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August 28, 2024 6:12 AM Subscribe

Harris, Walz to participate in first joint interview since launching campaign (WaPo), point their campaign bus to rural Georgia (NYT), launch Project 2024 ad blitz (The Hill, including this ad).

A presidential debate is scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC, but negotiations about muting microphones are ongoing.

Previously in the Kamala Harris campaign: "The whole world is watching."

posted by box (228 comments total) 38 users marked this as a favorite

looking forward to this

also looking forward to "the harris/walz interview went great. here's why that's bad news for dems"-type headlines that will inevitably follow
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:32 AM on August 28 [44 favorites]

So here's what irritates me about the Project 2025 thing.

Trump and his team have disavowed Project 2025 and say they have nothing to do with it. Fine. But why has no media organization asked them which policy positions in Project 2025 they explicitly disagree with? Get them on the record saying they don't want to eliminate the Department of Education or monitor women's pregnancies - they won't do it.

But I guess this is all part and parcel of the degradation of media, which thinks it's sufficient to print whatever the Trump campaign says without follow-up or explanation.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 6:44 AM on August 28 [88 favorites]

Seriously, Aya. In the last week alone I have seen two separate feature articles on the freaking Atlantic - one with a headline to the effect of, "Why Kamala Harris is wise to avoid Hillary's campaign playbook" and the other with the headline, "Kamala Harris Is Rerunning Hillary Clinton's 2016 Campaign" (and this was a good thing according to the article). A rare positive spin example of news media trying to have both sides of the debate.
posted by MiraK at 6:44 AM on August 28 [7 favorites]

https://electoral-vote.com is showing 262 - 260.

I should cash out and GTFO this loony bin.
posted by torokunai at 6:46 AM on August 28

Speaking of buses, I learned the armored Secret Service buses are referred to as "Ground Force One".
posted by needled at 6:52 AM on August 28 [7 favorites]

https://electoral-vote.com is showing 262 - 260.

The fact that after everything that man has said and done, this election is still going to be pants-shittingly close, is thoroughly depressing.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 6:53 AM on August 28 [74 favorites]

OTOH, RFK Jr. won't be able to remove himself from ballots in Michigan and Wisconsin
posted by needled at 7:09 AM on August 28 [14 favorites]

The first two links seem to point to the same WaPo article, FYI.

Guessing the NYT article was supposed to be this one - here's the gift link.
posted by Synaptic at 7:16 AM on August 28 [2 favorites]

Would you like a map? Here's my map. This is based on my analysis, make of it what you will.

As a preview before you click through, I'm seeing Harris 252, Trump 234, with 52 Tossup. My tossup states are NV, AZ, NC, PA.

Based on spotty-but-recent polling, I do include both NE-2 and ME-2 with their single votes in the Harris column.

I have WI and MI for Harris (but not by much). GA is still very slightly for Trump, but trending away from Trump.

Virginia has been problematic this year, but I do have VA in the Harris column.

I'd love to see Florida trend a bit away from Trump--it's closer than you think--but Florida is where political predictions go to die, so probably best not to promise anything there.
posted by gimonca at 7:19 AM on August 28 [6 favorites]

Overall trend: I don't think there's a single state where Trump has improved his standing since July 21.
posted by gimonca at 7:20 AM on August 28 [10 favorites]

Overall trend: I don't think there's a single state where Trump has improved his standing since ~~July 21~~ 2020
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:25 AM on August 28 [7 favorites]

I clicked in here and there was a quip about soap and I assumed, whoah a new funny mime, but alas click challenged.
posted by sammyo at 7:26 AM on August 28

Archive link for the WaPo article.
posted by Synaptic at 7:37 AM on August 28

Comment and responses removed. Let’s avoid doomerism derails please.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:44 AM on August 28 [16 favorites]

Also removed JD vance link which had nothing to with the topic of this thread. Please avoid posting just random political news, thanks
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:10 AM on August 28 [10 favorites]

why has no media organization asked them which policy positions in Project 2025 they explicitly disagree with?

Because the response they will get will be incoherent and meaningless, no matter whom they ask or how many times they ask it.

They should still ask it, and document the asking, but at this point the Trump campaign has long ago opted out of participating in public discourse in any meaningful way. And that fact is not dispositive for about 46% of the electorate.
posted by argybarg at 8:32 AM on August 28 [14 favorites]

Overall I still feel better about the election than I did before Biden stepped down, but I'm not relaxing or feeling confident.

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump won.

I also wouldn't be (very) surprised if Texas flipped blue this election and Harris won with a surprisingly large EC count.

So... Yeah. I have no clue man.

Ben Trismegistus I'd also like to see that, not becasue I think it'll flummox Trump but because I have no idea how he'd answer.

I can guess at an approximation of the answer you'd expect from a regular Republican, it'd be something like "While I haven't read it I'm confident that the alarmism is based on lies and misrepresentation by the liberal media. The Heritage Foundation is a true American institution and I have the utmost respect for all the hardworking people there trying to undo the damage caused by liberal misrule. My own policy positions are available to all Americans, even the media, on my website and you can find your answers there."

But Trump? I dunno. I'm guessing probably word salad mixed with whining about how unfair the question is and demands for an apology from the reporter? But who knows.
posted by sotonohito at 8:32 AM on August 28 [9 favorites]

argybarg: Because the response they will get will be incoherent and meaningless, no matter whom they ask or how many times they ask it.

They should still ask it, and document the asking, but at this point the Trump campaign has long ago opted out of participating in public discourse in any meaningful way. And that fact is not dispositive for about 46% of the electorate.

sotonohito: Ben Trismegistus I'd also like to see that, not becasue I think it'll flummox Trump but because I have no idea how he'd answer. ....

But Trump? I dunno. I'm guessing probably word salad mixed with whining about how unfair the question is and demands for an apology from the reporter? But who knows.

Agreed on all points. But the media still has to do its job and hold political candidates to account. If Project 2025 is an incorrect expression of your policy views, what is your view on the individual policies in there? It's their document - they should be forced to either eat it or explain precisely why they disavow it.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:44 AM on August 28 [21 favorites]

But the media still has to do its job and hold political candidates to account. If Project 2025 is an incorrect expression of your policy views, what is your view on the individual policies in there? It's their document - they should be forced to either eat it or explain precisely why they disavow it.

First, the general public needs to be fully informed that Project 2025 even exists. Otherwise, it's a meaningless question to ask. I feel pretty confident saying that the vast majority haven't so much as heard about P2025, let alone knows what is in it.

Until that level of knowledge is attained, republicans will be able to effectively dismiss any questions as meaningless attacks, or whatnot.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:52 AM on August 28

they should be forced to either eat it or explain precisely why they disavow it

The problem is the "forced to." How do you force them to eat it?

It's playing chess with a pigeon. You can't force a pigeon to respond to a check. Even if you chain the pigeon to the board, the pigeon will continue to walk around, knocking the pieces over and crapping on the board.

Ultimately, if the audience is willing to consider declaring the pigeon the winner anyway, there is no amount of protest about the rules that can be made to matter. Nihilism sometimes works, and this is one of those cases.
posted by argybarg at 8:53 AM on August 28 [27 favorites]

The problem is the "forced to." How do you force them to eat it?

"Mr. Trump, Project 2025 on page 745 says that the Department of Education should be eliminated and federal funding for K-12 schools should be cut. Do you agree with that statement? Yes or no?"

Yes, of course I know they won't get a straight answer. But at the moment, they're not even asking the question.

I can't put myself into the head of a voter who could possibly be "undecided" at this point, but I know they exist. And those people may be influenced by hearing Trump asked to take actual positions on actual policies put forth by Republicans.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 9:08 AM on August 28 [36 favorites]

The only position Trump will publicly take is standing behind a chair or podium, his hands on the corners, and slowly humping it
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:13 AM on August 28 [5 favorites]

First, the general public needs to be fully informed that Project 2025 even exists. Otherwise, it's a meaningless question to ask. I feel pretty confident saying that the vast majority haven't so much as heard about P2025, let alone knows what is in it.

It's a majority, but surprisingly not a "vast" one -- Navigator Research polling before the DNC had 47 percent of people "having seen, read, or heard" of it. Gotta imagine that grew at least a few points over the past month.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:36 AM on August 28 [5 favorites]

a new funny mime
I doubt that /s
posted by stevil at 9:37 AM on August 28 [6 favorites]

Some outside media perspective (if that interests anyone).

I'm not in the US but the election is still getting covered up north. I keep hearing reporters I kinda respected go on about how the campaign can't be all vibes and she needs to do interviews with 'serious' media and put policies out there... AND I WANT TO FUCKING RIP MY HAIRS OUT EVERYTIME!

Because any time you make a comment like this without immediately following with an acknowledgment that the other guy will 100% not do this you're framing the serious contender as trying to hide something or not being adequate while they know the other guy is a dumpster fire. It might be 'objective' in a sense, but the framing isn't.

This is Canadian media, so they don't have anything to lose/gain from this and most likekly will not have any influence with what happens in the media, but it drives me nuts.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 9:42 AM on August 28 [28 favorites]

Also she is going to do interviews, they are being scheduled now. In the meantime, the media could do its job and report on what she's saying. It's not rocket science reporting.
posted by tiny frying pan at 9:45 AM on August 28 [14 favorites]

Trump has said he had nothing to do with Project 2025, but I haven't seen anyone ask him about Agenda 47, which doesn't seem all that different.
posted by MtDewd at 10:38 AM on August 28

"The problem is the "forced to." How do you force them to eat it?

"Mr. Trump, Project 2025 on page 745 says that the Department of Education should be eliminated and federal funding for K-12 schools should be cut. Do you agree with that statement? Yes or no?"

Yes, of course I know they won't get a straight answer. "

And then print the response with the headling "Trump refuses to answer basic question about Dept of Ed." or "Trump refuses to distance himself from positions in Project 2025 "

*then, maybe* he'll give a better answer, and if he doesn't you've, at least, held his feet to the fire.
posted by oddman at 10:41 AM on August 28 [19 favorites]

The fact that after everything that man has said and done, this election is still going to be pants-shittingly close, is thoroughly depressing.

Hear, hear. It seems like even if Trump did [redacted} [redacted} or [redacted} [redacted} or [redacted} [redacted} while live on camera, it's never bad enough. I started thinking of Greg Stillson from The Dead Zone and yeah, Greg could probably [redacted] that baby these days and his supporters would still be okay with it.

That said, I'm gonna try to hop off this mental derail and try to feel better that hey, at least now it's close?
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:32 AM on August 28 [4 favorites]

On a related note, how "weird" goes over in Minnesota, land of nice:

Behind him, folks just keep spinning the wheel and hoping they might win a shirt or fan.

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:34 AM on August 28 [1 favorite]

On a related note, how "weird" goes over in Minnesota, land of nice:

Behind him, folks just keep spinning the wheel and hoping they might win a shirt or fan.

For any fairgoers, someone on reddit posted that it's rather easy to turn a "NEVER WALZ" fan into "4EVER WALZ" with a sharpie.
posted by nathan_teske at 11:46 AM on August 28 [10 favorites]

"Mr. Trump, Project 2025 on page 745 says that the Department of Education should be eliminated and federal funding for K-12 schools should be cut. Do you agree with that statement? Yes or no?"

