I'm getting increasingly concerned and annoyed with the mainstream media's handling of Trump. It just doesn't cut it as honest, decent reporting. It's failing in its responsibilities to the public. Trump is not a normal candidate, his policies are terrible and he's looking increasingly not up to the job. Why not report that?
I have been increasingly concerned since last year, 2023. At this point I vascillate from being outraged, and just ignoring them, like Kamala mostly needs to do. I am waiting to see if they get their up-commence. In that I am like Trump's crowd. I want who I perceive to be the bad guys to pay for what they have done. Trump is #1 on my list.
I have been deeply concerned since the 90s when the NY Times and their media followers allowed themselves to be conned by the right wing Arkansas Project into pushing fake scandals about the Clintons.(Whitewater for example.) And then there was the Times aiding and abetting the Bush administration’s WMD lies. Next came the Times and WaPo helping Steve Bannnon and his partner Peter Schweizer spread lies about the Clinton Foundation by publishing excerpts from Bannon’s book “Clinton Cash” which was a hit job on the Clinton Foundation.
I look forward to the day when I no longer fearful that the awful man is no longer something I need to worry about and I’m gaining more and more optimism with each appearance of this clown.
“But it’s harder to spin something that hundreds of thousands or millions of people are watching, like the debate in which Kamala Harris dominated Trump so thoroughly that MAGAs are still spreading conspiracy theories to try to explain it away. And so the Trump campaign is circling the wagons.”
Aaron, you hit the nail on the head! You can’t unsee that debate, even if almost half the country either has short-term Alzheimer’s, or a severe case of cataracts in both eyes! Add the recent “Weirdo Waltz” at his most recent TownHall, and it’s a cry for help; can you say Bellevue, anyone?
That said, Im not buying this Harris momentum is gone. She has a superior ground game, a larger war chest, and she has been doing interview after interview, while the stable genius is touting Tariffs as the panacea for our ills, and threatening to lock up anyone who dares to look at him in a disparaging way.
Not to mention, the guy still thinks he’s running against Obama, and Hannibal Lector would make a great edition to his Cabinet.
Personally, I think Harris will win by a larger margin than previously thought. Democrats will pick up the house easily (worst Congress in US history), and have a 50/50 shot at keeping the senate. Cruz loses, Tester loses, but Nebraska elects its first independent senator since the Great Depression, and it all boils down to Florida, where Debbie Mucarcel-Powell is in a battle wits, against a witless Medicare fraudster. Good times!
Bottom line: Trump is a walking, talking disaster. If Kamala wants to put the final nail in his coffin, she should do an ad featuring JD being sworn in as president, while Trump’s cabinet invokes the 25th Amendment; dragging Trump off to the funny farm! Or Governor Noem can just send him to the country to live out the rest of his life in comfort; until the Feds show up to arrest him for treason! Better times!…:)
About Trump retiring to Kristi Noem's state, all I can do is update a classic movie title: "She Shoots Dogs (and Goats), Doesn't She?" Even if Trump weren't a New York + Florida guy, I wouldn't advise South Dakota.
Never heard that one. "Put to sleep" was as euphemistic as my people got. Come to think of it, for people from the New York City area "He just got sent upstate" meant "He got sent to prison."
I think half the country *does* have short term Alzheimers, because it seems that January 6 and the pandemic have been completely forgotten, or transformed into something positive.
They don't even want him. He's a shell. They'll trot him out to fire up the MAGAs but all the policy will be Vance-Thiel-Leo-Musk-Putin and Project 2025. He will have no role but as a heavily-edited over-bronzed image on a screen mouthing inanities, and only for as long as they can maintain the illusion of an actual living being. Maybe they make him an AI avatar, and he ... just ... disappears ....
CNN also wrote a fawning article describing Trump as "swaying to the music and mouthing the words" and featuring quotes from his own campaign ops praising his "energy" and "stamina". The absolute lack of any critical thinking or alternate takes on that mess made me sick.
Which brings me to a question I've been wanting to ask you, Aaron: what are the odds that all the polls are wrong because young people (most people for that matter) don't answer their phones if a random number is calling and Harris is actually going to win by the greatest landslide in history? Is it reasonable to indulge in that magical thinking so that I don't lose my mind?
I definitely think it's within the realm of possibility that pollsters aren't getting an accurate sample of the electorate and/or are oversampling Trump voters after underestimating his support in 2016 and 2020. But I tend to believe the picture of this election that's emerged across polls and in the polling aggregations is accurate, and that points toward a very close election. One point worth making related to your question is that I think Harris has a much higher ceiling than Trump -- we know that Trump isn't getting more than about 48 percent of the popular vote (and might get less than that). I think it all comes down to Harris's ability to turn out voters in the key swing states, and while the early voting returns are promising, I'm still expecting a nailbiter. But I would love to be proven wrong!
