One Week to Vote

Democratic Ticket

Monday: Vice President Kamala Harris is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Monday with her running mate, Tim Walz and singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers. 

Tuesday: Harris gives “closing arguments” addressing her economic policies, health care and civil rights at the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Wednesday: Harris and Walz make stops in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and then in Madison, Wisconsin accompanied by Mumford & Sons.

Thursday: Harris appears with Latino music group Maná in Las Vegas, then in Phoenix with Los Tigres del Norte. Walz, meanwhile, makes stops in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Republican Ticket

Monday: Former President Donald J. Trump has a 6 pm appearance in Atlanta, while JD Vance goes to Wausau, Wisconsin, at 2 pm CT and Racine, Wisconsin, at 5:30 pm CT.

Tuesday: Trump is in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at 7 pm ET and Vance is in Saginaw, Michigan, noon ET.

Wednesday: Trump holds a rally with former Packers quarterback Brett Favre in Green Bay, Wisconsin, 6 pm CT.

Thursday: Trump is in Henderson, Nevada at 3:30 pm PT.

Friday: Trump holds a rally in Milwaukee at 7 pm CT.

Saturday: Trump is in Salem, Virginia, at 4 pm ET.

--Hat tip to Newsweek

_____
MONDAY 10/28/24

…meanwhile…

Yes, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s ‘joke’ about Puerto Rico at Madison Square Garden turns out to be the big story from Sunday’s Trump rally. Will it make a difference at the polls next week?

This is Supposed to Help? – After the Trump/Vance campaign’s self-imposed October Surprise at Madison Square Garden Sunday, the ex-president on Monday followed up with these comments, according to The Hill, on former First Lady Michelle Obama, who has been campaigning for the Harris/Walz Democratic ticket:

“You know who’s nasty to me? Michelle Obama. I always tried to be nice and respectful,” Donald J. Trump said at an Atlanta rally Monday. “Oh, she opened up a little bit of – a little bit of a box. She opened up a little bit of something. She was nasty, ooh, ooh. She shouldn’t be nasty. That was a mistake she made.”

•••

Warning from Ukraine – Donald J. Trump must “face reality” that any attempt to freeze Russia’s invasion of Ukraine if he becomes president is “unrealistic,” says Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukraine parliament’s foreign affairs policy. 

“This plan doesn’t look realistic because it implies the agreement of Vladimir Putin, who is absolutely unreliable and not trustworthy when it comes to observing any agreement,” Merezhko said of Trump’s plan to end the war within 24 hours of taking office. “At the same time, Putin, as of now, is not interested in negotiations and agreements. He still believes that he can win.”

It is unknown from this report in The Kyiv Independent whether Merezhko was being wry and perhaps a bit ironic about the Trump/Vance campaign’s motives and its relationship with Russian dictator Putin. 

In September, Republican veep candidate JD Vance floated the idea of freezing the war and creating autonomous zones on both sides of the demilitarized zone while – wait for it; this is one of Putin’s main goals – keeping Ukraine out of NATO, according to the Financial Times. 

Merezhko asserts that the only real plan is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “Victory Plan” to “strengthen Ukraine and thereby force Putin to sit at the table of negotiations.”

Meanwhile, North Korea … This comes after NATO confirmed that Russia has brought in North Korean troops into its Kursk Oblast, which Ukrainian troops attacked in August. 

“The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” said NATO Secretary-Gen. Mark Rutte, Reuters reports. 

Not only do the North Korean troops give Putin more leverage in any future negotiations, they reinforce his long-anticipated plan to move into Lithuania and Poland if he has better success in Ukraine.

--TL

_______________________________________________

MONDAY 10/28/24

Carnival at the Garden – Much news media coverage of Donald J. Trump’s four-hour rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday night has concentrated on comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage,” and so as it turns out, we are leading with it too. The comedian also called out a Black man in the audience with a reference to watermelon, according to The New York Times, which headlines its story on the rally as “A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism.” 

(In a statement reported by CNN, Trump spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said that Hinchcliffe’s jokes do not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.)

While Trump himself, two hours late to the event, avoided overtly racist attacks, the more disturbing comments from his opening acts may have been those against Vice President Kamala Harris that appeal most to the former president’s unwavering supporters from the New Apostolic Reformation movement -- Christian Nationalists.

From the stage, sanitation worker David Rem, 60, called Harris “the devil” and held a crucifix while “while delivering a particularly manic address,” according to The Independent, saying “the cross that I’m holding is the cross that my mother … used to hold in the air when she prayed at night, every night, for Donald Trump and his family, because we knew three years ago that he was going to be, his life was going to be attempted to kill (sic), because they don’t want Donald Trump at the ballot box.”

Real estate investor/equity fund manager Grant Cardone repeated vile lies about the vice president having “pimp handlers.”

Sid Rosenberg, 77WABC radio host and sports reporter, told the crowd that “fucking illegals” get “whatever they want” and ranted about Trump’s 2016 presidential election opponent, according to Mediaite.

“She has some sick posture, that Hilary Clinton. What a sick son of a bitch. That whole fucking party a bunch of degenerates, lowlifes, Jew haters and low lives.”

Tucker Carlson repeated Trump’s lies about Harris’ “changing” ethnicity, saying she wants to become “the first Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.”

The Garden’s scoreboard read “Trump Will Fix It” and the ex-president took advantage yet again of the opportunity to paraphrase his own catchphrase from his TV show, The Apprentice; “Kamala, you’re fired!”

“When I say ‘the enemy within’ the other side goes crazy,” Trump said, repeating his disturbingly authoritarian description of anyone associated with the Democratic Party, the press and pretty much anyone not on his side. He described the date of his potential election as the 47th president as “liberation day.”

Trump repeated his promise of mass-deportation of undocumented aliens and his senior advisor and anti-immigrant crackdown whisperer, Stephen Miller, said only his boss is bold enough to say “America is for Americans and Americans only.” (Per NYT).

Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr. (who asserted “the king of New York is back to reclaim the city that he built”) and Melania Trump were there. 

So was Rudy Giuliani, who said, “This is where a Republican is not supposed to come. Which is why Donald Trump came here.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 10/28/24

Democracy Dies in Darkness: So What?

