Thursday, August 29, 2024
National: "Harris leads Trump by five points—48%-43%—among likely voters in a Suffolk/USA Today poll taken Aug. 25-28"
Trump Vs. Harris 2024 Polls: Harris’ Lead Grows—Winning By 5 Points In One Survey
Vice President Kamala Harris beats former President Donald Trump in five surveys taken after the Democratic National Convention, adding to her winning polling streak...
trumpie Leads 45%-43% Across Seven Swings
Abused Arlington Employee Declined Prosecution of Trump Campaign Fearing Retaliation by Trump Low Lifes
Trump Videos at Arlington Stir More Fallout
After Gravesite Visit
The family of a Green Beret buried there expressed concern about videos and photos taken by his grave.
A woman who works at the cemetery filed an incident report with the military authorities over the altercation. But the official, who has not been identified, later declined to press charges. Military officials said she feared Mr. Trump’s supporters pursuing retaliation.
...
The family of a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving eight combat tours and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery expressed concern on Wednesday that Donald J. Trump’s campaign had filmed his gravesite without permission as Mr. Trump stood in an area where campaign photography isn’t allowed.
Relatives of Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano issued their statement two days after Mr. Trump’s visit, which also included a confrontation between members of the Trump campaign and an Arlington employee. The former president’s campaign took video in a heavily restricted section of the cemetery known as Section 60, which is largely reserved for the fallen veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Sergeant Marckesano died on July 7, 2020, after moving to Washington to begin a job at the Pentagon. He had three children, and friends said he had chronic post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in combat. He earned Silver and Bronze Stars during his service. His gravesite is adjacent to that of Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, a Marine who was killed in the 2021 bombing at Abbey Gate outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.
The Hoover family granted permission to the Trump team to film and take photographs at the gravesite; the Marckesano family did not, and filming and photographing at the gravesite for political purposes is a violation of federal law, according to cemetery officials. Yet Sergeant Marckesano’s grave was shown in photos from the visit that were published online. A video was posted to Mr. Trump’s TikTok account featuring footage from the Section 60 visit and the gravestones from behind, with narration criticizing the handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
...
Sergeant Marckesano had served six tours in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne and others in combat overseas, according to news accounts at the time of his death. His family is said to have sought privacy since his death.
In the aftermath of the Monday altercation, the Army has closed the matter, after the Arlington official declined to press charges [fearing retaliation from Trump Low Lifes] . According to three U.S. military officials, some Trump campaign members confronted and eventually pushed past the cemetery official when she tried to stop them from taking photos in Section 60.
What's behind Harris' social media dominance
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has dominated social media with an influx of viral memes and cutting taunts of the opposition — and behind the keyboard is a team of Gen Zers.
The "mobilization team," made up of the generation that encompasses 12-27 year olds, is leveraging talked about moments from the campaign trail and reacting with humor while capitalizing on viral TikTok trends to force a contrast between Harris and former President Trump.
They've seen much success embracing "brat summer," "femininomenon," celebrity endorsements and coconut tree memes.
They've also embraced a cheeky communication strategy that at times directly mocks Trump...
The @KamalaHarris TikTok account gained 2 million followers in the first 24 hours since she became the presidential nominee and now has over 4.8 million.
The first six TikTok videos had more than 113 million views combined as of earlier this month.
The @KamalaHQ account, which was rebranded from Biden HQ, has grown its following from 440K followers to over 3.9 million followers.
The campaign told Axios its TikTok videos had, as of Aug. 9, accumulated more than 462 million views since launch.
The team has embraced the potential of memes to break through with a younger, perpetually online demographic, it said.
The objective was to "break through a challenging media environment to reach the voters who are most difficult to reach" and to meet them where they are, including on social media, a campaign spokesperson told Axios.
"From palm trees and coconut emojis to Charlie XCX's 'brat' endorsement, online memes supporting Vice President Harris have taken on a life of their own..."
Its "rapid response" accounts, which are part of the "mobilization team," work on reacting to and capitalizing on trends and key moments in real time, often without the need for approval from higher up the chain, according to the campaign.