Thank you for your honest and (somewhat) optimistic answer. Many of us need something to hold onto at this point. It's just so discouraging to see how bad Trump is every day and how he's declining by the hour and yet see the polls so close. It's politics as a Dali painting.
His campaign is getting a huge assist from corporate media. Their blatantly dishonest coverage of Trump's mental collapse which is happening in real time, before our very eyes, beggars belief. I can only conclude that the corporate bosses that are mandating this nakedly fraudulent coverage are themselves evil and mentally unstable.
It seems like elder abuse to put Trump on any stage given his declining mental health...and the only reason to continue this abuse is to get folks to vote in Vance!
I would like to appeal to the European, Canadian and Australian Media and Community.
The next President will effect all of us!
I beg of you to please help the sane American people that do not want this Fascist Dictator in power.
BBC does a good job of calling out Trump. I have read media clips from other Nations as well. I don’t know how much access to American media you have, but if you can help us in any way, I would greatly appreciate it!
Aaron Rupar and Dan Rather are doing a great job, yet we still need more help.
If this reaches anyone who has family here, please think of them and reach out as well.
I think they do not want to take a side considering both sides equally liable to gain power and considering readership (money).. They are abdicating the danger to our country for this. The NYT, also owned by a family the Sulzbergers, have their own rationalization and perhaps feel that just publishing their strong editorials is enough. But the headlines and the choice of stories are really infuriating. I would like to know how much subscription loss the NYT has from this approach.
As far as media goes, the Washington Post FINALLY wrote an accurate, honest article about the disastrous possibilities of Trump's tariffs and it's at the top of the home page. I can't fathom how sane business people want this guy in office when he promises so much chaos and destruction with his much-maligned economic policies. (FYI, Aaron, I'm suggesting people head your way in almost all of my Washington Post comments, especially when they've sane-washed yet another one of his crazed media appearances. Reader comments are how I've found some of my favorite podcasts, so it never hurts to name drop.)
"outside the MAGA cult." How are we defining cult here? Almost every professional definition of "cult" includes some notion of extreme personal control. The dear leader choosing who you can marry, for example. Trump exerts zero interest in personal control. While it is certainly true that you don't have to check every box in a list to understand a thing for it to qualify as a thing, the word cult, which suggests by its very name a small group outside the mainstream culture, seems inaccurate.
There is a concept that is also nebulous and overused but describes a group controlled by a leader, bound together like a bundle of sticks where the leader couldn't care less about them individually and that's fascism. It's more complicated than that and I know Public Notice readers generally agree Trump is fascist, but I just don't think the term cult applies here and I think it distracts from the threat.
I totally agree and have commented on the words "cult" and "fascist". Trump Maga is not a cult. It's a movement. I was hesitant to use fascist because it's used as name-calling, a pejorative. (Some in their hesitancy use "fascistic") The definition of fascism, or an authoritative discussion referred to should be understood and maybe attached to justify its proper use. But we are much too busy, and some are somewhat careless, to pay this attention to proper word usage including referring to history. So I have refrained. Recently Trump began using it; he called Harris a fascist and a communist ( imagine that?) And what that does when he ricochet's charges against him like that is neutralize the charge to both sides doing it ( i.e. name calling). But I am convinced to name it and use the word fascism... hopefully properly ( as per Tim Snyder and others)
Win or lose, Trump will not be around much longer. But what's terrifying is that nearly half of our voting citizens think he's fit to lead the country and they're not going anywhere. In fact Bevis and Butthead who are doing that podcast are young and appealing to other young voters, who all think Jan. 6 was a show of patriotism.
Oh, is this the teleprompter about which he says at his rallies, "Isn't it nice to have a president who doesn't need a teleprompter"........even though we AND THE CLAPPING CHEERING AUDIENCE can clearly see it?? I'd denigrate him for thinking his supporters are stupid when it's right there, but...I think they are kinda stupid!
I'm getting increasingly concerned and annoyed with the mainstream media's handling of Trump. It just doesn't cut it as honest, decent reporting. It's failing in its responsibilities to the public. Trump is not a normal candidate, his policies are terrible and he's looking increasingly not up to the job. Why not report that?
I have been increasingly concerned since last year, 2023. At this point I vascillate from being outraged, and just ignoring them, like Kamala mostly needs to do. I am waiting to see if they get their up-commence. In that I am like Trump's crowd. I want who I perceive to be the bad guys to pay for what they have done. Trump is #1 on my list.
