Harris Vs Trump 2024 US Presidential election - read the warning in the OP posted 18/09/24

I'll say he shouldn't have said that. I'm looking for some balance in this election. You won't find it from the Irish media though. I have barely commented on this election, unlike so many others here. I did say before that they are both bad candidates. You can see why Trump as a former president is running again. Harris, is so bad though, a hugely unpopular vice president. She's acting like she wasn't part of the current administration, and had no part in any of its missteps.

Did she not notice the decline in Biden's cognitive abilities? Or did she stay stum, until it was too late, knowing that she could be the only viable Democratic candidate, as the pledged donations could only be used by her or Biden?

"Blue in the face".

Lay off the hyperbole please. Plus, I never said it was "unforgivable".

Myself. I will criticise Americans in general. Their gun laws are an absolute disgrace. And we all know which side supports the Second Amendment more.

"Still not answering the question though."

Says you. I'm still waiting on that link of Trump calling Democrat voters garbage please? What question do you want answered?

I'll say he shouldn't have said that. I'm looking for some balance in this election. You won't find it from the Irish media though.

This is as frequent a trope as the one conflated MAGA with 50% of the electorate.

There is a clear difference between 'balance' and using the same scale to judge two things fairly

A certain cohort who adopt this argument are the type who for instance, thing you need to pit 1 climate scientist against 1 climate denier, and that's 'balance' even when science overwhelmingly demonstrates the reality of climate change. The western media does not give 'equal consideration' to the Russians, Iranians etc. either in conflicts, and the logic applied is no different than when concluding a fascist would make a horrible choice for a world leader in western democratic hegemony.

Here in this election you have one candidate, who is by comparison to other, completely bereft of scandals, yet held to a double standard, and expected to be flawless or else she is considered an abject and total failure. The other is a documented womanizer, a convicted felon awaiting sentencing, a twice impeached seditionist, etc etc. who is held to no standard, and allowed to be lawless.

The 'both sides' campaign, thinks that these two things are 'the same' — they are not. It is not 'imbalanced' or unobjective to note that the negatives of one of these candidates overwhelmingly outweighs the other. Ergo, the idea that the media is being 'unfair' by bringing up more of Trump's negatives, more often, because there are so many more of them, is not indicative of a lack or balance or objectivity. To suggest otherwise is as logically incongruent and fallacious as the scales shown in the above image. I don't know why anyone would expect journalism in particular, a profession that utterly values the freedom of speech and of the press, to show partiality, or impartiality for that matter, to a fascist whose policies rail against the very fabric of democracy, and the free press, and so much more. Suggesting the media is imbalanced because it disavows fascism and knows what it is when it sees it, is having a laugh.

This is just sad. I'm not "demanding" anything. Your words.

Tell me what the question is please? I think you've confused yourself, you don't even know what it is.

"Mental gymnastics" indeed, on your part. I've criticised both presidential candidates.

I've already said that if Trump called Democrat voters garbage, although you've used the word "scum" here, that, yes, it would be bad. Please show me where he did that please?

That video of Trump attempting to get in the bin lorry seems to be everywhere. Not a great look for him at this late stage. Clearly there is a hidden health issue at play along with being very old. How will he manage the job if he is flailing now.

Churlish projection by Trump thrown at Mark Cuban tonight:

[H]e’s a very insecure guy, and a MAJOR LOSER, always has been and always will be! Nobody likes him, nobody respects him, and he’s unattractive both inside and out! 

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump-calls-mark-cuban-unattractive-and-a-major-loser-in-wild-rant-a-very-insecure-guy/

Why? Why because Cuban called out the fact that Trump is never seen associated around "strong, intelligent women:"

Let’s clarify something. This is what I said during a conversation about why Nikki Haley was not active in his campaign “Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever. It’s just that simple. They’re intimidating to him. He doesn’t like to be challenged by them and, you know, Nikki Haley will call him on his nonsense with reproductive rights and how he sees and treats and talks about women. I mean, he just can’t have her around. It wouldn’t work.

I’m happy to clarify that

1. I know many strong, intelligent women voting for Trump. Including in my extended family. I’m certainly not saying female voters are not smart , strong and intelligent.

2. I know he has worked with strong intelligent women, like Elaine Chao, Kelly Anne, Ivanka and many others

I stand by my opinion that he does not like being challenged publicly.

Trump went on a tear with the 'I'm not weird, you're weird' approach to Cuban's criticisms, point for point. It comes as Trump has gotten in trouble for putting off women in droves with his machismo/bro-culture MSG rally with Hulk Hogan ripping up his shirt (eventually..), Tucker Carlson talking about what can best be described as a cuckolding fantasy where he sees Trump as a daddy he wants to 'come home' and spank 'bad girls,' and Trump's off-key comments about promising to be a "protector of women," which has elicited extremely negative reactions from women in particular, especially given his history with women, his ex wives, women formerly associated with him, the hollywood access tape, etc. etc.; he stepped into it further by doubling down today, in the worst possible way that called up all of his past lewd and morally and otherwise questionable behavior around women when he said, "Well, I'm going to do it, whether the women like it or not." Which, to a tee, sums up Donald Trump and his relationship with women, and explains why, well, he's not ever seen in the orbit of strong-willed and intelligent women, least of all ones he sees as equals and peers never mind of all as superiors. The attacks on Cuban really highlight this, and in projection it reeks of multiple insecurities of his including that he's 'unattractive, inside and out.'