"we will cut federal funding for any school or program pushing Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children. I will direct the Department of Justice and Education to open Civil Rights investigations into any school district that has engaged in race-based discrimination."

Sounds like the department would still be around at least for the immediate future.

(The above quote, and other thoughts on education, can be found here.)

As to the project's Mandate for Leadership, at 887 pages, that's more than I'm inclined to peruse. I was amused, however, by the last chapter, entitled simply: Onward!

As opposed to Forward (sans exclamation point).
posted by BWA at 12:19 PM on August 28

Forward?

Got a nice ring to it
posted by chavenet at 12:27 PM on August 28

There was an article in American Prospect last month about this kind of thing.
There are many parts of Project 2025 that are at odds with each other, such as how can you direct the Dept. of Education to do something if you get rid of it.
These show areas of conflict between various groups contributing to Project 2025, and are then weak points to exploit.
posted by MtDewd at 12:31 PM on August 28 [4 favorites]

I keep hearing reporters I kinda respected go on about how the campaign can't be all vibes and she needs to do interviews with 'serious' media and put policies out there... AND I WANT TO FUCKING RIP MY HAIRS OUT EVERYTIME!

There is no serious media.
posted by bluesky43 at 12:40 PM on August 28 [4 favorites]

Vance vs Walz: Campaign Stops [Mastodon]
posted by mazola at 12:40 PM on August 28 [9 favorites]

~"...I will direct the Department of Justice and Education to open Civil Rights investigations into any school district that has engaged in race-based discrimination."

~...such as how can you direct the Dept. of Education to do something if you get rid of it.

Kind of hints at how in the part I bolded. Close Education, port it over into Justice, and re-define it as a law-enforcement division focused on schools and colleges. Fun times!
posted by Thorzdad at 12:42 PM on August 28 [4 favorites]

> Vance vs Walz: Campaign Stops

Aww. I felt that pat on the back.
posted by lostburner at 1:00 PM on August 28 [4 favorites]

Their media team is really on-point. I don't know if this will reach the right people, but I saw a video in my Instagram feed of Harris, Emhoff, and the Walzes at a gas station making a pit stop during their Georgia tour. They're just buying snacks and passing different items to each other, but you simply cannot imagine Trump ever doing this mundane human thing, let alone with Vance.
posted by Captaintripps at 1:16 PM on August 28 [16 favorites]

Voter registration surging compared to 2020 election, data firm finds (CBS News YouTube link)
A data firm compared voter registrations in 2020 and 2024, with comparisons being made for time period starting July 21, which for 2024 was when Biden dropped out. They found in 13 states, registration from young black women was up 175.8% compared to 2020, and up 98.4% for black women overall. A senior adviser from the data firm noted that newly registered voters are much more likely to vote.

I found this video clip interesting, as I had been wondering whether not-insignificant segments of the population were not being sampled in current polls. Voter registration data does capture the intent to vote, regardless of whether somebody is willing to answer a phone call from a pollster.
posted by needled at 1:19 PM on August 28 [10 favorites]

I generally wouldn't recommended electoral-vote.com. They have Arizona at lean D but Pennsylvania at Lean R? I dunno man.
posted by Justinian at 1:20 PM on August 28

(And Indiana at lean R? The same categorization as Pennsylvania?!? If Harris loses Indiana by 15 points it'll be a good showing).
posted by Justinian at 1:21 PM on August 28 [4 favorites]

They actually explain the Indiana result because there was exactly one poll back in May and is unlikely to be any other polling.

I've been going to that site for 20 years. They explain all of their methodology of how they average the latest polls to come up with the map and I've always found them to be a solid place to get a snapshot of the race today based on polling.
posted by Captaintripps at 1:24 PM on August 28 [7 favorites]

Nobody gives a shit about Indiana's 11 electoral votes. Obama won in 2008 but no Democratic presidential nom has won since. However, I am seeing a level of volunteer support locally (Indianapolis, which is one of the blue areas) that I haven't seen before which is nice.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 1:37 PM on August 28 [4 favorites]

Nobody gives a shit about Indiana's 11 electoral votes.

I do, largely because I want TFG to win by such an enormously huge margin that it sends a message to the MAGA-heads that their opinions are Not Welcome.

Granted, I also want a million dollars deposited into my bank account anonymously and I also want a dinner date with Robert Downey Jr.. But hey.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:41 PM on August 28 [9 favorites]

I want TFG to win by such an enormously huge margin

ahem

typo alert
posted by kensington314 at 1:43 PM on August 28 [20 favorites]

I want TFG to win by such an enormously huge margin

Empress! Tsk!
posted by grubi at 1:57 PM on August 28 [4 favorites]

OMIGOD

That should indeed read that I want TFG to lose by an enormously huge margin.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:58 PM on August 28 [26 favorites]

Flagged for best of.
posted by Captaintripps at 2:01 PM on August 28 [16 favorites]

new vibes thread as well

I posted it on MetaTalk because no mod responded to if we could have one and since MetaTalks have to be approved, Ta-da. But if it should be on the blue then anyone can post one and the MetaTalk can go, 6 of one, either or blah blah blah
posted by tiny frying pan at 2:06 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]

New Harris-Walz ad this week: Full House.
posted by box at 2:38 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]

Nobody gives a shit about Indiana's 11 electoral votes.

Do you care about their 9 congressional seats? Because it's gonna be a tight race for control of the house and a pickup or saving the seat that was D+3 in the last election from flipping back might be worth not writing off a whole state as a lost cause.

This is true all over the country - even solidly red states have blue districts and any strategy that focuses only on the presidency is liable to deliver at best another presidency stymied and crippled by legislative stonewalling.

So maybe we should give a shit as a very minimum. Fight strategically, yes, but keep in mind that we need legislative wins as well and writing off entire states is not going to help.
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:54 PM on August 28 [38 favorites]

I'm a little slow. Who's TFG?
posted by bluesky43 at 2:56 PM on August 28 [1 favorite]

TFG stands either for "the former guy" or "that fucking guy".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:58 PM on August 28 [7 favorites]

:). TFG indeed.
posted by bluesky43 at 3:10 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]

Nobody gives a shit about Indiana's 11 electoral votes.

Every little bit counts. And if Harris can actually take Indiana, the mass aneurism suffered by the MAGA crowd here will be ohhhhhhhh sooooooo loverly to witness.

As a bit of Hoosier anecdata, I have seen substantially fewer Trump flags, banners, yard signs, etc. this year than I have in the past. Small towns that looked like Trump outlet malls (*cough*Churubusco*cough*) in the past are conspicuously bereft of signage, save for a few stalwarts. That's not to say it's all been replaced by Harris decor, mind you, though I have seen a few Harris items in places that would have been impossible to imagine before.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:23 PM on August 28 [17 favorites]

I wouldn't worry too much about the polls being tied at this stage - it apparently will take another week or so for the convention to start showing up on polls, and then another couple of weeks for things to settle down as people forget the convention and start reverting back to the mean.

I think the big threats in Texas and Florida are the active efforts to disenfranchise Democratic voters. GOTV efforts are probably important there, but probably more important is suing the pants off Republican lawmakers in that state for putting their entire goddamn elbow on the scale.
posted by Merus at 4:37 PM on August 28 [7 favorites]

it's elbows all the way up
posted by torokunai at 5:20 PM on August 28 [1 favorite]

Looking forward to this interview tomorrow, even though I know there will be some "from the mind of Trump" questions that shouldn't be asked by a journalist.
posted by cashman at 5:29 PM on August 28 [1 favorite]

Project 2025 on page 745 says that the Department of Education should be eliminated and federal funding for K-12 schools should be cut

Do they ever give a reasonable, rational reason for wanting to eliminate the Department of Education, other than they are favored by uneducated people?
posted by kirkaracha at 5:31 PM on August 28 [6 favorites]

A data firm compared voter registrations in 2020 and 2024, with comparisons being made for time period starting July 21, which for 2024 was when Biden dropped out. They found in 13 states, registration from young black women was up 175.8% compared to 2020, and up 98.4% for black women overall.

This is very good news for Kamala Harris, and very bad news for Donald Trump.

And great news! For John McCain!
posted by kirkaracha at 5:32 PM on August 28 [8 favorites]

One thing the big Trump supporter sign locations from 2016 and especially 2020 did for me was to provide a quick guide to who the local nazi candidates have been/are in subsequent elections. There are literally zero Trump signs this year, but all the former big-time TFG supporters have the exact same local candidate's signs out, arses I wasn't going to vote for anyway but the signs give me a guide to the type of person likely to support them. (Let's me opt out of interactions I'd rather not have.)

(All of the republican candidates' signs have the tiniest "(R)" on them, small enough to not be readable as you drive by. Lots are also "reverse" colored, predominately blue instead of red. Pathetic. Sad! even.)
posted by maxwelton at 5:35 PM on August 28 [15 favorites]

Do they ever give a reasonable, rational reason for wanting to eliminate the Department of Education, other than they are favored by uneducated people?

“Local” control of schools makes it easier for states to shovel public education dollars toward private religious schools and unsupervised charter schools run by profiteering Republican cronies/private equity/et al, and starve actual public schools.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 6:39 PM on August 28 [31 favorites]

Do they ever give a reasonable, rational reason for wanting to eliminate the Department of Education, other than they are favored by uneducated people?

Because they believe that children are property, ultimately.
posted by adrienneleigh at 6:41 PM on August 28 [5 favorites]

>for wanting to eliminate the Department of Education, other than they are favored by uneducated people?

"State[house]s' Rights" basically . . . AFAIK the only Federally*-funded educational institutions are the military academies. ChatGPT did inform me that Gallaudet University is an interesting exception, plus two Dept of Interior-run schools for native Americans.
posted by torokunai at 6:45 PM on August 28

Getting rid of state controlled schools also means a return to racial segregation. A lot of racial integration was enforced by Supreme Court decisions on "Separate but Equal" issues. Racists who did not want their children to attend mixed racial schools simply took their children out of school and home schooled them or sent them to private schools.
posted by effluvia at 6:55 PM on August 28 [12 favorites]

>I generally wouldn't recommended electoral-vote.com

Wisconsin: ON. Once a candidate qualifies for the ballot, they can only be removed if they die. That means that Kennedy technically does have options here, though he will presumably choose not to exercise them.

c'mon man, that's golden.
posted by torokunai at 7:01 PM on August 28 [16 favorites]

Do they ever give a reasonable, rational reason

You can't be serious.
posted by rikschell at 7:50 PM on August 28 [7 favorites]

(All of the republican candidates' signs have the tiniest "(R)" on them, small enough to not be readable as you drive by. Lots are also "reverse" colored, predominately blue instead of red. Pathetic. Sad! even.)

Same here, I have not seen any serious-candidate signs with red or any indication they're (R). Not for federal, state, city council, sheriff, or dog catcher. Nobody wants to be associated with that. Forest green is trendy. Of course, this is western Washington.
posted by ctmf at 8:40 PM on August 28 [5 favorites]

Do they ever give a reasonable, rational reason for wanting to eliminate the Department of Education, other than they are favored by uneducated people?

