20 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. If 16 Year Old Girls Could Vote – The election would be over.

   The beautiful thing about Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris is how respectful she presents it to her fans. She treats them like thinking humans, and isn't demanding their loyalty.

   Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most. As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.

   Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.

   I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.

   I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early. I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates and info in my story.

   With love and hope,

   Taylor Swift
   Childless Cat Lady

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   1. "Karma is a cat, purring in my lap because she loves me – stretching like a goddamn acrobat."

      Taylor Swift is a brilliant musician and song-writer… and I'm not anywhere close to her target demographic.

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   2. I dislike dismissing Swift's fans as "16 year old girls". Swift has been a pop culture icon for at least a decade. Many of her fans can definitely vote.

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      1. Agree.

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      2. Absolutely true. Of course I just discovered Taylor Swift now that I have a pre-teen daughter.

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   3. That was Swift. H//T Heather Cox-Richardson

      Meanwhile, by 2:00 this afternoon, Taylor Swift’s endorsement had prompted 337,826 people to start the process of registering to vote. 

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2. Kamala has replaced DonOld as The Protagonist. Marcy at EmptyWheel.

   In August, the press treated Kamala as the story largely because Trump was huddled in his mansions. But they still treated him as the protagonist. Every time he gave the order, they scurried to attend things billed as press conferences which were little different from his rambling rally speeches. He made them props in a fantasy that he had shared more about what he plans to do as President than Kamala Harris, and they were happy to play the role he demanded.

   Yesterday, the press got their first chance — likely their only chance — to see the two candidates side-by-side.

   And they left with the certainty that Vice President Kamala Harris was the protagonist of that story. Of this story.

   Last night’s debate may not, directly, persuade many voters. But if it cures the press of their addiction to the Donald Trump con, it may have a dramatic effect on the race.

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3. Heather Cox-Richardson is worth reading in whole.

   The question for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in tonight’s presidential debate was not how to answer policy questions, but how to counter Trump’s dominance displays while also appealing to the American people.  

   She and her team figured it out, and today they played the former president brilliantly. He took the bait, and tonight he self-destructed. In a live debate, on national television. 

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4. What Harris did last night was chathrtic for the nation. She looked directly at him and told him that he was a disgrace. People have waited a long time for someone to tell him to his face what a jerk he is.

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5. Like Chumming for Sharks Vox.com

   Harris the Prosecutor new exactly how to get under Trum's skin. He never knew what hit him.

   By needling Trump where it hurts — the rallies he cares about so much — Harris managed to get him off balance, and he honestly never really recovered.

   Harris deployed this strategy again and again.

   …

   Each time, Trump took the bait — losing control of his temper and going off message, while Harris looked on what must have been glee.

   In hindsight, this strategy might seem innovative, but it speaks to something well-known about Trump’s psychology.

   Covering foreign policy during the Trump years, one fear I heard a lot from national security professionals was that Trump could be easily manipulated: His well-known vanity and narcissism made it easy for foreign powers to extract policy favors through personal flattery and lavish receptions. This seems to explain, at least in part, how Trump went from hostile to friendly with foreign leaders like Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping.

   But if foreign leaders could figure out how to manipulate Trump’s self-absorption, so too could his domestic opposition. Harris played on that immense pride Tuesday night.

   This tactic wasn’t the only reason she won the debate — see her strong answer on abortion, among other things — but it was a vital one.

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6. Even the relentlessly equivocating New York Times realizes Trump's vulnerabilities were on full display last night.

   ‘Trump Brought Darkness; Harris Brought Light’: 14 Writers on Who Won the Presidential Debate

   But one columnist makes the point that a failed Republican Party, thus our basic two-party system, is dangerous as well.

   Trump kept describing the United States as a failing nation. His candidacy remains the best evidence for that claim. The Republican candidate for president of the United States baldly asserted on national television that doctors are executing babies after birth. He said that immigrants are stealing and eating Americans’ pet dogs and cats. He defended the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. Even if he loses the election, this debate was a reminder — though, frankly, one we didn’t need — that our democracy has big problems.

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7. Being in a cannabis-adjacent world I’ve come to realize what a Libertarian cult looks like in a political cycle where their chosen one is largely RFKJ.  Thanks for the morning laugh! 
    

   PS: Trump’s stock is low enough this morning Matt Gaetz may just buy some and take it across state lines. 

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   1. Yup, the professional traders in DJT stock are playing hot potato trying to lighten their positions before the inevitable crash.  The Long Island boiler rooms are probably lighting up the phone lines looking for new marks to take the fall which is just a couple of weeks away.  The outstanding number of shares are so thin, relative to Trump's and his insider buddies' holdings, trying to liquidate even 1% will crash the stock.

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8. Top Democrats call on Army to rebuke Trump over Arlington photo shoot

   If it's illegal to take photos and/or videos in Section 60 for political purposes then Trump's campaign should at least get a ticket or something.

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9. The Hits Keep Coming Faster than a Taylor Swift. Steve M

   "Cathartic win for Kamala Harris" (H/T TPM)

   This entire article at "No more mister nice blog" is rewarding and worth reading..

   There is no competent Trump. There is no statesmanlike Trump. The person we saw last night is the person who will be president if Trump wins, a person who spends his life in "rabbit holes of personal grievance and vanity."

   Trump has always been cultural conservative — a racist, a fan of "law and order," an admirer of strongmen and authoritarians — but years of binge-watching Fox News have made his opinions and prejudices worse. Now he has a set of opinions — on renewable energy vs. fossil fuels, on immigration, and so on — that are made up of talking points from the right-wing informationsphere. When he says that windmill noise causes cancer, he's repeating an idea spread by pseudo-scientists funded by the fossil fuel industry.

   But that's how his mind works — his ego is so fragile that he can't bear to be wrong, so he clings desperately to any assertion that reinforces his notion that he's right. Windmills kill birds! Solar energy is useless when it's cloudy! Of course, the right-wing infosphere is a machine designed to reassure all of its consumers that their prejudices and resentments are right.

   But a serious problem for Trump is that the right-wing infosphere is becoming even more divorced from reality than it was in the recent past. I'll give you an example, but first, some background.

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   1. Exactly! The thought came to my mind last night that he seems cloistered, and just not really that exposed to an honest exchange of ideas where thoughtful people might adjust their positions or abandon the ridiculous.

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10. Turns out the word to describe media coverage of Trump (at least until last night's debate that ripped the plastic sheen off Trump's deranged rants) is "Sanewashing"

    As applied to Trump, the idea is that major mainstream news outlets are routinely taking his incoherent, highly abnormal rants—be they on social media or at in-person events—and selectively quoting from them to emphasize lines that, in isolation, might sound coherent or normal, thus giving a misleading impression of the whole for people who didn’t read or watch the entire thing. In her column, Molloy called out CNN for sanitizing a Trump screed about tomorrow’s presidential debate and the New York Times for omitting an allusion to a conspiracy theory about vaccines and autism from its summary of a Trump pledge to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to help make health policy; since then, she and others have applied the same analysis to coverage of Trump’s incoherent remarks—particularly around the costs of childcare and a proposed Elon Musk–led “efficiency commission”—at an economic forum in New York. “This ‘sanewashing’ of Trump’s statements isn’t just poor journalism,” Molloy wrote. “It’s a form of misinformation that poses a threat to democracy.”

    After last night, I don't think the AP, CNN or even the New York Times will give Trump the benefit of their editing skills to pretend he has any clarity of thought, much less deeply held principles.

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11. The best meme I've seen on what happened last night: Woman kills baby live on stage 78 years after his birth.

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12. I was reminded that the “immigrants eating pets” meme also happened in the Vietnam era where Vietnamese immigrants were accused of doing just that, particularly in Orange County, CA.  
    Racist GOP memes never die.

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    1. I distinctly remember that, too, though I was in Northern California at the time, so it was neighborhoods in SF.

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