What's True Pussycat? - Trump Thread #134

[Spandauer]

Non-fake, stable genius thanks to @Crucible for the new thread title.

Seniors' special today.*
They’re eating the dogs!
They’re eating the cats!
They’re eating the pets!...
So do you want fries with that cat? (*Apologies to non-MAGA seniors)

In other news, the swing states continue to be too close to call and it looks like it's going to be a nail-biting, buttock-clenching, hand-wringing 50 days to the election. (or thereabouts)
Increase your anxiety with this handy countdown 😭
https://days.to/until/election-day-in-us

Previous thread here:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5134172-its-not-over-until-the-cat-lady-sings-trump-thread-133

I read it as more an attempt not to certify the election. I might be wrong though.

This is an eye opener... a prediction of what might happen from Steve Schmidt, founder of Lincoln Project.

Be not afraid

https://steveschmidt.substack.com/p/warning-1-be-not-afraid

Just part of it below....

Ten days from tonight, before midnight, if he is losing, Donald Trump will appear before the cameras and declare he is winning an election that he knows he has lost. His accomplices will be the people standing next to him and behind him. Across the country, a well-rehearsed plan will begin to be executed in the key states with the premeditated and specific goal of seizing power from the will of the American people. Three things will happen immediately after his news conference:

1. Elon Musk will use the full weight of X to spread conspiracies, lies, misinformation, and seek to help Trump overturn the election.
2. Dozens of news organizations will follow Musk’s lead and refuse to acknowledge either the arithmetic or reality when it comes to reporting the facts of the election. The decision by FOX News on election night about whether to stoke a coup or report facts will have massive impact and consequences.
3. The United States will enter a period of national and constitutional emergency.

Every American must be prepared to defend their vote in the aftermath of the coming attempt to overthrow it by Donald Trump in an election where only one party is loyal to the Union, the Constitution and the American way of life. Defiance will be required, and fearlessness will be called for.

https://x.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1850870618905829418

NEW - Some billionaires who Trump targeted are now hedging their bets, as the former president vows retribution against enemies if elected

Bezos blocks WaPo endorsement. Zuckerberg promises neutrality. Buffett stays out. Google chief reportedly calls Trump to praise McDonalds stop. CEOs rushing to backchannel to team Trump.

“Trump has had no issue calling out political enemies by name and threatening to use the force of government for retribution, and apparently that is intimidating a lot of wealthy targets ... It is a very scary sign that government intimidation works.”

But it's all OK because the 2nd amendment means they can bear arms against a repressive government🤔

We all talk about the Trump base as a major force, but I find myself wondering, just how big is this base? What percentage of Republicans are they, and what percentage of voters altogether? 28% of the voting public is Republican, plus of the 41% that are Independent, about a third lean to the Republican party, so call that 14%; added together that's 42% ish. But by no means all of those hold MAGA positions on things such as approving of violence against the government and feeling the January 6th insurrection was justified, thinking 2020 was "stolen"and rejecting that election result, and adoring Trump. In fact more and more of them seem not to, especially not the adoring Trump bit. I really doubt that MAGAts make up more than 15% of the voting public overall.

Obviously there are idiots who listen to him and think "That's a good leader who has an economic policy" rather than "Dear God he sounds like Uncle Jim just before we had to put him in the home", but are there enough of them to get Trump into power legitimately?

There is guaranteed to be a lot of "riding the dragon" going on, where candidates are using the Trump charisma to bag themselves votes. Presumably in the mistaken idea they will be able to ditch them once elected.

It's a shame it's a bit "boy who cried wolf", that the accusation of "fascist" has lost any meaning. So that when a real fascist arrives - despite it being on a train called the Fascist Express, with a marching band goose-stepping to the song "I am a fascist, and I'll fascist you up" with cheerleaders performing the dance of the long knives, people just shrug it off and say "don't exaggerate"

One of the really important things, of course, is that people must not be caused to say in despair "There's no point in my voting against him, Trump is sure to win" and not bother to go against what they perceive (because they are told so all the time) as something unstoppable.

It really is a bad idea to doom-monger about the odious, small-souled git being invincible; that's one way to cause him to become so. Otherwise why would the Russian bots be doing it?

I'm learning all the time but, gosh, it's complicated....

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/10/20/trump-overturn-2024-election-plan-00184103

I want to recommend Matthew Dowd as a Twitter follow - he's one of the reasons I've stayed guardedly optimistic
https://x.com/matthewjdowd/status/1850912188090745262

Nate Silver's model has now tipped to Harris, according to Newsweek

I can't keep up, just a couple of days ago he was saying the popular vote as well as the electoral college was on track for Trump.

Polls, schmolls.

It's honestly giving me whiplash!

Matthew Dowd called it yesterday - that the models would start to switch over this week. He's been asserting for a while that their modelling was too heavily predicated on junk polling and wouldn't hold up.

It's still far too close for comfort and could change in a single moment, don't get me wrong, but it's a more positive outlook.

What is that they say about hope?

I'm clinging on to a commentator's assertion that the polling base is faulty as it uses electoral registers which don't include a significantly number of new voters - women and young people in particular- who will vote for Harris. 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

Let's hope so. I feel for the Americans on this thread but this also affects all of us. At the moment, liberal democracies are the most powerful bloc in the world. Trump's election will weaken that. His election will halt any prospect of action on climate change for another 4 years. It'll embolden Putin. It'll denigrate political discourse. His only restraint will be the American domestic courts and that in itself is a threat to democracy in its own way. He represents the debasement of Western values- for that matter, his supporters on the Evangelical right represent a debased, crumbling form of Christianity.

I'd really like to repost your post with "would" in place of every "will"! "Will" gives the impression these evil effects are inevitable; "would" would indicate they can still be avoided.

Fair enough. But if you expect the worst you may be pleasantly surprised!

Well, that's true. Even so, I feel that doom and gloom are a bit over-rated....

Watching Puerto Rican congress members speaking about the ‘joke’ at the Trump rally last night is really powerful. There’s also a good explainer on CNN (apologies link not working when I paste it) breaking down how 1 joke could swing Pennsylvania to Harris due to the Latino population.

I voted so that my number is in the popular vote
even though it will have no impact on the electoral college

Trump’s currently warbling to faith leaders in Georgia about how wonderful he was for moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and how close we are to WW3.

The Bulwark is reporting that according to 4 different Trump campaign sources the Trump campaign approved of these remarks by Tony Hinchcliffe last night.

Originally Tony had planned to call Kamala Harris a “c-nt” but the campaign pushed back on that. Campaign staffers asked all speakers to submit drafts of their speeches ahead of time before they were loaded into the Teleprompter, according to the sources. They forced Tony to remove the C-word portion of his speech, but nothing else.

Of course they approved it! It's one of Trump's major tactics in getting his message across. Have someone else say it, the outrage happens, then he or one of his mouthpieces steps in to decry what was said. The Cult then puts a finger to the side of their collective noses and say "Oh, he had to say that for the media, but WE know how he really feels about <insert subject>!". Classic Trump plausible deniability.

Have someone else say it, the outrage happens, then he or one of his mouthpieces steps in to decry what was said.

It’s pretty much an art form, the way he’s perfected it. Farage has been doing similar for years. It’s horrible how these vile people learn off each other.