USA 2024 presidential election

Like just what is he trying to achieve with such a comment?

Because modern American christian conservatism has a distinct streak that likes to tie motherhood to patriotism in that manner that's more than a little fascistic. If you can't have children then yo'ure not doing your patriotic duty to birth or breed new (preferably white) Americans.

Maybe but the cultural trickle is such that you have a great swath of low-income, white America who will or have started to believe that it has been some loss of blue-collar masculinity, or excessive indulgence towards feminism, that's the cause of all America's ills. "Make America Great Again" has always stank of a desire to return to mid 20th century cultural and social norms, rarely hiding it. CPAAC speakers have spoken quite plainly that women should choose motherhood or a career, but not both; while the entire attack on abortion and contraception techniques a pretty transparent attempt to limit women's options.

Obviously being ostensible satire, I'm sure there's a degree of cherry picking going by Stewart but his run-down of the last week or two does kinda hint that the GOP really didn't (yet) how to handle Harris and its media mouthpieces have been flailing around with some frankly outrageous swings.

Does read like they haven't figured out a tactic yet and maybe in the comings weeks they will, undoubtedly. But it does all smell like scrambling in lieu of any concrete point of attack. No more than it was with Biden himself TBH in 2020: GOP had no clear path on policy so leant on the same shít they did with Clinton - innuendo over "criminality" with Hunter Biden, as it was with Hillary & alleged malfeasance.

As far as I can see Harris just doesn't have the same kind of … I dunno how to describe it other than skeleton adjacent history in her cupboard, so what then? If all they can manage is trash-talk about her romantic history via creeps and malcontents like Ben Shapiro? Coming polls are gonna be very interesting to read, unreliable as they might be and if there has been any kind of bounce.

I think had one side not such an egregiously destructive, wannabe dictatorial candidate the conversation might have been more about the lack of left-of-centre representation on either ticket, absolutely; but a right-leaning Californian is practically Trotsky when the other side is openly embracing the lure of authoritarianism & warping America's executive power into something absolute.

Back in 2016 you saw in the Democratic Primary a pretty clear conversation about finally embracing a more openly socialist candidate with the likes of Sanders or Warren talking up more leftie language (obviously compared with Europe you can debate how "socialist" either were). I think when, of all people, Hillary Clinton nosed ahead of Bernie Sanders it really shrank the Left's enthusiasm … even suddenly meaning this outsider Donald Trump appealed with his drain the swamp narrative. Maybe there was some political establishment after all if after all the buzz Clinton got the nod & spoke of "her turn".

Of course we saw how that all went, but it's curious how the last 2 election cycles there's nary a mumble about the Democrats' poverty of left-leaning choices or priorities. Not to any national, mainstream degree. And until MAGA is stamped out or dies with Trump, I kinda get it: America democracy is still in Crisis Mode & radical swings to the left could only further the agenda of the Hard Christian Right trying to upend the country. I don't even know how you unring the bell of this increasingly hostile Christian Right, but going Left mightn't be it.

Mind you, all that said, Harris could canter all the way through November into the White House … but it speaks to that Crisis Mode nobody has yet asked "yeah but Trump, what if you lose?" … cos again, we saw how that went the last time & I see no reason why MAGA is this time gonna say, "yeah we lost, fair enough".

That was somehow even worse than I expected, leading into the obvious wondering of why and how they let him do it in the first place? Did they honestly think an interview with black journalists, in Chicago, was gonna go great? I wonder about the timelines & if this a response to Harris' announcement; quick, get Trump talking to some black people.

I had honestly forgotten just how nakedly impatient and hostile Trump is towards even a modicum of challenging questions - but especially from women. It's so transparent. They're always, always "rude" and/or "nasty" and not like the court cases weren't already indicator, but the man truly is a horrendous misogynist. I did get a dark chuckle about how he kept bringing it up - then saying he's "fine with it". I'm not bitter, you're bitter; obsessed, not obsessed no no.

As with all things Trump, none of this is gonna sway voters 'cos say what you will about the man he has been an open book from day one; the only difference being the question of his mental acuity - if that was fair game for Biden then so it goes with Trump.

Again though, I'm only seeing Trump & the GOP utterly incapable of dealing with this scenario as a group. They're still scrambling. Saw some of Harris' rally work and whatever else she's a much better orator than Clinton was; I can see why the GOP are sweating about the second debate.

I've seen Trump say that before re. Lincoln, and notwithstanding the fact he man seems incurably ignorant & incurious, it's weird how that's the historical jumping off point for him & Black History; not, as the journalist tried to suggest but got spoken over, anything more recent & relatable to the audience like the outcomes of the Civil Rights era … no, no. It's Lincoln. I suppose it's probably "just" Trump speaking to his own narcissism that as with all things he can only speak in superlatives so of course puts himself on a pedestal with a mythic figure like Abraham Lincoln.

Suppose most that can be speculated upon is that colossal misstep of an interview might sway a few hundred more undecided voters … but it won't pivot MAGA at all, being as it is a Personality Cult. If anything, a craven many will probably have loved him speaking back to what they saw as uppity black people, never happy. I've always got this impression that there's a robust minority in America who think black people should be more "grateful" for the gracious whites abolishing slavery (80 odd years after the rest of the Western World abolished it but hey ho) - and anything past that was a mistake. The grotesque amount of red-lining, voter suppression & gerrymandering, which often disproportionately harms black areas, kinda backs it up.

Technically he gets a library though, right? Isn't it in the done thing to get something named after you as a former President - with libraries the typical institution?

As to a memorial? Are you kidding: I guarantee there's gonna be some god-awful, gold plated statue erected to Trump, in some godforsaken Sink Estate City somewhere in the US; if Milwaukee can build a statue to the Fonz, or Detroit have one made for RoboCop (albeit crowdfunded and still delayed), then I'd put money on some "citizen" group demanding a statue put up for their idol, the irony lost on those ostensible old testament types.