Do you remember during the 2016 campaign when Rick Perry prominently called for the abolition of the Department of Energy, then after the election Trump actually him appointed Secretary of Energy? And how it turned out that they both were hugely uninformed about the majority of what the department did and were almost completely unaware of its role in funding and overseeing a large amount of scientific research as well as maintaining America's nuclear arsenal?

The fight over the Department of Education is similar, in that if you asked the people calling for its end to explain their objections to what the department is doing it is virtually certain that their most vehement objections would be to things that the department is not responsible for and is not engaged in. It would be tempting to make mock of them but unfortunately many of the people stepping forward to try to defend the department are similarly confused about its missions.

The overwhelming majority of issues pertaining to primary and secondary education in the USA are already overseen by government scopes at the state level or smaller (/more localized) and the US Department of Education is already the smallest cabinet-level department in the federal government. The majority of its budget is actually devoted to financial aid (Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans) while another significant chunk helps states fund Special Education programs.

So many people are confused or misled about what the department does that I recommend spending 5 minutes to skim the Wikipedia article:

US Department of Education

posted by Nerd of the North at 10:50 PM on August 28 [27 favorites]

Same here, I have not seen any serious-candidate signs with red or any indication they're (R). Not for federal, state, city council, sheriff, or dog catcher. Nobody wants to be associated with that. Forest green is trendy.

It can hurt them. The conservatives in my province are also dealing with an unpopular past and have tried changing names to sweep the associations under the rug but they did too good of a job and their base didn't know who to vote for.

This is very good news for Kamala Harris, and very bad news for Donald Trump.

A graphic posted by a bewildered @Endwokeness lamenting the 40+ lopsided support for Harris over Trump amongst Gen Z women had the succinct rebuttal by @esqueer_@threads.net of "You took away their right to an abortion". I really don't think the MAGA true believers have accepted or are even aware how much this is going to hurt them. It might even lead to the kind of permanent change that will strike Republicans who are only holding onto majorities because of gerrymandering if they ever loose that majority and subsequently the power to define electoral districts. Places where Democrats have to over come double digit gerrymander advantages will be lost for a generation if the gerrymander is broken.
posted by Mitheral at 11:38 PM on August 28 [23 favorites]

speaking of trump signs, today i saw a photo of four maga goobers holding signs that read:

DONALD TRUMP IS NOT WEIRD

and i don't wanna make any sweeping, definitive predictions but "nuh uh are not" is not usually a winning messaging strategy
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 5:50 AM on August 29 [18 favorites]

"Donald Trump is not weird"
posted by box at 6:07 AM on August 29 [5 favorites]

Thank you for that, box. That explains some things. Looking forward to this interview. I thought it was going to be taped sometime today and then air at 9:00. But they have it listed as a live interview.
posted by cashman at 6:15 AM on August 29

"Donald Trump is not weird"

oh my god i love this
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:18 AM on August 29 [3 favorites]

speaking of trump signs, today i saw a photo of four maga goobers holding signs that read:

DONALD TRUMP IS NOT WEIRD

and i don't wanna make any sweeping, definitive predictions but "nuh uh are not" is not usually a winning messaging strategy

I've very recently read some interviews with republican operatives/politicians attempting to turn the "weird" moniker back onto Harris, and it just falls flat.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:37 AM on August 29 [2 favorites]

Aw I wanna see the tik tok but it won't display
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:53 AM on August 29

> Aw I wanna see the tik tok but it won't display

In the TikTok, a content producer brings these signs to an event and passes them out to stage the picture.

For me it’s another good reminder that the stupidest glimpses of the other side are often basically faked or very bad faith readings. (Like the recent attempt at “Vance wrote that he used to be gay.” No, he really didn’t.)
posted by lostburner at 7:26 AM on August 29 [4 favorites]

> The conservatives in my province are also dealing with an unpopular past and have tried changing names to sweep the associations under the rug but they did too good of a job and their base didn't know who to vote for.

oh god what are the socreds calling themselves this time
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 7:27 AM on August 29 [3 favorites]

I liked how the "not" word was pretty much a white space because "we ran out of red ink." Whut?
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:28 AM on August 29 [1 favorite]

i mean it's definitely not "fake"; dude handed out these signs, trump supporters displayed them. they were pitched like "we want to get the message out there that he's not weird" and these guys gladly conveyed it. the intent was definitely point-and-laugh content but it's not like the signs were photoshopped in there or they didn't understand why they were holding these signs
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 7:50 AM on August 29 [3 favorites]

"Sold-out Harris-Walz camo hats boost New Jersey factory" (NPR's TikTok)
posted by box at 8:14 AM on August 29 [5 favorites]

what are the socreds calling themselves this time

They've come full circle and are back to "BC Conservative" having cycled through Social Credit, BC Liberals, and BC United (this is the name change that was so effective it confused the base).
posted by Mitheral at 8:39 AM on August 29 [1 favorite]

Taking back our flag, a song I found through Balloon Juice.
posted by meese at 8:42 AM on August 29 [1 favorite]

Simon (The Wire) has his issues, but this tweet from 15 minutes ago about recent events including about Kamala, is great as usual.

Whenever you tell yourself that there are depths to which these trash, these thugs, these lying, cynical shitheels who serve a grasping, grifting hollowed-out narcissist, will not plunge, you are immediately shown your own naïveté. They will do and say whatever the fuck gets them to what they want and where they want to go. Long-held political norms? Whatever. The dignity of any national space or symbol? Who cares? The law itself? Fuck it.

This is what is now certain: Donald Trump convinced the families of some of those buried in section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery to allow not only the graves of their loved ones -- but those of the section as a whole -- to be used as props for a political campaign. Not as a moment of sacred remembrance personal to the family but for a political ad. We know this because the photography has, in fact, been used as such. They were warned not to violate the statute that prohibits this advance. But the rules do not apply to Donald Trump

Understanding the law that prohibits such, a female cemetery employee attempted to interpose in the attempt to violate the law. She was verbally and physically attacked by the Trump crew. When this story began to break, Trump surrogates immediately attacked her "mental health." Consequently, she does not wish to file charges for fear of threats from Trump supporters.

The family of a veteran buried in section 60 has now come forward distressed that their loved one's grave has now been used as a prop in Trump's campaign materials -- the precise outcome that the statue violated here seeks to prevent. Trump surrogates continue to claim, ridiculously, that he was there merely to comfort the family and share a solemn, if entirely non-private moment, with them. Mr. Vance, notably, claimed that a camera just happened to be present at the time.

And while this controversy raises itself, where is Donald Trump? He's retweeting a photograph of Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton that makes a joke about -- wait for it -- blowjobs.

There is no gutter into which this man and those who surround him will not crawl for any possible gain or advantage. He shows us. Time after time after time.

posted by cashman at 9:29 AM on August 29 [31 favorites]

Do they ever give a reasonable, rational reason for wanting to eliminate the Department of Education, other than they are favored by uneducated people?

The intro to the Department of Education chapter on page 319:

Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated. When power is exercised, it should empower students and families, not government.

Page 320, too much regulation, and "student loans and grants should ultimately be restored to the private sector"; too much involvement of "public sector bureaucracies, public employee unions, and the higher education lobby", page 323.

Basically, they want to privatize everything and they don't want anyone telling them what to do.
posted by kristi at 10:50 AM on August 29 [11 favorites]

They don’t want the government to enforce desegregation or Title IX.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:01 AM on August 29 [12 favorites]

They don’t want the government to enforce desegregation or Title IX.

Yeah, they really really hate the Title IX rules about fair treatment of trans students, and about how to handle sexual assault allegations on campus.
posted by suelac at 11:03 AM on August 29 [7 favorites]

> Trump has said he had nothing to do with Project 2025

Yeah it's infuriating how the "liberal media" gives him a pass on this and everything else, when I'm old enough to remember how Obama was relentlessly questioned about random remarks made by his pastor of all people, to the point where he had to leave that church. Of course Trump would never have that particular problem, since he's not a churchgoer, unless we count The Church of Mammon.

> https://electoral-vote.com is showing 262 - 260.

As of right now 284 - 254 which is an improvement, but needs to be a lot wider than that to counter post-voting shenanigans.
posted by xigxag at 11:45 AM on August 29 [5 favorites]

Yeah, they really really hate the Title IX rules about fair treatment of trans students, and about how to handle sexual assault allegations on campus.

Honestly, they hate the part about how women (cis or trans) are entitled to full inclusion in all educational institutions and programs. If they had their way, women would still be restricted to the Home Economics department, if we were allowed to go to college at all. And there wouldn't be any funding for girls' and women's sports, so the whole trans athletes issue goes away.
posted by hydropsyche at 12:50 PM on August 29 [4 favorites]

As of right now 284 - 254 which is an improvement, but needs to be a lot wider than that to counter post-voting shenanigans.

Also to get to those numbers it's showing Harris winning AZ, NV and GA and losing PA which, sure, is a world that could exist, but I -- and I must stress I am an idiot who is always wrong -- I would raise an eyebrow at that outcome.
posted by The Bellman at 12:57 PM on August 29 [6 favorites]

When it comes to the election itself, my worry isn't that there would be enough voters. If everyone who wants to vote is allowed to vote and in a way that makes sense for them, then Harris wins it easily. It's voter suppression that scares me and makes me tense about the outcome. It's what did it in 2016, and they're more aggressive about it now than at any time since poll taxes.
posted by grubi at 1:42 PM on August 29 [10 favorites]

If I understand how electoral-vote.com is doing things correctly, it doesn't seem like they're doing any weighting or averaging of polls at all; what you see on their map for a particular state is just whatever the last poll they ingested in that state said. Given that, I would expect the map as a whole to be a bit implausible, since it's a patchwork of whoever happened to poll that state last, and is probably skewed in different directions in different places.
posted by jordemort at 1:54 PM on August 29 [2 favorites]

A short clip of the interview, posted by KamalaHQ just now
posted by cashman at 2:22 PM on August 29 [4 favorites]

Kamala Harris Says She Would Appoint A Republican To Her Cabinet
(HuffPo)

“I’ve got 68 days to go with this election, so I’m not putting the cart before the horse,” Harris told Dana Bash. “But I would, I think. I think it’s really important. I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion.”

“I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences,” she added. “And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”

posted by adrienneleigh at 3:15 PM on August 29 [2 favorites]

As a reminder, here are the cabinet-level officers. Which one(s) of these are you excited to have a Republican in charge of????