By Stephen Macaulay

There is considerable hand-wringing and pearl-clutching occurring because The Washington Post management decided not to endorse a presidential candidate for the 2024 election.

And that response is one of the reasons why Kamala Harris may not win the election.

The people who read The Washington Post are likely to be voting for her. Do they need some sort of imprimatur to do what they plan to do anyway?

Jeff Bezos, who owns the Post, is a rich guy. As a rich guy, he wants to (1) become richer and (2) keep his wealth intact.

Bezos has a business including AWS, cloud services that can be sold to the government for some non-trivial amounts of money. To annoy someone who can make letting contracts for AWS isn’t good business. (Of course, that someone has been previously annoyed and he’s not known for letting grudges go, so odds are it doesn’t matter what Bezos says or doesn’t.) And while there are generally thought to be limitations to such things, it wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility that a call from the White House to the IRS could lead to certain problems for point (2).

But really: The Washington Post?

That’s going to make a difference to the outcome of the election?

(And the same can be said for the Los Angeles Times, though it is highly irrelevant for other reasons.)

This is scoliotic thinking.

The people who need to be reached and convinced are more likely to be listening to Joe Rogan than waiting on tenterhooks for still another Bob Woodward book.

“But Harris has Springsteen!” Yes, and the Boss, who appeals mainly to Boomers, is but a few years younger than Trump, and it is hard to imagine that he’s going to change any minds regarding who people vote for, of even if they vote.

Even Slim Shady doesn’t have the stuff he once had.

Beyonce is better — but again, singing to the choir.

The claim about Trump being a “threat to democracy” is largely irrelevant.

That’s because for the everyday person, it is, more or less, meaningless.

Does it mean that one can vote? Sure, we’ve got that, right?

And aren’t the Democrats trying to convince those who otherwise aren’t planning to vote that they may have that vote taken away from them?

This matters to those potential non-voters why?

Abstract nouns like “liberty” and “justice” are similarly not particularly compelling.

“Fight, fight, fight” is more tangible to many of these people. They “get” that.

So Trump may get them while the Democrats parse metaphysics.

The Democrats need to start making things more real.

For example, Trump is talking mass deportation.

He is appealing to an increasing number in the Brown and Black communities.

No one is in favor of “illegal immigrants.”

But wouldn’t it be worthwhile to talk about how mass deportation might work?

How many legal young Latinos are likely to be slammed into the back of a cop car because they don’t have acceptable I.D.? How many young Black men are likely to be hassled unless they, too, have acceptable creds?

The Democrats need to make that point. 

Someone — girlfriend, sister, mother — get raped by an illegal? What then? Do these women carry to term — or get charged with a felony?

That’s real.

Then there are tariffs. While that sounds like some distant economic thing, in point of fact it is going to add to the price of lots of regular items.

Consider: According to Walmart, “Most of the products we source for our retail businesses in the US and other major markets like Mexico were made, grown or assembled domestically. For example, two-thirds of merchandise sold in Walmart US and 93% of merchandise sold in Walmart Mexico fall in this category. Because of the desire to meet customer demand for variety, quality and affordability for products ranging from mangoes to certain electronics, we also source products from around the world.”

So that means 1/3 of the products in Walmart and “certain electronics” (which probably accounts for damn near all of them: do you think TVs are made in America?) are made elsewhere, and if there is an across the board 20% tariff applied — and here this is on products from anywhereelse, not China, which will get a bigger tariff — this simply means that it is going to cost the consumer that much more.

No other government is going to “pay” for the tariff. 

Every consumer is.

Make that clear. Want to buy a pair of Nikes or Adidas? Plan to pay more because they aren’t manufactured in the U.S. Those $100 kicks are going to cost $120 (at least) plus tax. 

And this whole notion of “Made in America” may sound good, but don’t expect a whole lot of shoe factories or clothing plants to open any time soon. And electronics are gone, no matter what politicians say.

Work for the auto industry? The traditional domestics have invested billions in EV capacity (yes, in places like Detroit-Hamtramck and Dearborn). If the tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act are eliminated, as Trump has suggested they will be, then those companies are going to be in some financial peril, and your job, even if you’re making crossovers or pickups, may be in jeopardy.

Why haven’t the Democrats made this point?

People may not know anyone from Ukraine. That may seem to be part of a vague “somewhere else.”

But they may have grandparents from Poland or the Czech Republic or other countries in central Europe. Do they really want to have those places overrun by Putin should he have the whim to do so? Trump would apparently let that happen.

Explain that to your babcia.

There are probably more than a few Democrats who are at the upper echelons of the Harris campaign who know things like who Dr. Samuel Johnson was, something that most people don’t.

One of Johnson’s observations was “Example is more efficacious than precept.”

Perhaps there is still time — not much, but some -- to give up on the precepts and to explain flat-out what a Trump presidency will mean to the people they need to get to vote for their candidate.

_____
MONDAY 10/28/24

Eight Days to Vote

Republican Ticket

Elon Musk holds a rally for Donald J. Trump in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 7 pm Saturday, then travels to Madison Square Garden in New York City for Trump’s signature rally.

Democratic Ticket

Get Out the Vote rally with Kamala Harris and former first-lady Michelle Obama in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Harris travels to Philadelphia Sunday, then Ann Arbor, Michigan on Monday with singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers, according to the Detroit Free Press. Tuesday Harris gives “closing arguments” at the National Mall in Washington, DC.

•••

BIG DAY IN TEXAS – In Houston, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris holds a rally with music superstar Beyoncé, whose song Freedom has been the vice president’s campaign anthem, joining her. While Texas is not considered a swing state, Harris will stump for Rep. Collin Allred, the Democratic challenger to Sen. Ted Cruz's re-election bid November 5. In Austin, Republican candidate Donald J. Trump makes remarks on immigration and the border, then tapes an interview with the eponymous host of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Republican Ticket

Trump attends a rally 5 pm ET/2 pm PT in Tempe, Arizona, then he is on to Las Vegas for Turning Point's "United for Change" rally at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT.

