1/. This post by Andrew Sullivan is a real indication of how rattled the right wing is by Kamala's debate
performance and Trump's implosion.
He's nit picking what she should have said in the debate and whines about her policy proposals....
In 90 minutes, she methodically cleaned his clock. The media and the public were as one on this. “Donald Trump’s freewheeling approach spun wildly out of control in the first presidential debate as he was forced on the defensive during a chaotic clash with Kamala Harris.” Only 24 percent of the viewers said he won. Josh Barro noted: “A CNN panelist who gave the win to Harris noted, approvingly, that she ‘took control of the situation.’ This is true.” Karen Tumulty observed: “Trump appeared thrown off balance by Harris’ frequent needling, and at times he shouted back at her. But she persisted, baiting the real estate mogul again and again.” The polling was unanimous: “The CBS undecided voter focus group, run by Frank Luntz, gave it to Harris by a margin of 16 to six; CNN’s gave it to her by 18 to two.”
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-things-she-didnt-say?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=61371&post_id=148700126&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=2cwgv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
2/. Strongly recommend you watch this 19 minute segment from Laurence O'Donnell, detailing how Karl Rove 15 years ago spotted Kamala's
talent and spent millions to defeat her in the race for CA Attorney general, then quotes his op-ed in the WSJ yesterday.
There's footage of Kamala 15 years ago, and clips from a rally in NC yesterday.
Have a look - you'll feel better!
3/. MAGA can be duped by anything, any conspiracy theory or half baked idea, as
long as it comes from one of their trusted sources......
Good column from David French in the Times....
It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen during a presidential debate, and I’m exactly the kind of nerd who has watched every general election debate since he was 11 years old.
A few minutes into the contest, Kamala Harris interrupted her remarks to mock Donald Trump’s rallies. She invited viewers to attend one, made fun of Trump’s meandering and self-absorbed speeches and then said, “People start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.”
She was baiting him, and he fell for it. He responded with a barrage of conspiracy theories and misinformation that culminated in a bizarre rant about immigrants and pets in Ohio. “In Springfield,” Trump said, “They’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
4/. Tom Tomorrow nails it - there is no such thing as an undecided voter......
5/. The Second Gentleman visited the Villages and got a rousing reception!
There was no shortage of joy amongst the crowd as Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, made a campaign stop in the Villages on Friday. From high school students to senior citizens, Alachua County community members eagerly waited to hear Emhoff’s speech, holding banners and chanting.
Before Emhoff spoke, leaders across the state spoke on behalf of the Harris campaign. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, D-Gainesville, expressed concerns to the crowd over Project 2025 and a potential second Trump term. Hayes Hinson emphasized that social security and Medicare, two issues important to the older residents of The Villages, would be threatened under Project 2025.
https://www.alligator.org/article/2024/09/doug-emhoff-makes-campaign-stop-in-the-villages
6/. Clever, and a surprisingly catchy tune....."They're eating the dogs"
7/. Really interesting article on how the nature of war has changed by AI.
For example, did you know most of the Abrams tanks we gave Ukraine have been destroyed by Russian drones?
The story also makes the point that the Pentagon is woefully unprepared for this new type of warfare,
still married to big expensive hardware made by the giant defense companies. AI is the future....
The First Matabele War, fought between 1893 and 1894, foretold the future.
In its opening battle, roughly 700 soldiers, paramilitaries and African auxiliaries aligned with the British South Africa Company used five Maxim guns — the world’s first fully automatic weapon — to help repel over 5,000 Ndebele warriors, some 1,500 of whom were killed at a cost of only a handful of British soldiers. The brutal era of trench warfare that the Maxim gun ushered in didn’t become fully apparent until World War I. Yet initial accounts of its singular effectiveness correctly foretold the end of the cavalry, a critical piece of combat arms since the Iron Age.
We stand at the precipice of an even more consequential revolution in military affairs today. A new wave of war is bearing down on us. Artificial-intelligence-powered autonomous weapons systems are going global. And the U.S. military is not ready for them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/13/opinion/ai-drones-robot-war-pentagon.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ngrp=mnp&pvid=773387B3-FCB5-44A8-AA90-D4959ED8173E
8/. Know any Taylor Swift songs?
