The 2020 Presidential Election Tournament

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Another Loomer tweet by President Trump.

And President Trump retweeted these three just now:

and

and 

This is big.

I feel President Trump was holding back with her, but he loves him some winners.

Michael

[Peter]

With vampire fangs hidden but exposed for mere seconds, important Democrat Morticia, or is it Vampira, has spoken. Is she Loony tunes? You be the judge. Why would the democrats travel back in time to promote communism? Peter

From The Washington Post: Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s convention speech serves as warning to Democratic establishment and Biden. Rachael Bade  58 mins ago  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s move to nominate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for president was entirely symbolic as the party rallies around nominee Joe Biden to challenge President Trump. But while the party gave the freshman congresswoman only one minute to speak, her message was a reminder to a potential President Biden: that the far-left is a force he will have to reckon with should he win in November.

“In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment and lack of health care . . . and out of a love for all people, I hereby second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for president of the United States of America,” she said.

While the address was diplomatic, the New York Democrat — who did not mention Biden once — has been working with liberal groups to oust centrists like Biden in hopes of strengthening liberals’ foothold in Congress next year. And they’re already poised to increase their numbers, expanding their clout as they seek to push the House — and the next Democratic president — into embracing policies such as Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal.

“Right now what you’re seeing is that we’ve got a common goal to beat Donald Trump, but come January, we maybe have a different goal,” said Corbin Trent, a former Ocasio-Cortez aide and political adviser. “They won the nomination, so they get to pick the game plan. Now, that doesn’t mean that they get to pick the game plan in the midterms, when we start primarying their a--es. And it don’t mean that they get to pick the game plan when we start recruiting for 2024 and we primary their a--es.”

The moment comes as the party led by pragmatic-minded septuagenarians and octogenarians — Biden is 77 and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is 80 — has sought to feature a more ideologically diverse crop of rising stars. On Tuesday, 17 Democrats delivered the keynote address at the convention; all are under 50.

Those included liberal leaders such as Stacey Abrams, the Black former Georgia House minority leader who nearly defeated Gov. Brian Kemp (R), as well as moderate Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), who flipped a Trump district in western Pennsylvania in a 2018 special election.

The selection of fresh, young faces underscores the racial and ideological diversity that Democrats hope will deliver them the Senate and the White House, as it did the House in the 2018 midterms. Liberals, however, are already thinking ahead to January, when they hope to force a potential President Biden and Pelosi into advancing some of their prized proposals.

“We have to be leveraging our membership in a way that will get concessions from a Biden White House on issues like criminal justice reform and health care,” said Mondaire Jones, who won the primary in New York’s 17th Congressional District and is expected to win on Election Day due to the left-leaning tilt of his district. He cited Medicare-for-all.

Throughout the primary season, Biden owned the centrist lane for Democrats, beating back the far-left’s calls for universal health care and free college and refusing to join many in the party in endorsing the Green New Deal — yet still finding a way to secure the nomination.

Down ballot, however, liberal outside groups were highly successful in lifting their candidates to primary wins over establishment Democrats. Earlier this month, Cori Bush, the 44-year-old Black Lives Matter activist, unseated 10-term Rep. William Lacy Clay, the 64-year-old heir to a St. Louis political dynasty. Before her, Jamaal Bowman, a 44-year-old former middle school principal, took down 16-term Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Both are expected to win in November in strongly Democratic districts.

All told, Justice Democrats, the group that launched Ocasio-Cortez’s candidacy just over two years ago, has won five of the nine primaries it has participated in during this election cycle. And since Trump became president, the far-left has managed to unseat five establishment Democrats, a warning to the broader party.

It’s unclear how effective the crop of newcomers will be in Congress. Much ink has been spilled over the past two years likening Ocasio-Cortez and her “Squad” of three liberal freshmen to the House Freedom Caucus, a band of tea party candidates who regularly ran roughshod over GOP leaders but had little legislative success.

Few congressional liberals beyond that quartet were willing to band together to play hardball with Pelosi, though the Progressive Caucus has been able to secure some wins on internal border security measures and prescription drug proposals. However, on the left’s demands on health care and climate change, Pelosi has routinely sidelined their priorities for fear that they would repel swing voters around the nation and endanger the 31 Democrats representing districts Trump won in 2016.

Activists who have helped elect the new group of liberals are already saying next year will be different, as their numbers allow them to fight in a way they could not in this Congress.

“They’re more powerful and willing to flex their muscle. . . . There will definitely not be a honeymoon period for Joe Biden,” said Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for Justice Democrats. “Increasingly the progressive caucus and the Squad will get better at organizing to pass legislation and improve legislation that the party leadership is pushing.”

