Trump got out-debated; so it’s somehow ABC’s fault? We need to be better !

Echo opinion published in the Kanasa City Star newspaper by Dion Lefler:  In the wake of Trump’s disastrous showing in Tuesday night’s debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris, attacking the moderators, ABC News and reputable journalists everywhere has been the best response that MAGA can muster up. Believe me, we’re used to it. The sad part is that some people still believe it. 

My Facebook feed has been peppered with posts and comments about an alleged “ABC whistleblower” about to anonymously release an “affidavit” that claims the network leaked the questions to Kamala Harris.

As far as I can tell, it originated with a MAGA account on X (where else?) by an anonymous user with the handle @DocNetyoutube, who bills himself as a “Black Insurrectionist”: “I will be releasing an affidavit from an ABC whistleblower regarding the debate. I have just signed a non-disclosure agreement with the attorney of the whistleblower. The affidavit states how the Harris campaign was given sample question which were essentially the same questions that were given during the debate and separate assurances of fact checking Donald Trump and that she would NOT be fact checked. Accordingly, the affidavit states several other factors that were built into the debate to give Kamala a significant advantage.

I have seen and read the (fake ❗)affidavit and after the attorney blacks out the name of the whistleblower and other information that could dox the whistleblower, I will release the full affidavit. I will be releasing the affidavit before the weekend is out.” 

OMG❗ 😕😠 I couldn’t even count the red flags (danger❗ 🔺 ⚠️) in that paragraph. 

Nevertheless, it’s been amplified throughout the right-wing echo chamber. As I scrolled through references to this supposed whistleblower in my X account, I ran out of patience before I ran out of posts.

But it was Trump who fanned the rumor in the first place: “I watched her talk, and I said, ‘You know, she seems awfully familiar with the questions,’” he told (fake❗ ) Fox News shortly after the debate. 

So there you have the formula. Trump makes an off-the-cuff, unsubstantiated remark, an anonymous nobody expands on it claiming he has the “proof,” and partisan media and individuals, desperate to believe their hero couldn’t possibly just have been out-debated, pick it up and run with it. 

Some cite 2016, when then-candidate Hillary Clinton actually was fed some debate questions by Democratic Party strategist Donna Brazile, who was also a CNN commentator.

Brazile was subsequently forced to resign from the network and it was a stain of dishonor on CNN’s journalistic ethics. Everybody in the news business is aware of it, nobody wants to go there again, and ABC vehemently denies it did. 

Not that anyone needed the questions in advance of Tuesday’s debate. Indeed, the questions were as predictable as sunrise. 🌅

Harris prepped, Trump didn’t, and it was obvious to anyone other than the most MAGA of partisans.

And it only got worse afterward. Incensed by moderators fact-checking his wilder claims during the debate, 

Trump went on (fake❗) Fox News and threatened ABC: “To be honest, they’re a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.” That’s neither honest nor factual. ABC News doesn’t have a license. In America, no news organization has or is required to have a license. It’s illegal under the First Amendment.

Sunday September 15, is the International Day of Democracy. Since it started in 2008, it’s been a time to reflect on the gifts of self-governance, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Misinformation and disinformation is an existential threat to all those things. These are unprecedented, trying, and frankly disturbing times for democracy, when anyone can make up whatever they want, post it online and have it shared and accepted as gospel by a significant percentage of the population.

We don’t need less fact-checking in our political system. We need exponentially more of it. 

An ill-informed democracy is not a democracy at all, it’s just mob rule. This Democracy Day, and every day, we need to look things up, find things out, and never shy away from denouncing the untruths we now encounter on a daily basis in our everyday lives. If we don’t, the American experiment dies of our neglect. 

Rather, we need to remind ourselves that facts do matter. We owe that to the honor of our ancestors, many of whom fought for democracy. And we owe it to our children, may they never have to.

Kamala Harris picks up more Republican conservative support and endorsements

George Will has endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Watch out for flying pigs. Echo report published in Daily Kos:

The ultra-conservative, and baseball fan, comes to his decision reluctantly. He sees the need to dump Trump.  (aka #DumptRump)

Nevertheless, the Will endorsement of Harris (unfortunately) shows a clear lack of enthusiasm, telling readers that Republicans need to keep control of the Senate and replace Harris in 2028.

This election pits someone whose current persona is obviously synthetic against someone whose dishonesty in the service of his egotism is scarily authentic. 

Now, however, traditional conservatives can envision the least unpalatable November outcome. They have an unenthralled understanding of government’s proper scope and actual competence. So, their preferred outcome would be the election of Harris, and of a Republican Senate to regularly remind her that (ahhhh❓......NOT❗ so...sorry😞 George❗)  most Americans disagree with most of what she believes.❌

A response published on this article in the Daily Kos: George Will is not a nihilistic fascist like the majority of the Republican party.

Value added!  The conservative magazine National Review has published a column critical of Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris closing debate statement transcript

Kansas Reflector: In Harris-Trump debate, one candidate executed her agenda nearly flawlessly. The other (aka DonOLD) failed: "Of those who planned to watch the debate, three out of 10 said it would help them decide their vote, indicating soft supporters for both candidates along with the undecideds. Polls showed a race that was virtually tied. Thus, the debate was important to each candidate," Diana B. Carlin.