Secretary of State
Secretary of the Treasury
Secretary of Defense
Attorney General
Secretary of the Interior
Secretary of Agriculture
Secretary of Commerce
Secretary of Labor
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Secretary of Transportation
Secretary of Energy
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Secretary of Homeland Security
Trade Representative
Director of National Intelligence
Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator of the Small Business Administration

posted by adrienneleigh at 3:20 PM on August 29 [5 favorites]

Nope.
posted by Snowishberlin at 3:21 PM on August 29 [7 favorites]

As long as American society (and the press in particular) fetishizes bipartisanship and the press remains wedded to Murc's Law, Democratic candidates will need to play to that.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:25 PM on August 29 [14 favorites]

There's a filing cabinet in an office in the basement behind a locked door with a sign on it saying "beware of the leopard" that could use some Republican administration. Especially if there's a leopard.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:26 PM on August 29 [19 favorites]

It's clear it's a consideration. If she'd come out and said "hell fuck no" it would have been pretty dumb, especially since there were like half a dozen republicans that spoke at the DNC, so clearly some still have some damn sense.
posted by cashman at 3:54 PM on August 29 [24 favorites]

It's obviously the only politically viable answer to that question anywhere other than deepest MetaFilter. Let's try to live in the real world, hmm?
posted by The Bellman at 4:15 PM on August 29 [34 favorites]

I would like to see s Republican as the Secretary of Suck Shit, but it's probably best Kamala didn't say that.
posted by rikschell at 4:49 PM on August 29 [9 favorites]

As long as American society (and the press in particular) fetishizes bipartisanship and the press remains wedded to Murc's Law, Democratic candidates will need to play to that.

And yet, as usual, Republicans are never asked or expected to reciprocate. Unilateral disarmament, always.

I've seen some reactions to this on Twitter which are essentially "not a big deal, just throw a Republican into some unimportant Cabinet position," and I think that's misguided. Every single Cabinet position has the capacity to do a tremendous amount of good to a large number of people in the right hands, and the converse is also true.

Now, if she were to appoint a sitting Republican senator from a state where their replacement is likely to be a Democrat in the immediate or near term, then that's a strategy I can get behind.

Because I very much fear that we're fucked in the Senate as things currently stand.
posted by Gadarene at 5:13 PM on August 29 [14 favorites]

Few presidents in the past 100 years have had zero cross-party cabinet appointments. Secretaries of Defense are often Republicans even if the president is Democrat. Secretaries of Education are often Democrats even if the president is Republican. It's not a selling point for me, but it's not a scandal.
posted by lampoil at 5:15 PM on August 29 [8 favorites]

Secretaries of Education are often Democrats even if the president is Republican.

Like famous Democrat Betsy DeVos!
posted by Gadarene at 5:18 PM on August 29 [5 favorites]

Also, as far as I can tell, there has been exactly one (1) Democrat who served as Secretary of Education in a Republican administration, Lauro Cavazos, who was appointed by George H. W. Bush, resigned after two years, and was replaced by Lamar Alexander, a Republican.

Reagan's Secretaries of Education were both Republican. Ditto George W. Bush. DeVos is a staunch Republican and was Trump's only appointee to the position.

So I'm not sure where the idea that Secretaries of Education under Republicans are "often" Democrats is coming from.
posted by Gadarene at 5:59 PM on August 29 [7 favorites]

Of course, the Department of Education used to be folded into what was then the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Maybe there were Democrats serving under Republicans then.

The position was established under Eisenhower, who had three HEW Secretaries, all Republican.

Nixon had two, both Republican.

Ford had two also. Republican and... Republican.

I confess that I'm a little bit confused at the assertion, then.
posted by Gadarene at 6:03 PM on August 29 [3 favorites]

(Closing the loop, there have been eight Secretaries of Health and Human Services--what HEW became after Education was spun off into its own department--appointed by Republican presidents. All eight were Republican.)
posted by Gadarene at 6:07 PM on August 29 [3 favorites]

lampoil may have been wrong with the idea that Secretaries of Education were Democrats, but W had Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation during his 2000-2004 term. Anyway, there's a Wikipedia page for this. It's pretty normal. Put Kinzinger in for Veteran's Affairs and move on.
posted by bl1nk at 6:12 PM on August 29 [14 favorites]

Thanks for reminding me that Chris Wray is STILL the Director of the FBI.

Also, hilarious that that chart identifies Ivanka Trump (!!) as a cross-party appointment.
posted by Gadarene at 6:16 PM on August 29 [7 favorites]

I like the citation that Michael Flynn "was a Democrat at the beginning of his tenure" like it was a change of mailing address form that he forgot to send in.
posted by bl1nk at 6:20 PM on August 29 [10 favorites]

The first 1/4th of the interview on CNN is completely normal. It makes me recall and remember and again wish for the times I wouldn't be caught dead on a night where there is football or movies on, watching a candidate being interviewed about policy. Where a candidate and their VP wasn't doing or saying anything weird. Wasn't calling someone out their name or being a fucking child and creating teenage meanie names for their opponents, or talking on the same day they shared some stupid sex joke about their opponent. The lead-in to the first commercial break is Walz addressing him talking about some ultimately inconsequential piece of non-real controversy about him trying to highlight the importance of getting slaughter type weapons out of the hands of people who would kill kids with them.

I absolutely cannot wait until we get back to being adults. Somebody, sometime, somewhere has to, if TFG loses, explicitly call for a return to being adults. Where most of the in-country political stuff is by nature mostly boring, with the occasional actual controversy sure. But this thing is as non-eventful as it should be. Currently it appears it's just one person talking to two other people who are just trying to help America run right.
posted by cashman at 6:22 PM on August 29 [25 favorites]

absolutely no surprises in this interview afaic. that said

i understand why democrats feel compelled to talk about being bipartisan, reaching across the aisle, having a seat for everyone at the table and all that. i do! but i wonder about any demonstrable evidence that this strategy works. i mean the republicans never talk this way; on the contrary, they've reached out towards the fringe of the right since at least the tea party days, probably longer. over the years this has enabled them to build a pretty solid downticket base. they never talk about the importance of cooperation, or like "america needs a strong democrat party" and such, and it hasn't seemed to hurt them. if anything, they'd probably get their way even more if they weren't consistently trying to devour each other

i'm sure there are democrat policy decisions that went more smoothly with republican support, but this overarching narrative that the party needs the participation of the gop ... idk maybe i'm missing something bc i just don't see it? like would it truly hurt the democrats to dig in their heels and say "we will not appease cranks and crybabies" and power through it? genuinely. i feel like i'm missing some key component to this democratic narrative of the necessity of appealing to the republicans

either way. i liked the interview overall. there've been some eye-rolly takes in the press, as expected, but i felt harris and walz themselves did great. look forward to seeing some grownups in the white house
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 4:20 AM on August 30 [12 favorites]

(The interview (CNN))
posted by box at 5:10 AM on August 30 [5 favorites]

Truthfully, throwing a cabinet position to the least-crazy Republican is not a bad idea. It "civilizes" the Republican because instead of being an elected that is dependent on the Republican Party and the electorate, they are working entirely at the will and direction of Harris. Especially if the area of expertise is already one which that Republican cares about (like Veterans Affairs), there's little damage. Many of these Republicans can actually show up for a 9-to-5 and work competently when given the right direction. Trump's cabinet positions were crazy and corrupt because he chose crazy and corrupt people and they worked at his (and the lack of his) direction.

The only thing I don't want to see is Harris give a Republican SecDef or Attorney General. I think Democrats need to stop ceding the military and the law to the so-called "law and order" party. It just undermines the concepts that Democrats are already bad at these positions and have to outsource to the Republicans to get good governance. Also, the Attorney General can at times work independently from the President and could theoretically weaponize the Justice Department against them for drama and reward, so that's just putting a loaded gun in the hand of the Republicans.

In the end, this is one of those promises that always sounds far more meaningful than it actually is, and if it secures even a .2% voter switch for Harris, it's totally worth it.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 5:11 AM on August 30 [17 favorites]

one of Trump's big innovations is being able to lie directly in public and have his base understand that he's just taking the press for a ride, he doesn't really mean to support abortion or whatever. The Democrats can't do the same thing, because Democratic voters believe that words mean things, but I wonder if they might be trying out a way to take the press for a ride on this issue, because the press believe in bipartisanship because the press are credulous morons, while also communicating to the base that the answer is not to be taken literally.
posted by Merus at 5:19 AM on August 30 [8 favorites]

what you see on their map for a particular state is just whatever the last poll they ingested in that state said

Related to this, state-by-state polling outside of the typical swing states has been very sparse this cycle. Some of those states aren't in serious contention, but it still means that we are lacking visibility into whether trends we see in swing states are local or nationwide.

The only polling outfit to release presidential polls for all fifty states this year was the Zogby organization last April. Some of those polls looked like weird outliers (like Trump only leading by 7 points in Arkansas, he won Arkansas by 28 points in 2020). But, for a handful of states, they're the only polls we have. There are a couple of states like Kansas where it would be interesting to see how the presidential race is going, and also how the downballot races are doing (particularly the Sharice Davids race for the House in KS-3). There's been no polling for the House races released to the public, and no presidential polling other than that Zogby one from months ago, so we just don't know.

There are also a lot of states that haven't been polled at all, or have very limited polling, since July 21, the date I use for the beginning of the Harris campaign. Colorado hasn't been polled since the Harris campaign started. New Jersey hasn't been polled. Virginia has only been polled twice. The only states with decent polling since the Harris transition are AZ, GA, MI, NV, NC, PA, Wi. Anything interesting happening in the rest of the country? Who knows?

Oh...and are you curious about how the race for the House is going? By my calculations, only 12% of races have had polls released publicly over the last six months.

Anyway, when you go to electoral-vote.com and see that Kansas, Arkansas and Mississippi are a lighter shade of red? They're using a poll average.....an average of exactly one poll, that Zogby poll back in April. If more polling came in, I'm pretty sure AR and MS would turn to deep red, and probably Kansas, too.
posted by gimonca at 5:21 AM on August 30 [7 favorites]

Which one(s) of these are you excited to have a Republican in charge of????

Ambassador to the Netherlands.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:45 AM on August 30 [5 favorites]

Ambassador to the Netherlands.

That's the Nether Regions.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 5:51 AM on August 30 [2 favorites]

the netherlands have enough to contend with

just please don't send another republican to iceland as us ambassador. the last one was bonkers
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 5:57 AM on August 30 [5 favorites]

Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane: the netherlands have enough to contend with

We certainly do. No, thank you very much with sugar and cream.
posted by Too-Ticky at 6:01 AM on August 30 [8 favorites]

Seconding cashman's comments -

if I was a Democrat running for office right now I'd back off the weird angle a bit and move to childish. When you're a kid you are shocked to find out that other kids don't eat cereal every single morning, or every kid doesn't go to your church on Sunday, or whatever it is. And then you grow up and realize people are different than you and feel different feelings and want different experiences, and that's fine! But apparently not if you're a Republican. If you're a Republican politician you become obsessed with strangers' genitals, sex lives and reproductive choices. These people need to get a hobby and just take a break.

Although weird covers all that too.
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:43 AM on August 30 [6 favorites]

My wife spent most of last week out of town and didn't watch any of the Democratic Convention, so I've been playing the highlights for her night-by-night after dinner, and it's been a good chance to reabsorb this content knowing the whole throughline of the event.

my impression from watching these and listening to snippets of recent interviews is that "weird" has definitely faded into the background. It did its job of throwing the Trump campaign off balance and putting them on the defensive. The words that you hear to describe the Trump campaign now are "tired", "unpresidential", "small", "self-obsessed", and "outside of the mainstream". He's weak, he's only doing this for himself, and that makes him an unserious person who doesn't understand what most of the American people want from politics today.
posted by bl1nk at 8:07 AM on August 30 [12 favorites]

Ambassador to the Netherlands.

