"Donald, I'm speaking now. Wait your turn." Imagine that! 🤣
Why aren’t we talking about the biggest issue: fact checking. Moderators cannot allow Trump to spew completely made up bullsh*t or just refuse to answer a question and then say “we have to move on”. Moderators can't be blindly tied to “equal treatment” when we are clearly seeing unequal content. If he comes out with flat out lies, either the moderator must fact check or Harris must be given a final word to do so before moving on. Any debate that allows a segment to end on unaddressed clear fabrications makes a debate futile.
Can't wait to celebrate Kamala landslide victory wearing this funny tee on November 5 👇 🤣
I won't breathe easy until January 20, 2025. If/when Trump loses, he'll be riling up the mob about how it was "stolen" and "rigged." At least this time it will be from OUTSIDE of office.
I HATE, HATE, HATE all the money. The Billions with a B could build roads and bridges and I would be happy to put their name on the damn thing. The advertising is relentless and turns everyone off and drives them to streaming. Just an opinion.
Chris: though I agree with you on your take of the Harris strategy to keep the mics live (she can fact-check him live, he could talk himself into a corner or say something racist, etc.), but I do NOT agree that muting the mic in the Trump-Biden debate had NO effect on Biden’s performance.
As a former audio professional, I can tell you that soundstages are *designed* to naturally amplify sound acoustically and allow speech to be clearly understood, by reducing the number of “standing waves” in the voice range (from about 3kHz to 8kHz). I’m completely positive that Biden would have heard Trump muttering and making comments, even unmic’d and acoustically in the room, and I have no doubt that if it didn’t throw Biden off at least a bit, it certainly didn’t help his ability to concentrate.
I believe that one of the reasons that the Harris campaign wants all of us to hear Trump is so that we’re aware of any unhinged nasty comments he makes. What better contrast could there be than having a disgruntled nasty OLD man who can’t control himself spewing nonsense on one side, and a smart woman, laughing at the ridiculous comments from the other side, and chastising him as if he were an unruly adolescent and she were his school teacher?
It would show just how petty and small DonOLD is, in front of the nation. Can’t wait!
Two weeks ago, Harris said that Trump should honor the 9/10 ABC debate agreement made with Biden. Now, Harris is changing the very terms she demanded Trump honor. Consistent with her refusal to state her policies or take an interview…Harris is employing tactics to avoid the debate.
Wanting to cancel the debate and changing how the mics are handled are 2 *very* different things, as should be obvious!
It seemed clear that DonOLD was laying the groundwork to bow out on the ABC debate, using the lame excuse of wanting to do one on Fox instead, where he would obviously get softball questions, be totally unfactchecked, without hosts in control, no doubt with a live audience filled with supporters, etc. He knew the Harris campaign wouldn’t agree to that and tried to use *that* as a talking point.
Trump’s campaign *clearly* would have preferred the debate with Biden have open mics, but they were so confident that it wouldn’t matter that they agreed. Now that he’s debating Harris, not so much. Why? It’s obvious to me and most non-cult members that pay attention to what he’s saying that letting him talk will make his cognitive decline obvious, that he spews little other than personal grievances, etc. He’s old and frankly will have a very tough time with her.
As to policy positions, Leva, I can only guess that you haven’t been paying attention. The Harris-Walz campaign dropped an economic policy paper a week before the convention. Did you read it? We can argue whether the points make sense, we can argue whether they’ll be able to pass any of it into law (unless Democrats regain the House, likely; and maintain the Senate, tough), we can argue many points, but it’s there and you should read it.
And has Trump provided *anything* in the way of “policy papers”? Not unless you call his “outline” in Agenda 47 a set of policy positions. And Project 2025 certainly lays out *very* specific measures, though I might hesitate to call them “policy” (and don’t bother trying to say that “Trump wasn’t involved and doesn’t know anything about it”. Spend a whole 15 minutes with Google and watch the videos that come up with Trump and Kevin Roberts together praising each other, JD Vance’s forward to Roberts’ book that they’ve now decided to hold until after the election, etc.)