Closing statement in the presidential debate on September 10, 2024

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: So I think you've heard tonight two very different visions for our country. One that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past. And an attempt to take us backward. But we're not going back. And I do believe that the American people know we all have so much more in common than what separates us and we can chart a new way forward. And a vision of that includes having a plan, understanding the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes, the ambition of the American people, which is why I intend to create an opportunity economy, investing in small businesses, in new families, in what we can do around protecting seniors, what we can do that is about giving hard-working folks a break in bringing down the cost of living. I believe in what we can do together that is about sustaining America's standing in the world and ensuring we have the respect that we so rightly deserve including respecting our military and ensuring we have the most lethal fighting force in the world. I will be a president that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do. I'll tell you, I started my career as a prosecutor. I was a D.A. I was an attorney general. A United States senator. And now vice president. I've only had one client. The people. And I'll tell you, as a prosecutor I never asked a victim or a witness are you a Republican or a Democrat. The only thing I ever asked them, are you okay? And that's the kind of president we need right now. Someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first. I intend to be a president for all Americans and focus on what we can do over the next 10 and 20 years to build back up our country by investing right now in you the American people.

MSNBC Transcript of the entire debate at this site here.

DonOLD Trump receives written criticism from music icon Linda Ronstadt

Super star singer Linda Ronstadt rebukes Donald Trump, endorses Kamala Harris in blistering letter. The iconic singer is none too pleased that Trump is speaking at a venue bearing her name.

Linda Ronstadt on YouTube

Echo report published in Billboard by Melinda Newman:

Taylor Swift isn’t the only famous cat lady throwing her support behind Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and VP candidate Tim Walz. 

Super star Taylor Swift

In a missive posted to Instagram on Wednesday night (Sept. 11th), Linda Ronstadt gave the two her endorsement, but not before writing a scathing screed (strong opinion) directed at former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who is holding a rally Thursday (Sept. 12) in a Tucson, Arizona hall named after the legendary singer.

“It saddens me to see the former president bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit,” Ronstadt, who included a photo of her holding a kitten, writes.

Donald Trump is holding a rally on Thursday in a rented hall in my hometown, Tucson. I would prefer to ignore that sad fact. But since the building has my name on it, I need to say something.

It saddens me to see the former President bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit.

I don’t just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance — although there’s that.

For me it comes down to this: In Nogales and across the southern border, the Trump Administration systematically ripped apart migrant families seeking asylum. 

Family separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies, and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers. It remains a humanitarian catastrophe that Physicians for Human Rights said met the criteria for torture.

There is no forgiving or forgetting the heartbreak he caused.

Trump first ran for President warning about rapists coming in from Mexico. I’m worried about keeping the rapist out of the White House.

From Linda Ronstadt

P.S. to J.D. Vance:

I raised two adopted children in Tucson as a single mom. They are both grown and living in their own houses. I live with a cat. Am I half a childless cat lady because I’m unmarried and didn’t give birth to my kids? Call me what you want, but this cat lady will be voting proudly in November for @kamalaharris and @timwalz .

Kamala Harris was masterfully prepared during the debate with the grumbling DonOLD Trump

Trump May Not Have Met His Waterloo, but He More Than Met His Match- Echo opinion published by Charles M. Blow in The New York Times:

Vice-President Kamala Harris makes toast our ot DonOLD Trump during debate (The Lincoln Project)

Being drunk on hubris and narcissism is the surest way to lose a confrontation to a clever, clearheaded opponent. It’s a story that’s been repeated throughout history.

Napoleon was a cocksure emperor and commander, a skilled battle tactician who became a master of propaganda in service of his own legend. In 1812, he invaded Russia, but in that campaign, his military innovating failed him.

The Russians used attrition warfare, retreating as Napoleon’s armies advanced, his supply lines unable to adequately keep up. By the time the French occupied Moscow, the Russians had Napoleon on their turf and the brutal Russian winter approaching. Napoleon entered Russia with hundreds of thousands of troops. He withdrew with only a fraction surviving.

It was a historic humbling, a staggering miscalculation that still resonates.

I kept thinking about this episode during the (Harris/"Dump") debate as Donald Trump — also a cocksure propagandist, who has in many ways reshaped politics in this country — was repeatedly outmaneuvered by Kamala Harris, in part because his strategies have become predictable and his weaknesses well known.

Picture exhibit proposed for the Louvre Museum as per The Lincoln Project

Trump has spent weeks trying to cast Harris as “crazy,” “weak” and “incompetent” with a “low I.Q.” He has denigrated her so often that he appeared utterly unprepared to face off against a woman who was both shrewd and strategic.

Harris laid traps on Tuesday night and Trump kept walking into them. A perfect example: After she said that “people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom,” he was champing at the bit to retort, saying, “People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go,” adding, “People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”

Apart from the obvious, that her rallies have been large and rollicking, the exchange perfectly underscored the ease with which Trump can be goaded. It was almost — almost — a surprise to see how easy it was for the vice president to get him to reveal his complete lack of message discipline.

The genius of her approach was to constantly have him chase her, only for her to pivot again and again from his meanderings to her portrait of an American future guided by her plans, values and optimism.

Harris’s rage-baiting of Trump forced him to descend into a reliance on some of MAGA’s most divisive set pieces: the notion that some Democrats favor allowing abortion to include killing babies after they’ve been born; claims that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets.

