The US Election.

Kamala Harris' last big event will be in Washington: in the shadow of The White House on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver a closing argument to the American people as to why she should be elected the next president of the United States.

Some 20,000 people are expected to attend the rally on the Ellipse between E Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW, 15th and 17th streets NW, according to an approved permit from the National Park Service.
Overflow crowds will be directed to the northeast grounds of the Washington Monument.

www.nbcwashington.com/decision-2024/20000-people-expected-on-ellipse-for-kamala-harris-speech-on-tuesday/3751588/

Might as well stand “in the shadow of the White House” as that might be the nearest she actually gets to it! 😁

Re Peurto Rico …

Didn’t West Side Story essentially make the same point - but a little more artistically all those years ago?

Anyway.
It was a joke (admittedly in poor taste) by a comedian. Remember those?

Trump is beginning to look, and sound, deranged. He raves, pouts, threatens, lies - the thought of his being the most powerful leader on the world stage is truly frightening - and the fact that he has said if he loses, then 'he won't lose' Presumably this promises another riot from his supporters who caused such mayhem last time, when told to go and take what was theirs when they stormed Capitol Hill. what a time to be alive.

It seems too close to call. In the event of a very close finish either candidate could invoke legal proceedings all the way to the Supreme Court which might take time. I assume Biden would remain as a caretaker until it was resolved but I don't know if they have a rule about that if it ran beyond the official succession date. There is also the possibility of civil disturbance on a large scale which I assume Biden has planned for given the previous riot in DC.

Well, well. On Friday, the Washington Post announced that it would not be endorsing a candidate in the presidential election despite its editorial board (unsurprisingly) drafting a full endorsement of VP Kamala Harris. It was later revealed that Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who owns the Post, had personally vetoed the decision to endorse Harris, framing it as an end to endorsing any presidential candidates in general. A few hours after those stories broke, executives from Blue Origin – Bezos’ aerospace firm – met with Donald Trump, and the CEO of Amazon also reached out to the former president over the phone.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Well, well. On Friday, the Washington Post announced that it would not be endorsing a candidate in the presidential election despite its editorial board (unsurprisingly) drafting a full endorsement of VP Kamala Harris. It was later revealed that Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who owns the Post, had personally vetoed the decision to endorse Harris, framing it as an end to endorsing any presidential candidates in general. A few hours after those stories broke, executives from Blue Origin – Bezos’ aerospace firm – met with Donald Trump, and the CEO of Amazon also reached out to the former president over the phone.

Bezos is worried that it will affect business, especially with Musks in the mix. He is busy covering all bases rather than signifying genuine support for Trump.

I dare say. But he knows which way the wind is blowing. Best now not to think ‘it’s Kamala’.

Corruption and oligarchy last Friday, no surprises there. Many high profile figures have cancelled subscriptions.

There is a very big issue here which we have in the UK to a lesser extent. When big business moguls - unelected, powerful figures - buy newspapers and then use them to crush the breadth of freedom of speech - goodbye democracy.

I see no cause for celebration here whoever wins, frankly.

One of the worst for meddling in free speech was actually the previous owner of Twitter. The left should be protecting it but they dont.

edition.cnn.com/2024/10/28/politics/trump-extreme-closing-argument/index.html
This is truly frightening.

The word is the 7 battlegrounds are now gone for KH, which is why she was in Texas - focusing on holding the Senate.

Trump is expanding his spend in the last week to NH and Virginia. It is going to be a comfortable Trump win.

I am not sure. When Biden departed I thought Harris was going to win, as she had quite a clear bounce in the polls. However a couple of weeks ago I was pretty sure Trump had it, now again I am not so sure. It looks close to me which in itself is not a good thing.

It will be about turnout in the swing states and unfortunately Trump voters will probably "turn out". I'd loathe Trump to get another term as POTUS but Harris isn't a particularly strong candidate. It is a tragedy that Biden didn't stand aside in time for a proper Democratic Primary as there were better potential candidates who I think would have a better chance of beating Trump. It's going to be close.

I don't know how fully Trump supporters have considered the possibility that Trump may not survive for long; the old tub is engaged in Suicide By McDonalds and Diet Coke. He's rumored to be addicted to drugs (which might explain some of his incoherence and stunts like the 39 minutes of swaying to music on stage during what was supposed to be a town hall with a sympathetic audience and his insistence on talking about sharks, an old movie about a cannibal, and electric boats during campaign rallies . . . not to mention his pathetic performance at the debate and his sheer terror of participating in another debate). That's the man we're supposed to admire? We're expecting to live for another four years and a few months? JD Vance is a pretty unsavory, opportunistic character, and while he lies without a blink he's not mentally ill, unlike Trump. Yeah, yeah, we know, Fried GT, you'll be out cheering and waving flags and wearing unbelievably tasteless clothing and having yourself a party, but you're probably getting a sense of how people in Britain feel about the creepy old felon, and I don't think there's anything you can do about it. I'm not seeing people here saying "Why that Fried Green Tomatoes has an excellent point!" I have been speaking up simply because I don't want British people on Gransnet to imagine that all Americans admire Trump. He's an old creep in makeup--yeah, whadda manly man! If he is elected, spending a lot of time visiting my son in New Zealand is going to seem pretty appealing to me.