1. A Federal Judge gave the go-ahead for Trump's defamation lawsuit against ABC to proceed. Trump has every right to have caution on participating in a debate where the moderator is the target of a lawsuit.
2. Harris countered by saying Trump agreed to the debate, so he should honor the commitment.
3. After Trump agrees to the ABC debate, Harris changes the rules (like DNC convention) of the debate she demanded her opponent to honor.
4. Considering we are like at 30+ days of her not having a press conference, one can make a reasonable assumption that the hypocritical position is to avoid the debate.
5. Harris released an agenda, not a policy where we are expected to believe that Harris reduced inflation so well that we can now employ price controls.
6. One can easily go to Trump's website and see the 2024 republican platform...no such link exists for Harris-Walz.
That Mellon dude is mentally ill. It is sad that he is wasting mountains of money on crackpot politicians when he could be changing the world.
Re the mics on/off question- if KH gives Trump the chance, he will hang himself. The caveat is, the viewers must be able to hear him. (If TFG does 75 percent of the talking, Kamala wins. Big.)
There is a B/C grade movie about figure skating called The Cutting Edge. In that movie, a figure skater is paired with a down and out hockey player. She hates him initially and taunts his lack of ability by saying "toe pick" every time he screws up.
Harris should say "lie" Everytime she hears one. Better yet, announce she will be counting the lies as they go through the debate and say whatever the number is of the lie. It will make him so irate that his might explode.
I remember, not so long ago, folks on this site were mocking President Trump for agreeing at all of JB’s requests for the debate, CNNLOL, mikes turned off, ect, saying things like - That’s the Art of the Deal agreeing to everything?!? President Trump knew he just needed to get the senile old man out there with no life lines, no notes, just himself answering questions (even softballs from liberal commentators) and JB would be exposed. President Trump was right (as we all know now). Same thing here, President Trump just needs VP Harris on stage responding to questions. Her San Francisco liberal ideology will be exposed (again even by in the tank ABC liberals asking softball questions). Contrast is what President Trump is looking for. Period. President Trump can take questions from anyone, anytime, anywhere and does. VP Harris, as we all know, does not.
He can take questions, and then ignore them, insult the reporter as "nasty," and then spew a stream of lies and non sequiturs. What he can NOT do is answer directly and honestly.
Agreed 💯. It’s what Trump has ALWAYS done: act like he’s having a “press conference”, spew his usual rally lies, take a question or two (maybe), then not answer it but turn immediately to some sort of grievance and complaint. Over and over and over again.
A press conference is where you let professionals ask you important questions and you answer them so that we all understand what their policy is. Sure, Harris needs to do one, but when will Trump do one as defined?
I’m hoping FOR the Sept 10 debate and hot mics! I hope for him to get so flustered he makes an egregious error in name calling. The rest of the campaign all Dem have to do is play the clip and ask, Yall really want this guy back in charge?! Let her do some sit down interviews and some town halls to get her info out there and boom!
I'd like to see them debate which is particularly important given Harris' no interview policy that has gone on for too long.
I prefer they keep the same rules as before as it was easier to follow what was being said. I can understand why her campaign prefers hot MIC rule change, but if her campaign insists on this change, he's justified in pulling out of debate. As I see it, she's already getting a media outlet that's biased in her favor, why insist on a rule change too? She should call his bluff and agree to participate on the terms agreed to by Biden, and she should agree to interviews.
I think the Harris campaign is wrong here. Trump is an exceptionally good bully; it may be his only skill. I remember in his first debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump interrupted her about NAFTA and pretty successfully rattled her. She was expecting a normal debate with rules and of course Trump doesn't follow any. I think the Biden people had it right; the more order, the better. Trump thrives in chaos and Harris is all about order. (And Harris, by the way, has certainly shown she can get rattled in debates.)