I have been deeply concerned since the 90s when the NY Times and their media followers allowed themselves to be conned by the right wing Arkansas Project into pushing fake scandals about the Clintons.(Whitewater for example.) And then there was the Times aiding and abetting the Bush administration’s WMD lies. Next came the Times and WaPo helping Steve Bannnon and his partner Peter Schweizer spread lies about the Clinton Foundation by publishing excerpts from Bannon’s book “Clinton Cash” which was a hit job on the Clinton Foundation.
I look forward to the day when I no longer fearful that the awful man is no longer something I need to worry about and I’m gaining more and more optimism with each appearance of this clown.
“But it’s harder to spin something that hundreds of thousands or millions of people are watching, like the debate in which Kamala Harris dominated Trump so thoroughly that MAGAs are still spreading conspiracy theories to try to explain it away. And so the Trump campaign is circling the wagons.”
Aaron, you hit the nail on the head! You can’t unsee that debate, even if almost half the country either has short-term Alzheimer’s, or a severe case of cataracts in both eyes! Add the recent “Weirdo Waltz” at his most recent TownHall, and it’s a cry for help; can you say Bellevue, anyone?
That said, Im not buying this Harris momentum is gone. She has a superior ground game, a larger war chest, and she has been doing interview after interview, while the stable genius is touting Tariffs as the panacea for our ills, and threatening to lock up anyone who dares to look at him in a disparaging way.
Not to mention, the guy still thinks he’s running against Obama, and Hannibal Lector would make a great edition to his Cabinet.
Personally, I think Harris will win by a larger margin than previously thought. Democrats will pick up the house easily (worst Congress in US history), and have a 50/50 shot at keeping the senate. Cruz loses, Tester loses, but Nebraska elects its first independent senator since the Great Depression, and it all boils down to Florida, where Debbie Mucarcel-Powell is in a battle wits, against a witless Medicare fraudster. Good times!
Bottom line: Trump is a walking, talking disaster. If Kamala wants to put the final nail in his coffin, she should do an ad featuring JD being sworn in as president, while Trump’s cabinet invokes the 25th Amendment; dragging Trump off to the funny farm! Or Governor Noem can just send him to the country to live out the rest of his life in comfort; until the Feds show up to arrest him for treason! Better times!…:)
About Trump retiring to Kristi Noem's state, all I can do is update a classic movie title: "She Shoots Dogs (and Goats), Doesn't She?" Even if Trump weren't a New York + Florida guy, I wouldn't advise South Dakota.
That was the point. Growing up when my parents put my dog to sleep, they would tell me they sent him upstate to live the good life…:)
Never heard that one. "Put to sleep" was as euphemistic as my people got. Come to think of it, for people from the New York City area "He just got sent upstate" meant "He got sent to prison."
I think half the country *does* have short term Alzheimers, because it seems that January 6 and the pandemic have been completely forgotten, or transformed into something positive.
They don't even want him. He's a shell. They'll trot him out to fire up the MAGAs but all the policy will be Vance-Thiel-Leo-Musk-Putin and Project 2025. He will have no role but as a heavily-edited over-bronzed image on a screen mouthing inanities, and only for as long as they can maintain the illusion of an actual living being. Maybe they make him an AI avatar, and he ... just ... disappears ....
CNN also wrote a fawning article describing Trump as "swaying to the music and mouthing the words" and featuring quotes from his own campaign ops praising his "energy" and "stamina". The absolute lack of any critical thinking or alternate takes on that mess made me sick.
Which brings me to a question I've been wanting to ask you, Aaron: what are the odds that all the polls are wrong because young people (most people for that matter) don't answer their phones if a random number is calling and Harris is actually going to win by the greatest landslide in history? Is it reasonable to indulge in that magical thinking so that I don't lose my mind?
I definitely think it's within the realm of possibility that pollsters aren't getting an accurate sample of the electorate and/or are oversampling Trump voters after underestimating his support in 2016 and 2020. But I tend to believe the picture of this election that's emerged across polls and in the polling aggregations is accurate, and that points toward a very close election. One point worth making related to your question is that I think Harris has a much higher ceiling than Trump -- we know that Trump isn't getting more than about 48 percent of the popular vote (and might get less than that). I think it all comes down to Harris's ability to turn out voters in the key swing states, and while the early voting returns are promising, I'm still expecting a nailbiter. But I would love to be proven wrong!
Thank you for your honest and (somewhat) optimistic answer. Many of us need something to hold onto at this point. It's just so discouraging to see how bad Trump is every day and how he's declining by the hour and yet see the polls so close. It's politics as a Dali painting.