The Trump we saw on the debate stage should concern us all, and not just for the usual reasons. He should worry us because we saw how easy it is to emotionally manipulate him and how hard it is for him to self-regulate.

We saw how dictators around the world would be able — are able — to sway him. When Harris said to Trump that Vladimir Putin would “eat you for lunch,” anyone watching the debate with any remotely objective sense really had no choice but to credit the comment because we were watching Harris eat Trump’s lunch.

So what happens now?

In many ways, Trump’s base of support is set. His core constituents had long since made their peace with his lying and rambling. And many of his voters, including those whom my Opinion colleague Kristen Soltis Anderson recently described as “begrudging Trump voters,” seem to have either priced in or affirmatively embraced his shortcomings and even his criminal convictions.

By contrast, it was pretty clear that going into the debate, Harris had room to increase her support: A New York Times/Siena College poll published this week found that more than a quarter of likely voters felt they needed to learn more about her. Many of them will still want to know more about her positions on specific issues — Harris delved into some of that on Tuesday, but not, as Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury noted, to great degree.

Trump never made an adjustment. Maybe he couldn’t. Whatever the reason, it led to a disastrous night for him.

Kamala Harris debate receives positive response ending with a Taylor Swift endorsement!

Republicans Scramble to Spin Trump’s Debate Implosion

The former president flopped in his debate against Kamala Harris, but that wont stop his sycophants from making excuses for him BY NIKKI MCCANN RAMIREZ- echo report published in Rolling Stone magazine.  September 11, 2024

Donald Trump imploded on the debate stage against Kamala Harris during  Tuesday night's debate. The former president fell for obvious bait presented by the vice president, delivered a series of angry diatribes in the style of his rallies, and told lies that repeatedly forced ABC News’ moderators to fact-check him in real-time.

Right-wing lawmakers and commentators are offering a menu of excuses to minimize the damage. In the post-debate spin room and on social media, the former president’s allies are floating everything from moderator bias, to conspiracies about hidden earpieces, to claims that debates don’t actually matter.

The immediate target of the right’s ire were ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.

Trump himself claimed that the two hosts had unfairly ganged up on him — when really they were just fact-checking some of his most absurd claims. In one instance, Muir debunked an outburst by Trump in which he accused undocumented migrants of killing and eating people’s pets. During another exchange, the moderators pushed back on Trump’s contention that Democrats support executing infants shortly after birth.

“It was three against one,” Trump complained after leaving the stage.

The grievance was echoed by right-wing influencers and commentators.

Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair, also described the debate as “three on one.”

HANNITY: What was your overall view of the debate?

Lara TRUMP: It was three on one 🙉🤥

(They can't spin this one) pic.twitter.com/LzhpvDpDpK— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 11, 2024

The Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro wrote on X — formerly Twitter — that “ABC’s moderators are a disgrace to their profession.”

Sen. Lindsay Graham wrote that “the moderators might as well be on the DNC payroll. This is ridiculous. This is the worst moderated debate in history."  The moderators might as well be on the DNC payroll. This is ridiculous.  (Wow, 😳😌😊can Lindsey Graham spell "f-a-i-l-u-r-e❓)

“This is not a debate, this is public show trial where the judge, jury, and executioner is ABC News,” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk raged. 😡

Other pro-Trump accounts began tweeting a conspiracy suggesting that Harris’s earrings were secret earpieces that allowed her to be fed answers by her staff. A quick side-by-side view of the advertised earpieces and the jewelry worn by Harris shows that they bear only the vaguest of resemblances. (Maine Writer  😕question❓Did DonOLD Trump's wig piece glue to his brain? He looked old and he was unable to crawl out of the truth sprayed like fresh water by Vice-President Harris.)  "The QAnon/conspiracy sphere is all in on 'Kamala's earrings were actually earphones'. That's how you know they know they lost. They're making up conspiracy theories to cover for Trump's disastrous performance."

There were also plenty who just went ahead and said Trump performed better than Harris. Jesse Watters argued on Fox News that Trump had actually won the debate because his “memorable” lines would dominate the conversation. If “you’re a Republican, you look at this and you’re like ‘That’s DonOLD Trump,’” he said.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) wrote on X that Trump delivered a “strong debate victory” and a “powerful America First message.” She also called the moderators “pro-Kamala activists who baselessly attacked President Trump.”

Perhaps the most insane attempt to draw attention away from Trump’s poor showing came from Elon Musk, who responded to a Tuesday night endorsement of Harris by Taylor Swift by making a deranged offer to the pop superstar. 

“Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,” he wrote. 

This is a “different person from the person she was in the interview of CNN, but a different person from the absolute dunderhead so many of us thought she was during her conduct as vice president” he said.

Kamala Strong❗
“She was prepared. She kept her cool. She saw advantages and took them. She baited him successfully, which is the story of the debate in my view. So she came out ahead in this, in my opinion, no doubt,” Hume added

Kamala Harris is a fresh political voice who speaks "for the people"

Echo opinion letter published in the News and Advance in Lynchburg, Virginia: 

I’ve been basking in the joy of the Democratic National Convention. Every speaker and almost all of the attendees are exuding the happiness they feel in turning the page to a new American politic. Harris’ “for the people “ is a clear contrast with Trump’s “for me” and one wonders why anyone would waste a vote on him. Trump is now insulting the American people even more with a “gala” at one of his properties to honor the criminals who participated in the January 6th insurrection. I suspect it’s just another of his grifts. 

It was reported this week that much of Donald Trump's campaign💲 contributions 💰have been diverted to his pockets.

I was pleased to read this week that President Biden is still working very hard to end Israel’s disgraceful genocidal war against the Palestinians. I feel compassion for the families of those being held hostage by Hamas, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling compassion for every Palestinian being held in the concentration camp we know as Gaza. The West Bank, where lawless settlers with the protection of the IDF, daily steal the land and capital of the Palestinians is no better. The Palestinians know the US supplies Israel with weapons. Presently, American citizens should use common sense before going to Israel or Russia.

5 symbols of Ukrainian independence

Finally, I was more than a little amused to read about Putin’s frustration with those pesky old Ukrainians, who have now turned the tables on him and invaded his country. Today I read that a Ukrainian missile sank the last ferry able to move railroad tank cars to Crimea. With the Kerch railroad bridge still unusable, Putin now has a major problem in supplying fuel to his military and citizens.

From Mike Tabony in Gladstone Virginia

Senior military officers sign letter of support for Vice-President Kamala Harris because felon Trump is not qualified to be elected

Today Show, Samantha Guthrie, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Lester Holt, must report how senior military officers support Vice-President Kamala Harris:

Vote Kamala Harris and Tim Walz 2024!

Disturbing and detailed interview with the retired Brigadier Army General Steve Anderson, by Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC "Dateline White House" on why Trump returning to power as Commander-in-Chief presents an existential and exceptional danger ⚠ to both democracy and US national security. 

DonOLD Trump is a dangerously ridiculous bafoon 🤖🤡💀

General Andreson supports Vice-President Kamala Harris for President. A few of the General's observations based on his personal experience with Trump and in the military: 

1) He never cared about anyone's party affiliation or politics til Trump assumed power. His colleagues are similarly agnostic by training. 

2) We can't wait to act publically until Trump Youth (aka "Nazi youth") form and jackbooted thugs march down our streets. 

3) His experience and observations on the danger of Trump are shared by many of his colleagues who served with him.

4) He served in Afghanistan under Trump, Trump must never set foot again in the Oval Office. 

5) Trump will weaponize both the civil service, the legal system, and the military to illegally consolidate and retain his power. Trump has demonstrated this and stated it. 

6) Trump will adopt Hitler's practice of requiring senior military officers to swear loyalty to him rather than to the Constitution. 

7) Trump and his allies are encouraging festering - unadressed - extremism in the military to accomplish Trump's takeover and weaken the military. 

8) US allies view Trump as a cacauphonous 🐵buffoon. 

9) Trump and confederates have had 4 years to plan for the next January 6th evil insurrection.

Republicans are responsible for America's gun violence epidemic- outlaw AR15 automatic weapons

Not One More❗ After another deadly school shooting, this time in Georgia, gun reform makes a campaign comeback: Immigration and the economy have dominated the presidential race. But gun violence is now back on the ballot. 

Echo opinion by Renée Graham published in the Boston Globe:

At a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to talk about her economic plan for small businesses. But taking the stage hours after a shooting at a suburban Georgia high school, she briefly went off script to address the first mass shooting of this still-nascent school year.

Calling the shooting by an alleged 14-year-old gunman that killed two fellow students and two teachers “a senseless tragedy,” Harris said, “we’ve got to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know it doesn’t have to be this way.”

It doesn’t — except that in a nation with more guns than people, it’s too often “this way.” In this presidential race, gun violence has not been as prominent a topic as the economy or immigration. But the tragedy in Georgia should put gun violence back on the ballot.

At a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to talk about her economic plan for small businesses. But taking the stage hours after a shooting at a suburban Georgia high school, she briefly went off script to address the first mass shooting of this still-nascent school year.

Calling the shooting by an alleged 14-year-old gunman that killed two fellow students and two teachers “a senseless tragedy,” Harris said, “we’ve got to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know it doesn’t have to be this way.”

It doesn’t — except that in a nation with more guns than people, it’s too often “this way.” In this presidential race, gun violence has not been as prominent a topic as the economy or immigration. But the tragedy in Georgia should put gun violence back on the ballot.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., marks the 385th time this year that four or more people were killed or injured in a mass shooting. Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14-year-old students, and math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39; and Christina Irimie, 53, died. Nine others were injured.Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14-year-old students, and math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39; and Christina Irimie, 53, died. Nine others were injured.

These casualties, as well as the “AR-15 style” rifle that authorities say was used by the alleged shooter, have reignited conversations about gun reform that had been largely sidelined throughout this election season.

After a man was killed and another wounded during an assassination attempt against Donald Trump in July, conversations about guns were muted, at best. And even when that shooter’s weapon was revealed to be an AR-15 style rifle, it was President Biden and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, an ardent gun reform proponent — not Trump or the GOP — who brought up banning assault weapons.

Meanwhile, Republicans point fingers of blame in every direction except at the easy availability of weapons designed solely to kill and injure a lot of people in a very short amount of time.

In her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, Harris mentioned “the freedom to live safe from gun violence in our schools, communities and places of worship,” as a “fundamental” right. 

