24 thoughts on “Be-twiXted”

  1. how to run a campaign – make ’em laugh

    with more ads like the above

    BUT don’t be the clown yourself.

    from michael wolff’s op ed in NYT in november:

    While few other politicians might contemplate a presidential run without a ready and serious brain trust, staffing for Mr. Trump is only ever a remote concern: He has always run things out of his own chaotic head.
    Having written three books in less than four years about Mr. Trump, with near constant input from his closest aides and friends, as well as hours of rambling from him, I have come to two primary conclusions: that there is almost never any true plan, strategy or forethought in Trump world and that everyone around him lives in the prison of his monologues, which allow for no interruptions or reality checks and overrule any plans others have tried to make. His fixations, misunderstandings and contempt for better minds that might correct him reign.
    The aide recently described the constant churning within Trump world, as grievances and resentments are rehashed and blame assigned, as the workings of Mr. Trump’s “blender brain.”
    Chaos suits him, allowing him again and again to turn what ought to be humiliating and defeating disorder into potent conflict: If he can’t find a solution to a problem, he can almost always identify an enemy to blame it on. Trouble is, the problem remains.
    […]
    The Republicans may find themselves stuck with a candidate who makes numbers what he wants them to be, puts family above professionals and has no doubt that his own advice is better than everyone else’s. Arguably, Mr. Trump won in 2016 only because, three months before the election, Steve Bannon stepped in with a Hail Mary strategy of concentrating on the normally Democratic states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania while sidelining Mr. Trump with an amped-up schedule of the daily rallies he craved. Mr. Bannon later claimed credit for the victory, guaranteeing that Mr. Trump would never again give someone that opportunity, even if it meant defeat — hence the appointment in 2020 of Mr. Parscale, an inexperienced and apparently unstable campaign manager happy to be a toady to the president and his family.
    In this petty vindictiveness lies the key point: Mr. Trump’s main goal isn’t victory. It’s holding the spotlight. His effort to upend the 2020 result was a colossal failure, but it succeeded in keeping him at center stage. Were he to become president again, we might see not a breaking of democracy, as liberals dread, but an ever more bizarre distraction from it.
    Mr. Trump does not learn from his mistakes but rather comes to see them as virtues. Another Trump campaign will — like the two before it, as well as his White House term — lack the most basic management controls.

  3. They’re following Big Stories on TV.  
    They’re insufferable. 
    Football. 
    Haley. 
    Chump. 
    The Royals.
    DeSantis. 
    Weather. 
    Faulty airplanes.   
    Al Roker.

    But I must admit that Tim Scott endorsing Clump instead of Haley is darkly humorous.

  5. Fortunately there’s so much to mock.
      
    What he most hates is being called “Loser” even though he’s The losingest Loser who’s ever lost.

  7. Yeah, Nikki Hayley wants to kill seniors by axing Social Security and Medicare, while  Nancy Pelosi is a smart, caring human being and an amazing, political  chess player.  Big difference.

  11. OMG….  NH is almost at the finish line.  Our phone is ringing day and night…  the ads on tv are filled with lies and negativity.   Such are the pleasures of having the first in the nation primary…   and most of us wouldn’t have it any other way…

  12. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/22/india/modi-inauguration-india-ayodhya-temple-intl-hnk/index.html
    “The inauguration of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir – a temple devoted to Lord Ram – in northern India’s Ayodhya is more than 30 years in the making and is expected to give a major boost to Modi’s election campaign.”
     
    “For years, Modi and his political allies vowed to build a temple on the site of a 16th century mosque that was destroyed by violent Hindu hardliners in a deadly 1992 attack that turbo-charged the country’s Hindu nationalist movement.”
     
    “The Ram Mandir is the realization of Modi’s dream to create what he has called a “new India,” which many consider to be the transformation of the country into a distinctly Hindu nation.”
     
    “Inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple Monday, Modi presided over the Pran Pratishtha, or consecration ceremony, of an idol of Lord Ram, one of Hinduism’s most revered deities. Depicted as a young boy, the statue of black stone was adorned with gold jewelry, gemstones, diamonds and flowers.”
     
