Here's your answer

Brilliant

But, of course, Trump had a nasty response at the Dinner. He called her disrespectful for not being there. And a lot of the audience cheered him.  

“If you really wanted Vice President Harris to accept your invitation, I guess you should have told her the funds were going to bail out the looters and rioters in Minneapolis, and she would have been here.”

  The Hill

What a dick.

“The fact is, we need new leadership in this country,” Trump said. “Right now we have someone in the White House who can barely talk, barely put together two coherent sentences, who seems to have the mental faculties of a child. There’s a person that has nothing going. No intelligence whatsoever. But enough about Kamala Harris.”

That was supposed to be a joke. He didn't deliver any of his little speech as a joke. Just his normal drone. And what's especially rich about this particular passage is, he absolutely underlined that his description was of himself. Particularly when he had to pause while reading at the word "faculties".

And, Jesus Christ, who wrote this speech for him? Don Junior? Stephen Miller?

“There’s a group called White Dudes for Harris. But I’m not worried about them,” Trump said. “Their wives and their wives’ lovers are all voting for me.”

[...]

“But look on the bright side,” Trump told Schumer at one point. “Considering how woke your party has become, If Kamala loses you still have the chance to become the first woman president.”

WTF?

“We have another former NYC mayor with us. Frankly, easily the worst in our history. And it’s not Michael, that I can tell you,” Trump said. “I’m surprised that Bill de Blasio is actually able to make it tonight to be honest. He was a terrible mayor. I don’t give a s*** if this is comedy or not. He was a terrible mayor. He did a horrible job. That’s not comedy, by the way. That’s fact.”

WTF???

The former president suggested he couldn’t wait to wash his hands of the vice president after Election Day. “When we hopefully win, dispose of her, I’ll like her a lot, but right now I can’t stand her,” he said.

[...]

The former president cracked another transphobic joke later in targeting Harris’ running mate. “I used to think the Democrats were crazy for saying men have periods, but then I met Tim Walz,” Trump said.

[...]

But the most important person who figured into Trump’s speech was, of course, himself. “I’m supposed to tell a few self-deprecating jokes,” he told the audience. “So here it goes,” he said, pausing for effect. “Nope. I’ve got nothing. I’ve got nothing!”

  Daily Beast

Somebody had to tell him what "self-deprecating" means, I'm sure.

Trump added, “I guess I just do not see the point in taking shots at myself when other people have been shooting at me for a long time.”

Okay, that was a fairly decent joke as written. But not a joke as delivered, because...

The reference to two recent assassination attempts provided a means for Trump to segue into self-pity. He said he’d suffered more than Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson. “There’s never been a president that has been treated so badly as me,” he complained.

It's obvious none of his speech was a joke in his mind. Just more nasty Trump rhetoric.

Help, Mr. Wizard!  Get us out of this!  (You have to be old to know that reference.)

UPDATE 08:23 am:

The former president appeared on Fox & Friends the day after he insulted his political opponents and made light of his unprecedented legal troubles in a speech at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.

[...]

After complaining about not being allowed to use a teleprompter for the event, Trump praised comedian Jim Gaffigan’s performance on the night, saying: “I thought he was good.”

  Daily Beast

What happened to, "isn't it nice to have a president who doesn't need a teleprompter"?

“We have seen historically a lot of Democrats, they turn to the guys at Saturday Night Live or The Tonight Show, they write all their material,” Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy said to Trump. “Your material was real funny—who wrote it?” Doocy asked, before quickly adding: “Who helped you with it?”

“Well, I’ve had a lot of people helping,” Trump answered. “A lot of people. A couple of people from Fox, actually. I shouldn’t say that. But they wrote some jokes and, for the most part, I didn’t like any of them.”

Jesus. Okay, who forced you to read them?

Here's something you don't see every day

Harris ad

One of the best I've seen.

More endorsements for Harris

They just keep adding up.

UPDATE 09/24/2024:

That is the choice

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Kamala in Madison

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Walz political ad/mechanic video

Shop at Penzeys for spices and seasonings

Sad to say, people are calling up Penzeys stores and harassing the people who work there.  During Trump's presidency, employees were often harassed in person, which they no doubt will be now, too.  But they're also getting some anti-Trump voices in their stores these days, pleased that owner Bill Penzey isn't afraid to call out GOP hate.  I suspect Penzeys will get as much or more good will and business after those clips were broadcast.  Plus, I don't think they ever pretended anything about the Republican Party.  At least not as long as I've been buying their product and receiving their emails.  (Although that "About Republicans" link in the menu might be fairly new. ?)

If you don't have a Penzeys store near you, you can order online, where you'll also find free recipes. The prices are higher than you pay for McCormick's and grocery store brands, but Penzeys spices are a much higher quality, and they often run really good deals.  (You just think cinnamon is cinnamon, but you're wrong.  You have never had delicious cinnamon from your grocery store, and Penzeys has several varieties.)  Also, periodically, they run $50 gift cards for $35.  I stock up when they do that, because you can use them for anything in the store, and they never expire.  Gift them to yourself.  Their shipping time is speedy, and included in the order is usually at least one sample of something good and maybe a Choose Love bumper sticker or magnet.  