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-protecting-women-whether-they-like-it-or-not-wisconsin/

It also underscores his attacks on just about every woman he's come across, from ex acquaintances, to Rosie O'Donnell, former staff and campaign members, Cassidy Hutchinson, Taylor Swift, Marie Yovanovitch, and so many others, and lest we forget the attack on women's body autonomy that is also core to the entire modus operandi.

This all only serves to hurt Trump, and it's abundantly clear he's lost the majority of women support. And MAGA is freaking out about it: in the swing states women make up 55% of the early votes compared to 45% of men, and the polls demonstrate Harris does unquestioningly better with Women than Trump does. USA Today shows them diametrically opposed in gender support: Harris wins over women 53% to 37% and Trump wins over men 53% to 36%. But, with women having a 10% lead in voting participation over men, and women turnout historically being higher than men as a norm, the algebra is not good for him. And neither are the campaign ads from the likes of eg. Julia Roberts which is why they're all in a panic about it and you have the likes of Newt Gingrinch etc. on Fox News tonight flipping out calling the ad "sick!" etc.; Gingrich is a 'win at all costs' kind of Republican who would lie and steal from his own mother if it meant Republicans control Congress, so him calling the ad sick and all is full of ironies.

Couple this with MAGA voters violent and misogynistic attacks and assaults on women at the polls, which we've seen throughout early voting, and it becomes abundantly clear that they know they have lost their vote and they are utterly panicked that they've lost this election already.

That's the neat part: they haven't been that secretive that JD Vance would handle the day to day and be the 'prime minister' so to speak while Trump yucks it up on the golf course and gets to feel self important as the royal figurehead.

I think even if they do get in (which I think going by the polling, turnout, and predictions by Lichtman, would almost certainly have to be a coup via Congress or the Courts) you would see a major chaos unfold between warring factions because Vance is a little power hungry himself and he actually thinks Trump is too much of America's Hitler for his tastes, so for example, filling up the government won't just be as simple as 'loyalty to Trump' but also, 'are you loyal to JD Vance' I think you'd see factional infighting and as terrible as they'd all be on the things they agreed upon, it would be very hard to predict what will actually all happen with them all at each others necks, like what we saw in the first administration: while he was able to do a ton of damage, like packing the courts with Aileen Cannons et al., the child family separations, getting servicemembers killed, giving Russia a pass in the Kerch Strait, Abandoning the Kurds- I'll stop myself, it's a long list, aside from all the damage he's done, still a lot of things he could have done, but didn't/couldn't because of in-fighting within the party (seen in Congress) or in the administration itself, with top cabinet members many of whom have endorsed Harris this cycle, and frustrated some of Trump's worst impulses while in office, and a ton of people in his administration leaked to the press also.

I think the short of it is, he won't manage the job, he barely managed the job the last time he was in, and now he's just older and less put together and even the people who support him say he needs two weeks at a time to rest up etc.; while he's in the Odinsleep for weeks at a time, the mice will have the cookies. I do hope more voters take notice of his worsening condition though, such as that shown by the garbage truck incident (not to mention the entire obsession of his with garbage rhetoric, etc.) and see to it that his defeat is by landslide. But I do think you'll still see a lot of Republican support even if he straight faceplants himself by Tuesday because, they want the R and they won't care if it's JD Vance and his faction that gets voted in, so long as they thing their policies are good for them. So ultimately his health may only swing a few mere percentage points of the electorate.

Everyone remember last week when MTG and Kirk said a story would break which would make certain claims but it would be fake?

People speculated about another assault claim.

Well, the daily beast has a story....

"Jeffrey Epstein showed off photos of Donald Trump with “topless young women” sitting in his lap, author Michael Wolff says.

The pedophile financier had about half a dozen pictures which showed Trump by the pool with multiple young women, Wolff claimed on his podcast, Fire & Fury, Thursday. They were taken in the “late 90s” at Epstein’s Palm Beach home, where he victimized dozens of underage girls along with his procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, Wolff said.

Wolff alleged that they were in Epstein’s safe, which the FBI seized when they raided his homes in New York and Palm Beach in July 2019. The massive haul of evidence taken by the feds has never been made public–and while prosecutors disclosed after the raid that they had “hundreds of photos of girls and young women,” they have never offered any more details of them.

Wolff said of the photos, “They were with Trump at Epstein’s Palm Beach house sitting around the pool with these young girls, and the young girls are topless.

“And in some of the pictures, they’re sitting in his lap. I mean, and, and then there’s one I especially remember where there’s a stain, a telltale stain and on the front of Trump’s pants, and the girls are pointing at him and laughing.” Trump separated from his second wife Marla Maples in 1997 and began dating his third wife, Melania, in 1998."

Link here...

The hypocrisy is stunning

These are 2 days apart.

We all dunk on politicians, but there's a certain breed that can just shapeshift so seamlessly that it beggars belief. Some of them, not saying JD Vance is one, you'd nearly admire the brazenness at which they can change and speak with conviction on two diametrically opposed views. Michael Gove in the UK is one, Ted Cruz in the US is another. If you listen to them in isolation on either view, you'd nearly respect them, when you put them together, you realize what you're dealing with.

Would the MAGA crowd here, who were clutching their pearls yesterday about Biden's comment about people around Trump being garbage, care to defend this from Trump, because to me it sounds like he's fantasising about pointing a gun in Liz Cheney's face…

My immediate thought when looking at that is that Tucker is just waiting for him to stop for a second so he can start talking about spanking his daughters. Weird, all round.

The protector of Women.

An absolute garbage human.