Thought not......here's "Fortnight".....impressively made with an unlimited budget......
9/. Just sent these suggestions off to the Lincoln Project.....who knows, they might like them!
Suggestion for an ad:
News anchor reading "Women in Afghanistan are now forbidden to speak in public".
Cut to JD Vance winking and saying something snarky.
Ad #2:
Trump babbling, mental decline, physical deterioration.
Voiceover - If this senile old man becomes President, very soon after they'll invoke the 25th Amendment and then you will get this:
Images - JD Vance at his worst, fascists and Christian nationalists
10/. AI does some cool things, but there are still major flaws.....
11/. Heather Cox Richardson nails the reason for the 'dogs and cats eaten" meme.....it's control of the Senate.....
After bomb threats today, officials had to evacuate two elementary schools in Springfield, Ohio, and move the students to a different location. They had to close a middle school altogether. This is the second day bomb threats have closed schools and public buildings after MAGA Republicans have spread the lie that Haitian immigrants there have been eating white people's pets. Haitian immigrants, who were welcomed to Springfield by officials eager to revitalize the city and who are there legally, say they are afraid.
Hunter Walker and Josh Kovensky of Talking Points Memo today explained where the lie had come from and how it had spread. More than two months ago, they wrote, Ohio senator J.D. Vance, who is Trump’s vice presidential running mate, began to speak about Springfield at a Senate Banking Committee hearing, trying to tie rising housing prices to immigrants. The next day, at the National Conservatism conference, Vance accused “illegals” of overwhelming the city.
12/ Try this for the bees....
13/. Good article from Politico - don't underestimate Trump. His craziness and incoherence
is already baked into his support........
Kamala Harris won the evening, and it wasn’t even close.
The result has been a wave of euphoria on the left, an uptick in Harris’ fortunes in betting markets, a downturn in the stock price of the parent company of Donald Trump’s social-media company, Truth Social, and a ripple across cryptocurrency markets, where Trump’s prospects — he is viewed as the pro-crypto candidate — are closely followed.
In other words, there’s a widespread perception that Trump did serious damage to his chances of winning with his undisciplined and largely incoherent debate performance.
It’s a dangerous assumption. Worse for Democrats, it’s a misread that risks breeding the kind of complacency that put him in the White House in 2016. It’s worth remembering that snap polls conducted after every presidential debate in 2016 and 2020 also judged Trump to be the loser — and by wide margins. Public opinion polls in general underestimated the level of support for Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
14/. Jordan Klepper on the Daily Show......a really good 9 minute segment.....
15/. Every now and then we need to be reminded that we are doomed......it's just a question of when.....
Anyway don't get depressed, read and be aware......
Of course we’re civilized. We have skyscrapers, indoor plumbing, TV, vaccines, cars, airplanes, and air conditioning.
A google search for the first signs of civilization revealed this:
“Anthropologist Margaret Mead is said to have told a student that the first sign of civilization was a healed human femur, or thighbone, in an ancient culture. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, a broken leg would likely be fatal, as the animal would be unable to run away from danger, find food or water, or avoid predators. Therefore, a healed femur in humans would indicate that someone had cared for the injured person, helping them recover and potentially providing food and protection. Mead called this act of kindness and compassion the first sign of civilization.”
If this is the first sign of civilization, what are the first signs of civilization collapse? What are the signs a civilization has begun decaying at its core and is about to crumble?
16/. Hamas on a Delta flight? Surely not.....most amusing....
17/. And speaking of craziness, stories about Trump's dementia and incipient Alzheimers have been
circulating for years, but it's soooo obvious now.....
Former President Donald Trump should immediately seek a neurologist after exhibiting a classic and common sign of dementia at the presidential debates on Tuesday, according to a prominent psychiatrist. Prof. Richard A. Friedman, director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, argued in an Atlantic editorialThursday that Trump's rhetorical tendencies would make any mental health expert "very worried." "Trump’s expressions of those tendencies were alarming," wrote Friedman. "He displayed some striking, if familiar, patterns that are commonly seen among people in cognitive decline."
18/. This is a must watch - "Stop The Steal" on HBO MAX....