Soo important in a fast-moving business in a fast-moving world: hire the right people, trust them, give them freedom, and good things happen. This is a 180 degree change from Harris' 2020 campaign, run by her sister, where decision-making was as plodding as in a military requisition store and decisions frequently were made after the world had moved on.
The digital team, which has partnered with hundreds of creators and influencers, works on fundraising content and developing social media posts.
Gas prices are down. We could be headed for lows
not seen since 2021
Pump prices have been falling all summer, and as Labor Day approaches, they're 47 cents lower than this time last year
"Hollowed ground"
“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason, an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony."--Trump detritus Steven Cheung.
“For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said in a written statement, misspelling the word hallowed. “Whoever this individual is, spreading these lies are dishonoring the men and women of our armed forces.”--Trump detritus Chris LaCivita.
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Bronze Medallion Aug. 28
National: kamala-coach +3.5
Nittany Cats kamala cat +1.7
Tar Heels kamala-coach +0.4
Bulldogs trumpie-couch +0.6
Badgers kamala-coach +3.4
Wildcats kamala cat +1.3
Runnin' Rebels kamala-coach +1.8
Gators trumpie-couch +4.9
Wahoo Cavaliers kamala-coach +5.7
Granite kamala cat +7.3
Longhorns trumpie-couch +5.1
Golden Gophers kamala-coach +8.7
Buckeyes trumpie-couch +8.5
Bronze Electoral Votes 8/28 kamala-coach 303 trumpie-couch 235
Makes us lose interest in basketball, for one thing
How the Heat Is Changing Us
Ten ways—small and enormous. -Slut
"They got the wrong Philadelphia."-PennLive
Trump Shares Crude Sexual Remark About Kamala Harris
“Donald Trump used his social-media website on Wednesday to amplify a crude remark about Vice President Kamala Harris that suggested Ms. Harris traded sexual favors to help her political career,” the New York Times reports.
“The post, by another user on Truth Social, was an image of Ms. Harris and Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s opponent in 2016. The text read: ‘Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently.'”
Trump Insists He Won California
“Donald Trump insisted in a meandering interview with television host Dr. Phil McGraw on Tuesday that he had actually won California, adding that all he needed was an ‘honest vote counter’—Jesus Christ, to be exact,” the Daily Beast reports.
Said Trump: “If Jesus Christ came down and was the vote counter, I would win California, OK? In other words, if we had an honest vote counter, a really honest vote counter—I do great with Hispanics, great, I mean at a level no Republican has ever done—but if we had an honest vote counter, I would win California.”
He added: “I see it. I go around California, they have Trumps signs all over the place…It’s a very dishonest state, everything is mail-in. They send out 38 million ballots, I think it is.”
Republicanz is soo stupid
Taylor Swift's Weirdness
I perform, therefore I am.
That might as well be her meaning of life. Not recording, performing in front of millions of Swifties. She's not a singer-songwriter, she's a performer. Consider these comments in 2019:
Taylor Swift says she is so worried about her safety that she carries military-grade bandages at all times.
"You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things," (2019)
She's a prepper. Preppers are weird.
"I carry QuikClot army grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds."
"After the Manchester Arena bombing and the Vegas concert shooting, I was completely terrified to go on tour... because I didn't know how we were going to keep three million fans safe over seven months.
"There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense and effort put into keeping my fans safe," she wrote.
One way would be not to perform, to record in studios like normal artists and release the songs, no?
But she had to perform--for her fans, at the expense of her fans safety. That is weird logic. Of course, it is not any kind of logic but that dressed up to cover an obsessive compulsion to perform.
All the prepping didn't work. Three little girls stabbed to death in Liverpool. A planned attack thwarted by German police that led to the cancellation of her concerts there. But she must perform. It is her narcotic. Consider:
She put out a statement recently that she is "not going to speak publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows."
It's vague, not thought out completely for of course she does "speak publicly" in song and her lyrical speaking did attract those who meant to do her fans harm against which her store of QuikClot was not proof. So there is that same "incomplete logic". But the reference was taken widely to mean that she would not "speak publicly" in favor of Kamala Harris--to prevent harm to her fans who come to her shows.