I think Harris has it exatly right. She's studied Hillary's debate...the way to deal with a bully is hit them in the mouth...trump will lose his mind and his composure when Harris starts fact checking him. This is a seasoned prosecutor who has faced worse (but not by much) than DonOld. He won't be able to control the situation...
Maybe new-model Harris can do that, but relatively recent Harris has been knocked off course in a debate by Tulsi Gabbard, and in an interview with Lester Holt. Yes, she has courtroom experience, but I just don't see her as a person who's all that fast on her feet, sorry to say, and the fact that she's not doing interviews is probably an indication of that. She excels in situation where she has control (like a Senate hearing, or a rally), but there's no controlling Trump.
I assume (hope) they've studied Trump's debating style—though you never know which Trump will show up, another reason why he's dangerous. When I hear all these Harris people so happy they'll keep Trump's mic on, I'm reminded of how everyone was so gleeful that Trump had set expectations so low for Biden in their debate. All Biden has to do is show up, they said. Well, he did, but they'd gotten in his head so much he turned into a babbling mess.
Trump is such a sh-tshow of a human being that it's hard to forget that he and his campaign are craftier and smarter than we give them credit for. Even with all the dumb things he's done. he has very good odds of getting the most powerful job in the world.
I'm going to throw this out there, and prepare myself for some very spirited replies, along with a few recommendations that I stop skipping my meds.
Does anyone else get the sense that Donald Trump secretly wants to lose the election or, at the very least, doesn't really care whether he wins or loses.
While Trump's voice does not have an "off" button (I wouldn't be surprised if it's still going strong when he's laying in a coffin), he just doesn't seem to have the fire-in-the-belly that he had in 2016 or 2020. Some of this may be rooted in age (i.e. his energy level has tapered off over the years), while another part may be that he's aware of his cognitive decline (i.e. verbal gaffes, non-sequiturs, derailed train-of-thought, etc.).
If he looses (especially if it's a close election like 2020), I have no doubt that he'll take whatever measures to dispute the results, and enjoy the resulting chaos (as well as all of the donations made to fund these court cases), but I also think he's perfectly content to spend the rest of his days golfing, eating McDonald's, and being fawned over by visitors who will stroke his ego in the hopes of getting his blessing or endorsement.
It's certainly possible that, without the threat of prosecution, Trump would have happily retired in Florida. I think that's what's driving him, he wants to stay out of trouble. (Berlusconi in Italy admitted he sought office for just that reason. That also seems to be driving Netanyahu.) But I don't think Trump is all that excited about being President again and dealing with the stress of the job. The guy wants to golf!
If/when he loses I'd expect him to move to a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty, because he'd be facing three -- at least -- criminal trials.
Interesting that despite our opinions of many of the major news outlets, most are firmly in the "middle" with a very slight lean to the left.
The only surprises for me were MSNBC (which I thought should have placed slightly [NOTE: slightly] closer to the middle) and FOX "News" (which I thought should have been much further to the right).
Chris, I could only blow-up the image so much (needed a lot of squinting to find some outlets), are you on the chart?
that chart is the best depiction of the media in existence. it is a staple in my media literacy module of a critical think course I teach. I've had a few students challenge the ratings.I'veinvited them tofind the flaws in the algorithms used. They find out the scientific methods used are fairlu unassailble.
"Donald, I'm speaking now. Wait your turn." Imagine that! 🤣
Why aren’t we talking about the biggest issue: fact checking. Moderators cannot allow Trump to spew completely made up bullsh*t or just refuse to answer a question and then say “we have to move on”. Moderators can't be blindly tied to “equal treatment” when we are clearly seeing unequal content. If he comes out with flat out lies, either the moderator must fact check or Harris must be given a final word to do so before moving on. Any debate that allows a segment to end on unaddressed clear fabrications makes a debate futile.
