Death spiral

 It has been forty days since Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential election.  In forty days Kamala Harris has put together the most successful campaign in memory, with blinding speed and hardly a misstep.  And Trump has displayed an astonishing ability to self-destruct.

The Arlington disaster continues to unravel.  Talking Points Memo reports that it was never anything but a campaign stunt -- stage a memorial of the Kabul Airport attack and then shame Biden and Harris for not being there or even knowing about it.  Had Trump stopped at the wreath-laying he might have scored points, but he had to pose in Area 60 without the permission of most of the families involved, acting like he just sank a hole in one.  This was followed by news of a lone cemetery employee who was brutalized for trying to stop it, the insults to her ("a despicable individual"), the involvement of Speaker Mike Johnson, the unsurprising role of Fox News in publicizing the outrage, and now an attack on the "hacks" who work for the Secretary of the Army.   Trump maintains he was "set up" -- maybe by Joe Biden, maybe by the Gold Star families.  Or Taylor Swift.  Could have been.

That would be enough for most clumsy amateurs but Team Trump was just shifting into second gear.  On Newsmax, Trump surrogate Greg Kelly attacked more than two hundred Republicans who have announced their support of Harris-Walz, for some reason singling out Daniel Connor, a former combat pilot who also flew Marine One for Presidents Bush and Obama:  "Hey, fly the helicopter and that's it.  We don't want to hear this stuff."  Like athletes and musicians told to "Shut up and play/sing," retired Marines also have political rights.  Kelly wasn't done -- he never is.  George W. Bush has not endorsed anyone in this election, but Kelly went ahead and attacked Bush's "high school quality paintings" and his "woke" daughter Jenna.  No hate for Laura?  She used to be a librarian.  I know how much you dislike them, Greg.  

So much for the old guard, time to sweet-talk the anti-choice base.  Trump called Florida's ban on abortion after six weeks "too restrictive," said he might vote for the ballot initiative that makes viability the cut-off point and promised to make IVF free.  Not once did he brag about overturning Roe.  The heads of the forced birthers exploded all over the country.  Then Renfield -- I mean Vance -- piped up that the Master would veto a national abortion ban.  What could have caused this seismic change?  Could it have been the polls, or the Harris "Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour"?  Maybe...both?

Vance spent the day carefully constructing his own manure pile to roll in.  He decided it was time to attack Kamala Harris's intelligence again, and you'll never guess how:   He dug out video of the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant, specifically Miss South Carolina Caitlin Upton giving an incoherent answer to one of those pageant questions, and posted it:  "BREAKING;  I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview."  Because it's funny to mock a then-seventeen-year-old who subsequently thought of killing herself.   When informed of this Vance ran through the standard "my heart goes out" bullshit but refused to apologize.  He's just a funny funny guy!  Why don't you libtards grow a sense of humor, huh?

By the way, the Harris-Walz interview drew six million viewers, CNN's best performance since its swerve to the right.  There would have been more but many people couldn't remember where to find the channel on their cable system.  It also muted the "why doesn't she give interviews?" complaints.  This is why:  Dana Bash asking dumb questions like "He [Trump] suggested that you happened to turn Black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity."  "Same old tired playbook.  Next question, please."  And the horse you rode in on, Ms. Bash.

Meanwhile Trump was saying this in LaCrosse, Wisconsin:  "You take a look at bacon and some of these products, and some people don't eat bacon anymore, and we are gonna get the energy prices down.  When we get energy down, you know, this was caused by their horrible energy.  Wind.  They want wind all over the place but when it doesn't blow, we have a little problem."  Other topics were covered, or fumbled, or groped.  There's a transcript.  I don't recommend it.

The father of inept would-be assassin Thomas Crooks hired two prominent Pittsburgh attorneys, and that was all Trump had to hear.  "Who's paying for this lawyer in Pennsylvania?  High end, very, very expensive lawyer, top of the line, right?  Where does he get the money to hire a lawyer that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars?  Is the lawyer doing it for free?  I doubt it.  Are the Democrats paying for his legal fees?   Is Marc Elias involved and that group?  Is Weissmann involved?"  Marc Elias is a Democratic Party elections lawyer; Andrew Weissmann is a law professor and former assistant US attorney who has written about Trump's various indictments.  I'm surprised he didn't mention George Soros.  If there's one thing Trump knows about, it's legal bills.

I hate to take a day off for fear of missing TRUMP FALLS INTO CUSTARD PIE, BLAMES "COMRADE KAMALA."  Yes, I'm tired.  But as Tim says, we'll sleep when we're dead.