It's obsessive. Consider:
Her current Eras Tour is unlike anything this world has ever witnessed. It started on March 17, 2023 and will last until December 8, 2024. That's 632 days. 149 shows. 149 times in 632 days she is on stage before tens of thousands performing. It's not normal, it's obsessive. It's weird. I perform, therefore I am is weird.
The Harris Walz Rural Strategy
The two are in Trump country in rural Georgia today. What might that be about?
It's about "losing by less" in areas of a state that they maybe can win by a little. Just showing up, and showing residents that you will not ignore them even though you will lose, you hope to cut 5% or 10% off your loss there. “This will be the first time a general election presidential candidate will have campaigned in Savannah since the 1990s.”--Porsha White, the Georgia state director for the Harris campaign. Losing by less in rural south Georgia means your base in metro Atlanta has less heavy lifting to do. The campaign plans to do the same thing in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
It's not a thinking outside the box strategy, it's thinking about every corner of the box. Raphael Warnock used the strategy in 2021 and 2022 and won statewide both times. Barack Obama did the same think in 2008 and won North Carolina. Democrats have not won a presidential race in the state since.
The key to the strategy's success is in picking the state. One with heavy support in big Black and blue cities and heavy opposition in small, white, red rural counties. So, Pennsylvania, yes. North Carolina, yes. Georgia, yes. Alabama, no, not enough big cities. Ohio, probably not, the cities are not blue enough. Florida, probably not. If we play in Ohio and Florida, the play will be in the cities.
This campaign...whew, man I am just amazed. This is smart politicking.
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Mark Hamill
@MarkHamill
Nothing to see here. Just the tone-deaf draft dodger gleefully giving a thumbs-up at the graves of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. #WeirdandSAD
Trump Campaign Staff in Verbal, Physical Altercation With Arlington Staff Over Campaign Photo-Op
Two members of Donald Trump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery...
A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.
...
In a statement to NPR, Arlington National Cemetery said it "can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed."
"Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign," according to the statement. "Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants."
Absoltively, Posilutely
The Harris campaign has Trump constantly playing defense
The vice president's team is not letting Trump control the narrative.
trumpie says debate terms agreed to. Kamala...
Bronze Aug 27
National kamala cat +3.8
Nittany Lions kamala cat +1.9
Wolverines kamala +3.3
Badgers kamala +3.6
Dawgs trumpie-couch +0.6
Sun Devils kamala +1.5%
Runnin' Rebels +1.4
Gators trumpie-couch +4.7
Cavaliers kamala cavalier +5.8
Longhorns trumpie-couch +5
NH kamala-coach +7.4
Golden Gophers kamala-coach +7.8
Buckeyes trumpie-couch +8.3
Electoral College kamala walz 287
People are still not paying attention to the prez race
At least by these Google search trends that I post every so often, and I think they are a decent metric for where peoples' interests are.
The Velvet-Sheathed Stiletto
Taunting Trump: Harris campaign's sneer tactics
When former President Trumpsuggested he might back out of the Sept. 10 debate, the Harris campaign posted sound effects of squawking, whining chickens, layered over video of Trump speaking.
- Another tweet featured a flock of chicken emojis.
Why it matters: The same Democratic digital team in Wilmington, Delaware, has pivoted from the stuffier, decorous Biden for President campaign to a saucier, more ruthless Harris for President campaign.
The big picture: Trump has always been the taunter — "Sleepy Joe," "Crooked Hillary," "Little Marco," "Low-Energy Jeb," "Meatball Ron." Now he's the taunted.
- It's another dimension of Vice President Harris' "happy warrior" approach to a campaign that's sure to get uglier this fall.
Between the lines: Top Trump advisers tell me they expect he'll debate — both because neither side can afford to be seen as hiding, and because Trump will relish the stage.
- But Monday's widespread coverage of the backstage fight over the "muted mics" issue meant Harris was continuing to control the campaign conversation as she roared out of Chicago into her first post-convention week.