His campaign is getting a huge assist from corporate media. Their blatantly dishonest coverage of Trump's mental collapse which is happening in real time, before our very eyes, beggars belief. I can only conclude that the corporate bosses that are mandating this nakedly fraudulent coverage are themselves evil and mentally unstable.
The opera song has the right words: "Time to say good-bye."
It seems like elder abuse to put Trump on any stage given his declining mental health...and the only reason to continue this abuse is to get folks to vote in Vance!
I would like to appeal to the European, Canadian and Australian Media and Community.
The next President will effect all of us!
I beg of you to please help the sane American people that do not want this Fascist Dictator in power.
BBC does a good job of calling out Trump. I have read media clips from other Nations as well. I don’t know how much access to American media you have, but if you can help us in any way, I would greatly appreciate it!
Aaron Rupar and Dan Rather are doing a great job, yet we still need more help.
If this reaches anyone who has family here, please think of them and reach out as well.
You cannot sane wash insanity. Or inanity. Does the fact that the same family owns both WSJ and Fox News give a clue to what is wrong here?
Murdoch doesn’t own the NY Times or CNN. Perhaps the corporate media is just being “polite” in the face of mental illness.
I think they do not want to take a side considering both sides equally liable to gain power and considering readership (money).. They are abdicating the danger to our country for this. The NYT, also owned by a family the Sulzbergers, have their own rationalization and perhaps feel that just publishing their strong editorials is enough. But the headlines and the choice of stories are really infuriating. I would like to know how much subscription loss the NYT has from this approach.
I really don’t think they care. My $25 a month is chump change.
When there is enough cancellation, they care.
As far as media goes, the Washington Post FINALLY wrote an accurate, honest article about the disastrous possibilities of Trump's tariffs and it's at the top of the home page. I can't fathom how sane business people want this guy in office when he promises so much chaos and destruction with his much-maligned economic policies. (FYI, Aaron, I'm suggesting people head your way in almost all of my Washington Post comments, especially when they've sane-washed yet another one of his crazed media appearances. Reader comments are how I've found some of my favorite podcasts, so it never hurts to name drop.)
"outside the MAGA cult." How are we defining cult here? Almost every professional definition of "cult" includes some notion of extreme personal control. The dear leader choosing who you can marry, for example. Trump exerts zero interest in personal control. While it is certainly true that you don't have to check every box in a list to understand a thing for it to qualify as a thing, the word cult, which suggests by its very name a small group outside the mainstream culture, seems inaccurate.
There is a concept that is also nebulous and overused but describes a group controlled by a leader, bound together like a bundle of sticks where the leader couldn't care less about them individually and that's fascism. It's more complicated than that and I know Public Notice readers generally agree Trump is fascist, but I just don't think the term cult applies here and I think it distracts from the threat.
I totally agree and have commented on the words "cult" and "fascist". Trump Maga is not a cult. It's a movement. I was hesitant to use fascist because it's used as name-calling, a pejorative. (Some in their hesitancy use "fascistic") The definition of fascism, or an authoritative discussion referred to should be understood and maybe attached to justify its proper use. But we are much too busy, and some are somewhat careless, to pay this attention to proper word usage including referring to history. So I have refrained. Recently Trump began using it; he called Harris a fascist and a communist ( imagine that?) And what that does when he ricochet's charges against him like that is neutralize the charge to both sides doing it ( i.e. name calling). But I am convinced to name it and use the word fascism... hopefully properly ( as per Tim Snyder and others)
Perhaps a “fascist cult”?
Win or lose, Trump will not be around much longer. But what's terrifying is that nearly half of our voting citizens think he's fit to lead the country and they're not going anywhere. In fact Bevis and Butthead who are doing that podcast are young and appealing to other young voters, who all think Jan. 6 was a show of patriotism.
There is an online gun company, Classic Firearms, selling a line of guns and knives featuring Trump's bleeding face etched on the handle. It's called the "Trump Fight' series and it's sold out. We're in for big trouble. https://www.classicfirearms.com/search/?q=trump+fight&productFilter=is_in_stock_klevu%3AOut%20of%20Stock
"when he wasn’t reading from the teleprompter".
Oh, is this the teleprompter about which he says at his rallies, "Isn't it nice to have a president who doesn't need a teleprompter"........even though we AND THE CLAPPING CHEERING AUDIENCE can clearly see it?? I'd denigrate him for thinking his supporters are stupid when it's right there, but...I think they are kinda stupid!
Trump has one mental episode after another … and MAGA just laps it up. Showmanship: The man disintegrates with such flair!
"By any objective standard......"
Unless one is a blue check MAGA on Twitter......