the way for Harris featuring Swift's endorsement. Swift continues to plug registration to vote.
The other thing is Trump announced there will be no second debate with Harris. Before the first debate, Trump wanted THREE debates. After the Tuesday debate, Trump says he won so decisively that no further debates are necessary. Can anyone see any logic in those two items? Other than Trump is chicken? Maybe Harris can use clips from this video.
Watch Donald Trump's 2004 'SNL' Skit That's Been Missing from Show's DVD (youtube.com)
"Not everyone on the Right is closing ranks around Trump" – that's possibly the most interesting trend, IMO. The folly of putting all their eggs in one deplorable basket case is becoming more and more evident.
So, Laura Loomer is the new Queen? It is hard to keep up. I need to subscribe to the Palace Insider, I guess.
For the last twenty plus years the right wing has treated 9-11 as almost a religious holiday, a day they say they "will never forget". A day when they remind America that it was the Muslims who attacked this country and the memory of how the Americans killed cannot be forgotten. Politicians are forced to attend solemn ceremonies, monuments have been erected all over the country. People fly flags, bumper stickers, 9-11 we will never forget. Then on 9-11 this year the GOP's candidate for president shows up for a ceremony at the site of the twin towers with Laura Loomer a 9-11 truther, a woman who said the US government was in on the attack, "it was an inside job. Can you imagine the outrage if Kamala Harris had shown up with a 9-11 truther? It would be 24/7 on every newspaper, cable outlet, network news. She would be forced to apologize or resign. But for Stump it is hardly mentioned outside of msnbc and the late night comedy shows. The hypocrisy and enabling of Trump by the GOP and our corporate media knows no bottom.
Given JD Vance's remark slamming the opinions of out of touch billionaires, his upcoming debate with Walz is going to be both hilarious and scary as JD reveals that he's really a poorly programmed android.
Re Lara Loomer and the other screaming wingnut women – where do these bottom-feeders come from?
Saw a single poll showing Kamala up by one, Trump down by one – they're starting to separate.
Watch the Generals: read that Leonard Leo is going to spend $x million on corporate mumbo-jumbo operational this or that. A day later I realized he can read the writing on the wall, and is either funding lawyers to challenge every election, or less likely, preparing for the eventual assault on his Supreme Court.
I look at this election like the D Day invasion – a herculean effort to win the presidency and the Congress – all the psychics say this will happen, but not without work. Then there's the push to Berlin – the Supreme Court. Along the way, Trump will fall, and many Republicans – in Congess and locally – will be going to jail for their role in Jan 6. When Putin falls, much more dirt will be coming out. When the Florida documents case is reassigned to a new judge, the stuff that comes out of this will be so damning that Trump will be reviled as America's worst traitor.
I'm tempted to close with "believe it or not" – but this is what the psychics are saying. Regardless, it seems entirely plausible, given his MO.
The Phillip Bump link is worth a comment and so does the comment of Eddie Valient.
When you enter NoRINOlamd your troubles disappear. You knew the style, tacky and gaudy and commercial. You know around any corner you might come face to face with the My Pillow Guy or even catch a glimpse of Laura Loomer. Sure, it cost too much to get in. When you go first class it does. That's not the bother. You can't help wondering why you had to check your BS-meter at the gate. It hardly works. They said it was for safety reasons and we would not need it or miss it. You were in NoRINOland! Not an exit sign in sight. Who would want one.
It takes time but after a while your suspended disbelief starts breaking down. The people around you are not having fun, just talking up big problems in Ohio. Why can't they just deny them too?
Oh, I see, this is a big problem straight from social media and MAGA approved. Well, that's different.
Yes Mr. Bump, when crazy people self-isolate, with like others, things get weird, but it seems normal to them.
So, Eddie commented:
From toast to toasted and roasted. How was your stay in NoRINOland? We just claim victory and go back then. It is safer there. Kind of an asylum.
Everybody knows how stupid Trump is when it comes to anything technical. But when it comes to animal cunning, he’s sometimes said so be so brilliant at it that he can get away with nonsense better than anybody else we know of.
When other nitwits like Rudy Guiliani, Sydney Powell, and the My Pillow guy try that same stuff they crash and burn. But Trump’s shamelessness and apparent animal strength seems to cow even the very media which he routinely attacks. Not to mention all but the fringe remains of the GOP.
I wonder what's his point by appearing at the memorial with Loomer. Is he trying to kill off the remains of Bush’s “compassionate conservatism”, the ‘government behind the allowing of 9-11’? Or that he’s anti-deep state, however it is he wants to define it?
That deep state has some power man. Laura Loomer even credits it for a weather change in one of her conspiracy yarns. Trump fears it more than sharks and snakes. Is it related to the Kraken?
I think Trump showed up with Loomer just to piss off MTG. And boy did it. See, even I can sanewash that blunder.
"I wonder what's his point by appearing at the memorial with Loomer"
I'm not sure he has a point, not to be crass but I think she's taking care of what Melania won't. He's getting it on with her (as much as a 78 year old fat ass can get it on)? She has that "skank" quality to her plus she's a right-wing loon, right up Stump's alley.