In Trump’s Republican National Convention speech in July, Trump talked about crime and criminals only to (😡wrongly❗) vilify migrants. He used the word “gun” only once — to hail Hulk Hogan,

 the former wrestler who endorsed the former president, as “one strong son of a gun.”

After the Georgia shooting, Trump posted a response on his social media site. Again, he said nothing about guns but called the alleged shooter “a sick and deranged monster.” 

But in an appearance before the National Rifle Association in May, Trump had plenty to say about firearms, including the false and inciting claim that “if the Biden regime gets four more years, they are coming for your guns.” He said that Biden “has a 40-year record of trying to rip firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”

In 1994, Biden, then a senator, helped pass a ban on assault weapons. It prohibited the manufacture or sale of certain semiautomatic weapons to civilians and banned high-capacity magazines of 10 rounds or more. The ban expired in 2004.

After mass shootings, Republicans often say that the tragedy should not be politicized, a cynical attempt to quell public debate. This time they’ve avoided saying even that. With the first presidential debate days away, they seem reluctant to say anything that can be held against Trump or highlight GOP objections to gun reform.

That’s why Harris should keep gun violence on her political agenda. She can tout the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, signed into law weeks after mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas. It was the first major gun reform bill passed in nearly 30 years.

Harris can do what Trump will not — say explicitly that weapons of war have no business on America’s streets; that most domestic violence fatalities are caused by guns; that everyday gun violence is a preventable epidemic; and that in order to strengthen gun reform, Democrats must regain control of the House and hold onto the Senate.

With Georgia on the nation’s mind, Harris can make the case that while Republicans have branded the issue of gun reform as partisan, the guns that destroy American lives and communities are not.

Renée Graham is a Boston Globe columnist.

Republicans against Trump are voting to protect democracy against Trumpziism

Echo opinion by David French* published in The New York Times:

Labor weekend in Chicago, America’s greatest summer city. on a Sunday afternoon was glorious. The temperatures were moderate, the skies were clear and the tourist sections of the city were teeming with happy Pearl Jam fans who’d just attended Saturday’s concert at Wrigley Field. My wife and I took our grandchildren to Navy Pier to visit the Chicago Children’s Museum, and as we walked back toward Michigan Avenue we saw the same (hideous 👺❗) sight we see every time we visit Chicago — an invasive towering skyscraper with the name “Trump” emblazoned in immense letters across the building’s facade.

I was reminded once again that Donald Trump is a singular figure in American politics. There is no one like him, and that means that no one can replace him. 

While it’s always perilous to make predictions about American politics — or anything else about the future — here’s one that I’m almost certain is correct: If Donald Trump (please God ♰ willing) loses in 2024, MAGA will fade. He is the irreplaceable key to its success.

Last month, I wrote a column that generated intense blowback on the right because I argued that as a pro-life conservative I am voting for Kamala Harris. 

That was controversial enough to the MAGA cult, but what really seemed to make people angry was one of my stated motivations: that I am voting for Harris to try to save conservatism from MAGA. Defeating Trump, I said, gives conservative Americans a chance to “build something decent from the ruins of a party that was once a force for genuine good in American life.”

The MAGA response was, in essence, you’re fooling yourself. Trump or no Trump, we own the party now.

In fact, this argument is one way that MAGA keeps other (wrongminded) Republicans in line. Like it or not, they say, this is the modern Republican Party. You can choose it, or you can choose the Democrats, but don’t think for a moment that a different party is possible.

But is that correct❓ We’re nine years into the Trump era of the Republican Party, and we can see a different reality: attempts to mimic Trump succeed in Republican primaries and deep red jurisdictions, but they fail in swing states and purple districts. 

Trump is MAGA’s most popular figure, and if he loses, then MAGA has nowhere to go but down.

Let’s look at the electoral record. The 2022, election should have been a red Republican wave. Inflation was close to its post-pandemic high, the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a bloody disaster, and Russia had invaded Ukraine. High costs and global chaos are usually a recipe for an electoral catastrophe for the incumbent party.

But MAGA snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. In swing state after swing state, Republicans nominated hard-core MAGA candidates, a collection of cranks and conspiracy theorists who went on to lose race after race. Most notably, Kari Lake lost her race for governor of Arizona; the Georgia football hero Herschel Walker lost his Senate race; and the Democratic candidate in the Pennsylvania race for governor, Josh Shapiro, crushed the MAGA-fied Republican, Doug Mastriano, by almost 15 points.

What makes those MAGA losses even more notable is the success of more conventional establishment Republicans. Brian Kemp substantially outperformed Walker in Georgia, winning his race for governor by more than seven points against a very capable opponent in Stacey Abrams. 

In Ohio, hyper-MAGA JD Vance won his Senate race, but he underperformed Gov. Mike DeWine, an establishment Republican, by almost 19 points. Vance won his race by slightly more than six points; DeWine won by 25.

If the early polling numbers are any indication, this trend will continue in 2024. The race between Trump and Kamala Harris is too close to call in each of the seven swing states. At the same time, however, other MAGA figures underperform. In North Carolina, 538 gives Trump a very narrow lead, but the polls show hyper-MAGA Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, trailing by between four and 11 points. In Arizona, Trump also has a very narrow lead, but most polls show Lake trailing her Democratic opponent for the Senate, Ruben Gallego, by a decisive margin.