Let me also mention something very, very minor that I find odd about the coverage of Trump. His followers and the press say he "dances." Uhhhh no; not in any commonly understood way. Baryshnikov doesn't need to worry that he'll be outclassed. Trump stands on stage, occasionally sways his hips about 5 degrees back and forth, and sometimes moves his arms and hands. He has yet to figure out the movements of the YMCA dance, which is pretty pathetic for a man who lived in NYC through the 1980s; every other American who lived through those years can do them. AT NO POINT DO HIS FEET MOVE during this performance, and his face is completely affectless--he shows no emotion (unless pursing his lips occasionally shows emotion). That is "dancing"? Trump's dancing is like his thinking . . . nearly motionless, rigid, and . . . sorry, FGT . . . pathetic. Not cute. You really have to have drunk the koolaid to admire his dancing.

Have you listened to him being interviewed for 3 hours by Joe Rogan? I did today.

Joe Rogan, the podcast legend, didn’t give him an easy time. But Trump was coherent, free-wheeling and characteristically funny. Trump is a funny and subtle man but the media deliberately misinterpret his gags. I liked his description of Starmer as a ‘popular man’ knowing that his ratings had tanked. Starmer missed the irony too.

Trump and Rogan are chatting like the two regular guys they are.
No silliness, just talking.
And Trump is no slouch.

My favourite anecdote is when he was dealing with the head of the Taliban.

He showed the head bod a satellite picture of his house.
The Taliban guy asked why Trump had shown him the picture.
Trump’s reply ? “Just think about it for a minute!”
Nothing like making the organ-grinder know THEY are on the hook for what his monkeys do…

… and his inspired approach to diplomacy with North Korea (“I have a red button also, but mine’s bigger than yours and mine works”).

Sorry, butI just like the guy.

Come in to share my favourite family singers since Covid have been the Marsh Family and they have released a great song about Donal Trump. They include contemporary footage /image

US viewers you've probably not heard of them, so do share on SM..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY_8WzcHqMQ

6mins as set to Bohemian Rhapsody song/tune.

Have you listened to him being interviewed for 3 hours by Joe Rogan?

Yes. But obviously not the same interview you listened to!

NotSpaghetti

^Have you listened to him being interviewed for 3 hours by Joe Rogan?^

Yes. But obviously not the same interview you listened to!

Me too! Trump was as clear as Thames mud!

What charmers the Trump lot are!

“Anger and vitriol took center stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, as Donald Trump and a cabal of campaign surrogates held a rally marked by racist comments, coarse insults, and dangerous threats about immigrants.
Nine days out from the election, Trump used the rally in New York to repeat his claim that he is fighting “the enemy within” and again promised to launch “the largest deportation program in American history”, amid incoherent ramblings about ending a phone call with a “very, very important person” so he could watch one of Elon Musk’s rockets land.
The event at Madison Square Garden, in the center of Manhattan, had drawn comparisons to an infamous Nazi rally held at the arena in 1939. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ running mate, said there was a “direct parallel” between the two events, and the Democratic National Committee projected images on the outside of the building on Sunday repeating claims from Trump’s former chief-of-staff that Trump had “praised Hitler”.
There was certainly a dark tone throughout the hours-long rally, with one speaker describing Puerto Rico, home to 3.2m US citizens, as an “island of garbage”; Tucker Carlson mocking Harris’ racial identity; a radio host describing Hillary Clinton as a “sick bastard”; and a crucifix-wielding childhood friend of Trump’s declaring that Harris is “the antichrist”.”

And here's some fact checking of him on Joe Rogan:

edition.cnn.com/2024/10/27/politics/fact-check-trump-rogan-podcast/index.html

Admittedly less than he usually gets wrong. Only ten "fake facts" an hour.

I read it, Not Spaghetti 32 falsehoods, some quite serious (many totally ludicrous, like claiming you'd need ID for grocery stores under Harris, when of course you need ID just for tobacco and alcohol)

Trump also floated the idea of removing taxes and replacing them with Tariffs, which is apparently his new "beautiful" word! It was a good move by Trump, say what you want but he has good political instincts and the Joe Rogan podcast is listened to by youngish men who are not good at getting out to vote. Both he and Harris are scraping the barrel to try to get those extra votes from the hard to reach voters as they might make a difference in the swing states.

Joe Rogan has 14.5 millions listeners on spotify, some of his episodes have been downloaded 70 million times. I agree with those who predict that by the next American election every politician will be using podcasts to 'campaign'