    “For Modi’s detractors, the temple’s inauguration is the conclusion of a decades-long campaign to pull India away from the secular roots upon which the country was founded following independence.”
     
    “From today, from this sacred time, we have to lay the foundation for the next 1,000 years. By moving ahead of building the temple, now we all take the oath of building a national, capable, successful, beautiful, and divine India,” Modi said.
    “Outside, military helicopters flew over the temple and city releasing flower petals over the vast building and crowds of dignitaries below.”
    ”Among the speakers at the event was Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the right-wing parent organization of the BJP, who said the temple “has become a symbol of a new India that will stand tall.”
     
    Secularism is under attack around the world.  Right-wingnuts are destroying democracies near and far. 
     
     

  13. First there’s a group.  Then there develops a difference of opinion which soon crystallizes into 2 distinct positions, followed by heated debates, leading to vilification. Then comes the schism after which swords are drawn and blood is shed.  
    —Every human Group since forever.

  15. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/21/texas-republicans-hand-count-votes-election-2024/
    “Texas Republicans in one rural county will hand count ballots.”

    “Things have been spiraling out of control in Gillespie elections for nearly two years. In 2022, the county’s entire elections department quit following harassment and threats from far-right voter fraud activists. This year, voter fraud activists in the county were hosting events featuring well-known conspiracy theorists, pushing for hand counts.”

    “When Gillespie County Republicans conduct their primary in March, they will count votes in an ill-advised way: by hand, using scores of volunteers, without any machines.”
    Gillespie County Republicans, though, must now recruit and train 100 additional election workers to do the election day tasks that normally fall to county election workers.Are the counters required to be Republicans?  These folks are responsible for all county ballots, not just Republican ballots? 
     
    “It’s not anything that’s really complicated. If you go ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5’ then you can do it,” Treibs, who has no experience hand-counting ballots, told Votebeat. “So it’s not like calculus, you know? If you have a good attention span, then I think most people can do it.”
     
    A good attention span?  Has he met people? 
     
     
    “Party leadership in larger counties have, so far, resisted a full hand count. In Dallas County, leadership determined it would be impossible with present resources. In Travis County, the local GOP decided on a significantly watered-down hand-counting plan, focusing on a small percentage of primary ballots cast.”

  16. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-harris-target-republican-curbs-abortion-rights-roe-anniversary-2024-01-22/
    I know it’ll never happen, but showing Biden/Harris abortion rights ads during the Super Bowl would be amazing.    
     
    “The first 60-second ad, “Forced,” features Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB-GYN in Texas, who had to flee her state for an abortion.”
     

    Because Republicans would rather have had her possibly die and leave behind three orphans. Nikki Hayley lied when she said medically necessary abortions are rare. Not only for lethal, fetal abnormalities, but very often for incomplete miscarriages. Republicans are not pro-life. They are liars.

  17. renee, any of those calls the fake robo one?

    the guardian

    Biden campaign calls for investigation of New Hampshire robocalls impersonating president

    Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has called on New Hampshire authorities to investigate a spate of robocalls to voters in which a voice that sounds like the president encourages them not to participate in Tuesday’s primary.
    Biden’s name is not appearing on the primary ballot, since Democrats have decided to hold their first nominating contest in South Carolina next month. But some in the party are encouraging their voters to write in the president’s name, both as a show of support and to pressure the Democratic National Committee to give New Hampshire, which has historically been the second state to vote, a more prominent role in the nominating process.
    In a statement, Biden-Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said:
    This matter has already been referred to the New Hampshire Attorney General, and the campaign is actively discussing additional actions to take immediately. Spreading disinformation to suppress voting and deliberately undermine free and fair elections will not stand, and fighting back against any attempt to undermine our democracy will continue to be a top priority for this campaign.

  18. patd….  yup… I’ve gotten several of those calls today.  We’re not picking up the phone today… but they are leaving messages.  I read about this scam yesterday in the Boston Globe.  I’m ignoring it… I will be writing in Joe Biden of my Democratic ballot tomorrow.

  20. Why was Ronnie allowed to coat-hanger his campaign? He should have been forced to carry it to term. 

    (I plagiarized the second line.)

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