Trump is peak MAGA, and even peak MAGA hasn’t been able to achieve Mitt Romney’s share of the 2012, popular vote. 

Stronger turnout masked this reality, but Trump has never achieved even 47 percent of the total votes cast.

If Trump loses, there is no ready heir to his MAGA crown. Vance, Trump’s vice-presidential nominee, would be saddled with at least partial responsibility for Trump’s loss, and the American people already view him unfavorably. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida seemed poised to offer a perfected version of MAGA to Republicans — all of the Trump culture war and none of the Trump corruption (and he actually substantially outperformed Trump’s 2020 Florida margin in his 2022 re-election). But he’s a diminished figure after his disastrous presidential primary performance.

It turns out that Republican primary voters deemed MAGA as already perfected, in the person of Donald Trump.

The rest of MAGA is a weird, scandalous mess. Just last week, Tucker Carlson — arguably the most popular media figure in MAGA America — interviewed a fringe right-wing history podcaster who claims that Winston Churchill is “a chief villain” of World War II, which led to days of debate in the online right about — believe it or not — the relative merits of Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler.😡👽💀😈❗

The Department of Justice released an indictment of two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet (Russia Today), charging RT and its employees with having paid millions of dollars to an American company, identified by news outlets as Tenet Media, with the intent of spreading the Russian government’s messaging.

Tenet Media’s website, which is a platform for content creators, lists popular right-wing influencers, including Tim Pool and Benny Johnson, as its “talent.” Pool, Johnson and the other purported beneficiaries of Russian largess pleaded ignorance, but even the most cursory review of their content indicates why Russia would want to amplify their voices. Pool, for example, recently proclaimed that “we should apologize to Russia” for supporting Ukraine, and that Ukraine is “the enemy of this country.”

In August, MAGA celebrated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of Trump, yet R.F.K. Jr. is popular with only a tiny fringe, and he might be one of the more bizarre politicians in American public life. This is a man, after all, who dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park. That’s one of his strangest scandals, but hardly his most consequential. 

JFKjr is a veritable font of dangerous ⚠medical misinformation and may well be America’s most influential anti-vaccine activist, attacking not just the (highly effective❗) Covid vaccine 💉but also the common childhood vaccines that have also saved countless lives.

And let’s not forget, if Trump loses, he’s highly likely to face federal juries in both Washington and in South Florida. (If he wins, he can order the Department of Justice to drop the cases.) If he loses one of those trials (much less both), then MAGA’s central figure won’t be able to mount a fourth run for the presidency. He’ll almost certainly be in prison. The rule of law will have done its work.

I know very well that Trump is just as scandalous and corrupt as many of the people I just talked about, but he succeeds where they fail in part because of the very thing I highlighted in the first paragraph. Before he was a politician, he was a monumental celebrity who built his brand on the notion that he was one of the most successful, astute and entertaining executives in the United States.

We know Trump's actual business record is less sterling than his reputation once suggested. He has too many bankruptcies and too many failures to be treated with the reverence we saw on “The Apprentice,” but Trump’s pre-existing celebrity was indispensable to his success.

Trump’s MAGA imitators replicate his scandals or his pugilism (sometimes both), but not his celebrity. DeSantis is arguably MAGA’s most successful politician not named Trump, but even he couldn’t replicate (much less replace) Trump’s appeal. As Noah Millman argued Thursday in The Times, “Mr. Trump’s persona has been the essence of his appeal,” and if Trump claims that he “alone” can fix our nation, then how can he ever actually pass the baton?

I’m under no illusions that defeating Trump will resurrect Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party — or John McCain’s or Mitt Romney’s. I’m also under no illusions about the fate of Never Trumpers in a post-Trump G.O.P. Many of us are seen as traitors and won’t be welcomed back into the fold, even if the Republicans finally do turn the page on Trump.

But the personal drama of the small band of Never Trump Republicans is meaningless compared with the national necessity of a healthy Republican Party. 

A two-party democracy is inherently fragile if one party is fundamentally broken. If Trump loses, MAGA will fade. It will not go away, of course. Reactionary populism is a permanent fixture of American politics, but don’t believe MAGA’s hype. Its national success depends on one man.

*David French is an Opinion columnist, writing about law, culture, religion and armed conflict. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a former constitutional litigator. 

His most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” You can follow him on Threads (@davidfrenchjag).

Republicans who know Trump is incompetent but vote for him anyway are "socially unwell"

Echo opinion letter published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper, in Georgia.

Dear Editor (AJC readers write)- It’s possible, but not certain, that Vice President Kamala Harris will defeat former guy Donald Trump.

Like former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, I am a Republican who has been sold out, and I only have one chance to get rid of this cancer in what was my party.

Trump being elected by people who know better but let him laugh at them is a sign of being socially unwell.

Trump lost the 2020, election, tried to overturn it and got people killed. Now, he threatens a bloodbath if he loses again and plans to immediately start to deport good people we know who play important roles in our lives. It is depressing.

Harris is our only hope. Hope needs a lot of prayers, but she seems charged and ready. Republican members of Congress who supported the Trump scourge need to go. We need Georgia “blue” because “red” politicians hug someone who promises a bloodbath.