Can't wait to celebrate Kamala landslide victory wearing this funny tee on November 5 👇 🤣
libtees-2.creator-spring.com/listing/votek
Can't wait to vote for our FIRST woman president.
I won't breathe easy until January 20, 2025. If/when Trump loses, he'll be riling up the mob about how it was "stolen" and "rigged." At least this time it will be from OUTSIDE of office.
I HATE, HATE, HATE all the money. The Billions with a B could build roads and bridges and I would be happy to put their name on the damn thing. The advertising is relentless and turns everyone off and drives them to streaming. Just an opinion.
Has Timothy Mellon ever done anything for the benefit of the planet or of humanity with his obscene wealth?
The Harris campaign could get some footage for their ads if the mics are on, too.
Chris: though I agree with you on your take of the Harris strategy to keep the mics live (she can fact-check him live, he could talk himself into a corner or say something racist, etc.), but I do NOT agree that muting the mic in the Trump-Biden debate had NO effect on Biden’s performance.
As a former audio professional, I can tell you that soundstages are *designed* to naturally amplify sound acoustically and allow speech to be clearly understood, by reducing the number of “standing waves” in the voice range (from about 3kHz to 8kHz). I’m completely positive that Biden would have heard Trump muttering and making comments, even unmic’d and acoustically in the room, and I have no doubt that if it didn’t throw Biden off at least a bit, it certainly didn’t help his ability to concentrate.
I believe that one of the reasons that the Harris campaign wants all of us to hear Trump is so that we’re aware of any unhinged nasty comments he makes. What better contrast could there be than having a disgruntled nasty OLD man who can’t control himself spewing nonsense on one side, and a smart woman, laughing at the ridiculous comments from the other side, and chastising him as if he were an unruly adolescent and she were his school teacher?
It would show just how petty and small DonOLD is, in front of the nation. Can’t wait!
I argued the other side down below but this is an interesting perspective I never considered.
That media bias chart was amazing! Thanks Chris, for putting things in front of me I wouldn't find on my own.
Two weeks ago, Harris said that Trump should honor the 9/10 ABC debate agreement made with Biden. Now, Harris is changing the very terms she demanded Trump honor. Consistent with her refusal to state her policies or take an interview…Harris is employing tactics to avoid the debate.
Wanting to cancel the debate and changing how the mics are handled are 2 *very* different things, as should be obvious!
It seemed clear that DonOLD was laying the groundwork to bow out on the ABC debate, using the lame excuse of wanting to do one on Fox instead, where he would obviously get softball questions, be totally unfactchecked, without hosts in control, no doubt with a live audience filled with supporters, etc. He knew the Harris campaign wouldn’t agree to that and tried to use *that* as a talking point.
Trump’s campaign *clearly* would have preferred the debate with Biden have open mics, but they were so confident that it wouldn’t matter that they agreed. Now that he’s debating Harris, not so much. Why? It’s obvious to me and most non-cult members that pay attention to what he’s saying that letting him talk will make his cognitive decline obvious, that he spews little other than personal grievances, etc. He’s old and frankly will have a very tough time with her.
As to policy positions, Leva, I can only guess that you haven’t been paying attention. The Harris-Walz campaign dropped an economic policy paper a week before the convention. Did you read it? We can argue whether the points make sense, we can argue whether they’ll be able to pass any of it into law (unless Democrats regain the House, likely; and maintain the Senate, tough), we can argue many points, but it’s there and you should read it.
And has Trump provided *anything* in the way of “policy papers”? Not unless you call his “outline” in Agenda 47 a set of policy positions. And Project 2025 certainly lays out *very* specific measures, though I might hesitate to call them “policy” (and don’t bother trying to say that “Trump wasn’t involved and doesn’t know anything about it”. Spend a whole 15 minutes with Google and watch the videos that come up with Trump and Kevin Roberts together praising each other, JD Vance’s forward to Roberts’ book that they’ve now decided to hold until after the election, etc.)