As long as they are better than this one.
posted by Pendragon at 8:27 AM on August 30 [3 favorites]

i don't know if "childish" works given that children seem to have no problem accepting trans people and having two mommies or daddies
posted by i used to be someone else at 8:28 AM on August 30 [15 favorites]

Ooo, Pendragon's video clip is awesome. What must it be like to live somewhere with a functioning press corps and the ability to contemplate riding your bike somewhere without collapsing in fear that you'll be instantly turned to pâté...
posted by Don Pepino at 8:33 AM on August 30 [1 favorite]

Nails Nathan (BlueSky):

It’s never “we need a diversity of opinion so I’ll appoint a leftist” when it’s time to demonstrate open mindedness.
posted by adrienneleigh at 9:31 AM on August 30 [17 favorites]

I wonder if they might be trying out a way to take the press for a ride on this issue

Maybe they're trying to educate us all on subjunctives. "Would" is a long way from "will", and I'm pretty sure the unspoken conditional is "if a Republican happens to be the person who best realizes my vision for the post".
posted by jackbishop at 9:49 AM on August 30 [13 favorites]

Kamala Harris Says She Would Appoint A Republican To Her Cabinet

Has any reporter ever asked a Republican candidate if they would have a Democrat in their cabinet?
posted by kirkaracha at 10:22 AM on August 30 [15 favorites]

Could call them "babies" instead of children. Babies are inherently loud, selfish, and produce toxic externalities that other people need to clean up. Just like Republicans.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:24 AM on August 30 [3 favorites]

Has any reporter ever asked a Republican candidate if they would have a Democrat in their cabinet?
ABC News December 2000

The president-elect also plans to meet with Democratic Louisiana Sen. John Breaux this morning, who’s said to be on the short list for energy secretary.

Bipartisan Cabinet?

Bush has indicated he will make a commitment to bipartisanship by appointing at least one Democrat to his Cabinet. Americans approve; according to a new ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll, 86 percent of Americans think Bush should appoint at least some Democrats to his cabinet.

LA Times 3 Jan 2001

President-elect George W. Bush filled out his Cabinet on Tuesday with three nominees, including the first and only Democrat. The trio highlights again his determination to present an administration that is diverse in race, ethnicity and gender--if not in its overall conservative philosophy.
Bush tapped California Democrat Norman Y. Mineta--the current Commerce secretary--to head the Department of Transportation; outgoing Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.), an Arab American, as secretary of Energy; and Linda Chavez, former staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, as Labor secretary.

Each of the appointees--like several before them--has a compelling, even inspirational background that bespeaks the American dream.

posted by bl1nk at 10:40 AM on August 30 [11 favorites]

I mean, I will be the first to agree that as an exercise in "presenting an administration that is diverse in race, ethnicity, and gender" it's super weak-sauce, especially by today's standards.

But if the question is "is this a well-worn norm around paying lipservice to the idea of bipartisanship that is applied to both sides?" I'd say so?

It's just, as we know, Trump doesn't pay attention to norms, and he can now start pointing to folks like Tulsi Gabbard and RFK, Jr. to his transition team, so asking him about appointing a Democrat to his administration is pointless.
posted by bl1nk at 10:46 AM on August 30 [5 favorites]

'No,' Kamala Harris Says to Withholding Arms From Israel (Common Dreams)

Acknowledging that "far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed," the vice president responded "no" when CNN's Dana Bash asked whether a Harris administration would implement a "change in policy in terms of arms" and withhold even "some" weapons shipments to Israel.

posted by adrienneleigh at 1:50 PM on August 30 [13 favorites]

@adrienneleigh, yeah, that fell flat with me, too.
posted by Captaintripps at 2:06 PM on August 30 [5 favorites]

Could call them "babies" instead of children. Babies are inherently loud, selfish, and produce toxic externalities that other people need to clean up. Just like Republicans.

Toddlers.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:22 PM on August 30 [3 favorites]

I think it's obvious they are going the route of not saying anything Republicans can seize on to trigger the "we're all going to die if she's elected!" response.

Of course meanwhile, Vance is saying and doing horrible things and Trump is straight up lying about everything possible, but there are no calls for them to drop out.

Anyway, if any of you have any athletes in your lives who play basketball, there's a Hoops for Harris call coming this next week. There's a bunch of prominent basketball-world folks involved, including Arnie Duncan, Rex Chapman, George Karl and today they announced Mark Cuban will be on the call as well. Hopefully they will have some special guests too.
posted by cashman at 4:25 PM on August 30 [9 favorites]

Acknowledging that "far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed," the vice president responded "no" when CNN's Dana Bash asked whether a Harris administration would implement a "change in policy in terms of arms" and withhold even "some" weapons shipments to Israel.

Yeah, this fucking sucks, and is also contrary to what a majority of Americans, and a large majority of independents and Democrats, wants.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:28 PM on August 30 [15 favorites]

Jesus.

Politico with the headline "'Next question': Harris evades question about her identity". We're teetering on the brink of fascism and far too many people cannot seem to understand just how stacked the deck is against those of us trying to stop it.
posted by cashman at 4:35 PM on August 30 [19 favorites]

weird that a publication now owned by a right-wing german billionaire would want to cudgel someone not a cishet white man into focusing on her identity to make it easier for the right wing to make her seem like some threatening bogeyman
posted by i used to be someone else at 7:40 PM on August 30 [10 favorites]

The New York Times also went with ‘evaded questions about her race and gender’. Not sure if that was just David Leonhardt’s take or the headline from the key takeaways piece, but it’s being baffling how that response could be characterized as evasion
posted by TwoWordReview at 3:45 AM on August 31 [4 favorites]

Links to the Harris influencer interviews at the Democratic National Convention, please.
posted by jointhedance at 4:50 AM on August 31

Acknowledging that "far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed," the vice president responded "no" when CNN's Dana Bash asked whether a Harris administration would implement a "change in policy in terms of arms" and withhold even "some" weapons shipments to Israel.<>

The IDF killed people in clearly marked humanitarian vehicles belonging to the guy who dems love running their cocktail parties and the dems (mainly this current admin) did worse than nothing.

There are no red lines and there are zero indications that the bombs and cash will stop.
posted by Slackermagee at 6:24 AM on August 31 [5 favorites]

Conservative group plans to monitor voting drop box locations in Arizona

PHOENIX (AP) — A conservative organization has told Arizona officials that it plans to monitor ballot drop boxes for the November election and identify people it believes are voting illegally, raising the same concerns that led right-wing groups to begin watching some boxes two years ago despite there being no evidence of widespread electoral fraud.

The Arizona Republic reported Friday that officials from the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, said in an Aug. 15 letter to Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Attorney General Kris Mayes that they want to have a discussion with both Democratic officials about setting guidelines for monitoring drop boxes.

During the 2022 midterm election, local and federal law enforcement were alarmed by reports of people, some armed, monitoring drop boxes in at least two Arizona counties, Maricopa and Yavapai. A federal judge ordered them to keep their distance from voters.

Some of the people monitoring the boxes were masked and armed, and some were associated with the far-right group Oath Keepers. Some voters alleged voter intimidation after people watching the boxes took photos and videos and followed them. The offices of Mayes and Fontes said the recent letter was not sent in good faith, noting that it is conservatives such as CPAC that have fueled skepticism about the integrity of U.S. elections.

posted by cashman at 7:03 AM on August 31 [7 favorites]

I'm so sad I missed Cooking for Kamala. Ever since that previous thread where we talked about Walz's cooking and Kamala's previous cooking, I was hoping that if they win, they'll do some kind of cooking thing monthly or every so often. Again, it's just a desire to get to where people act like normal adults again, and clearly normal people aren't be labeled as alien terrorists from another planet.
posted by cashman at 10:22 AM on August 31 [2 favorites]

A conservative organization has told Arizona officials that it plans to monitor ballot drop boxes for the November election and identify people it believes are voting illegally, raising the same concerns that led right-wing groups to begin watching some boxes two years ago despite there being no evidence of widespread electoral fraud.

It strikes me that the League of Women Voters or a Democratic voter group could speak up and say, "okay, then we will also monitor those SAME voter boxes." If jackbooted thugs start following voters, they can start following the jackbooted thugs with their cameraphones out, just....to keep eyes on the situation. After all, if the idea is to have a fair election it should be fair for everyone, right?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:18 PM on August 31 [15 favorites]

That is a fantastic idea. I think ultimately having huge crowds around voting boxes might still achieve their ends. To explain, growing up I played tons of basketball outdoors at parks or community courts. What would often happen is cops would prowl around the parking lots, running license plates. It dampens the turnout, because as a lot of people have now learned, the cops will use anything or even nothing, to come up with something to arrest people with or issue tickets for, or otherwise harass people for.

So it works a couple of different ways. It gets across the nimby idea and keeps the 'undesirables' out of the area, where undesirables means nonwhite, nonchristians. It lets the law get selectively enforced. It gets that "What do you have to hide" examination going, under whatever pretense you can manufacture. And in the case of these courts, as use wanes that gets used as an excuse to remove the court, because "nobody's using it". It's happened at places I've played in 3 different states in 3 different decades.

And back to voting specifically, with Dejoy still being postmaster general, with so many shenanigans going around with Republican groups trying to muck up the voting process, I personally am squeaky deaky clean and I wouldn't want to drop off my ballot where there's a crowd of 15 people opposing each other. The last few elections I've dropped my ballot in the drop box and made sure it went in all the way and couldn't be gotten to. I've meticulously tracked its progress up to its eventual being counted. I don't know what the solution is, but I'm glad we're at least focused on the right things, which is making sure we're at least able to have our votes counted.
posted by cashman at 1:55 PM on August 31 [6 favorites]

i understand why democrats feel compelled to talk about being bipartisan, reaching across the aisle, having a seat for everyone at the table and all that. i do! but i wonder about any demonstrable evidence that this strategy works.

To be clear, this is not really a strategy aimed primarily at encouraging Republicans to vote for Dem candidates. It's a strategy aimed at encouraging moderates to vote for Dem candidates.

Moderates are a larger part of the current Democratic electorate than they are a part of the current Republican electorate. Thus it's more necessary and useful for Dem candidates to posture at moderation and bipartisanship.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 2:17 PM on August 31 [12 favorites]

Artifice_Eternity It's revolting to watch Democrats talk up putting a Republican on the cabinet. You'd think after James Comey abused his position to cost Clinton the election the Democrats would have learned their lesson and dropped the BS about bringing enemies into the cabinet.

I hope they have and Harris talking up the idea of a Republican on her cabinet is just blather to make the scuzbag "moderates" feel smug and better than everyone else and after she's elected it never gets brought up again.