By now, 6 January 2021 has so thoroughly saturated the American political consciousness – a single date conjuring up images of the once unthinkable, mentioned every day in news about criminal court cases, the future of democracy and Donald Trump’s ongoing presidential campaign – that you could argue we are used to it. Election denialism has become a feature, not a bug, of a major political party for nearly four years. The fact that Trump, when given the opportunity by ABC moderators to distance himself from efforts to discredit the 2020 election during this month’s presidential debate, still refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s legitimate victory is no longer surprising, though we are also inured to shock.
But a new HBO documentary argues, through forensic chronological detail and, perhaps ironically, the testimony of Republican election officials and former members of Trump’s administration, for remembering just how beyond the pale attempts to subvert the 2020 election were. As recounted in Stopping the Steal, a new film from the Leaving Neverland director, Dan Reed, the period between election night 2020 and 6 January 2021 was a series of genuinely shocking, potentially devastating opportunities for democratic disaster that often came down to clashes between obscure, local Republican officials and the president of the United States. January 6, in fact, “isn’t the scary bit”, Reed said. “The really scary bit is all the machinations that happened before. Because had they succeeded, the knock-on effect would have been to just gum up the system.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/17/trump-january-6-stopping-steal-documentary?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
19/. Get Hulu? The Times lists their best shows......and some excellent movies you may have missed....
The Disney-owned Hulu streaming service is still, more than 15 years into its existence, thought of first as a repository for new television (and, for many cord-cutters, the “live TV” option of choice) and second as a library of indisputable TV classics, usually in their entirety. But savvy viewers can also find a rotating library of movies, both new releases and recent classics, rivaling the collections of many of its competitors — if they know where to look. We’re here to help.
20/. New movie - "Gladiator 2".....good review from the Times....
When “Gladiator” was released in 2000, fans and critics applauded its visual effects and production design, from the towering Colosseum to the detailed costumes and prowling tigers.
More than two decades later, the architects of that film reassembled for a daunting task: building a sequel that captured what people loved about the first film’s visuals, while also finding fresh ways to surprise viewers.
“Gladiator II” (in theaters Nov. 22) includes familiar elements — tightly choreographed sword fighting and lofty speeches about the Roman Empire — but it adds combat scenes in the Colosseum that include a rhino in one sequence and sharks in another.
“It’s epic, beyond epic,” said Arthur Max, the production designer who, along with the director Ridley Scott and the producer Douglas Wick, is part of the brain trust behind the two films. “Everything we did on the first one was amplified to a much greater size and scale.”
Today's Jewish joke.....
The only cow in a small town in Poland stopped giving milk.
The people did some research and found that they could buy a cow from Moscow for 2,000 rubles, or one from Minsk for 1,000 rubles.
Being frugal, they bought the cow from Minsk.
The cow was wonderful. It produced lots of milk all the time, and the people were amazed and very happy.
They decided to acquire a bull to mate with the cow and produce more cows like it.
Then they would never have to worry about the milk supply again. They bought a bull and put it in the pasture with their beloved cow.
However, whenever the bull came close to the cow, the cow would move away.
No matter what approach the bull tried, the cow would move away from the bull and he could not succeed in his quest.
The people were very upset and decided to ask their wise rabbi, what to do.
They told the rabbi what was happening. "Whenever the bull approaches our cow, she moves away.
If he approaches from the back, she moves forward.
When he approaches her from the front, she backs off.
An approach from the side and she just walks away to the other side."
The rabbi thought about this for a minute and asked, "Did you buy this cow from Minsk?"
The people were dumbfounded, since they had never mentioned where they had gotten the cow.
"You are truly a wise rabbi," they said.
"How did you know we got the cow from Minsk?"
The rabbi answered sadly, "My wife is from Minsk."
Today's Irish joke
Mick takes a job on a construction site in Dublin:
Part of his daily work is to clear any sewage and empty the waste from the pipes.
Every Friday he has to hand in his timesheets.
After the second week the boss pulls him over for a word.
"Mick." Says the boss. "I need to have a word about your timesheets. For the past 2 weeks all you have written on them is 7:30am to 4:30pm shovelling shite."
"That's right sir, that's what I do, shovel shite." Says Mick.
"Well Mick." Says the boss. "In future can you not write shovelling shite, can you write excavating excrement instead."