JD Vance appears at Treasure Island, Las Vegas, Wednesday, followed by the Silver Legacy Resort in Reno.

•••

Donald J. Trump attends the “Believers and Ballots Faith Town Hall” at Christ Chapel, Zebulon, Georgia, Wednesday.

Later Wednesday, Trump holds a rally at the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia.

Vance is in Waterford, Michigan, at 5:30 pm ET, then is off to NewNation for a town hall with moderator Chris Cuomo. It airs 8 pm ET/5 pm PT.

•••

Donald J. Trump is in Doral, Florida for a Latino Summit, where he will attend a roundtable with Latino leaders at 11 am Eastern time. 

At 2 pm ET, Trump attends a “Make America Healthy Again” virtual town hall with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. 

At 7 pm ET, Trump holds a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina.

JD Vance speaks in Peoria, Arizona, at 4 pm Eastern/1 pm Pacific, then holds a rally in Tucson at 7:30 pm ET/4:30 pm PT.

Democratic Ticket

Harris is in Atlanta for a "Get Out the Vote" rally with Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen.

Walz makes political stops in Durham and Greenville, North Carolina, then attends a 6:30 pm rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

•••

Kamala Harris appears at a CNN Town Hall beginning 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. 

Tim Walz visits Philadelphia Friday for the first time since he was announced as Harris’ running mate.

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff appears in Broward, and Miami-Dade, Florida, Wednesday.

•••

Kamala Harris is in Washington, DC for an interview at the US Naval Observatory with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson, that will air at 6:30 pm Eastern time.

Tim Walz attends a rally with President Barack Obama, in Madison, Wisconsin, 2:30 pm ET/1:30 CT, then holds a rally in Racine at 7:45 pm ET/6:30 pm CT.

_____
TUESDAY 10/22/24

…meanwhile…

Musk Stumped for Trump in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Saturday

FRIDAY 10/25/24

Israel Strikes Back – The Israeli Defense Force struck missile production facilities and surface-to-air missile facilities in Iran overnight Saturday in retaliatory counterattacks, with Haaretz reporting “strong” explosions heard in Tehran and other provinces. Iranian officials said it “thwarted” the Israeli attack, but “limited damage” was caused. Both the US and the IDF have warned against escalation by Iran, with Israel saying it “will be obligated” to respond, while the US is pushing for ceasefire deals in Gaza and Lebanon after the Israeli strikes.

•••

Fake Video Sparks Conspiracy – A fake video that purports to show someone’s hands destroying ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania for Donald J. Trump was manufactured and spread by Russia, US officials said Friday, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. The video, spread by Elon Musk’s X/Twitter and other social media sites, was officially debunked by local election officials who say the envelops and ballots in the video do not match what the county uses for early voting by mail.

Goes without saying?... Though it’s not being said out loud, yet, the fake video in its attempt to spark outrage among Trump supporters is evidence that Russia is working to tip the election scales toward the former president, just as it did for his presidential election win in 2016. Election officials’ debunking of this vide is unlikely to allay their concerns.

•••

Voter Registration Fraud – Meanwhile, in Lancaster County, in south-central Pennsylvania east of Harrisburg, election officials are reviewing thousands of voter registration applications because some of them may be fraudulent, LNP/LancasterOnline reports. Problematic applications were detected by elections staff in two batches of about 2,500 applications dropped at the Lancaster Board of Commissioners’ office before next Monday’s registration deadline. 

“At this point, it is believed that the fraudulent voter registrations are connected to a large-scale canvassing operation for voter registrations,” said District Attorney Heather Adams.

Some of the 2,500 applications are legitimate.

Your reaction to this report probably depends on whether you believe the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump; It’s either an indication that illegal aliens will get some registrations past officials by November 5, or that officials are able to prevent such fraudulent registration.

•••

No Endorsement – The Washington Post is “returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” Publisher/CEO Will Lewis said Friday, in explaining why it will refrain from endorsing Kamala Harris for president, media correspondent David Folkenflik reports in a scoop for NPR. Those roots go all the way back to 1988, the last time the WaPo did not endorse. 

This follows the Los Angeles Times’ decision not to endorse, which led to resignations of its editorials’ editor and two editorial board members. 

Retaliation… The two big-city newspapers’ owners are worried about retaliation if Donald J. Trump wins the November 5 election and follows his former chief of staff John F. Kelly’s description in The New York Times of the ex-president as being a fascist. 

As founder of Amazon, WaPo owner Jeff Bezos, often described as a libertarian, has several contracts with the federal government including the US Postal Service. Fellow billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong is the businessman and medical device inventor who owns the LA Times.

--TL

_______________________________________________

FRIDAY 10/25/24

UPDATE -- NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told Semafor that a Wall Street Journal report of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaking with Russian President Vladmir Putin should be investigated.

Musk Talks to Putin – Russian President/dictator Vladmir Putin and SpaceX/Starlink/Tesla/X-Twitter chief Elon Musk have been “in regular contact” since 2022, The Wall Street Journal reports in a scoop “confirmed by several current and former US, European and Russian officials.” They told the newspaper that Musk and Putin have spoken about personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions. 

For example, Putin at one point asked Musk to “avoid” activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jingping, a close ally of Putin’s Russia.

Connections … Musk negotiated a unique arrangement with China in order to build a Tesla factory there the beginning of this decade. While every other automaker from outside China – US, European, Japanese and South Korean – must have a 50% partner, usually a local government in China in order to build and sell cars there and for export, Tesla owns its factory outright. More recently, Musk has led the America PAC that has contributed $72 million to the Trump/Vance campaign as of early October, according to NPR. And, of course, Musk has been holding his own rallies for Trump/Vance in 19-delegate swing state Pennsylvania and he will join the ex-president and his campaign in a rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden. 

Deregulation … There is also Trump’s interest in appointing Musk, the world’s richest man, as deregulation czar – euphemistically, secretary for a department of government efficiency -- if he wins the presidency. In Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts Wednesday evening, Musk lamented the need to seek approval state-by-state for Tesla’s fully autonomous Cybercab project. “There should be a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles,” Musk said. “If there’s a department of government efficiency, I’ll try to make that happen.”