But if I've learned one thing over the years it's that you should never underestimate the desire of Democrats to hurt themselves.
posted by sotonohito at 2:30 PM on August 31 [9 favorites]

On no preview: I mean, James Comey wasn't actually on the cabinet, I should have said "in high positions and especially the cabinet".
posted by sotonohito at 4:23 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]

You're in a bad position when you have to hope that your best potential leader is lying.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:24 PM on August 31 [4 favorites]

I’ve seen Kinzinger mentioned for head of the VA. That seems reasonable to me.
posted by Glinn at 5:32 PM on August 31 [8 favorites]

Glinn Why?

Why would we want a Republican put in a place where they can sabotage the VA to allow their fellow Republicans to attack Democrats on the failure of the VA?

And, further, the fetish for Democrats putting Republicans in charge of various military and security related posts is tacitly agreeing with the Republican propaganda that Democrats are inherently weak, cowardly, and unable to do the duties associated with those posts.

"See, we told you the Democrats were wimps, they had to hire a Real American Republican to do the hard stuff!"

The Republican Party is an enemy to be overcome, not our buddies on across the aisle who we sometimes disagree with about irrelevant things.
posted by sotonohito at 8:39 AM on September 1 [9 favorites]

Why? In my very inexpert opinion, because he has demonstrated he is a decent person, and it may help heal some wounds, and I really don't believe a guy like that will "sabotage" the VA. While I agree that yes, Trumpers actually are "enemies" of democracy - some because they don't understand, it is just not helpful to think of all conservatives as enemies. They are not going away, we may as well try to work with the best of them.
(I personally would prefer no Repubs in the cabinet but it's already out there, so.)
posted by Glinn at 9:35 AM on September 1 [9 favorites]

Can't the president replace members of her cabinet at will?

I'd have to assume that she's only going to appoint a Republican that she can be reasonably sure won't fuck around and if they do they'll find out they've been fired. Someone like the Republicans that spoke at the convention that have less to lose by not sabotaging things. I get why she'd do it, even if I think it's dumb but she's not a fool. Plus we're pretty sure her staff reads the site so if hadn't considered the risks before, they will now. :)
posted by VTX at 10:20 AM on September 1

There are two reasons to appoint a "decent" token Republican to the Cabinet:

1) It may persuade some previously undecided moderate / centrist voters to support Harris.
2) It may help to defuse the polarization and reduce the acrimony in our political system.

I'm not saying anyone should be persuaded by these arguments, but if we're going to ask the question "why", these are the obvious answers.

Kinzinger is an Illinois Republican, an officer in the Air National Guard, voted to impeach Trump, sat on the January 6th committee, and paid the political price for it. He's basically a guy who actually did put country above party when it counted. It seems unlikely he'd intentionally sabotage the VA, or even intentionally play politics with his post. He probably would have sincere policy disagreements with the rest of the cabinet from time to time.

I'm not even saying that we *should* appoint him to head the VA, but publicly considering the idea of it during the election seems like decent politics with little downside.
posted by Reverend John at 11:18 AM on September 1 [15 favorites]

and it may help heal some wounds

The passive voice is doing a LOT of heavy lifting there.

Who, exactly, inflicted those wounds on whom?

I agree, there is a need for restitution. And it's owed by Republicans to everyone else. The Democrats damn sure have no need to kiss Republican ass and make nice since it was, you know, the Republicans who did all the harm and damage. Being the bigger person, in the Democratic sense of giving concessions to Republicans just because, is how we keep losing.

The Republicans are fighting to win. The Democrats are dicking around trying to be friends.

Reverend John From my POV there's no difference between inviting a "not so bad" Republican like him to join the Cabinet and inviting Trump himself to join the Cabinet. They're still the enemy.

Later, in 30 years, when the Republicans have admitted fault, have taken real steps to make amends, and have sworn off all their demonizing, then, after we've had a couple decades to make sure they're not just trying to lull us into letting our guard down, MAYBE I could see finding the single most liberal Republican who exists and offering them assistant secretary to something unimportant.

Here? Now? With Trump still Trumping and the entire Republican Party united behind him? No.

I'm pretty sure that Harris is following reasoning like you outlined above and really is serious about putting a fucking Republican on her Cabinet just to prove how cool and open minded and trying to mend fences and heal wounds she is. It's one more thing in the list of reasons why as soon as she's elected I'll be protesting against her.

Compared to her support for the genocide Israel is carrying out it's a small thing. But it irks me.
posted by sotonohito at 1:34 PM on September 1 [10 favorites]

There were a lot of Republicans who were conspicuously absent from the RNC, representing constituencies which have basically been pushed out of the Republican party. Many of those Republicans have perhaps changed their official application to independent, but I think there's others still hanging on the fringes.

The campaign is tacking to the center in the lead in to the general election. If you don't do that, you lose. (Sorry kids, just how the world works.) An interesting pool of swing votes is moderate Republicans who are disgusted by the cult of personality around Trump. Those boots might start home, or leave the to of the ballot blank. Or, with a bit of encouragement, they might vote for Harris. Putting a Republican in the cabinet sends the message that it's ok to be a Republican who actively votes against the cult, rather than just a bystander.

It's also a way to underline 'governing for all Americans', rather just people from your party.
posted by kaibutsu at 1:57 PM on September 1 [8 favorites]

kaibutsu I believe the 2020 election of Donald John Trump would prove that you do not, actually, have to rush to the "middle" to win elections.

It's also a way to underline 'governing for all Americans', rather just people from your party.

Because, of course, that's how every single Republican administration in history has handled it right? No? Huh, funny. As always the onus is on the Democrats to give up valuable things to Republicans and never, NEVER, on the Republicans to give up anything at all.

When the next 5 Republican administrations have appointed Democrats to serious and powerful Cabinet posts, then your point will be valid. Until then? No.
posted by sotonohito at 3:00 PM on September 1 [3 favorites]

you do not, actually, have to rush to the "middle" to win elections.

You do if you're a Democrat.
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:26 PM on September 1 [4 favorites]

Don't worry about me, you need to convince 20k or so Pennsylvania voters...

Trump won in 2016 as a 'change' candidate, and since then people riding the Trump wave - think of the kari lakes of the world - driving further to the right and into conspiracy world, have actually not done great.

Even now, Trump is trying to figure out how to shed the baggage of Dobbs, even though a big chunk of his base wants to expand it, because he knows it's an issue that he's going to lose a lot of voters on. That is an example of Republicans tacking to the center for the general election. Both parties do it. To the extent that they weren't going to the center a month ago, it was because they thought they had a slam dunk election against Biden. Hubris led to Vance, and is costing them a lot.
posted by kaibutsu at 3:46 PM on September 1 [8 favorites]

Meandering? Off-Script? Trump Insists His ‘Weave’ Is Oratorical Genius.

“You know, I do the weave,” he said. “You know what the weave is? I’ll talk about like nine different things, and they all come back brilliantly together, and it’s like, friends of mine that are, like, English professors, they say, ‘It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.’”
...
“I highly doubt that Donald Trump has any English professor friends,” said Timothy O’Brien, a Trump biographer. “What this really reflects is that he is aware of the criticism that he is publicly saying nonlinear, nonsensical word salad, and he is trying to pretend there is a strategy or logic behind it when there isn’t.”
...
Drew Lichtenberg, a lecturer at Catholic University of America and an artistic producer at the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, said that “the closest comparison to what Trump is talking about here in Shakespeare — fragments of unrelated subjects that are woven together — is, of course, Lear’s mad scene at Dover.”

posted by kirkaracha at 5:23 PM on September 1 [15 favorites]

Friends of mine that are, like, English professor friends!
posted by nobody at 6:07 PM on September 1 [2 favorites]

He probably means some sad MAGA minion he met at one of his rallies in Armpit, Pennsyltucky who happens to be a middle school English teacher who was ~~blowing smoke up his ass~~ x~~flattering the great man~~ providing insightful analysis of his rhetorical style.
posted by Reverend John at 9:05 PM on September 1 [1 favorite]

Kinzinger voted in line with Trump's position 90.2% of the time over the course of his career.
posted by adrienneleigh at 11:25 PM on September 1 [3 favorites]

They might just be really good at the job.

Indeed. Even people whom I vehemently disagree with can be good at jobs they actually believe in. Jim Bridenstine was a complete piece of shit in Congress, yet he was pretty darn good as head of NASA. At least within the constraints placed on NASA by Congress.

If there exists a Republican who believes in the mission of a department and isn't a seditionist, there is little reason to not consider them for the job.
posted by wierdo at 5:03 AM on September 2 [5 favorites]

Saw a thing last night that Harris was proposing to jack taxes for corps, capital gains and unrealized capital gains.

She may as well go all in on socialized medicine, and everything else the right hates too, because saying you're going to jack taxes is painting a target on your back from everyone with $$$. Could the target be bigger? Maybe! Would it matter? Let's find out.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:31 AM on September 2 [3 favorites]

Those who have money are powerful, sure.

But there's fewer of them then us.
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:30 AM on September 2 [2 favorites]

I think some of you forget Harris is black and as such she is being portrayed as a militant radical set to destroy America. She’s running the Obama playbook where you need to convince white people not to be scared of black people, which is not easy to do, and which includes bipartisan platitudes.
posted by girlmightlive at 7:56 AM on September 2 [19 favorites]

She's also a woman, and therefore a ditzy shrill militant set on destroying America. And she's a Democrat, which, if you're part of the giant swath of America that has any exposure at all to the Fox News universe (or worse), is a word that automatically has to be combined with "radical", "communist", or "socialist". There's no such thing as the left, only the "radical left". Which is definitely out to destroy America.

And that "radical" label always leaks out of the Fox cinematic universe and makes its way to the mainstream.

So you need to convince non-Black people not to be scared/contemptuous of a Black candidate, everybody not to be scared/contemptuous of a woman candidate, and centrists not be terrified/disapproving of a Democrat. I don't know if promising to work with Republicans is going to make much of a dent, but a headline like "Harris says she won't appoint Republicans" would almost certainly be more harmful than helpful.
posted by trig at 8:46 AM on September 2 [13 favorites]

Liberal Redneck - RFK Jr Drops Out, JD Vance Goes Out, and Walz Attacks Fizzle Out.

They're so weird, dude. Between him, Trump, and now that ol' Bobby Bear Killer's on board, they're like the Avengers of being off-putting. Meanwhile on the left you've got the political Ted Lasso out here warming hearts and changing minds. What a time to be alive, y'all.

posted by kirkaracha at 10:24 AM on September 2 [3 favorites]

You know, I do the weave,” he said. “You know what the weave is?
I assumed he was simply talking about his hair - but of course he was talking about how his rhetorical style has been artfully moulded to match his hair style. Twelve steps ahead this guy I’m telling you.
posted by rongorongo at 10:32 AM on September 2 [1 favorite]

Harris doesn't get convention bump, but widens gap with women: Poll (ABC News)
posted by box at 10:55 AM on September 2

Trump lying about Project 2025 vs. Trump praising his Project 2025 authors.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:57 AM on September 2 [1 favorite]

Indeed. Even people whom I vehemently disagree with can be good at jobs they actually believe in. Jim Bridenstine was a complete piece of shit in Congress, yet he was pretty darn good as head of NASA. At least within the constraints placed on NASA by Congress.

