Finally, autumn is in the air this near-noon Wednesday here in California’s Central Valley — temps in the mid-70s, clear-blue skies, bringing on sweater weather at last!
Although I only watched the first 15 minutes or so live of the debate last night between Kamala Harris and the T-Rump, the game was on from the beginning — going after the shitheel with a handshake at the outset, she beat the living crap out of the Orange Turd and he came across as himself — a useless, nasty, ignorant piece of dangerous, ignorant shit.
In essence:
Here are the fact-checks that Trumpers are mad about today:
— Moms are not murdering their babies
— Migrants aren’t eating your pets
— Biden won the 2020 election— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 11, 2024
Charles P. Pierce at Esquire this morning quickly encapsulates:
The vice president pitched a shutout. She looked like Pedro Martinez at his peak; she blew fastballs by him and, when she wasn’t doing that, she was getting him to swing at pitches in the dirt and fooling him with changeups. Was there a fat piece of bait dangled in front of him that he didn’t snap up? She owned him from the moment that she taunted him about exhausted and bored people leaving his rallies early.
The rallies are all he has left. They feed his insatiable ego. They are all he has for human affection and, as far as I know, genuine human contact. He has no platform, no policy proposals worthy of the name. He has his delusional view of his own epic presidency. And he has his rallies. They are his reason for being, and she taunted him about them, so he danced like a puppet on her strings.
Further in that vein from Amanda Marcotte at Salon, also this morning:
Old, weird, and tired: Trump knew those were the words he had to contend with going into the debate. Yet he couldn’t help but prove the charge. As practiced a liar as Trump is, he can’t hide who he is and how much worse he’s getting. He spent the debate vomiting out all the weirdest right-wing conspiracy theories as though he was a scowling human embodiment of an illiterate MAGA meme. He belched out a bizarre fantasy that doctors commit “execution after birth,” which drew a fact check from moderator Linsey Davis. He yelled a lie about how immigrants are “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats,” which triggered another fact check by moderator David Muir. He sounded very much like a chatbot programmed to speak only in far-right phrases, except worse, because it’s shorting out. If that sounds like an exaggeration, it’s not. He literally said, at one point, “she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”
Harris, who has always nailed those “Jim in ‘The Office'”-style reactions, took full advantage. She spent much of the debate staring at Trump in disbelief, while he refused to even look in her direction. After one of his unhinged rants, she simply reacted with, “Talk about extreme,” punctuated with a giggle. The choice was visible on the split screen: Harris, the normal, competent politician; Trump is Gramps wandering in the streets without his pants on because he won’t take his medication. As Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said, “He’s really doubling down on the crazy uncle vibe this evening.”
And on the hot-button issue of abortion — Dahlia Lithwick at Slate:
Asked whether he would veto a national abortion ban, Trump would not answer. Asked why his running mate, J.D. Vance, said he would do so, Trump replied that he and Vance hadn’t discussed it. The vibe was that the matter is not even worthy of discussion between running mates; best left to the “scholars” and the “courageous” Supreme Court.
Harris’ rejoinder was to provide a still life in American women, post-Dobbs—a snapshot of the people whose lives have been disrupted and decimated by the former president and his handpicked Supreme Court justices who genuinely never cared about their dignity or autonomy:
“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion. That isn’t happening. It’s insulting to the women of America. And understand what has been happening under Donald Trump’s abortion bans. Couples who pray and dream of having a family are being denied IVF treatments. What is happening in our country, working people, working women who are working one or two jobs, who can barely afford child care as it is, have to travel to another state, to get on a plane sitting next to strangers, to go and get the health care she needs. Barely can afford to do it. And what you are putting her through is unconscionable.”
And for millions of us, it was finally, oh my God, finally, the right answer, delivered cogently and passionately, without apology or triangulation. As Harris put it: “The majority of Americans believe in a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. And that is why in every state where this issue has been on the ballot, in red and blue states both, the people of America have voted for freedom.”
Right on.
The finish:
Leaving the scene of a beat-down. pic.twitter.com/Y6vOpopL5W
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 11, 2024
In direct response: ‘“People are saying BIG WIN tonight!”‘
Of course, early results of the event haven’t seen much movement in the polls, though, everything I read from decent/reliable sources indicates Harris beat the living shit out of T-Rump and there shouldn’t be any doubt who to vote for come November 5 — the impact of the Taylor Swift endorsement last night in the direct wake of the debate also hasn’t shown up in public appreciation yet — and the assholes who still back the Orange Turd are staying strong. Voters who keep it going are at heart pieces of shit themselves, or as dumb as Alabama pine stumps.
Even at this late stage after nearly a decade of the T-Rump’s horror show, it still blows my mind anyone with any ethics, morals, any kind of scruples, or self-awareness can even ‘think‘ about supporting him. In all those takeaways from the debate joy and optimism make life a little better in a future sense.
And to close out, the weirdest, out-of-this-world insane aspect of election 2024 is a ludicrous, shit-snap lie of insane proportions (NPR):
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said during an answer to a question about immigration. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
Vice President Harris looked away and laughed at the comments while moderator David Muir stepped in, saying there have been no credible reports of pets being harmed by Springfield’s immigrant community.
But by the time the debate was over, THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS was trending on the platform X.
Reaction of those most affected:
THEY'RE EATING THE DOGS pic.twitter.com/lQqMW5l8pT
— Tarquin ?? (@Tarquin_Helmet) September 11, 2024
T-Rump being the piece-of-shit he’s always been, or not, yet once again, here we are…
(Illustration out front: ‘Vice President Kamala Harris,’ watercolor on paper, by Ray Johnstone, and found here.)