"For feck sake." Says Mick. "If I could write about excavating excrement, I wouldn't be shovelling fecken shite.
Today's Ladies joke
A young Jewish man walks into the Lingerie Department.
He tells the saleslady, "I would like a Jewish bra for my wife, size 34C.
With a quizzical look the saleslady asked, "What kind of bra?" He repeated, "A Jewish bra.
She said to tell you that she wanted a Jewish bra, and that you would know what she wanted."
"Ah, now I remember," said the saleslady. "We don't get as many requests for them as we used to.
Most of our customers lately want the Catholic bra, or the Salvation Army bra, or the Presbyterian bra."
Confused, and a little flustered, the man asked "So, what are the differences?
The saleslady responded. "It is all really quite simple.
The Catholic bra supports the masses, the Salvation Army lifts up the fallen, and the
Presbyterian bra keeps them staunch and upright."
He mused on that information for a minute and said:
"Hmm...I know I'll regret asking, but what does the Jewish bra do?"
"Ah, the Jewish bra," she replied "makes mountains out of molehills".
Today's guys' jokes.....
Secrets of a Happy Marriage (from a man's point of view)
• My wife and I have discovered the secret to making a marriage last. Twice a week we dress smart casual and go to a nice restaurant, have some superb food, an expensive wine and companionship. She goes Tuesdays and I go Fridays.
• My wife and I sleep in separate beds these days - her bed is in Miami, mine is in Orlando.
• I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.
• When I asked my wife where she would like to go for our anniversary, she replied, "Somewhere I haven't been for a long time please." So I suggested the kitchen.
• My wife and I always hold hands like a loving couple should. But the moment I let go, she's off shopping.
• My credit card has been stolen. But I haven't reported it as fortunately, the thief is spending less money on it than my wife was.
• Just remember that marriage is the number one cause for divorce. Statistically, 100% of all divorces start with marriage.
• I thought I had married Miss Right. I just didn't know her name was 'Always'.
• I haven't spoken to my wife for the last six months because I was taught that it's rude to interrupt.
• My wife was on her mobile yesterday, chatting for half an hour before ringing off. "That was short," I said, "it's usually about two hours before you've had enough." "I know," she replied. "It was the wrong number."
• The last time my wife and I had a fight, I admit it was definitely my fault. She asked me, "What's on the TV dear?" and I replied, "Dust!"
• On the off-chance the other day, I asked my wife if she had even the slightest recollection of something that's about 5 inches long and about 2 inches wide which used to drive her wild with excitement. She replied, "Yes dear, a $100 bill."
Today's Genie joke
There was once a young man named Benny.
While hiking in the deep woods one day, he stumbled across and odd looking brass container.
When he rubbed it to remove some of the dirt that was on it, a cloud like vapor emerged from the top which then took the shape of a genie.
Benny stepped back, dropping the container, and was prepared to run when the genie said "Please, don't leave. I have been imprisoned in this container for centuries and you have freed me.
I am in your
debt and will grant you three wishes."
"Well," said Benny, "can I have a fabulous mansion overlooking the ocean."
"Yes," said the genie.
"And wealth," said Benny, "I would like great wealth. Is that possible?"
"Of course," said the genie.
"And can I meet a wonderful woman to share all this with."
"This can be arranged," said the genie. "All of these things will be done for you, but to bind our agreement you must agree to let your beard grow, never shaving again.
"I've always hated shaving anyway," said Benny. "It's a deal."
Benny left the woods and returned home and in short order all of the things the genie promised were his.
Decades later, Benny was a rich and successful man, living in a beautiful mansion with a wonderful wife, with a beard that touched his ankles.
He awoke one morning with an itchy face, a frequent occurrence due to the beard.
As he looked in the bathroom mirror he found himself thinking that he was really tired of all the rashes and itchiness and would really like to get rid of the beard.
He thought about the genie, for a second, but he hadn't seen that entity in more than 50 years. Surely, enough was enough.
In this frame of mind, Benny cut his beard off at the chin and begin to shave his face.
Suddenly, there was a muffled explosion and a flash of blue light.
When it subsided, there was an urn in the middle of the bathroom floor. It contained Benny's ashes.
The moral of this story should be obvious: a Benny shaved, is a Benny urned.
