“They’ll say he was rambling,” he said. “I don’t ramble. I’m a really smart guy, you know, really smart. I don’t ramble.” In the speech, Trump defended his proposal to impose tariffs on China and other countries. Trump falsely described tariffs as a tax on those countries; in reality tariffs are paid by domestic consumers. “A lot of people like to say, ‘Oh, it’s a tax on us,’” Trump said. “No, no, no, it’s a tax on a foreign country.” Meanwhile, in the crowd: I just don’t know what to say. Can this country survive this level of puerile ignorance?
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Trump even claims the Democrats rigged their own election The organizing principle of the MAGA GOP is that everything in the world is “rigged” against Donald Trump. And that includes the Democratic Party’s own nominating process: During a rally in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Trump repeatedly blamed Harris and Democrats for Biden dropping out of the race more than a month ago — undermining Harris’ legitimacy as a candidate and highlighting his one-time opponent. He claimed, without evidence, that the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week is “rigged” because Biden isn’t on the ticket. He said Biden is a worse debater than Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke. And Trump accused the media of being biased in favor of the president. “What happened to Biden? I was running against Biden and now I’m running against someone else,” Trump said.
Scrambling before showtime Politico has two pre-DNC convention stories worth examining. The first by past convention planners provides a back-stage look at the frenetic preparations for a convention that is at once a four-day infomercial for the Democratic nominee for president, and a last-minute scramble to re-write the script for a convention planned around a different candidate. How to make it must-see TV when everyone knows the outcome? It’s “like herding (childless cat ladies’) cats“: That’s why at this convention, you will see at least one “must-cover” speaker each night: President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton on Monday, President Barack Obama on Tuesday, President Bill Clinton and Governor Tim Walz on Wednesday, and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday. Even with big names, a Democrat supporting a Democrat isn’t newsworthy, but much like a 1970s sitcom, extra-special guests are — especially Republicans supporting Democrats. This is why conventions have tried to highlight unlikely supporters or allies.
The innocent exchange led to a total Republican meltdown. “Why is Kamala the expert on tacos?” asked Fox & Friends co-host Will Cain. “Did she say white guy tacos are tuna in mayonnaise?” Conservative provocateur Mike Cernovich took it further, accusing Walz of lying about skipping seasoning. “Tim Walz is such a compulsive liar, and deployment dodger, that I decided to see if he lied about not seasoning his food.” Cernovich pointed to a 2016 award-winning recipe by the Minnesota governor for “Turkey Taco Tot Hotdish,” which included the spices paprika, chili powder, onion powder, and garlic powder. “Tim Walz is such a compulsive liar, and deployment dodger, that I decided to see if he lied about not seasoning his food.” Apparently, Cernovich, who is s moron in most ways, thinks that a “tot hot dish” is spicy. Here is an example of a taco tot hot dish: That’s “white guy” mexican food. So, by the way, is most of what they serve at Taco Bell if you don’t add the hot salsa.
Harris does not compute It’s like watching Rocky’s rematch with Clubber Lang. Clubber is suffering a flurry of jabs from the fitter, faster, more-skilled Rocky. He’s throwing punches and missing, breathing hard, wearing himself out. In his American flag trunks, Rocky taunts him, “My mother hits harder than that!” Announcer: “I don’t think Lang knew what hit him yet in this whole first round.” It’s a joy to watch, says Michael Tomasky in The New Republic, now that Donald Trump is the target and VP Kamala Harris is throwing punches. It’s still the first round, but Trump is tossing around “bananas” accusations and visibly flailing: But wait. These are just the appetizers! Then he called Harris a “communist” and said the country under her leadership would devolve into a commie dystopia in which “everyone gets health care” (the horror!).
Now that both parties have agreed to jettison the presidential debate commission that handled them in the past, this is what we’re dealing with: On Thursday, it seemed like the dust had finally settled. “The debate about debates is over,” said Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign communications director, in a statement. “Donald Trump’s campaign accepted our proposal for three debates—two presidential and a vice presidential debate.” “Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October,” the Harris campaign continued. But now, Trump’s team claims that the Democrat lied when she said the two sides reached a debate agreement. At the moment, there is only one confirmed debate between the presidential nominees, to be held September 10 by ABC News.
He added later that he “ran for president one time and won!” I’m not sure why anyone ever thought Trump’s puerile nicknames were so clever to begin with but to the extent he has a real “nickname” talent, he’s certainly lost it now: The former president, who rarely mentioned Harris until after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, tried out “Laffin’ Kamala” before pivoting to “Lyin’ Kamala,” then jettisoned that for “Crazy Kamala,” which he interspersed with misspellings of her name. In the last few days, he has abandoned those monikers — even as he continues to use nicknames for other adversaries. Demeaning nicknames have been core to Trump’s political brand since he first jumped into the political scene, a tool he has leveraged against both Republicans and Democrats to humiliate his opponents and rile up his supporters. But he’s struggled to adjust to run against Harris, even as he has leaned into personal attacks. He’s been repurposing his insults from the very beginning.
Trump plans to send in the troops this time I wrote below about the militias that are working up a froth over the possibility of Trump losing yet again. It’s pretty unnerving. But we should also be unnerved by what will happen if Trump wins, especially if his “win” is due to the courts validating some right wing scheme to invalidate the election results in his favor resulting in widespread protests. The NY Times reports (gift link): During his time out of power, allies of Mr. Trump have worked on policy papers to provide legal justifications for the former president’s intent to use the military to enforce the law domestically. In public, they have talked about this in the context of border states and undocumented immigrants. But an internal email from a group closely aligned with Mr. Trump, obtained by The Times, shows that, privately, the group was also exploring using troops to “stop riots” by protesters.
Baby penguin! There are few certainties in life, but alongside death, taxes, and the arrival of hot weather in July, at least one other thing is inarguable: baby penguins are almost impossibly cute. Guests visiting the Tennessee Aquarium during the Fourth of July holiday can join Aquarium staffers in excitedly welcoming the newest addition to the Penguins’ Rock gallery — a fluffy (and shockingly fast-growing) Macaroni Penguin chick. The chick hatched on June 2 from an egg laid in late April by parents Bacon and Merlin. This baby bird is the first offspring ever produced by Bacon, who hatched in 2015 to two other Aquarium penguins, Hercules and Little Debbie. Though Little Debbie now lives at another facility, the newest chick’s grandsire, Hercules, still calls Penguins’ Rock home. With this latest arrival, the Aquarium is home for the first time ever to three generations of Macaroni Penguins. The new chick is the Aquarium’s first hatchling since the 2021 arrival of Carla, a Gentoo Penguin. This latest baby is the first Macaroni Penguin chick since Pedro hatched in 2019.
Doubling down on misogyny Rebecca Traister, writer-at-large for New York magazine, is a treasure. Appearing last night on “The Daily Show,” Traister embraced the uncertainty and exhilaration of electing a woman president. That feeling is appropriately driving people to action. Shared anger at the demise of Roe is bringing people together. And it’s a joyful fight. The right-wing manosphere’s inability to hide their loathing for women and scorn for woman is stunning, Traister offers. The RNC convention was an ickier, grosser pageant of misogyny. As stunning is Democratic men’s embrace of women’s issues, she continued, “in a way I have rarely seen Democratic men be comfortable before.” They’ve made women’s reproductive freedom and “full civic participation a clarion, moral call of the Democratic Party.” Traister calls it a remarkable phenomenon on the left. Embrace the future. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.