While they’ve been unable to secure many legislative victories in Congress so far, Ocasio-Cortez’s wing of the party has already shown its ability to transform the broader Democratic platform. Most Democrats running for president embraced its liberal policies. And more recently, even Biden has added a mention of the Green New Deal to his policy platform for climate change.

“Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face,” his website reads, nodding to Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal.

Ocasio-Cortez, notably, has also joined Biden’s climate change task force in a show of unity — however temporary.

In a sign of the tensions simmering behind the scenes at the convention, some left-wing activists on Tuesday organized a ­#LetAOCSpeak campaign, with a petition circulated by the Young Delegates Coalition asking the DNC to give her more time. AOC, as she’s sometimes called by her initials, was given only one minute to speak.

“We call on you to have Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention or, at minimum, have as much time to speak as is given to Republican John Kasich. AOC is one of the Democratic Party leaders who is most respected by young Democrats and progressives,” the petition read.

Jones said it was unfortunate that the DNC didn’t give her more time.

“She is easily one of the most important voices in American politics today, and a leader in the progressive movement, and I think it’s shameful that she was not given significantly more time, whereas half of the Republican Party appears to have been allotted keynote slots,” he said.

The agenda of the far-left has, in many ways, been leadership’s worst nightmare. Pelosi, while a former liberal activist herself, has long maintained that the party needs a big-tent approach that enables moderates to represent their districts and reach out to conservatives. That’s one of the reasons Medicare-for-all has gotten hearings but no votes in the House . . . .

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ha!

Laura cannot thank President Trump for tweeting about her because she is banned on Twitter.

So Raheem Kassam (who is part of the pro-Trump folks--he used to be head of Breitbart in London) filmed her thank you and posted it to Twitter.

Let's see if Twitter deletes it or not.

 

Michael

 

EDIT: I almost feel guilty for not mentioning the GOP primary win of Anna Paulina Luna, who is a Trump Republican. Her win is great, but normal as far as wins go. Laura's win was a big-ass splatty spit in the eye of the bad guys.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

1 hour ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

I've programmed the video to start at Roger Stone's introduction. He called her a Joan of Arc. (And, yes, that's Milo up there.  But I did not start the video to include his comments.)

Once you see Laura speak

Wow.

That was quick. Video already canceled.

When I can find another video of the Laura Loomer Victory Party, I will post it. I am pretty sure one will appear on one of the alt video sites.

Michael

 

EDIT: Here is a short clip from her speech. It is one of those "are ya' feeling lucky, punk?" moments I mentioned. The sound is totally off with the image, though, so a good part of the expressive power is lost. However, you can get a general idea that this is more than just campaign platitudes. She means it. And her victory against all odds proves it.

 

LATER EDIT, Here is a poorly shot smartphone video of Laura's speech with intros. Roger Stone's intro is at 26:55, soon followed by Laura's entire speech.

If nothing better shows up, I will copy this to the post above.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here is Laura Loomer's first interview since winning the GOP primary.

It was with Alex Jones and went on for about 40 minutes. The video below is on Banned Video.

Laura Loomer Pledges to "Burn Down Swamp" in First Primary Victory, Must Watch!

If anybody wants to see what she really thinks rather than relying on the caricatures of her out in the fake news mainstream media, you can hear her in her own words.

I recognize my own thinking in her words. She is extremely articulate and intelligent.

Do you know where her career started? With James O'Keefe at Project Veritas.

But none of that is going to matter at the national level in terms of President Trump right now. I mean it will matter, but secondarily.

 

The Foundation--Freedom from Tyranny

One thing will matter at the foundation.

A false image has been burned into the brains of almost everyone in America. It's that the big tech companies, including big establishment media, have to be on board with you in some manner. Otherwise, you are going to be condemned to obscurity.

Do you want to see a good example of how deep this is burned in?

People are now asking if Jack Dorsey is going to let Laura back onto Twitter since she is an official party-approved candidate. Won't denying her that be election interference? Etc. etc. etc. And ditto for the other tech giants. Even Alex asked her that.

What nobody asked was if she wanted to go back on big tech.

When Alex asked her if they were going to let her back on, she told him hell no she didn't want a new Twitter account. She would not take one even if Dorsey himself asked to to. Ditto for the others.

She made it clear she doesn't need big tech to be somebody in life and win important elections. What's more, she is going to Congress and her target is to bust up the abusive practices of big tech. The way she said it is that she is not going to Washington to make friends. She is never going to be one of "them." She is one of "you," meaning the people who support her, normal Americans.