From Dan Smith in Alpharetta, Georgia

Donald Trump dishonors veterans showing more symptoms of brain dementing

More of Trump’s dishonorable comments
Echo opinion letter published in the Houston Texas Chronicle newspaper:

Dear Editor:  Donald Trump’s told more than two lies per minute during an hour long rambling press conference. During this event, Trump said that the Presidential Medal of Freedom was “much better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor, because “everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”

Trump told two lies per minute- might be a world record?

Given the staggering magnitude of his ignorance — according to his former chief of staff, Trump didn’t even understand the significance of Pearl Harbor — it’s tempting to dismiss this comment as innocuous. He was simply complimenting a Medal of Freedom recipient who, unlike the “suckers” and “losers” who defend this country, happened to be a “healthy, beautiful woman” and, of course, a billionaire donor to his campaign. But it underscores deeper, ongoing and far more consequential character flaws that should render him permanently unfit for any public office.

Trump has profoundly perverted the definition of leadership. For him, there is nothing greater than self-enrichment and self-preservation, which is why sacrifice, service, honor and humility are pointless gestures. Loyalty is something to be imposed, not inspired. This is not just a character flaw, it’s a complete absence of character and it runs against the basic values we all teach our children.

His seemingly inconsequential ramblings are newsworthy because they reveal a myopic world view that will inform his policy decisions. This is critical information for any voter — the uninformed, misinformed and those with short memories.

From Robert Campbell, in Katy, Texas

This blog quotes main stream media discusses the content in Donald Trump's social media

This blog quotes New York Magazine Intelligencer:

Link:  https://oneturkeyrun.blogspot.com/2024/09/disgusting-undignified-vile-donald-done.html

💩
Trump turns to Truth Social to share sexual jokes and calls for ‘military tribunals’:  Former President Donald Trump has adjusted his political tone based on the social media platform he’s using.

By Ben Kamisar and Jake Traylor

As the presidential candidates head into the most heated phase of the election year so far, former President Donald Trump has made a distinctive shift in tone on his Truth Social profile, lashing out in increasingly vulgar, misogynistic and vindictive posts.

Just this week, he’s reposted messages calling for his political opponents to be jailed, calling for a return of “public military tribunals” for people like former President Barack Obama, as well as making a graphic sexual joke about Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrat Hillary Clinton, his opponent in 2016. The repost of the sexual joke now appears to have been removed from Trump’s profile.

Republican Liz Cheney endorses Vice-President Kamala Harris in strategically important North Carolina

Former Wyoming Republica Congresswoman Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice-President Dick Cheney, revealed that she will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris for president, during a Duke University event titled "Defending Democracy."

Echo report published in the Duke University Chronicle by By Michael Austin (managing editor) , Zoe Kolenovsky (news editor) and Ava Littman (associated news editor). 

Peter Feaver, professor of political science and director of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy, who moderated the event, asked Cheney if she wanted to “make news” by endorsing a presidential candidate❓

Cheney had previously not weighed in on which candidate she would be supporting in the 2024, presidential election.

“Because we are here in North Carolina, I think it is crucially important for people to recognize … that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates' names — particularly in swing states,” she said. “And as a conservative, and someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

Her comments elicited a standing ovation from the audience.

Cheney spoke in Page Auditorium at a Sanford Distinguished Lecture, where she shared her experience as vice chairwoman of the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol and gave insights into election security in advance of this November.

Moments after expressing her support for Harris, Cheney said the U.S. has “an obligation to make sure that this election is not close” to show the world “who we are.”

Cheney spoke on the importance of voting for serious candidates and “[committing] ourselves, for the good of this country, to having substantive debates and discussions, not to demonizing political opponents.”

“We have to defeat election deniers … Here in North Carolina, that means defeating the Republican candidate for governor,” she said in reference to N.C. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.

After the Jan 6. insurrection, Cheney became a staunch critic of Former guy Donald Trump. Unlike many of her fellow Republican politicians, she publicly and consistently denounced Trump’s actions.

Cheney explained that when Trump returned to the White House from speaking to the mob of his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, he watched the violence unfold on his television. She said he refused to heed pleas from his staffers and family members to call off the violence, even ignoring a note informing him that a civilian had been shot amid the chaos.

Rather than take action, he tweeted about then-Vice President Mike Pence’s apparent lack of courage, which Cheney said effectively “poured gasoline on the fire of the attack.”

“That’s a man who can never again be entrusted with power,” she said.

Cheney claimed that many members of Congress told her they would have voted to impeach Trump if it was a “secret ballot.”

When asked by Feaver why so many Republicans went back on their private commitments to break with Trump, Cheney gave a one-word explanation: “cowardice.”

Cheney also recalled a conversation with then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy a few days after the election, where he shared that he had met with then-president Trump who “knew he lost.”

From her position on the select committee, Cheney witnessed the “breadth and the depth” of Trump’s plan to “overturn the election.” He went from pushing state legislatures to throw out their electoral votes for Biden to pressuring the vice president and Department of Justice, ultimately mobilizing a mob, she explained.

“Each time something was tried and failed … he would move on to the next piece of it,” she said.

Cheney also spoke of McCarthy’s visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after Jan. 6, which she characterized as “stunning.”

“After the violence, many of the largest corporations in the country announced they would not be donating to Republicans … So [McCarthy] needed money,💲💵 and he needed access to Donald Trump's donor lists,” Cheney explained.