If you haven't seen the video clips that got Penzeys heat over Kamala's visit, check out these two.  

https://x.com/Acyn/status/1832470242540581154

https://x.com/nanditab1/status/1832474788679303244

How dare she be kind!

Their Milwaukee store was vandalized in June after Penzeys put up a billboard "welcoming" Trump to the city that he had been publicly denigrating.

Hey, if you don't want to support a store whose owner has strong beliefs that don't align with yours, don't shop there.  It's like abortion: if you don't agree with it, don't have one.  There are laws - not to mention morals (remember those?) - against harming people who don't agree with you.

And this type of headline from MSNBC won't help:

 

This post has gone on a lot longer than I intended.  But I have to say, she, unsurprisingly, got lots of hate tweets for visiting the store.  And then there was this one:

That's tomorrow night.

Be sure to sign up for Penzeys emails.  Deals are announced through those.  (Full disclosure: I only scan them for the deals.  I don't need to be convinced of Republican slide into subhumanity.)

One more quick note: the "Donations" link is not to donate to Penzeys - they're doing just fine.  It's a place to donate to certain causes, like feeding people.

My two most used blends: Ruth Ann's Muskego Ave (for almost anything) and Turkish (which I use for Mexican Taco flavoring).  I always have Vietnamese cinnamon on hand.  I like to make a coffee with foamy milk sprinkled with cinnamon.  Not long ago, I decided to get the cheaper McCormick's cinnamon, which I ended up throwing out, and went back to Penzeys. 

If you know a cook who needs to pinch pennies, get them a gift card (and when the $35 deal comes around, you can save money doing it).

UPDATE 09/20/2024:

From Bill Penzeys email:

  I asked for your help. Your response was outstanding. Our stores were holiday-Saturday busy and you placed five typical weeks' worth of online orders in just two days. Thank you!

But now we have to get out five weeks' worth of orders, while more orders come in every day. For all intents and purposes the mail order side of our business will be out of order while we catch up. The reality is if you place an order today most likely it will take three weeks to ship. Sorry.

If you placed an order you can’t wait for and need to cancel please click here. Don’t feel bad. This is our fault.

 

Raking it in and using it wisely

That'll leave a mark

No loss of momentum in Savannah

He was still going after she was done, too.

Kamala campaign

UPDATE 11:42 am:  Oh my

UPDATE 07:07 pm:  Her campaign is merciless, and I'm here for it.

UPDATE 08/26/2024:

UPDATE 09/02/2024:

UPDATE 09/10/2024:

Harris campaign full speed ahead

Recovery

Despite the political, economic, and health crises Trump left in his wake when he fled Washington in January 2021, the country has not only experienced an extraordinary economic recovery, but also a flowering of remarkably successful progressive public policies, the likes of which have not been seen since the 1960s.

And yet, until just weeks ago, to the chagrin of President Biden and the frustration of his allies, most of the nation seemed unimpressed, if not entirely oblivious, to the progress which Trump and his followers so assiduously denied. In fact, the Democratic Party had become so consumed with gloom and pessimism that it seemed poised to hand the election to Trump, despite the fact that he remained one of the most reviled figures in American history.

It was as if the effort of fighting against Trump’s reality denial had consumed so much energy that a surrender to it was becoming inevitable.

[...]

[T]he Harris campaign reflects a long delayed celebration of the nation’s survival, and indeed its prosperity, in the face of the unprecedented assaults it faced during the Trump era.

[...]

[T]he emergent theme of the Harris campaign — the preservation of what the candidate calls “freedom” — is far less abstract than the theme of the last self-consciously joyful presidential campaign, the “hope and change” call of Barack Obama.

[...]

Harris leaves her supporters with little doubt as to what she means by “freedom,” a term that voters immediately recognize as a call to preserve reproductive rights against right-wing assault, as well to preserve democratic institutions in the face of ongoing GOP threats.

  Public Notice

UPDATE 11:03 am: There's a lot of grumbling about Harris not giving more face time to the press. Here's an answer to that:

Harris/Walz launch in Philadelphia

We're not going back.

BTW, Shapiro was very good.

I can see him on his way to the White House one day.

Both he and Harris have Obama cadence/vibes (Shapiro brings more fire).

Republicans will be attacking Walz hard over the George Floyd riots.  I assume Harris and Walz are ready for that.  Their "Tampon Tim" jabs are nothing compared to the riot attacks he'll be under.

(Tampon Tim because he had the audacity to provide free menstrual products in schools.)

UPDATE 08/07/2024:

I'm of two minds about this, but I will admit that my immediate reaction to Walz' "joke" was negative.  Younger people probably weren't wincing, and likely even cheered it.  Today's insult culture seems pervasive.  And maybe, to use the Harris/Walz catchphrase, we're not going back.