She had one main objection to having a new big tech account like Twitter, and I believe this is going to be extremely valuable to President Trump's own campaign. This is the foundational matter. And this is not an opinion. She has proved it.

She said she doesn't want to post things wondering if she was crossing the lines of the big tech censors. She doesn't want to even start writing a post in a mode where she was delimiting herself mentally that way. She wanted to post what she thought and she wanted to do it unencumbered.

In other words, she wants freedom of thought. And she wants her freedom now. She wants no truck with people who would put her mind in bondage. Those people are tyrants or tyrant wannabes. She does not want them in her life.

And she thinks conservatives should feel the same, even though they are submissive right now.

 

The Right Idea at the Right Time in the Right Place

Once this seed takes root, this is going to grow among Trump supporters like a weed. It is going to spread everywhere.

She--and what she just did by winning the GOP primary--is proof positive that the big tech companies are not gods and that people don't have to think of them that way. She is proof that one can think of his or her on life as more valuable than any big tech company and still win major competitions, political or otherwise.

That's a drastic emotional reframe for the general public. After all this mask wearing and staying home and shit, people are craving this. It's the kind of idea wedded to emotion wedded to story--at the right time--that major political movements are made of.

President Trump himself did exactly that in taking on the swamp and the elitist globalist establishment.

I have little doubt he is going to see Laura Loomer as kindred spirit.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Former President Obama showed up at the DNC to give a speech.

I watched the whole thing. There were parts of it I thought were good and I was paying attention to Obama's persuasive style, his little tricks of the trade so to speak. I even suspended judgment and allowed myself to go into the story trance Obama is great at inducing. I do that on purpose so I can analyze the experience later.

Well, Obama got off into his poetic vision for America and so on and I went into the story trance. I started getting lulled into imagining the vision he was painting with his words... with his delivery... and thinking, well, yeah... that makes sense... if only the political system he liked... you know... was not so misguided... he had his dreams... they were good dreams... just a bad system... but things can be good for everyone...

Then, right in the middle of Obama's speech, President Trump tweeted out:

I didn't know that until the end. I was still in the story trance throughout. Ironically, that trance got lightly interrupted by Obama himself in the middle when he stepped out of character to bash Trump, but soon he got back into his flow and so did I.

At the end, the camera cut to Brett Baier. I was feeling light and dreamy. Brett said that President Trump has tweeted a message during Obama's speech. When he held it up read it out loud I almost lost my shit. I must have laughed out loud all by myself for about two minutes.

Incidentally, Chris Wallace criticized the speech for spending so little time on Biden. I thought, Hell. Come on, Chris. This was Obama. He never spent a lot of time on Biden.

At this point, there was no emotional residue at all left from the trance-magic...

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I saw the Biden speech.

It was all right, better than I imagined it would be.

Man, was he juiced up. I hope the meds they give him for public presentations don't kill him.

Now let's see the continuation.

Right now the Dems are all hollering that this is proof he is not turning senile.

But the proof will be if he can keep it up.

As a human being, I hope he can. As a political issue, I smell a skunk. I think it's back to the basement. Either that, or his handlers will run him to death on purpose.

I was totally happy to be wrong about my speculation that he would not make it to the convention. I don't wish the death of anyone. Now I worry that he will not make it to November.

Also, this may sound like a quip, but it isn't. I hope his reactions to President Trump in the debates do not cause him to have a stroke or heart attack.

On the substance of Biden's speech, it was all Build Back Better [fill in the platitudes and some Dem talking points], Orange Man Bad, and if you need money, take love instead. And put your damn mask on. He said if he wins, that is going to become federal law.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Laura Loomer has already started with her in-your-face creativity.

This exact post is now being made by oodles of different posters all over Twitter.

Michael

[Jon Letendre]

Smart gal.

She addresses the Big Switch Lie that so many liberals who think they are educated actually believe in.

Dinesh D'Souza has destroyed it, as well.

 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Did anyone notice some of the topics NOT discussed much during the DNC?

How about China?  

Or the riots?

Or Kavanaugh?

Or border walls? 

Or illegal immigration?

Or how about the Middle East peace agreement?

There is a whole slew of things to add to this.

But most of all, they didn't talk about the number one issue in importance that the Democrats did: the impeachment. That was their biggest project in this administration. It's so odd they didn't talk about it.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Yesterday was the first day of the RNC.