•••

Apology to Natives – President Biden finally is fulfilling his promise to visit a Native American community, in order to apologize for a 150-year-plus federal program of separating American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children from their parents in order to simulate them into American society (per NPR’s Morning Edition). The program, which ended in 1969, exposed many of the children to abuse and even death. 

Biden visits the Gila River Indian community outside Phoenix, not so coincidentally in the swing state of Arizona, Friday. 

“This is part of the president’s legacy. This apology is historic, it’s impactful,” said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

--TL

_______________________________________________

THURSDAY 10/24/24

No Clarity Here – The latest Marist polls, taken October 17-22, do not add any clarity to the presidential race. Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald J. Trump are “deadlocked” in Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia, Politico reports, with the slight differences explained away as being within the margins of error. Marist polled 1,193 likely voters each, in Arizona and Georgia and 1,226 likely voters in North Carolina.

Arizona: Trump leads Harris, 50% to 49%, but with a plus/minus 3.7-point margin of error.

North Carolina: Same as Arizona, at 50% for Trump and 49% for Harris, but with a 3.6-point margin of error.

Georgia: Trump and Harris are tied at 49%, with a 3.9-point margin of error.

While late polls in 2016 and 2020 gave some clues to the final outcome when compared with earlier polls in those years, we’re not getting any clues this year. 

One thing… in the Harris/Walz camp’s favor is that we’re still talking about Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina here, in addition to the more traditional battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

--TL

_______________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 10/23/24

DPRK Troops in Russia -- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking from Rome has confirmed that North Korea has lent troops to Russia, but told reporters the purpose for their deployment was not clear. Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the North Korean troops are to help Russia in its two-year-old-plus war with his country.

"There is evidence that there are DPKR (North Korean) troops in Russia," Austin said, per The Kyiv Independent. "What exactly are they doing? Left to be seen. Those are things we need to sort out."

Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR), said the first North Korean units were expected to arrive Wednesday in the Kursk Oblast region of Russia, where Ukrainian troops began their defensive incursion last August.

•••

Kelly’s October ‘Surprise’ – When he was president, Donald J. Trump was pretty open about his affection for authoritarians and dictators like China’s Xi Jingping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Similar feelings for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have lasted all the way up to, and likely beyond, the November 5th presidential election.

On a certain level, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, John F. Kelly’s warnings about Trump in a recorded interview with The New York Times might seem anti-climactic. If you haven’t paid attention to the warnings before, you are not terribly likely to suddenly care within two weeks of the election. 

Even though Kelly said this: “In many cases I would agree with some of his policies. But again, it’s a very dangerous thing to have the wrong person elected to high office.”

And this: “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators – he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure. … He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”

And Kelly, the retired US Marine Corp general who was Trump’s homeland security secretary before he moved to the White House to be his chief of staff, said this, too: “I think he’d love to be just like he was in business – he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.”

--TL

________________________________________________

TUESDAY 10/22/24

Two Weeks from Today – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris beats Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in poll averages for four of 10 battleground states, according to The Washington Post. Vice President Harris leads by one point in Nevada and two points each in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. 

Trump leads by one point in North Carolina and two points each in Georgia and Arizona, according to the polling averages. 

Of course, that’s all margin-of-error territory, indicating that polling hasn’t gotten much more definitive, or even helpful, over the last eight years.

•••

Blinken Tries Again – Secretary of State Antony Blinken has returned to Israel to meet again with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in hopes of building some peace momentum after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, last week. Perhaps a bit more realistically, Blinken hopes to de-escalate tensions in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, The Washington Post reports. But as he arrived, an Israeli airstrike near a Beirut hospital killed 13 after Hezbollah said it launched rockets at Israel.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
TUESDAY 10/22/24

Don’t Let Him Out of the Locker Room

By Stephen Macaulay

While it is far too easy to mock Donald Trump’s meandering public rants as he travels across the country, it has now gotten to the point where well-meaning Trump supporters need to take a look in the mirror and ask themselves whether this man, who is becoming increasingly bizarre in his performances, has the mental stability, acuity, and moral compass necessary to become the president of the United States.

When the Access Hollywood tape came out as the October Surprise for to the 2016 presidential election, the time when Trump said of women, “And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything,” it was dismissed as “locker-room talk.” 

Saturday, at a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Trump said:

“Arnold Palmer was all man. And I say that in all due respect to women and I love women. But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough. And I refused to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’”

Perhaps in his mind he was balancing the pussy with Arnold Palmer’s penis.

While some of you may be shocked by that statement, let’s get this straight: This is discourse that is predicated on the statements of Donald Trump.

He took the locker room and put it on the stage.

Palmer hailed from that area in Pennsylvania, which presumably was the reason why Trump opened his speech with that remark. This wasn’t a case where he was distracted by something and started a riff. No, he possibly wanted the people of Latrobe to know that he knew where he was (which he apparently didn’t a couple weeks earlier, when he insulted Detroit while speaking at the Economic Club of Detroit). 

Instead of talking about Palmer’s four Masters, two Open Championships, one US Open championship, and other accomplishments, Trump headed to the locker room.

Then, in his Latrobe presentation, he said of his opponent Kamala Harris, “You’re a shit vice president.”

“Shit vice president.”

He could have used the adjectives “lousy,” “dreadful,” atrocious,” “inferior,” or a multitude of other words that would be descriptive.

But no, “shit.”

Trump is creating a permission environment for people where anything goes. He non-apologetically lies about things. He insults fellow Americans. He threatens Americans who don’t support him. And he uses what is — or once was — considered “locker-room” language in public.

The evening before Latrobe, at the Al Smith Dinner, hosted by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, Trump’s tirade included, “I don’t give a shit if this is comedy or not.”

“I don’t give a shit if this is comedy or not,” but you certainly don’t use that language (1) at a white-tie event that (2) has priests in attendance.

What message does that send not only to voters but to their children?

If the man who behaves and says what he does, who calls people names and belittles them in a crude and angry manner, is the person that people should respect and possibly even look up to, what is the level we have as a society fallen to?

For many people Kamala Harris is not the candidate that they can support.

