Day of love

 

Trump has checked out.  Organizations like the Georgia Federation of Republican Women filed into a venue in Forsyth County ready to sprinkle him with easy questions and enthusiastic applause yesterday and -- perhaps he did the best he could.

Harris Faulkner:  "I don't know how you reset to prices that are -- "

Trump:  "You make donuts, you have the stoves, you have the this.  Everything has evolved around energy."

Audience member:  "Do you think you can have parents to just simply afford children in today's world?"

Trump:  "It is simply not fair.  You never heard of Ivanka, right?...I gave you the largest tax cuts in the history of our country."

Faulkner:  "What happens to the economy such that people can afford bacon?"

Trump:  "I feel so badly about what's happened because none of this would have happened.  There wouldn't have been a war in Ukraine and Russia.  There wouldn't have been an October 7 in Israel.  There wouldn't have been this most embarrassing day in the history of our country with Afghanistan...they never talk about the soldiers that are so badly wounded with legs and arms and face obliterated..."  

At the beginning of the show Faulkner said the family of Amber Thurman, who died as a direct result of Georgia's restrictive abortion law, were holding a rebuttal press call.  "Oh, that's nice," the Protector of Women sneered.  "You'll get better ratings, I promise."  

At least he kept babbling.  We now learn that the audience at the Oaks, Pennsylvania, dance party was also packed with MAGAs, some of them failed Republican candidates.  

Buoyed by success, Trump flew off to Miami for a Univision Noticias town hall.  It didn't go as well as he thinks it did.  Jorge Velazquez, an immigrant from Mexico, described his life of "tough labor" picking crops, and asked, "If you deport these people, who would do that labor and what price would we pay for food?"  Not to worry, he was told, we "just want to have them coming in legally."  Like the rest of us, Mr. Velazquez has heard him promise to deport legal immigrants, too, and even to institute "remigration."  That's where the naturalized are stripped of citizenship.  It's right there in Project 2025.

Ramiro Gonzalez, a construction worker and a Republican, was born in New Jersey so he's probably safe.  He's willing to give Trump a chance to "win back my vote" after the coup attempt and the response to covid.  It doesn't sound like Trump succeeded, describing January 6 as "a day of love," "peaceful and patriotic."  Then another man asked if Trump really believes the bullshit he constantly repeats about Haitian migrants eating pets.  He got this response:  "I was just saying what was reported."  But he knows they're "eating other things, too, that they're not supposed to be."  (Babies aborted after birth, I'll bet.)  

Not many votes in that room.  At least he can depend on Mitch McConnell.  In a forthcoming biography by Michael Tackett McConnell has called Trump "stupid" and "a despicable human being," but fully intends to vote for him because he is also despicable.  It's the kind of loyalty Stalin got from Old Bolsheviks up to the second the bullets entered their brains.  You don't have to support the party you belong to, Mitch.  Ask Ramiro Gonzalez.

How badly is he stumbling?  Even CNN is starting to take notice.  CNN sent two reporters out to find the origins of the "Swiss watch" he's peddling for up to $100,000 and they traced it to a Wyoming shopping mall and an outfit called TheBestWatchesOnEarth LLC and its partner company TheBestHoneyOnEarth LLC.  The latter offers something called Male Enhancement Honey, evidently laced with Viagra (how could Trump have learned about them?).  The proprietor, Vladimir Dmitriev -- everything leads to a Russian! -- told CNN, "We've received direction from our leadership in the US not to engage with any news agencies (specifically CNN) until after November 5, which is election day."  There's another business at this mail drop which sells "Trump-themed sneakers," probably a coincidence.

Here's one from the Oldies file:  Stormy Daniels still owes legal fees from a variety of unsuccessful lawsuits (she set up a GoFundMe to raise money for the purpose).  Daniels told Rachel Maddow that Trump has offered to reduce the amount she owes in return for her silence during this campaign.  What else could she have to reveal?  Why did he demand a non-disclosure agreement this late?  Do I care?

Trump is unhappy because Fox News, long his personal megaphone, has begun allowing "Radical Left Lunatics" like Jessica Tarlov and Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta, to dilute its fascist messaging.  Worse, it allows "the other camp" to buy time for "negative, false Ads," as if they want to make money or something.  He must be flinging the ketchup after Bret Baier's interview with "Radical Left Moron" Kamala Harris last night.  No matter how many loaded questions he asked, no matter how often he interrupted her answers, she kept her cool and didn't slap him.  I would have.  Baier is Fox's idea of a serious journalist because he doesn't lick Trump's face, although he did panic four years ago when they (correctly) called Arizona for Joe Biden; he wanted to un-call it to give fuel to the deniers.  Today Baier is the one whining about Harris's unfairness.  She showed up late (bad manners), she objected to his video bait-and-switch (smart alecky), she wouldn't let him get through his talking points by talking over her answers.  "I think she had a mission...she wanted to have a go-after-Trump viral moment that plays on a lot of other channels and on social media.  And I think she may have gotten that."  How does it feel to be used, Bret?  Do you feel dirty?  "When did you notice that President Biden's mental faculties appeared diminished?"  When did you stop beating your wife, Bret?  Go fuck yourself.  

For laughs, let's see what Junior thinks.  He's still fixated on did-she-really-work-at-McDonalds, which polls show is the key issue for 0.08 percent of swing-state voters who currently work at McDonalds.  "I think my father knows the McDonalds menu better than Kamala Harris ever did."  Of course he does.  Look at him.  She never said she eats junk food.  "She'll just tell you whatever you want to hear to seem relatable and likeable," added the son of the man who changes his position on abortion more often than Steve Cheung changes his Depends.  Junior is also compiling the "You're banned!" list for Daddy's second administration.  Which reminds me -- Russia has not published a not-welcome list recently.  Wasn't George Smiley on the last one?