All of the speakers were very good and the celebratory mood was wonderful. (Well, Kimberly Guilfoyle did go on in an overly-loud voice too much.)

There is no comparison between this and what happened at the DNC. This was a pure celebration of not just America, but of how American people aim high and always seek higher.

But one speaker stood out to me--a great speaker in terms of speaking skills among many very good speakers.

Tim Scott.

See for yourself.

This guy makes you think he is talking to you with others listening in, not talking to an audience at large.

And what he said was a personal repudiation of all the fake news media BLM talking points.

He's good...

He's really good...

Michael

[ThatGuy]

2 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Yesterday was the first day of the RNC.

All of the speakers were very good and the celebratory mood was wonderful. (Well, Kimberly Guilfoyle did go on in an overly-loud voice too much.)

There is no comparison between this and what happened at the DNC. This was a pure celebration of not just America, but of how American people aim high and always seek higher.

But one speaker stood out to me--a great speaker in terms of speaking skills among many very good speakers.

Tim Scott.

See for yourself.

This guy makes you think he is talking to you with others listening in, not talking to an audience at large.

And what he said was a personal repudiation of all the fake news media BLM talking points.

He's good...

He's really good...

Michael

It's funny you highlight this speaker. I took a quick 3+ hour nap last night, and missed most of the convention. But when I woke up, I turned on the tv to a local CBS station, and it just happened to be this moment.  I did hear him speak for a few minutes, and he was very good. But what was more impressive is that the local station didn't cut out on him...(a very liberal city, here...)

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I guess Donna Brazille is not too amused by RNC's first day success.

LOL...

Triggered is only the start...

Establishment Dems will be eating their own, soon...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

That's a pretty damn accurate profile of anti-Trump Republicans.

Michael

[tmj]

Maybe Harvey got pissed enough he figured out a way to muck with the production and such of the DNC shitshow, I thought those guys were friends with the Hollywood set.

It almost makes me think social distancing was orchestrated just for the RNC lol. They’re knocking it out of the park.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

3 hours ago, tmj said:

I thought those guys were friends with the Hollywood set.

T,

I'm beginning to have a theory about this.

I was both a performing musician (trombone and conducting) and, later, a record producer. When performing, there was no going back and correcting mistakes.

As a record producer, that's all I did with singers and musicians.

So I know, from experience, the realities of both forms.

And I think this last is all Hollywood does these days. Does an artist have a physical defect? CGI. Does a singer keep getting offkey? Autotune. Is an actor not exciting? Greenscreen the take and add exciting things later. And on and on and on.

Whenever I look at those pathetic video compilations of Hollywood celebrities saying social justice warrior stuff, I see just how untalented they are. They did that at home without producers and man, are they lame. The real talent is in their producers, not in themselves. All they are is a bunck of a pretty faces (but only with makeup, of course) and hot bods. The production experts take care of the rest.

But celebrities have big egos. So I think with the DNC, they insisted on producing the segments themselves. I think they resent their producers, who would have probably kicked ass bigtime, and insisted them doing it all. The bedazzled politicians, who are as dumb as sand, agreed. And the celebrities showed just how mediocre they were.

For the RNC, President Trump is a showman at heart. It shows, too.

Michael

 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here's another opinion on the difference between the conventions.

I disagree with Styx on Alvarez being the best speech in terms of changing people's minds. (I say Alvarez was ONE of the best.  ) Styx resonates with him.

The Republicans appealed to many different groups of people during the day today. For example, for those who have family members who are illegal immigrants, what do you think the effect is going to be when watching five different non-Americans taking the oath of allegiance to the US and becoming US citizens? At fist blush, you think they will resent it. But then it hits you. They see this is possible and what it looks like. And then they look around and see what the illegal immigrant life is offering them.

Among Latinos, I think that part was killer by itself. Added to Alvarez, I expect to see massive Latino votes.

Or how about John Ponder, a black convicted bank robber, getting a surprise full pardon right in front of everybody?

Here is his story.

And here is the pardon.

Think about it. How on earth is that show not going to change anybody's mind vote-wise?

If it doesn't, I don't know a damn thing about human nature.

And it's not just about religion. It's about giving hope to the family members and friends of the incarcerated. Each one votes. And they all have their own circle of friends and acquaintances.

But Styx is not a big fan of Christianity, so I'll give him a pass for ignoring this one.  

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here is one of Scott Adams's more instructive videos about visual persuasion. He's analyzing the visual persuasion of the RNC as opposed to the lame persuasion of the DNC.