Fine.

But among other things a vote for Donald Trump is support for a man who is becoming increasingly vulgar.

Explain that to your mother — you know, the person who would figuratively wash your mouth out with soap if you talked about pussys, penises or other shit -- or your children or grandchildren, the people whom you would do that to were they to use that boorish language.

Trump is anything but a representative of what a “great” America should be.

-30-

_____
TUESDAY 10/22/24

Two Weeks to Election Day

Where are the presidential candidates Monday? Since this is the left column, we’ll start with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. 

The vice president and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) earn some frequent flier miles, with stops in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Ex-President Trump is covering North Carolina Monday, first in the western portion to survey hurricane damage, then to a Greenville rally at 3 pm and finishing with a 6:30 pm meeting with faith leaders in the Charlotte suburb of Concord. 

(Monday’s schedule courtesy The Wall Street Journal.)

Email your COMMENTS, left or right, to editors@thehustings.news and be sure to check out our free Substack page.

_____
MONDAY 10/21/24

…meanwhile…

MONDAY 10/21/24

Dead Heat – Latest Washington Post/Schar School poll of more than 5,000 registered voters, conducted in the first half of October shows Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump tied at 47% among registered voters who “definitely/probably” will support the respective candidate. Harris has a one-point lead among likely voters, at 49% to 48%.

•••

Four! – Arnold Palmer was a gentlemanly professional golfer who dominated his sport from the mid-1950s through the ‘60s. Those of us who do not follow golf closely perhaps know him best as the inspiration for an eponymous non-alcoholic cocktail. 

To former president and amateur golfer known for – guess what? – cheating, Donald J. Trump, Palmer meant more than golf and Arnold Palmers. Much more.

“This is a guy that was all man,” Trump said at his campaign rally Saturday in Palmer’s hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, held at the local airport that, like the lemonade/sweet tea cocktail, is named for the golfer. “He took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’ I had to say it.”

And so, Trump spent the first 12 minutes of his rally at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport speaking about, er, Arnold Palmer’s size. Apparently, the golfer did not have small hands.

At least one of Palmer’s survivors, daughter Peggy Palmer, was not amused.

“I thought it was an unfortunate way to remember my dad,” Peggy Palmer told The Independent.

•••

Not the End – War in Gaza is “not over” following the killing by the Israeli Defense Force of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said (per Al Jazeera) but the beginning of the end. 

“Today, evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task before us is not complete,” the Israeli PM said last week. 

Meanwhile, a senior member of the Israeli hostage negotiation team has told Haaretz the killing of Sinwar has not led to any changes in either side’s position in negotiations.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 10/21/24

Donald’s Delirious Dance Party

By Stephen Macaulay

During the Donald Trump event in Philadelphia, where he was joined on stage by acolyte Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota, clearly a woman who learned respectful public behavior from WWE divas (“And I know that you all embrace being the City of Brotherly Love, but I’m going to get real with you right here, Kamala Harris sucks. Right? She sucks.” Classy.), things got off on one of two left feet.

When Trump took the stage, Noem told him that the crowd loves him “because they recognize, sir, that you’re the one who fights for them. You’re the one who protects them.”

To which he responded, “And you know what else? They fight for themselves and they’ve been fighting for a long time, and we’re going to make your fight easier.”

Where is all of this fighting going on?

But because he got on the topic of fighting, he fairly quickly got to “the Afghanistan disaster, the most embarrassing time in the history of our country.” 

As he probably doesn’t recall, in February 2020 Trump and the Taliban reached a deal, the Doha Agreement. It said that all US forces would withdraw from Afghanistan by May 2021 and in return the Taliban wouldn’t attack American forces. Trump, perhaps, assumed, he’d still be in office. He wasn’t.

Oh, and there was another thing that Trump agreed to: Pressuring the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban military leaders and fighters from prison.

Perhaps this has something to do with his claims of other countries releasing criminals from prison that make their way to the US. Seems like he might be complicit in that if that is, indeed, occurring.

Biden pushed back on the May 1 deadline and things didn’t go well. On August 26, terrorists killed 13 US service members in Afghanistan and by August 30, the last U.S. military helicopter took off.

Certainly bad and bolloxed. But “the most embarrassing time in the history of our country”?

Noem then, presumably referring to Bagram Airfield, said, “And who controls that airstrip now?”

Trump answered: “China.”

And went on:

“A big one. A really good one. Powerful, runways, long runways. And you know what happened? I’ll tell you, they gave it up, and it was one hour way from where China … Forget about Afghanistan. One hour away from where China builds its nuclear weapons would have been very nice to have. And China now occupies that air base. So it’s terrible. It’s terrible.”

It is also untrue.

Noem decided to move things along. She opened up questioning from the audience.

She called on a man named Reid. Trump observed, “Nice looking guy.” Huh?

Noem said, “And Reid, I believe you’re a Navy SEAL, correct?”

That would have been a money shot, with a SEAL in the house.

Reid answered: “No.”

Noem: “No. Okay. I got that wrong. All right, thank you very much.”

She was probably still thinking about the Chinese.

Reid asked Trump about what he was going to do to reduce high mortgage rates to help make housing affordable.

Trump answered that “We had interest rates at 2%”—which he didn’t exactly, as the average interest rates from 2017 to 2019 were on the order of 4.5 to 5%--higher than the Obama 2013-2016 of 3.5 to 4.5%. While mortgage rates were below 3% in 2020-2021, that’s largely because the Fed, responding to COVID, cut the benchmark interest rate to near zero and purchased a lot of mortgage-backed securities.

So apparently the only way Trump pulled something off was due to a virus that killed 384,536 Americans in 2020 and 462,193 more in 2021.

He bounced around in that answer about mortgage rates to zoning, Venezuelan oil (would anyone want regulations to be lifted so an oil refinery could be built next door to someone’s house?), Social Security taxation, inflation (“In my opinion, the biggest inflation in the history of our country” — which it isn’t by a long shot, his opinion notwithstanding), to fake job statistics, fake crime statistics, then back to oil: “One year from January 20th, we will have your energy prices cut in half all over the country.” One assumes that the CEOs of ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips would probably resist that happening. You’d think that a man who went on to proclaim, “I went to school here. I went to the Wharton School, the great Wharton School of Finance, and they were great. It’s a great place. It’s a great place, but I went to college here.” would understand about supply and demand: anyone who is running a petroleum company isn’t going to let supply become so huge that its margins get halved.