Let's get to facts:
1. A Federal Judge gave the go-ahead for Trump's defamation lawsuit against ABC to proceed. Trump has every right to have caution on participating in a debate where the moderator is the target of a lawsuit.
2. Harris countered by saying Trump agreed to the debate, so he should honor the commitment.
3. After Trump agrees to the ABC debate, Harris changes the rules (like DNC convention) of the debate she demanded her opponent to honor.
4. Considering we are like at 30+ days of her not having a press conference, one can make a reasonable assumption that the hypocritical position is to avoid the debate.
5. Harris released an agenda, not a policy where we are expected to believe that Harris reduced inflation so well that we can now employ price controls.
6. One can easily go to Trump's website and see the 2024 republican platform...no such link exists for Harris-Walz.
That Mellon dude is mentally ill. It is sad that he is wasting mountains of money on crackpot politicians when he could be changing the world.
Re the mics on/off question- if KH gives Trump the chance, he will hang himself. The caveat is, the viewers must be able to hear him. (If TFG does 75 percent of the talking, Kamala wins. Big.)
There is a B/C grade movie about figure skating called The Cutting Edge. In that movie, a figure skater is paired with a down and out hockey player. She hates him initially and taunts his lack of ability by saying "toe pick" every time he screws up.
Harris should say "lie" Everytime she hears one. Better yet, announce she will be counting the lies as they go through the debate and say whatever the number is of the lie. It will make him so irate that his might explode.
Man ….. having his head explode would solve so many problems!! lol
I remember, not so long ago, folks on this site were mocking President Trump for agreeing at all of JB’s requests for the debate, CNNLOL, mikes turned off, ect, saying things like - That’s the Art of the Deal agreeing to everything?!? President Trump knew he just needed to get the senile old man out there with no life lines, no notes, just himself answering questions (even softballs from liberal commentators) and JB would be exposed. President Trump was right (as we all know now). Same thing here, President Trump just needs VP Harris on stage responding to questions. Her San Francisco liberal ideology will be exposed (again even by in the tank ABC liberals asking softball questions). Contrast is what President Trump is looking for. Period. President Trump can take questions from anyone, anytime, anywhere and does. VP Harris, as we all know, does not.
He can take questions, and then ignore them, insult the reporter as "nasty," and then spew a stream of lies and non sequiturs. What he can NOT do is answer directly and honestly.
Agreed 💯. It’s what Trump has ALWAYS done: act like he’s having a “press conference”, spew his usual rally lies, take a question or two (maybe), then not answer it but turn immediately to some sort of grievance and complaint. Over and over and over again.
A press conference is where you let professionals ask you important questions and you answer them so that we all understand what their policy is. Sure, Harris needs to do one, but when will Trump do one as defined?
I’m hoping FOR the Sept 10 debate and hot mics! I hope for him to get so flustered he makes an egregious error in name calling. The rest of the campaign all Dem have to do is play the clip and ask, Yall really want this guy back in charge?! Let her do some sit down interviews and some town halls to get her info out there and boom!
I'd like to see them debate which is particularly important given Harris' no interview policy that has gone on for too long.
I prefer they keep the same rules as before as it was easier to follow what was being said. I can understand why her campaign prefers hot MIC rule change, but if her campaign insists on this change, he's justified in pulling out of debate. As I see it, she's already getting a media outlet that's biased in her favor, why insist on a rule change too? She should call his bluff and agree to participate on the terms agreed to by Biden, and she should agree to interviews.
The mic issue is a massive irrelevancy. I don’t know if you read or subscribe to this Substack, but please read this: https://open.substack.com/pub/sethabramson/p/no-matter-who-wins-america-still?r=fcfxc&utm_medium=ios
This matters.