As an influential figure in the party, Cheney saw McCarthy’s actions as enabling other Republicans “to bring [Trump] back into the fold in exchange for access to those lists.”

She recognized the “courage” of others who stood up to Trump, including Pence, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, former Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews and Russell Bowers, former speaker of the Arizona House.

“[If] Vice President Pence had not withstood the pressure from Donald Trump to act in a way that was illegal and unconstitutional, we would have been in a very much more serious constitutional crisis.”

Cheney pointed out that Trump’s current running mate, JD Vance, “has said specifically, repeatedly that he will not do what Mike Pence did, were he ever to face that situation.”

She believes that the Republican Party is no longer characterized by “substance” and “policy.”

“I don't know that the current Republican Party can be resuscitated,” Cheney said. “I think that there's going to have to be very, very significant work done.”

In concluding her address, Cheney called upon young people to “step up” and “get to the polls.”

“Much of the work that we're going to have to do sort of post this election cycle is getting back to a place where this country has two strong political parties that embrace the Constitution and where we can have substantive debates,” Cheney said.

Editor's note: This story was updated Wednesday night with the rest of Cheney's remarks.

Disgusting undignified vile Donald ("Done") Trump lies on his fake Truth Social bullshit media

Donald Trump was so embarrassed by coverage of his meltdown over the DNC on Truth (Lies 😡)Social and Fox (Fake❗ ) News that he was still posting dubious excuses days later. But he definitely didn’t learn a thing from the experience. 

Weird and leud vulgar stuff 💩

Echo report by Margaret Hartmann published in New York Magazine Intelligencer.  

After special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment against Trump over his attempt to steal the 2020, election, the former president decided to “tweet through it” once again. And this time, he jazzed up his Truth Social meltdown with QAnon memes, calls for jailing his political foes, and vulgar claims about Kamala Harris.

(Frankly, to quote Vice-President Kamala Harris, "Trump is out of his mind❗🧠😳😲)

To be sure, Trump’s Truth Social feed is never a bastion of measured political discourse. On a typical day, he might post an incoherent tirade or two about “Comrade Kamala,” repost a meme that depicts him as MAGA Jesus, and share some fawning Fox News videos. But since news about the new indictment broke on the evening of August 27, Trump has posted and reposted dozens of messages, and the concentration of unhinged vitriol is much higher than usual.

When asked if her boss was okay during a Thursday-morning CNN interview, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt dodged. “Look, I don’t think your viewers at home are concerned about social-media posts,” she said.

JOHN BERMAN: "Why was Donald Trump over the past 36 hours reposting QAnon slogan and misogynist and sexist content about Vice President Harris? "

TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOX KAROLINE LEAVITT: "I don't think your viewers are concerned about social media posts" 😀💥

But if you’re curious about what kind of unhinged stuff a major presidential candidate has been dumping on social media, here’s a sample of the type of content Trump has been posting.

Rambling about political persecution

He initially responded to the new Jack Smith  indictment with a nearly 500-word screed ❗about Smith and “Kamala’s Weaponized System against her Political Opponent.” This was spread over four posts, but the first gives you the gist:

A cruel and crude sexual remark about Harris

(Maine Writer 🖊️ comment to quote Governor Tim Walz "Trump needs to mind his own damn business!")

Trump has said a lot of vaguely sexist things about his Democratic opponent, but he took things to a new level when he shared another Truth Social user’s post showing a photo of Harris with Hillary Clinton captioned, “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently …” This is a reference to Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, paired with a suggestion that Harris slept her way into a political career by dating former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown in the 1990s.💩😩😧😞😧

(But no metion about "Done" Donald's sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels when his wife Melania was recovering from pospartum delivery of their son.)

Trump had sex with porn actress Stormy Daniels but no metion of it on his leud media screeds

As the New York Times noted, this is the second time that Trump — who has “repeatedly been accused of sexual misconduct and was found liable last year for sexual abuse and defamation” — shared a sexually oriented attack against Harris:

Previously, on Aug. 18, Trump had shared a video from the Dilley Meme Team — a group of right-wing internet content creators that makes pro-Trump videos and memes denigrating his opponents — that parodied the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic” to attack Ms. Harris as “moronic.” In the parody song, the singer says Ms. Harris “spent her whole damn life down on her knees,” at which point a photo of Mr. Brown appears onscreen.

Calls to “lock up” his enemies: Trump has taken to pretending he never said “Lock her up” about Hillary Clinton (which is not true). But he definitely reposted multiple images showing his major political foes (and Bill Gates?) in orange jumpsuits, and calling for Jack Smith, the House January 6 Committee, and top Democrats like Barack Obama to be prosecuted, maybe via “public military tribunals.”

Lots of QAnon content: These memes may not make sense if you aren’t deep into conspiracy theories, but as ABC News explains, they all feature QAnon slogans:

Some of the other posts Trump shared included phrases circulated among followers of QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy theory, including “Nothing can stop what is coming,” “Hold the line,” and “WWG1WGA”, which is an initialism for “Where we go one, we go all.”

Other weird stuff👿👺👹💀👽: You know, memes showing Trump hanging with a lion....🦁❓

In other words....Donald "Done" Trump has lost his mind.