A reporter asks Trump about his race with Harris, challenging him a little about his Arlington National Cemetery story, and he's doing his best goombah shuffle, 'Maybe it was someone I know, maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was the parents. Maybe somebody had a camera,' etc. And, as is often the case, buried in his ad libbed doggerel is some comic gold. "We’re so far above her on the Internet," for instance, her being Harris, cracked me up.
Let's flesh out that Trump thought for him: 'Yeah, so far above her, as it should be, amirite? We got your Twitter locked-up. Turns out Musk is alright now, I like electric cars (as long as they don't stop our burn, baby, burn agenda). We might have a job for Elon in my government. Then we got this Thiel guy; Vance's sugar daddy. You know some people say he actually invented the internet. And that stuff about him being a Nazi is overblown. You know when you really look into it there were some very fine Nazis. And then there's my Truth Social, the only place on the internet that tells the truth. Let's be real: The lame-stream fake-news media are always witch hunting me but all the Tech Bros are mine. The Billionaires love me.'
And why should the Tech Bros and Billionaires love him? Because he won't tax or regulate them or will most likely tax and regulate them less than the Dems. That's all it takes with our corporate rulers. You might expect some more sophisticated economic analysis from these guys but mainstream economic commentators only beclown themselves when they try to make the case. And the richies know Tump's a clown too. Actually, they know he's a ridiculous has-been caricature of them, rich business guys, Billionaires, self-serving and crooked as the day is long. But they think they can handle him and keep his culture warriors (Jan 6ers, militias, etc) from getting out of hand. And these costs of corporate rule they write-off as preferable to the threats that democratic reforms pose to profit margins.
The moral corruption in this scenario is daunting, to say the least. And it does resemble quite a bit the story Timothy Ryback tells about the last year run-up by Hitler in his book Takeover. There are undeniable affinities between Nazis and MAGA. But perhaps one crucial difference. Hitler really was a veteran and really did think he spoke for the post-WW1 grievances and hopes of the German people and did eventually, if tragically and catastrophically, win popular support. Over half the American electorate have hated Trump, or suffered TDS, from day one. This stubborn fact really hasn't budged much in going on eight years and there is absolutely no reason to think it ever will.
This doesn't mean the Repuglicans won't try whatever minority rule fuckery they can get away with; in fact, they're hard at it now, and have been at it since 2020: trying to suppress Dem voting and rig the certification process, SCOTUS rendering a ridiculously anti-Constitutional immunity decision placing POTUS above the law, and undoubtably other terrible stuff we don't know about yet.
Harris responded [to a CNN question on Thursday from Dana Bash about Trump's accusation that she assumed her Black identity only to get ahead]: “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” and she laughed. “That’s it?” Bash asked. “That’s it,” Harris answered.
I didn't like Harris' response when I first heard it. Call the racist bastard out, I thought. Apparently, Bash and CNN didn't think it was racist to delegitimize culturally mixed identities. I'm just a poor retired school teacher but that sure sounds like a racist binary to me. At any rate, as HCR points out, by Harris refusing to answer the question she is refusing "to accept the MAGA terms of engagement." Trump wants Harris to turn it into some racist name-calling tit-for-tat, where ultimately he figures all the white people will side with him. But turns out, increasingly, only the dumb and crooked ones do.
Letters from an American Historian
HCR remains optimistic that maybe the media, CNN, et al, are starting to challenge Trump's bigot troll "terms of engagement" but I remain skeptical. Trump's WWE kayfabe dumpster-fire politics are Reality TV gold, even if over half the country would like to see the show cancelled. Check out The Hartmann's Report for another angle on Harris/Walz's big media interview with Dana Bash and CNN on Thursday:
"In an interview with Vice President Harris and Governor Walz Thursday night, CNN’s Dana Bash chose to repeat pathetic rightwing attacks on the candidates instead of engaging in issues of importance to a majority of Americans. Only four of the questions she asked during the entire interview were not rightwing talking points. She could have asked about their pledge to protect Social Security and Medicare after Trump proposed cuts to both programs every year for his 4 years in office, or the 90% of Americans who want weapons of war off our streets, or their efforts to revive labor unions in the face of GOP opposition, or how they feel about Republicans on the Supreme Court thwarting Biden’s efforts to cut student loan debt, or what they’d do about the severe ethics problem with bribed Supreme Court justices Alito, Roberts, and Thomas, or their support for the queer community in the face of unrelenting attacks by JD Vance and other rightwingers, but, no. Instead, she had to ask about a one-word misspeak by Walz five years ago, whether Harris identified as Black or Indian or what, and why Walz implicitly lied when he said he and his wife had undergone “IVF” treatment for infertility when, in fact, they’d undergone the similar “IUI” treatment. As if anybody, anywhere, gives a damn."
The point being Trump/Vance are threatening fertility treatments and reproductive health care and Harris/Walz are talking about how to protect them and CNN and the major media must make sure the Dems are answering all the Repugs stupid bigot takes, or"terms of engagement." For the sake of fair and balanced reporting, of course. Now I think it was right that Harris blew off the question and right that she keep the major media at arms length for this reason: they cater too much to Trump's retrograde fascist "terms of engagement." And at this point the contrast between the two parties is so obvious and grotesque that most sentient humans can see the differences, no matter how hard the major media try to normalize them: 'Harris is for supporting workers and middle class people and wants to make stuff better, more affordable, and Trump hates a lot of people (women, immigrants, minorities, LGBTQ+, liberals, cat owners, etc), and wants to cut taxes again for his rich buddies, and wants to punish his enemies. Got it.'
Harris/Walz can win, should win, but it won't be because of our "free democratic press" but in spite of it. But also not by battling it out with the talking heads over Trump's "terms of engagement" but by dismissing the bigot baiting and saying, repeating, and as clearly as possible what Harris proposes to do if elected, and what they've done the past four years, and contrasting it with what the Trump proposes to do, and what he did while in office, which is try to turn the country into a violent fascist dystopic nightmare, his guy Putin's fever dream to bring down American democracy and Pax Americana.
The plausible deniability phase of Trump's political ascendency is long past but the major media haven't gotten the memo. They're nostalgic for the Trump media boom. Proceed accordingly.
P.S. Lots of folks with similar perplexing questions: What the hell is wrong with the mainstream media on Trump?! Just saw a reference to a NY Times Op-Ed titled, "Trump Can Win on Character." Try swishing that one around in your mouth for a second before spitting it out. And another one, also in the Times, where they compare, both, Harris' proposal to help people buy homes to Trump's proposal to deport millions of recent immigrants as their respective "affordable housing" plans. That's sick. And this wasn't a parody in The Onion but a story in the NY Times.
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