He was asked about how he’d deal with inflation at the grocery store.

Trump, in part:

“Our farmers aren’t being treated properly, and we had a deal with China and it was a great deal. I never mentioned it because once COVID came in, I said that was a bridge too far because I had a great relationship with President Xi and he’s a fierce man and he’s a man that likes China and I understand that, but we had a deal and he was perfect on that deal. Fifty billion dollars he was going to buy. We were doing numbers like you wouldn’t believe for the farmer, but the farmers are very badly hurt. The farmers in this country, we’re going to get them straightened out. We’re going to get your prices down.”

As we’ve noted before, from the Peterson Institute for International Economics on Trump’s deal that Xi “was perfect on”: “In the end, China bought only 58 percent of the US exports it had committed to purchase under the agreement, not even enough to reach its import levels from before the trade war. Put differently, China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump’s deal had promised.”

Quite a deal. The Chinese bought less than before he worked his deal.

And he’s going to straighten things out?

And there was more “weaving” performed by Trump. One person in the audience fainted about 40 minutes into the event. As the person was being treated, Trump said, “While we’re waiting, so we had a beautiful evening, and I don’t know if they could get this song up quickly, but if they could work really quickly backstage while we’re waiting, Ave Maria.” The song played.

And suddenly, it seems, an audio ear worm worked itself into his head.

Some eight minutes after the first person needed medical attention, a second fell and needed medical attention.

Trump said, “How about we’ll do a little music. Let’s make this a musical fest.”

One playing of Ave Maria wasn’t enough.

“So put on Pavarotti singing Ave Maria. Nice and loud. Turn it up louder. We want a little action here. Turn it up louder.”

Pavarotti or not, “We want a little action here” as a result of a performance of “Hail Mary”?

After that song Trump said, “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?”

And so the crowd heard Time to Say Goodbye, YMCA!, Hallelujah, Nothing Compares 2 U, An American Trilogy, Rich Men North of Richmond, November Rain and Memory as Trump danced and swayed.

Lies and a lack of rhythm. That’s what qualifies him to be president?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large, writing primarily for the right column. Your comments, whether from the conservative or liberal perspective, are welcome in the COMMENTS section of either column, or via email at editors@thehustings.news.

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MONDAY 10/21/24

Harris/Walz Campaign Stops

Scroll down the page with the trackbar on the far right to read highlights of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent campaign stops. 

Listen to our very first podcast, Pod on the Hustings on Substack.

Democratic campaign schedule:

•Friday, October 18: Kamala Harris appears in Lansing, Grand Rapids and Waterford, Michigan.

•Saturday, October 19: Tim Walz rallies in Omaha and Chicago.

•Tuesday, October 22: Tim Walz rallies in Madison, Wisconsin.

It's all in the past...

•Thursday, October 17: Kamala Harris appears in Milwaukee, LaCrosse and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

•Also on Thursday, Tim Walz appears with former President Bill Clinton in Durham, then continues on to Winston-Salem, North Carolina for a solo appearance.

Be sure to visit our Substack page at https://thehustings.substack.com. 

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

_____
THURSDAY 10/17/24

…meanwhile…

They Report -- Fox News' Bret Baier interviewed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris Wednesday evening in the vice president's first live appearance on the conservative news network. Scroll down center column trackbar for details.

FRIDAY 10/18/24

After Sinwar – Speaking from Berlin Friday President Biden expressed hope for a ceasefire in Gaza after Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, saying there now is “a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.” He, and Vice President Kamala Harris, are pretty much alone in such optimism.

Biden said in a White House statement that Hamas “is no longer capable of carrying out another October 7,” (per Newsweek). Sinwar’s death is an opportunity “for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

At a campaign appearance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Harris said; “This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, and it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. And it is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power.”

“Sinwar was an extremely important man in the movement,” Fuad Khuffash, a Palestinian analyst “close to Hamas” told The New York Times. “His assassination is not easy matter. But it won’t make Hamas retreat and surrender.”

Even if Sinwar’s death reopens negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire, there’s still Iran and Lebanon. Haaretz reports that “once the death settles on the killing of Sinwar, international attention will switch to the Iranian front” where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to deal with Iran’s nuclear arms program, “raising US concerns.”

•••

Musk Rallies for Trump – After raising $75 million for the Trump/Vance campaign through September, via his America PAC, Elon Musk has taken to the hustings to rally in Pennsylvania for the former president’s presidential campaign. 

“Pennsylvania is, I think, the linchpin in this election, and this election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America and, along with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization,” The World’s Richest Man told an adoring crowd in the Ridley High School auditorium in suburban Philadelphia, The Wall Street Journal reports. The auditorium was near its 800-person capacity, according to the report. 

Musk, owner of X-Twitter and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX plans similar events in Pennsylvania in the next three days.

“The next three days are essential. I think we’ll see this election decided in Pennsylvania by…10,000 votes. It could be 1,000 votes. It could be 100 votes — it’s some very tiny number,” Musk told the Ridley High crowd.

Michigan v. Pennsylvania ... Musk's PAC is running ads in Michigan painting Kamala Harris as "pro-Israel" and ads in Pennsylvania painting her as "pro-Palestinian," according to Washington NPR radio station WAMU's The 1A.

•••

Will Haley Rally for Trump? – The Trump/Vance camp is in talks with Nikki Haley to have ex-President Trump’s former UN ambassador and GOP primary rival to appear together at a rally at the end of the month and possibly with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, “sources familiar with the discussions” told The Bulwark. Perhaps there’s something in a next Trump administration for Haley after all?

--TL

_______________________________________________

THURSDAY 10/17/24

Hamas Leader Killed -- Israeli authorities have positively identified the body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, killed in an Israeli Defense Force attack on Gaza Wednesday, The New York Times reports. Sinwar, said to be in his 60s, was considered the lead architect of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Big question now is what effect Sinwar's death might have on cease fire talks led by the US.

