Trumps new Vice President who claims that he has ditched the embarrassing JDV. She is also his adopted Daughter who unlike Ivanka will support her adopted father.
Followed Kris for many years along with his contemporary Gordon Lightfoot Kris couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. But he was a poet.
Saw him once at the Bottom Line, I think and it was an awful concert. As soon as he started a song, he was racing to finish it. In old money, he sounded and played like an LP on 45. Totally disinterested and didn’t spend the time to craft even one good version of any song.
To be fair, he returned the favor, though not quite and grandiosely, with John Prine. Kristofferson made sure that there were record execs in the audience when he had Prine guest with him in NYC.
Yup, one of the most amazing parts of a really interesting life was Kristofferson's success as an artist given the fact that he literally couldn't sing. The Highwaymen concerts were cringeworthy when it was his turn to do the vocal work. Great writer and entertainer for sure.
Robert Reich has a very good piece today about the Lumpy phenomenon. He says under Marquis Of Queensbury rules, Lumpy should be dead in the water. But what he’s doing is flooding the zone in essence and the media, especially cable news, is either falling for it or complicit. By flooding the zone, Reich means that he’s doing and saying whatever he wants, whatever gets people talking, whatever is required, no matter how outrageous. He has pretty much given up on persuading whatever undecideds are left now and isn’t worried about positive perceptions. He’ll take anything. Because as long as they are talking about him, they’re not talking about her. And eventually, like Chinese water torture, people become used to having him on their screens everyday and end up voting for him because they feel they know him, or know him better or lesser of two evils, etc. When he’s talking about Haitians eating ducks, people and the media are not paying attention to Harris and her policies. Like a middle class tax cut and so on. So even if the likeability factors are cratering for Lumpy, he’s sucking all the oxygen out of the ether, leaving very little for Harris. What would you prefer? 45 minutes of a 1 hour news show on how crazy and horrible Lumpy is or 45 minutes on Harris’ policy statements? By spending 45 minutes talking about eating ducks, we’re not spending 45 minutes getting to know Harris. Then he gets to charge that Harris hasn’t made any policy statements. This won’t make any difference in California or Texas, but it might, should and will in, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. That’s why the polls are so close and may well remain so until November. At this stage, is there anything Lumpy can do or say, anything, that will disqualify him or cause him to lose huge swathes of votes? He’s already insulted veterans and serving members of the armed forces, the disabled, women, LGBTQ+, immigrants, small and large businesses, the courts, politicians of all stripes, the media, the constitution, Congress, the Senate, the list goes on. It’s probably easier to list those whom he hasn’t insulted. There are very few major and minor groups he hasn’t insulted, and he’s still running close. Riech is definitely on to something.
he never fails does he ..... his $100k watches are made in Chi-naaah! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/30/donald-trump-watches-merchandise
yeah but not an original thought is it? ppl have been pointing that out for a long time. all he wants is to get ppl talking about him. I often skim through Yahoo news. just about every day, a quick Find of his name vs Harris on the landing (headline) page gives him a 5x or 6x (or more) advantage.
I believe Riech’s point was that it’s not necessarily an ego thing, “I want people talking about me, to like me”. It’s an actual political strategy. That it fluffs his ego is a very acceptable knock on effect. The greater point is that it’s largely working. Across the boards, she’s the better candidate, she will do more for the MAGAidiots than he ever will, he fails in pretty much every way. And yet, he’s running close, within the margin of error or leading in AZ, NV, GA, NC, PA, WI, MI. Now all she needs is the last 3 and he needs a lot of help, but he is running a smart campaign to be this much in the race so close to the November given that he’s basically such a horrible human being.
But those concerts were so great. I still listen to them on steaming. Then again, Willie, Waylon, Johnny (and Kris), what’s not to love?
In the Nothing To See Here circus ring: The VP debate is tomorrow night. James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, he of the Biden crime family fame, impeachments and everything which cost $30m and produced nothing, that James Comer. Tonight he has dropped subpoenas and started an investigation into Tim Walz’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Amazing coinkydink, that.
The Guardian with 10 of his greatest songs. I don’t know if there’s a better song than Sunday Morning Coming Down for getting inside a hangover and more.
If I looked at this by accident then you too will have to see it. A 43 foot statue of naked Lumpy in Las Vegas. Just what we need for these troubled times.
I only wish the maxim of what happens in Vegas…, but once my eyes were scorched beyond repair, I decided I was incapable of suffering alone.
Interesting in the VP debate. The conventional wisdom immediately afterwards says Vance edged it on points. The thinking is that Walz was somewhat unprepared and gave a few very poor answers, whereas Vance was more polished. Yet this morning sees a reversal of those positions. Yes, Walz flubbed a few answers, but the main takeaway now seems to be that Walz caught Vance time after time lying, tying him to unfavorable positions and being outright unlikable. The thinking was Vance was already so unlikable that he had probably hit bottom. But what it seems to be now showing is that his unfavorables are probably impossible to overcome, that people are going to always assume the worst and that he’s always lying. You don’t overcome those unfavorables in one debate; that is a long PR campaign. I suspect those in Lumpyland are really only realizing now what a dreadful pick he is. I think they thought a bit of rehabilitation here and there, a few decent optics and the ship would be steadied. Not happening. But, at the end of the day, debates and especially VP debates don’t really move the needle. I suspect that’ll be the case here.
saw very little of the VP debate, but from the clips and articles it seems to me that Vance's aim was to fool people who had seen / read little about him into thinking "this guy's pretty reasonable, why all the mockery?"-- smooth answers from a skilled debater and all that. Waltz otoh did very well after a really shaky start and the ending where he asked him point blank "did Trump lose the election" - and him nailing Vance with the "damning non-answer" putdown when Vance tried a ridiculously lame response was excellent. LOL as I typed that CNN showed today's H-V ad showing that exchange.
More than a few commentators have said that “damning non answer” quip will be what’s remembered from an otherwise forgettable debate. But Vance is definitely in the “give a dog a bad name” category and he’ll only ever be seen as a lying asshole who sticks his finger in the air to see which way the wind’s blowing. At least between now and November.
Watched the whole thing. If you consider the debate in isolation and are only considering debating skills, then Vance wins. Much more slick and polished. Yet at the same time possibly came off as less trustworthy compared to Walz's more "natural" style. If you consider Vance's positions and statements over the last few years, and especially the last few weeks/months there was a whole lot of repackaging last night!