This does hint, somewhat, at how the promise to appoint a Republican is something of a double–edged sword: on the one hand, it might move someone from an elected position where they're doing real damage to an appointment where they're both doing real good and can be removed if that changes; that might even open their seat to someone better at the elected job, possibly even a Democrat. On the other hand, if this happens in a safe-R district or state (or one with a Republican governor who appoints their replacement) they could be replaced with someone worse.

In conclusion, tactical apoointments is a land of contrasts.
posted by multics at 11:28 AM on September 2 [4 favorites]

Can't they just be appointed as Ambassadors? (to Florida or Texas or something)
posted by mazola at 11:57 AM on September 2 [1 favorite]

I would posit that there's a difference between "person X might be capable of job Y" and "the Democrats should appoint a Republican to job Y".

Even if said Republican is qualified isn't it a slap in the face to every qualified Democrat out there?

I'll also note that we're not actually picking the best person for the job in any event. I'm going to suggest that it's fairly unlikely the best person to be the head of NASA is ANY former Rep, Senator, Governor, or other politician. Not that politicians are bad, but you'd imagine the job of running NASA's day to day operations would be a bureaucrat with a science background.
posted by sotonohito at 4:30 PM on September 2 [5 favorites]

Trump Claims the Economy Does Better Under Democrats

"I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message."
posted by kirkaracha at 5:38 PM on September 2 [3 favorites]

Kamala Harris gave labor-focused speeches in Detroit and Pittsburgh (with President Biden) today.

Tim Walz gave a labor-focused speech at Milwaukee’s Laborfest 2024.

The two-time (so far) popular vote loser, twice-impeached, and indicted four times former guy spent the day at Quadmire-a-Lado truth socializing.

Senator JD Vance (R-Canapéfrottage), had no advertised events on Monday.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:26 PM on September 2 [7 favorites]

One of the biggest reasons I’m hearing from people about why they want Harris to win is because they are fucking sick and tired of hearing about Trump. I wonder how many non-politically active people are thinking the same thing.
posted by azpenguin at 10:10 PM on September 2 [14 favorites]

Speaking of Laborfest, Walz is okay, but vehicles at the tail end of his motorcade were involved in a highway crash on the way to this event. Vans towards the rear of the motorcade, carrying approximately 15 to 20 press and campaign staff members, pulled off the freeway following the accident, and people were checked for injuries by first responders . [...] A statement from the Secret Service indicated the crash happened just before 1 p.m. (Central) along northbound Interstate 43, just north of downtown Milwaukee, and involved three “support vehicles.” The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident. (USA Today).

Reporters said they were "violently thrown forward" after being hit from behind, sending their vehicle into the car in front of them. At least one person was injured. It is unclear what caused the crash, which occurred on Interstate 794. (BBC).

(Vance had nothing going on, and posted "Hoping everyone's OK" on X-formerly-Twitter, retweeting a post with the news & footage of the damaged vehicles.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:21 PM on September 2 [1 favorite]

Vance had nothing going on, and posted "Hoping everyone's OK"

Wait a minute. That's a vaguely normal human response. Who's got control of his Twitter account right now?
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 3:31 AM on September 3 [6 favorites]

Wait a minute. That's a vaguely normal human response. Who's got control of his Twitter account right now?

I love the idea of someone hacking JD's twitter to start posting normal things.
posted by phunniemee at 3:52 AM on September 3 [8 favorites]

To be fair he only sent hopes, no prayers.
posted by Mitheral at 4:40 AM on September 3

hey man you want prayers in this country you better get shot
posted by phunniemee at 5:06 AM on September 3 [5 favorites]

That's a vaguely normal human response.

The "JD Vance cares more about these people than Tim Walz because Walz didn't even stop his car" narrative has already started.
posted by mmoncur at 6:13 AM on September 3 [1 favorite]

Speaking of vaguely normal human responses, from Alexandra Petri, "JD Vance writes a rom-com"
posted by needled at 7:09 AM on September 3 [3 favorites]

Morning Digest: Our complete guide to every abortion ballot measure in 2024
posted by kirkaracha at 9:34 AM on September 3 [4 favorites]

New Harris-Walz ad: Focused
posted by box at 11:23 AM on September 3 [1 favorite]

Harris to propose $50,000 tax deduction for new small businesses. (Official new policy proposal expected tomorrow, could be a good time for another policy-focused post.)
posted by box at 3:18 PM on September 3 [6 favorites]

I'm not casting shade on this proposal, given the fact that the reality of politics in the US sucks, but I've long thought that the best thing for business and entrepreneurship in the US would be some sort of government funded health care. Imagine all the amazing businesses people would create if they didn't have to worry about their own health care, or the health care of their employees.
posted by mollweide at 4:52 PM on September 3 [31 favorites]

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office is leading the investigation into the crash involving the Walz motorcade; the Secret Service had not requested a full freeway closure as it's "typically reserved only for the President of the United States or other protectees depending on extenuating circumstances." (WISN, ABC's Milwaukee affiliate). Officials say one campaign staffer was treated for what was believed to be a broken arm, while a reporter was treated by paramedics for concussion-like symptoms. (Learfield Wire Service)
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:56 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]

I've long thought that the best thing for business and entrepreneurship in the US would be some sort of government funded health care. Imagine all the amazing businesses people would create if they didn't have to worry about their own health care, or the health care of their employees.

This was a thing that was breathlessly predicted with the advent of the ACA and the Obama administration even tried to roll out some programs trying to directly tie healthcare as a catalyst for entrepreneurship. The research for this has shown some modest gains, but it's still limited by the cost of ACA premiums. Single payer care would've probably had a more significant impact, but it's still the sort of thing where a certain point of the population will oppose it because they oppose their tax dollars being used to help "those people". Tax cuts, by comparison, are much easier to pass into legislation.
posted by bl1nk at 4:19 AM on September 4 [5 favorites]

Tidbit from today's Politico Playbook: "One million people have now registered to vote this cycle through Vote.org. That’s a big milestone, including 17 percent who live in the seven top swing states. More than one-third of the new registrations are from 18-year-olds (way up from 8 percent in 2020), and 79 percent are from voters under 35."
posted by mcdoublewide at 7:15 AM on September 4 [13 favorites]

New ad from the Anti-Psychopath PAC: Trump is crazy. All his friends agree.
posted by box at 8:23 AM on September 4 [6 favorites]

Liz Cheney is voting for Kamala Harris (Twitter video)

“Because we are here in North Carolina, I think it is crucially important for people to recognize, not only is what I’ve just said about the danger that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states."

"As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

posted by Blue Jello Elf at 4:07 PM on September 4 [22 favorites]

Single payer care would've probably had a more significant impact, but it's still the sort of thing where a certain point of the population will oppose it because they oppose their tax dollars being used to help "those people". Tax cuts, by comparison, are much easier to pass into legislation.

Agreed on this. My hope is that people eventually come around to some sort of single payer, because the ACA set up about as ideal a system as can be with for profit insurance still running the show and we see how things have gone. If you ask people how they would lower the cost of health care while still keeping it mostly privatized, well, I have yet to hear a good answer on this. It kind of surprises me that we haven’t had more people come around because health care gets a lot more expensive as you age, meaning you will pay huge premiums for health insurance if you retire before you’re eligible for Medicare. A business tax cut doesn’t do anything for people in this position. But you can pass a tax cut pretty much anytime you want.
posted by azpenguin at 5:52 PM on September 4 [4 favorites]

Harris to propose $50,000 tax deduction for new small businesses.

I'm giving this a little bit of side-eye because the SBA's definition of small business is businesses with up to $20million in annual revenue. I know this is talking about startups but plenty of those startups are still going to be already rich assholes starting businesses to get more richer. Or some young rich dickhead to start with their roommate from whatever Ivy league college they attended together.
posted by VTX at 8:13 PM on September 4 [5 favorites]

Evidence in January 6 case against Trump could be released before election under new schedule

Judge Tanya Chutkan has set a schedule in the federal election subversion case against former President Donald Trump that will allow prosecutors to release never-before-seen evidence, such as grand jury transcripts, ahead of the presidential election.

The deadline for the filing from prosecutors is September 26...

Chutkan says 2024 election ‘not relevant’ in deciding Trump criminal case timeline

“The electoral process and the timing of the election … is not relevant here,” Chutkan said at a hearing to plan next steps in the case. “This court is not concerned with the electoral schedule.”

posted by kirkaracha at 3:11 PM on September 5 [9 favorites]

Q: What specific piece of legislation will you advance to to make child care affordable?

Trump: Well, I would do that, and we're sitting down, you know, I was, somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka, was so impactful on that issue. It's a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that because the child care is child care couldn't, you know, there's something you have to have it in this country, you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they're not used to, but they'll get used to it very quickly. And it's not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers we're talking about, including child care that it's gonna take care--I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country because I have to say with child care, I want to stay with child care. But those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I'm talking about. Including growth. But growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just, that I just told you about. We're going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it's relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we'll be taking in. We're going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to and then we'll worry about the rest of the world. Let's help other people. But we're going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It's about make America great again, we have to do it, because right now we're a failing nation. So we'll take care of it. Thank you.

posted by kirkaracha at 3:34 PM on September 5 [10 favorites]

Trump Says ‘Weird’ Whopping 22 Times In 36 Seconds While Insisting ‘We’re Not Weird’

HANNITY: Let me tell you — let me play Kamala.

TRUMP: There’s something — there’s something weird with that guy. He’s a weird guy. JD is not weird. He’s a solid rock. I happen to be a very solid rock. We’re not weird. We’re other things perhaps, but we’re not weird.

But he is a weird guy. He walks on the stage. There’s something wrong with that guy.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: And he called me weird. And then the fake news media picks it up. That was the word of the day. Weird, weird, weird. They’re all going.

But we’re not weird guys. We’re very solid people —

HANNITY: Let me play her —

TRUMP: — that want our country to be great again. I mean, it’s very simple.

The ROI on "weird" has been fantastic.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:48 PM on September 5 [28 favorites]

https://geeks.forharris.org

From Lynda Carter: Geeks and Nerds for Harris. Call is on 9/24 at 8:00 PM ET.

Stacy Abrams, Yvette Nicole Brown, Levar Burton, Misha Collins, Jon Cryer, Felicia Day, Patty Jenkins, Matthew Modine, Bill Nye, Robert Picardo, Anthony Rapp, Jeri Ryan, George Takei, Mary Trump's Nerd Avengers and more special guests to be announced.
posted by cashman at 6:34 PM on September 5 [10 favorites]

Q: What specific piece of legislation will you advance to to make child care affordable?

Okay, while I understand what the Harris team was doing with this, and all of the rest of us do....I'm slightly uneasy at this kind of "give him enough rope" approach.

WE get that this is word salad. But on Twitter, I don't think that people are paying attention to what Trump is saying, only that he IS speaking. So I'm afraid that Harris spotlighting a statement from Trump, and giving no other context, might come across to his cult followers as "Trump's so great even Harris is running his speeches, yay".

If instead they'd framed this differently, with a pithy quote like "Okay, did anyone hear him actually ANSWER this question?' or something like that, that may have been wiser, yeah?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:26 AM on September 6 [3 favorites]

The thing is, he did actually answer the question. Incoherently, like a child grasping at keywords, but an answer nonetheless. His answer was: 'I'll raise tariffs on foreign goods and that will bring in lots of money and that will make childcare affordable.'

It's a garbage answer: insanely vague (1. bring in tariff money 2. ???? 3. Affordable childcare!) and totally ignoring side effects like 'raising tariffs makes things more expensive for consumers and also creates trade wars'. Both of those would be great points for pushing back. And hearing a journalist say ". . . Is the word you're looking for 'tariffs'?" would be welcome.

But I think pretending there was no answer there is a mistake. I don't know how this works, but it's a noticeable thing: people who will say they have a hard time following a coherent answer that does contain some technical detail - people who just tune that stuff out - nonetheless are able to listen to Trumpy word vomit and absorb the main message. "He'll tax the other guys. He knows about the problem. He'll take care of it. He's on top of it. He'll make America great again."
posted by trig at 3:35 AM on September 6 [7 favorites]

That just makes this an even worse idea. I get what they're trying to do, but for others, their takeaway is "Harris is admitting he can solve the problem. Okay then."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:02 AM on September 6

Geez Donny, tell me you don't understand how Federal banking and budgeting work without telling me you don't understand how Federal banking and budgeting work.

Your personal budget works that way and it's intuitive but tell me how your spending would change if I put a press that produces $100 bills in your basement and a license to use it to print US currency?

The funny part is that I'm confident anyone reading this would be able to figure out how it changes what your money problems are so they'd be careful about how they print and spend the funds from their press. Trump would just start pumping out bills and buying stupid shit until the economy was broken and the dollar replaced as the world's trade currency.

Oh yeah, because in this scenario, like reality, every other country wants to buy your dollars with their currency. Because if a country wants to participate in the global economy, they need a good supply of the world's standard trade currency. That allows you a LOT of leeway in how much you can spend locally without screwing things up.
posted by VTX at 5:42 AM on September 6

That just makes this an even worse idea. I get what they're trying to do, but for others, their takeaway is "Harris is admitting he can solve the problem. Okay then."

Agreed. Different audiences interpret this stuff totally differently. I can only hope they're targeting their outreach effectively, rather than just assuming everyone will interpret things the way they want them to.
posted by trig at 6:11 AM on September 6 [2 favorites]

Republican House panel subpoenas Gov. Walz in investigation of Minnesota nonprofit that ran a Covid aid scheme (NBC, Sept. 5, 2024) Walz was given until Sept. 18 to provide documents and the requested information to the committee.

Three weeks ago, it was: House Oversight Chair James Comer opens investigation into Tim Walz, over the governor's longstanding "ties to China." (MSNBC, Aug. 17, 2024) Comer also claimed that Walz has had “problematic engagement” with Chinese “entities” that is antithetical to the effort to “identify and defeat CCP unrestricted warfare against America.

(In other legal news, Hunter Biden pleads guilty to federal tax charges, in surprise move on brink of trial (CNN))
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:44 AM on September 6 [1 favorite]

These are not witch hunts, these are legitimate investigations of a radical leftist.

[back to the real universe]
"Unrestricted warfare against America" is not a good set of words to throw around. That privileged, comfortable idiot does not know what even restricted warfare is like on the receiving side.
posted by trig at 10:10 AM on September 6 [4 favorites]

Neither Trump nor Harris has released comprehensive recent medical records as Election Day nears (CBS)

Harris campaign agrees to muted mics in debate against Trump (CBS) Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign was unable to sway ABC News, the host of next week's presidential debate, to keep the microphones unmuted for the 90-minute debate against former President Donald Trump. Her campaign agreed to let the microphones remain muted when a candidate isn't speaking, according to a letter it sent to ABC News, ending the back-and-forth over the rules for the Sept. 10 debate. [...]
The Harris campaign also told CBS News it was offered assurances as to how any crosstalk may be handled. The microphones may be unmuted if there is significant crosstalk between the candidates. A candidate who constantly interrupts their opponent will be warned by the moderator and their comments may be relayed to the audience. And, if the microphones don't pick up the exchanges, a group of reporters who will be in the room would report anything noteworthy.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:47 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]

Dick Cheney confirms he's voting for Vice President Harris:

"In our nation's 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.

"As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris."

CNN link
Guardian link
ABC Link
posted by cashman at 3:09 PM on September 6 [6 favorites]

You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Dick Cheney.
posted by adrienneleigh at 3:18 PM on September 6 [7 favorites]

When you've lost Dick Cheney though...

Don't go on a hunting trip with him.
posted by Windopaene at 4:01 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]

AP: Walz says Gaza demonstrators are protesting for ‘all the right reasons’ while condemning Hamas

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said Thursday that those protesting American support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza are doing so for “all the right reasons,” as the Democratic ticket looks to balance its support for Israel with the humanitarian plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave.

Walz’ comments came in an interview with a local Michigan public radio station — a state with a large Muslim American population that is also a potentially pivotal swing state in this November’s election. His comments appeared to mark tonal shift, though not a policy one, from the steadfast support for Israel that Vice President Kamala Harris espoused at the Democratic National Convention last month.

Walz said the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that touched off the war, was “a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They certainly have the right to defend themselves.” But, he also said that, “we can’t allow what’s happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves.”

WCMU Interview from yesterday

RB: The Israel-Hamas war has been a hot button issue for Michigan voters. How would a Harris Walls administration handle the conflict and would it break with the Biden administration in any way?

TW: Well, I think first and foremost what we saw on October 7th was a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They have certainly, and the vice president said it, I've said it, have the right to defend themselves and the United States will always stand by that, but we can't allow what's happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves. We need to continue, I think to put the leverage on to make sure we move towards a two state solution. I think we're at a critical point right now. We need the Netanyahu government to start moving in that direction. But I think those folks who are speaking out loudly in Michigan are speaking out for all the right reasons. It's a humanitarian crisis. It can't stand the way it is. And we need to find a way that people can live together in this and we’ve said it and continue to say it, getting a ceasefire with the return of the hostages and then moving towards a sustainable two state solution is the only way forward.

posted by cashman at 6:03 PM on September 6 [11 favorites]

Ken Paxton Threatens to Block Democrats From Registering to Vote
(The New Republic)

Paxton threatened legal action against Bexar and Harris counties if they proceed with sending out mail-in voter registration forms, which the counties have proposed doing via third-party vendors. Paxton argues that it could encourage noncitizens to register to vote.

Of course, Bexar and Harris aren’t like other counties in Texas. They’re urban and populous, and have a majority or even plurality of Latino voters, according to The Hill. And in 2020 both counties overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden.

Paxton’s office announced Wednesday that he’d filed a lawsuit against Bexar County Commissioner Court after it approved a proposal that funds the production and mailing of voter registration forms “to unregistered voters in location(s) based on targeting agreed to by the county,” according to KENS-5. Paxton claimed the program was unlawful because it “could induce ineligible people—such as felons and noncitizens—to commit a crime by attempting to register to vote.”

posted by adrienneleigh at 6:41 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]

Kamala Harris Campaign Experiments With Ads for an Audience With “Brain Rot” (404 Media)

The Kamala Harris presidential campaign is experimenting with running ads that follow a popular formula of viral social media posts popularized on TikTok and commonly referred to as “overstimulation,” “ADHD” or “content sludge” videos.

As explained on Know Your Meme, this genre typically involves a split-screen of at least two videos, with the top half being the “main” piece of media—like a clip from a movie or TV show—and the bottom half being totally unrelated but visually stimulating video, like vibrant gameplay footage from the mobile game Subway Surfers or a video of someone cutting colorful bars of soap. The basic idea is that in a world where people have instant access to all types of hyper stimulating media on multiple screens, and especially on TikTok where an infinite supply of short vertical videos that are algorithmically served to users in a way that maximally harvests their attention, watching a short Family Guy clip on our phones is not stimulating enough. We have a condition that has come to be known online as “brain rot,” meaning we need at least two videos playing at the same time to hold our attention for more than just a few seconds, or videos that are so potently absurd they can’t be ignored, like skibidi toilet.
…
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

posted by adrienneleigh at 6:49 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]

Meanwhile, J.D. Vance is lucky he didn't get shot down with an SAM today after his plane violated restricted airspace over the National Mall.
posted by adrienneleigh at 9:26 PM on September 6 [5 favorites]

Not wishing harm on anyone, but one wonders if TFG's people weren't calling the FAA reporting a threat.

"Well, this was tragic, such a terrible thing. But we will be forced to replace JD with..." anyone else that doesn't seem to be totally as toxic as Vance has been for TFG.
posted by Windopaene at 6:07 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

Sources Allege Tim Walz’s ‘Aw, Shucks’ Persona Merely Facade Concealing True ‘Gee Whiz’ Tendencies (The Onion, 9/9/24) When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign denied the governor had ever lost his temper and told anyone to hold their horses.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:10 PM on September 9 [13 favorites]

@JD Vance today:

Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.

Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country. Where is our border czar?

Springfield police say no reports of pets stolen, after viral social media post

The Springfield Police Division said Monday morning they have received no reports related to pets being stolen and eaten.

A social media post originally from a Springfield Facebook group went viral nationally in recent days. The original poster did not cite first-hand knowledge of an incident. Instead they claimed that their neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat and found it hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor’s home being carved up to be eaten.
...
Springfield Police said they were aware of the social media post but that this was “not something that’s on our radar right now.”

The right-wing bubble says Trump will save your cat from immigrants

Trump and his allies — and his running mate! — are elevating false or unsubstantiated claims about immigrants injuring and eating pets and other animals. And of course, blaming the Biden administration and Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, for this thing-that-is-not-demonstrably-happening happening.

posted by kirkaracha at 3:48 PM on September 9 [4 favorites]

Well as much as I’m dreading it, when does the debate thread get put up.
posted by cashman at 6:51 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]

Eh. Debates never really matter anyway.

[ducks]
posted by mazola at 9:15 AM on September 10 [2 favorites]

I still can't believe a debate actually mattered this last time.

I'd almost watch it, except once again, guess who has rehearsal. Oh well, I'm sure there will be a billion recaps online of it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:31 PM on September 10 [1 favorite]

Part of me feels like I should watch the debate, but it's not healthy for me to be exposed to Trump, and it's not like me watching the debate will make any difference in the outcome of the election. I'm happy to follow along with people's reactions, though.
posted by mollweide at 2:42 PM on September 10 [2 favorites]

I don't want a debate thread because I doubt it would go well. But there is MetaChat! If anyone wants to hang out there, it could be fun. Otherwise, electoral-vote.com is hosting a slack channel.
posted by rikschell at 2:45 PM on September 10

Looks like there's also a Fanfare thread.
posted by trig at 2:47 PM on September 10

Thanks, trig, for the Fanfare thread, and rikschell for the reminder about MetaChat! I wouldn't mind a debate thread, except for the burden it would likely put on the moderators.
posted by mollweide at 2:58 PM on September 10

Fanfare is great.
posted by cashman at 3:41 PM on September 10 [1 favorite]

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