•••

...You Decide – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ first-ever interview on Fox News Wednesday certainly did nothing to snag the votes of Republicans or conservatives who have not already committed to voting for her instead of former President Trump. But did her 30-minute appearance, on Special Report with Bret Baier, help her with center-right independents and/or myriad other undecideds? Harris interrupted Baier’s interruptions several times in order to finish questions, which may have helped her with moderate female voters, NPR’s Morning Edition posits. 

The interview did give the vice president a chance to retry a question she skirted past the much-friendlier The View on ABC-TV and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS; how would her presidency differ from Joe Biden’s? 

“My presidency will not be a continuation of the Biden presidency,” Harris responded. “I represent a new generation of leadership.”

But Baier raised the question of who has been running the White House given President Biden’s cognitive issues. 

“You told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game, then ran around circles on his staff. When did you first notice that President Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished?” Baier asked.

“Joe Biden, I have watched from the Oval Office to the Situation Room,” Harris replied. “And he has the judgment and the experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people.”

Harris was given the chance to attack Trump’s building threats to American democracy when Fox News ran a clip of Trump trying to turn the tables on the Democrats by claiming “they’re the ones doing the threats,” and comparing his suffering investigations with what happened to Alphonse Capone.

Harris countered that the clip did not properly characterize what Trump has been saying about “the enemy within.”

“You and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people, he talked about locking people up because they disagree with him,” Harris told Baier. “This is a democracy, and in our democracy, the president of the United States, in the United States of America, should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he would lock up people.”

•••

Meanwhile, on Univision – At a Town Hall broadcast by Univision Wednesday, Ramiro González, a New Jersey-born construction worker from Tampa, Florida, with Cuban heritage asked Donald J. Trump this: “I want to give you the opportunity to try and win back my vote. Your action and maybe inaction, during your presidency and maybe the last few years, sort of, was a little disturbing to me. What happened during January 6, and the fact that, you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol?”

Trump responded: “You had hundreds of thousands of people coming to Washington. They didn’t come because of me – they came because of the election – they thought the election was a rigged election and that’s why they came.”

González could be seen furrowing his brow and moving his head side-to-side, Newsweek reports, when Trump added this about January 6; “A day of love from the standpoint of millions – it’s like hundreds of thousands – it could have been  -- the largest group I’ve ever spoken to before.” 

That’s the hundreds of thousands who came to Washington because of they thought the election was rigged, not because of Trump. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
THURSDAY 10/17/24

Trump/Vance Campaign Stops

Scroll down the page with the trackbar on the far right to read highlights of Republican presidential nominee ex-President Donald J. Trump’s recent campaign stops.

Are there still ‘shy’ voters who support former President Trump in 2024? Contributing Editor Chuck Dervarics and Founding Editor Todd Lassa discuss in Pod on the Hustings.

Republican campaign schedule:

•Friday, October 18: Donald J. Trump rallies at Huntington Place in Detroit, beginning 7 pm (yes, all but the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is in the Eastern time zone) and holds a roundtable in Oakland County, Michigan.

•Saturday, October 19: Trump and JD Vance hold a rally at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, beginning 6 pm.

•Sunday, October 20: Trump Town Hall at the Lancaster County Convention Center, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 5 pm.

•Wednesday, October 23: JD Vance rallies in Duluth, Georgia.

•Sunday, October 27: Donald J. Trump holds a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

It's all in the past ...

•Thursday, October 17: No public appearances for Donald J. Trump, but he addresses the Alfred E. Smith Dinner in New York City 7 pm. 

•Also on Thursday: JD Vance has a 12:30 pm appearance in Pittsburgh.

Be sure to visit our Substack page at https://thehustings.substack.com.

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

_____
THURSDAY 10/17/24

Harris Campaign in North Carolina

Excerpts from Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ speech to East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, Sunday afternoon …

“I have spoken to state and local officials, both Republicans and Democrats to let them know we will be with you every step of the way as you recover (from Hurricane Helene). Because at times like these we stand together as one nation. That is who we are. …

“I’m going to tell ya, it’s going to be a tight race, ‘till the very end. And we are running as the underdog, so we have some hard work ahead of us, but we like hard work. Hard work is good work, and with your help, in 23 days, we will win.”

[CROWD CHANTS: “We will win! We will win!”]

“This election really is about two very different visions for our nation. One, his, focused on the past, the other, mine, focused on the future. … 

“And here’s the thing, North Carolina, he’s not being transparent with voters. He’s not being transparent. So, check this out. He refuses to release his medical records. I’ve done it. Every other presidential candidate in the modern era has done it. …

“He’s unwilling to do a 60 Minutes interview. Like every other major party candidate has done for half a century. He is unwilling to meet for a second debate. And here’s the thing; it makes you wonder. It makes you wonder. Why does his staff want him to hide away? Are they afraid that people see that he is too weak and unstable to lead  America?”

_____
MONDAY 10/14/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

WEDNESDAY 10/16/24

US Warns Israel – No more US military aid to Israel within 30 days unless it lets in humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned in a letter Sunday to Israel’s defense minister and its minister of strategic affairs. The amount of aid entering Gaza is at its lowest since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, said State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller, who on Tuesday confirmed the letter, (per The New York Times). 

“In fact, it has fallen 50% from where it was at its peak,” Miller said. 

 Timing … The 30-day cutoff would come after the November 5 presidential election, which gives the Biden administration cover for the inevitable outcry from supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and/or pro-Palestinians in the US.

•••

Big Early GA Vote – More than 300,000 Georgians cast ballots around the state in its first day of early in-person voting, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. That’s more than twice the first-day turnout in November 2020. Thousands more cast their early ballots by mail, the newspaper reports.

•••

Tariff-ick Obsession – GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump’s interview at the Economic Club of Chicago defending his tariff plan is reverberating through the business world and probably among remaining traditional Republicans who have not withdrawn their support of him – yet. When Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait tried to explain how inflationary Trump’s tariff plan would be, Trump called “tariff” the “most beautiful word in the dictionary.

“All you have to do is build your plant in the United States and you’ll have no tariffs,” he said. 

Trump said he wouldn’t allow Nippon Steel to purchase US Steel (a position roughly akin to President Biden’s) and stopped short of promising to break up Google, though he said; “Google is rigged just like our government is rigged.” 

As for TikTok, which he has flip-flopped on, most recently opposing kicking it out of the US, Trump said, “I think everything is a threat. Some time you have to fight through the threat.”

Trump declined to confirm The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward writing in his latest book, War, that Trump after leaving office phoned Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. But he asserted; “I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing.”

And Trump said he has the right to jawbone the Federal Reserve about its monetary policy, though he did not say whether he would force its chairman, Jerome Powell, to step down.

“I think it’s the greatest job in government,” Trump said, mockingly. “You show up to the office once a month and you say, ‘let’s say flip a coin’ and everybody talks about you like you’re a god.”

Is this some sort of self-inflicted October surprise? As pundits continue to discuss Trump’s strange MAGA Soul Train performance Monday night, the pertinent question seems to be; has the former president lost it, or is he simply letting loose with policy positions that are anything but traditionally conservative and Republican? 

Trump also told Mickelthwait that concerning deficits, interest rates and the dollar, “You’ve been wrong all your life about this stuff.”

Are we simply misreading his “beautiful mind”?

--TL

_______________________________________________

TUESDAY 10/15/24

Harris’ Highlight Clip – Vice President Kamala Harris began hitting back at Donald J. Trump at her campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Monday with a 30-second video clip of the ex-president repeatedly kvetching about “the enemy within” (see “Trump on Fox Business,” this column below). 

“Please roll the clip,” Harris began (per NPR’s Morning Edition). 

As with Maria Bartiromo, Trump in his highlight reel suggests political opponents should be jailed or dealt with by police or military force violently.

“He is out for unchecked power,” Harris tells her crowd. “That’s what he’s looking for.”

From Pennsylvania -- identified by pundits in recent days as the swing state to end all swing states -- Harris’ appeal appears both desperate (how is this election so close?) and confident, as in; this should turn independent voters who likewise fear authoritarianism toward her.

Up next … Harris is scheduled to take questions from Charlamagne Tha God, host of The Breakfast Club at 5 pm Eastern/2 pm Pacific Tuesday, and make her first-ever appearance on Fox News at 6 pm Eastern/3 Pacific Wednesday on Special Report with Brett Baier. 

Let’s dance … Appearing with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem in suburban Philadelphia Monday, Trump interrupted his rally when two people in the crowd needed medical attention. The ex-president turned the rally into a dance party, with Trump getting down and getting funky to his adopted theme song, The Village People’s YMCA. Upon hearing about the MAGA Soul Train, Harris said, “I hope he’s okay,” Newsweek reports. 

To the Garden … Donald J. Trump is so looking forward to his October 27 rally, nine days before the presidential election, scheduled for New York City’s Madison Square Garden. 

“I’m gonna fill the garden,” Trump has boasted to a confidant who passed the comment on anonymously to the anti-MAGA conservative outlet, The Bulwark. Home of the New York Knicks, Madison Square Garden seats nearly 20,000.

--TL

_______________________________________________

MONDAY 10/14/24

Trump on Fox Business – Why, Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo wanted to know, is there not more talk about two recent assassination attempts on Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump? Bartiromo obviously was prompting the former president to comment on “liberal” media and how outlets like Fox News were making a big thing of it (much as conservative media makes a big thing about illegal southern border crossings).

“I don’t want to say ‘conspiracy theorists’ and all that, but you could ask that question.” Trump asserted that investigators – presumably the FBI, though he did not specify – has confiscated six phones in one of the two cases and have not unlocked any of them to investigate content.

“Maybe they don’t want to do it,” Trump said, live from the Fox Business studio Sunday. 

He also suggested that President Biden ought to act against Iran over its apparently ongoing attempt to assassinate Trump, saying that the current president should threaten that unless Trump is left alone, “We’re going to blow your whole damn country up – and they’ll stop it.”

Trump told Bartiromo the border issue is “bigger than inflation” (perhaps because the Consumer Price Index came down to 2.4% in September) and criticized the White House hurricane response, particularly in North Carolina and “parts of Georgia.” (He also praised Republican governors’ leadership in the response in those swing states.)

Chaos agents… Does Trump expect chaos on election day? Bartiromo asked.

“No, not from the side that votes for Trump. … The bigger problem is from people within.”

As is his modus operandi, Trump turned the tables on Democrats and never-MAGA Republicans who express worry over Trump’s anti-democratic tendencies. The ex-president did this table-turning by suggesting more authoritarian action.

“We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical-left lunatics,” Trump said. “And it should be really very easily handled, if necessary by National Guard and if really necessary by military. Because they can’t let that happen.”

Trump does not have to buy their support, but … The National Border Patrol Council, self-described as “the guardians of non-supervisory border patrol agents and support personnel assigned to the US Border Patrol” has endorsed Trump for president, the Arizona Republic reports, as the former president has “pledged to hire thousands of new agents” with a $10,000 signing bonus.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 10/14/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Trump Rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona

Excerpts from Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump’s rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, Saturday…

“Early voting by mail. We’re finally there. Take back our country. Early voting by mail and in-person opened in Arizona this week. So, if you have a ballot, return it immediately and if not go vote – get your you-know-what up and vote. …

“And with your help we are going to win Arizona and we’re going to defeat Ka-ma-la. Ka-ma-la. She shouldn’t be running …

“She didn’t get any votes. Say what you want about Biden, I’m not a fan of Biden, but you know what? He got 14 million votes. She got none. I’m the one that has to beat two people, not one. You know, everyone else. Historically, in history you had to beat one. I got to beat two. They never made it easy for us, but she’s going to be easy – I have a feeling that he would have been tougher than her.

“But we’re going to usher in a new golden age of American success, for the citizens of every race, religion, color and creed. …

“What Kamala and her radical left cronies have done to the state of Arizona is a crime that can never be forgiven. What they’ve done to us and what they’ve done to the border can never be forgiven.”

_____
MONDAY 10/14/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news