I think the Harris campaign is wrong here. Trump is an exceptionally good bully; it may be his only skill. I remember in his first debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump interrupted her about NAFTA and pretty successfully rattled her. She was expecting a normal debate with rules and of course Trump doesn't follow any. I think the Biden people had it right; the more order, the better. Trump thrives in chaos and Harris is all about order. (And Harris, by the way, has certainly shown she can get rattled in debates.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxhhOfe3uWc (You can see it Trump rattle HRC 18 minutes in.)
I think Harris has it exatly right. She's studied Hillary's debate...the way to deal with a bully is hit them in the mouth...trump will lose his mind and his composure when Harris starts fact checking him. This is a seasoned prosecutor who has faced worse (but not by much) than DonOld. He won't be able to control the situation...
Maybe new-model Harris can do that, but relatively recent Harris has been knocked off course in a debate by Tulsi Gabbard, and in an interview with Lester Holt. Yes, she has courtroom experience, but I just don't see her as a person who's all that fast on her feet, sorry to say, and the fact that she's not doing interviews is probably an indication of that. She excels in situation where she has control (like a Senate hearing, or a rally), but there's no controlling Trump.
I assume (hope) they've studied Trump's debating style—though you never know which Trump will show up, another reason why he's dangerous. When I hear all these Harris people so happy they'll keep Trump's mic on, I'm reminded of how everyone was so gleeful that Trump had set expectations so low for Biden in their debate. All Biden has to do is show up, they said. Well, he did, but they'd gotten in his head so much he turned into a babbling mess.
Trump is such a sh-tshow of a human being that it's hard to forget that he and his campaign are craftier and smarter than we give them credit for. Even with all the dumb things he's done. he has very good odds of getting the most powerful job in the world.
Trump is in mental decline and is losing his grip on his behavior. I firmly believe he will let the "N" word slip out. ..
I'm going to throw this out there, and prepare myself for some very spirited replies, along with a few recommendations that I stop skipping my meds.
Does anyone else get the sense that Donald Trump secretly wants to lose the election or, at the very least, doesn't really care whether he wins or loses.
While Trump's voice does not have an "off" button (I wouldn't be surprised if it's still going strong when he's laying in a coffin), he just doesn't seem to have the fire-in-the-belly that he had in 2016 or 2020. Some of this may be rooted in age (i.e. his energy level has tapered off over the years), while another part may be that he's aware of his cognitive decline (i.e. verbal gaffes, non-sequiturs, derailed train-of-thought, etc.).
If he looses (especially if it's a close election like 2020), I have no doubt that he'll take whatever measures to dispute the results, and enjoy the resulting chaos (as well as all of the donations made to fund these court cases), but I also think he's perfectly content to spend the rest of his days golfing, eating McDonald's, and being fawned over by visitors who will stroke his ego in the hopes of getting his blessing or endorsement.
It's certainly possible that, without the threat of prosecution, Trump would have happily retired in Florida. I think that's what's driving him, he wants to stay out of trouble. (Berlusconi in Italy admitted he sought office for just that reason. That also seems to be driving Netanyahu.) But I don't think Trump is all that excited about being President again and dealing with the stress of the job. The guy wants to golf!
If/when he loses I'd expect him to move to a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty, because he'd be facing three -- at least -- criminal trials.
RE: The Media Bias Chart
Interesting that despite our opinions of many of the major news outlets, most are firmly in the "middle" with a very slight lean to the left.
The only surprises for me were MSNBC (which I thought should have placed slightly [NOTE: slightly] closer to the middle) and FOX "News" (which I thought should have been much further to the right).
Chris, I could only blow-up the image so much (needed a lot of squinting to find some outlets), are you on the chart?
that chart is the best depiction of the media in existence. it is a staple in my media literacy module of a critical think course I teach. I've had a few students challenge the ratings.I'veinvited them tofind the flaws in the algorithms used. They find out the scientific methods used are fairlu unassailble.