One of his most important insights was, since actual visual persuasion in this format is hard to set up for a political convention, they used mental visual images to great effect starting with the language. (For example, DT Jr's characterization of Biden as the Lochness Monster of the Swamp lurking around in the bottom.  And other things like that.)

They also did mental images by wedding recent news stories that had strong visuals embedded in them to the people speaking at the event--like asking the McCloskeys from St, Louis to speak about their ordeal where they tried to defend their home by arming themselves and going out to face down a BLM mob. The public already has that image in their minds and it is a powerful one. 

And for fun, after Scott qualifies the following by saying he doesn't believe in this stuff, he weds Biden to Satan symbolically in a manner similar to the way QAnon people do symbols. He found 666 all over Biden and Kamala Harris.  

He asked who lives underground? Why Satan. And Biden in his basement, of course.  

Biden says he will bring light to the dark. Satan does similar, but always includes a catch. So here's the catch. Houses and buildings are burning down to provide that light.  

And on and on he went. That was really fun...

 

Scott didn't mention it, but the RNC is killing it in the ratings compared to lame-ass ratings for the DNC.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This killed it yesterday, too.

Sandmann is starting out in life quite wealthy at the expense of the fake news media propaganda machine.

He's quite a symbol that you do not need to take the bullying from these jerks.

If a teenager can slap them silly, imagine what happens when a large group of people stand up and say, "Enough!"

Outside of slapping the smugness right off their face, sometimes the phrase, "Throw the bums out!" follows. 

 

Michael

[tmj]

And from last night , I don't want to think about the image of spine spinning around before it succumbs to the suction but that image is there .

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

1 hour ago, tmj said:

And from last night , I don't want to think about the image of spine spinning around before it succumbs to the suction but that image is there .

T,

That one got me, too.

Abby Johnson.

Here is the video.

Michael

[william.scherk]

Mr Trump  has (perhaps facetiously) suggested that he and Mr Biden submit to a drug test before the debates between the two men ...

Trump calls for drug tests before Biden debate

Quote

President Trump says he will call for drug tests for both former Vice President Joe Biden and himself before the first candidates' debate on Sept. 29. In an Oval Office interview Wednesday, the president expressed suspicion at what he said was a sudden, marked improvement in Biden's debate performance during the Democratic primary season and suggested that he believes the improvement was the result of drugs. The president offered no evidence to support his speculation.

Biden took part in 11 debates during the primary season. Most were against a crowded field of candidates, but the final debate, on March 15, was just Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders. The president claimed to see a big difference between the last debate and those that came before.

"Nobody thought that he was even going to win," Trump said. "Because his debate performances were so bad. Frankly, his best performance was against Bernie. We're going to call for a drug test, by the way, because his best performance was against Bernie. It wasn't that he was Winston Churchill because he wasn't, but it was a normal, boring debate. You know, nothing amazing happened. And we are going to call for a drug test because there's no way — you can't do that."

Q: "What do you think was going on?"

"I don't know how he could have been so incompetent in his debate performances and then all of a sudden be OK against Bernie," Trump answered. "My point is, if you go back and watch some of those numerous debates, he was so bad. He wasn't even coherent. And against Bernie, he was. And we're calling for a drug test."

Q: "Is this like a prizefight, where beforehand you have a test?"

"Well, it is a prizefight," Trump answered. "It's no different from the gladiators, except we have to use our brain and our mouth. And our body to stand. I want all standing; they want to sit down."

Trump based his call entirely on his own observations and not on any actual knowledge of Biden's actions. "All I can tell you is that I'm pretty good at this stuff," he said. "I look. I watched him in the debates with all of the different people. He was close to incompetent, if not incompetent, and against Bernie, he was normal ... and I say, 'How does that happen?'"

[...]

"Go back and watch his performances in some of those debates," Trump continued. "He didn't know where he was. And all of a sudden, he was not good, he was normal, and I don't understand how. I don't know if there is or not, but somebody said to me, 'He must be on drugs.' I don't know if that's true or not, but I'm asking for a drug test. Both candidates. Me, too. I take an aspirin a day."

You can listen to the brief interview here.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This is called a Hail Nancy pass.

Or a trial balloon.

Talk about striking a pose to dive, diving, then landing with a belly-flop.

 

Pelosi is terrified and trying to fake it with condescension.

In her bubble, no debates might work.

Out here in the real world, she's not going to like the results.

After all, there are Russians out here brainwashing everyone, right? 

 

Michael

[tmj]

Man, all her disgust and indignation , it's a wonder she doesn't resign.

[ThatGuy]

This one's for MSK: