TGIF [DOT 13/9/24]

13/9/24 MegMegMcGee 44

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! This’ll probably be short, I’m fighting off the cold from hell.

Is it just me or is MAGA sweating?

Trump stokes suspicions about assassination attempt, raising fears of more violence
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/12/trump-assassination-attempt-conspiracy

Congressional Republicans try to hide from Trump’s debate performance
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/12/debate-trump-harris-election-republicans

Anatomy of a racist smear: How false claims of pet-eating immigrants caught on

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/11/anatomy-racist-smear-how-false-claims-pet-eating-immigrants-caught

Stonks!
Mortgage rates fall to lowest level since February 2023


https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/12/economy/mortgage-rates-september-12/index.html

Sprots! Ummmmmm omg. I’d die on the spot.
Shannon Sharpe Apologizes for Going Live on Instagram While Having Sex: ‘Embarrassed’
https://people.com/shannon-sharpe-apologizes-instagram-live-having-sex-8710896

Stephen got Big Mad

Have a great weekend!

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44 Comments

  2. The “wink wink nudge nudge” about Trump and Laura Loomer is getting stronger and stronger. The press is sneaking in phrases like “proximity” and “at his side” and talking about how she is flying on his plane, which are things they never say about a weirdo conspiracy theorist like Stephen Miller. You can clearly read concerns from people like Lindsey Graham that are being phrased in ways they weren’t for equally nutty people like Steve Bannon.

    I can guarantee people are saying even more behind the scenes, but the political media are treating this with kid gloves, again in a way that they didn’t with BIDEN OLD.

    The excuse I’m sure is that there was a straightforward fact of the number of his age which they could then use as a springboard for endless speculation. But it turns out that Trump has been making appearances with Loomer and speaking about her going back for at least year, and that would be an equally verifiable fact that could have been used for a similar level of speculation — if they wanted to.

    I can see a rationale for avoiding his private life if the other woman was a normal person, and if he had no record of criminal hush payments. Loomer is a known politically toxic actor, though, and the public record of his hush money goes all the way back to most of his term.

    It’s always possible there’s nothing there, but if that’s the case what they’re doing now is just as bad as covering it up. Something weird is happening either way, and the “wink wink nudge nudge” is the wrong way to handle it.

    • I’ve long thought the relationship with daughter-in-law Lara Trump was weird. That only seemed to blossom once Ivanka went racing off to the protective arms of her legitimate billionaire husband Jar-Jar, whose family is not without resources to take out the Trump feebs. Tiff is so lucky that The Donald has no idea who she is and that Mel loathes her because she is determined to pick the Trump Org carcass clean for the benefit of herself and Barron the Christ Child. Mel does not need any distraction from some bastard child conceived long ago.

      • We know the Kush’s family fortune is mostly due to Jar Jar’s epic scale shakedown of the ME through his terrible undefiplus he corrupted to save his greedy corrupt family’s fortune (mostly due to Jar Jar’s own ineptitude as he dumped most of it into  666 5th Ave (quite the appropriate address) and the brilliant strategy of buying at the peak of the NYC commercial real estate boom.)

        I really hope to see it get taken away and he follows family tradition to spend time in the slammer.

    • Someone posted on Bluesky that the press is behaving as if they know something but can’t talk about it … yet. I definitely see the first part of that. The question is, will they ever report on this “relationship?” Because, make no mistake, Loomer is after Melania’s job.

      • …not to particuarly try to argue against the version where she’d like to be his next ex-wife…which could be a fairly cushy gig if he’s in jail for most of it…but…is it possible what they know is a different sort of open secret?

        …if you go back a year & tally all the people he’s been around & salt that down by frequency & duration to try to find people who have had disproportionate proximity…I don’t know where loomer would show up but my guess is that at least over contiguous periods there’d be a series of “spikes” for people who fit much the same description

        …he clearly needs pretty much round the clock minders/handlers/pacifiers…& since those have to be ones that keep in the comfort zone that acts like a placebo sedative…loomer is like a high-dosage where, say, ivanka was considered to have some more fit-for-public-consumption prophylactic properties…which he needs because his inner child is balled up in a safety blanket bawling its eyes out in sheer terror so that’s what they’re reduced to if they’re going to keep their horse in the running by doping the shit out of it

        …but that’s their trade off…the best they can contrive spikes to a peak performance everyone just saw…& when the cracks show it goes like it did with little stevie miller in that clip in the tweet

        …maybe I just have lax morals…but in the grand scheme of things whether or not laura loomer is mad or desperate enough to “fraternize” with her messiah is between her & whatever sort of god would have her & mostly I can’t bring myself to care…but all the rest of that?

        …that’s not “everyone knows charlie kennedy has a drinking problem but so did churchill so let’s just not write up any of those legions of stories we could all tell & keep talking to him when he’s had a few”…which was arguably a bad call…but wasn’t entirely predicated on ghoulish sentiment…that’s “this is a puppet show in bad taste for worse reasons” that’s outright irresponsible to let continue on its none-too-merry way?

      • I can bet there are people who have multiple confirmations but have been sitting on this for post-election books in the same way that they sat on scoops in 2020.

        I’d also bet part of the defense is that they’re worried they’ll be showing bias if they publish (the GOP has doubtlessly been saying this top editors) but of course not publishing shows just as much bias. And I wouldn’t be surprised if publishers and top editors were hoping this would linger into October so they could take the high and mighty attitude that they don’t want to be a part of an October Surprise, as if reporting is somehow not their job.

        In the runup to the Covid shutdowns White House reporters had far more details of Trump’s utter dysfunction than they published. Maggie Haberman didn’t write anything until just before NYC shut down. But in the middle of a public health emergency suddenly they found a million excuses for not digging and not calling in favors for all of the fluffy PR they had written.

        But the squirrely behavior of the GOP now sure suggests they think they can’t contain it. I wouldn’t rule out there may be an attempt to play cute though and escape publication until after the election.

        • …I think it was the debate but it might have been some other recent source of deeJT word salad…either way…have you heard him about the books?

          …it’s like the crowd sizes…taking up a lot of mental real estate…the rough template goes “all those people who say I’d be a liability to the whole world if you’re dumb enough to vote to keep me out of jail I fired but they never fired anyone even the ones I say did awful jobs like the awful jobs I fired people for like not treating the DoJ like I had it on retainer & that’s why all those people wrote books but you don’t see anyone writing books about her which is unfair because there should be books about how awful she is from people who only hate her because she fired them like I did which is why they do which is why they write the books but she didn’t so they didn’t even though they should because if what I did looks bad in a book she’d look even worse if those worked the same but also you shouldn’t work for her or you won’t get any book money but if you work for me I don’t have to pay you because you’ll get book money & like it…the PAC money & the SPAC money & all the other money we don’t talk about like the bitcoin & the NFTs they tell me are worth more than bearer bonds…that stuff’s all mine…well…mine & the lawyers & a bone or two for the accountants…or is that the other way around…ask miller…he’ll know”

          …I think maybe we’ve been way off on the orange thing for a long time…jaundice makes you go yellow…& angry makes you go red…et voila…orange…maybe it’s not “unnatural” at all?

      • I bet his campaign managers desperately wish she was around. She’s just about the only one besides Putin and now Harris who terrify the guy, and having her lurking would probably cut down on the crazy behavior by him and some of his hangers on.

    • It’s also worth noting that even among Qanon wackos, Loomer is considered outlandishly nuts. She’s really a piece of work, and whether or not Trump’s sleeping with her, he’s still palling around with someone who even the nutbars in Crazy Town think is too far out there.

       

  4. You’re not imagining it and MAGA is indeed sweating. I’ve got no proof but I strongly believe that the Republican internal polling is showing that they’re going to get their asses kicked all up and down the ballot.

    The most striking thing to me is that DeSantis and Abbott are terrorizing voters. Normally that makes no sense — both states are reliably Republican, so why send out thugs to scare voters? The only answer that makes sense is that they have reason to suspect that those states are no longer reliably Republican. Indeed, Debbie Murcasel-Powell looks to be even with Rick Scott, which has got to be keeping him up at night. Which brings me to:

    We know the general polling understates everybody that’s not old and white, but Harris is now pretty much ahead across the board. If the polls aren’t representative of the electorate, and we know they’re not, she’s in much better shape that it would seem.

    You can go all up and down the swing states that should be for Trump and look, and almost all of them are now “toss-ups” in the polls, which, again, are probably understated.

    Both sides have a vested interest in the current media narrative of a “coin-toss” election, because neither side wants their voters to get complacent and sit out the election. But there’s a serious stink of desperation to the Republican side.

    • Losing the Swiftie Vote is not insignificant.

      Getting beat in the debate (despite those Scientifically valid Twotter polls where Trump won NK election style.)

      Running out of money because it’s mostly going to the Trump family coffers.

      Project 2025 is the Federalist Fascist Society anchor they did Nazi coming.

    • I’m honestly a little surprised that this tweet *is* still up, when it DID get brought to ‘ol Linz’s attention a few months back…

      It’s TRUE, of course!

      But I’m a bit shocked he did let it stay up!

  6. …so…with apologies for bringing up the IRL gremlin…did anyone see this? [ETA – I know it’s in the post…hence not repeating the embed if anyone already skipped past his face reflexively…kinda meant did anyone click play?]

    https://x.com/josemdelpino/status/1833910213096722479

    …because on fox that’s the guy giving lectures about how the public doesn’t want “canned answers”…the one screaming “do you want children murdered?” as though that’s a direct corollorary of asking him if he trusts numbers provided by a corrupt dictatorship…by a miraculously polite journalist I take to be actually from venezuela…though I could be wrong about that…when he asks a simple question from the trivial end of the ones miller’s canned factoid begs in the press room after that debate

    …if that’s not a tantrum, I don’t know what clears that bar…& it’s one thing to have a party line to stick to for the purposes of messaging…but to have a “message” so brittle that anything short of it being swallowed whole unquestioningly makes the whole facade shatter & leave you with a red-faced hateful little man demanding to be treated like he’s delivering holy writ to the faithful…even as a member of the irony fan-club with an option on claiming the stuff as part of a nebulous birth-right to offset shitty weather & a lot of over-boiled vegetables haunting a lot of childhoods…I don’t think I could claim that was ironic…psychotic…maybe…messed up…definitely

    …wikipedia goes with “Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected.”…&…sure…the facade is intended to suggest something very different from what’s hiding behind it…but…it only works the way they want it to if what is known to actually be the case is exactly what’s expected…that whole tantrum amounts to “shut up you disgusting foreigner how dare you interupt me when I’m telling you what to think these are the rules and you agree with me or you’re a child-murdering sinner who deserves to be dehumanized like the other scum”…& that’s 100% on brand for miller

    …but, let’s not be hasty…let’s give them the benefit of the doubt & bring out the big guns…what’s the OED say?

    As a mass noun. The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect; esp. (in earlier use) the use of approbatory language to imply condemnation or contempt (cf. sarcasm n.). In later use also more generally: a manner, style, or attitude suggestive of the use of this kind of expression. Cf. ironia n.

    …okay…getting warmer…expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for […] emphatic effect…you could just about make that case…in that the further removed the fig-leaf from the intent of the accompanying dog whistle the more emphatic the signifier of affiliation…but…it’s a stretch to say sarcasm isn’t a better fit…especially if you add in the whole “lowest form of wit” angle…because the whole thing is predicated on going low & punching down…even if the only way they get to look down on anything is in their upside-down world view…but that’s only one strike out of three on offer…if you go by the numbers…the sub-counts that run to letters…you could get me on those…but…we’re talking steven miller & his ilk here

    1b. As a count noun. An instance of this; an ironic utterance or expression.

    …so…yes…you could refer to all these utterances as “ironies” & I’d have to bow before the acknowledged primacy of the technically correct…I guess…but…like hell they have the wit to parse language that way

    …option #2, though…that one makes a good case

    Dissimulation, pretence; esp. (and in later use only) feigned ignorance and disingenuousness

    …strong opening, that…& then it really hammers down, too

    …of the kind employed by Socrates during philosophical discussions (see Socratic irony n.); an instance of this. Cf. eiron n.

    …I mean…miller fails on the socratic irony thing…that needs “a pose of ignorance assumed in order to entice others into making statements that can then be challenged.”…& their version substitutes a pretense of knowledge butressed with “alt facts” & “fake news” in order to refute the challenges it’s retro-engineered to shield against…which is backwards

    …but…if we stretch to equating irony with a loose synonym for sophistry…I guess I’d have to eat my words…but…that might not be a fair representation of cambridge’s answer to the OED but there’s a reason I reached for the other one…so

    A state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what was or might be expected; an outcome cruelly, humorously, or strangely at odds with assumptions or expectations.

    …cruel, humorous, strange, at odds, contrary, deliberate…lots of checked boxes…but all stubbornly in line with those assumptions & expectations…so…not ironic…even on points…I reckon?

    …etymology-wise it started out with the old greek for dissembler, that got verbed into simulated ignorance before segueing through latin to hit english sometime in the 1500s or so…& they are all of them certainly dissemblers…& for some of them the ignorance is more feigned (& strained) than blissful…but…when you get down to it they’re…well I guess the french might call it “une autre saveur”…or maybe “un autre parfum”…depends if you’re thinking of the taste or the smell?

  7. I was *CACKLING* at Joey Goebbels…. I mean Mister Miller‘s (Seriously, y’all LOOK at the man–he LOOKS like a shaved-headed incarnation of Goebbels!) little meltdown, when the reporter refused to take his propaganda at face value😆😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    And on that Loomer racist stuff, just this little reminder, from midway through the old Vanity Fair article, “After the Gold Rush,” published decades ago;

    “Donald Trump appears to take aspects of his German background seriously. John Walter works for the Trump Organization, and when he visits Donald in his office, Ivana told a friend, he clicks his heels and says, “Heil Hitler,” possibly as a family joke.

    Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler’s speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.

     

    “Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches?” I asked Trump.

     

    Trump hesitated. “Who told you that?”

     

    “I don’t remember,” I said.

     

    “Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.” (“I did give him a book about Hitler,” Marty Davis said. “But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.”)

    Later, Trump returned to this subject. “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.”

     

    Is Ivana trying to convince her friends and lawyer that Trump is a crypto-Nazi? Trump is no reader or history buff. Perhaps his possession of Hitler’s speeches merely indicates an interest in Hitler’s genius at propaganda. The Führer often described his defeats at Stalingrad and in North Africa as great victories. Trump continues to endow his diminishing world with significance as well. “There’s nobody that has the cash flow that I have,” he told The Wall Street Journal long after he knew better. “I want to be king of cash.”

  9. Fabulous!

    Look. I don’t care that almost anywhere else in the country my housing would cost half what it is here, my property taxes would be 1/3, the nuisance fees and taxes would be 1/10, the grift and graft might be at a tolerable level. How many Murricans get the opportunity to attend a New York Fashion Week show from a designer whom most people (at least me) are pretty sure died 30 years ago and certainly his collections are frozen in early Clinton-admin “glamor.” This matters not. This is a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry owned by two SNL Staten Island natives, which somehow is even more 1990s!

      • He’s 73 and has had quite a bit of work done. He’s like Ralph (né Lifshitz) Lauren. He is not what he seems. He’s been married three times (to women, three women) and has five children. That’s incredible.

        I think I get him confused with Perry Ellis, whose clothing line I loved. Died in 1986 at the age of 46. The AIDS tsunami. It’s a wonder that there are any of us left from that era.

    • …wait…so thinks-racists-are-racist=leftist?

      …finally…I think I understand the definition of the left they’re working with…glad I got that cleared up, at least…been bugging me for ages, that one

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