“Kamala Harris, whose ‘Honeymoon’ period is ENDING, and is starting to get hammered in the Polls, just copied my NO TAXES ON TIPS Policy. The difference is, she won’t do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes! This was a TRUMP idea – She has no ideas, she can only steal from me,” posted convicted felon former President Trump on Saturday night. Lol at the “‘Honeymoon’ period is ENDING” part. Just friggin weird and funny how he’s internalizing the shit that the political class eggheads on his team are feeding him. Maybe he’s desperate enough he wants to show them he’s pretending to take their memos seriously with that and the “we have to work hard to define her” line.

Anyway, it’s true enough that Harris is a Janie Come-Lately in how she tossed the tax-free tips promise to the crowd in Nevada on Saturday night. It’s good policy. Even better politics with the shamelessness of it, because there is fucking zero chance that it was an accident or that Harris and her campaign staff were unaware Trump had already made such a pledge. What, if any, larger game is beyond not letting him own such easy, populist appeals is we don’t know, but it’s cool if it’s as simple as trolling Trump and his minions into reacting angrily and claiming it was his idea alone.

Because it wasn’t. On March 16, 2011, then-Texas Congressman Ron Paul introed the “Tax Free Tips Act of 2011,” which “Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exempt tips from the income tax, social security and railroad retirement taxes, unemployment taxes, and tax withholding. Defines ‘tips’ as any gratuity provided to a salaried employee by a customer or client of the employer’s business.”

President Biden’s pre-taped interview with CBS’s Robert Costa aired on Sunday morning, apparently the 12 minutes above is the entirety of the segment. Biden didn’t say much new or unexpected about his decision to hand the keys over to Vice President Kamala Harris, but in one heartbreaking answer he asserts that his late son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, should be the one sitting there being interviewed as the incumbent President of the United States, not him.

A new Financial Times/University of Michigan national survey finds Vice President Kamala Harris leading convicted felon former President Trump 42 to 41 percent on who respondents trust to better handle the US economy, a 7 percent improvement over Joe Biden (Trump is static) the last time the question was asked by the same pollster and a kick in the balls to the fanboys who think Trump is mentally stable enough to actually form a coherent thought on arcane matters of economic policy.

The same poll did however find Trump leading Harris 42 to 33 percent on “Who will leave you better off financially?” which could mean that at least some of these respondents are more confident that they can personally benefit from more MAGAnomics even if the rest of the country suffers overall.

Mike Pence replacement JD Vance on Sunday complained to CNN’s Dana Bash that the “weirdness” attacks from Democrats are just “schoolyard bullying” and failed to clean up his comments attacking “childless cat ladies” as opposition to “anti-family policies,” and it actually went worse than that brief description. The alleged couch-fucker also explained that he’s “not comfortable with anything, Dana, because I’m not passing judgment on what these laws should be,” when asked why women in Texas should suffer through non-viable pregnancies, and also assured Bash that his boss, convicted felon former President Trump, told the truth about bone spurs preventing him from serving in Vietnam.

Hardcore fans of convicted felon former President Trump who spoke to New York Times reporters at Friday’s MAGA rally in Montana were largely dismissive of Vice President Kamala Harris’s now very clear momentum against their Orange Messiah, but were also willing to accept the possibility that she could win… if the election is rigged by malign forces such as the dreaded “they.”

Chris Groessler, 44, who drove four hours to get to the rally, told the Times Harris is “very well spoken for by the media, and I think that’s what’s really pushing this artificial rise in her popularity. I don’t believe that she can win. I am one of those ones that believes it will be a rigged election.”

“It’s a honeymoon phase,” 70 year-old Hal Garrigues said of Harris’s popularity in a sign that he may lack the capacity to form an original thought about the state of the race, instead simply regurgitating what he hears on Fox News, who regurgitated the “honeymoon” line from the Trump campaign. “And Trump’s turnout is going to be massive, because his base is extremely energized,” Garrigues added.

“It’s kind of like when you date somebody for the first time,” said 35 year-old rally attendee Chris Black. “The first couple weeks are always really good, but we’ll see in 90 days how it turns out, right?” Black continued. The Times mentions that Black was at the Trump show with his wife, who he has presumably known for longer than 90 days and their marriage is good enough where at the very least she would accompany him to the rally to be supportive of his politics (if hers aren’t the same).

Sources in the Biden Administration tell the Wall Street Journal that US, Brazilian, Mexican, and Colombian officials are working on a long-shot proposal to Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro and his minions: Cede power prior to the end of Maduro’s current term in January, allow the legitimate winner of last month’s sham election, Edmundo González, to take power and the Justice Department will drop the case against Maduro and his allies for conspiring to flood the US with cocaine.

Since it would be a hell of a win for the outgoing president, we’re interested to see what the GOP reaction is going to look like. The most obvious is that Biden is “soft on Venezuela” by offering effectively a pardon and probably a guarantee of exile in Cuba or wherever else, but what’s their plan going to be? “Operation Iraqi Venezuelan Freedom”? We were to understand that Joe Biden was a reckless bloodthirsty warlord, basically Dick Cheney multiplied by Napoleon, while Republicans were now the peace-loving flower children party of Fahrenheit 9/11 and “Not in Our Name.”

Ah we’re probably overthinking it and the MAGA GOP are just going to bitch and complain about such a proposal without coming anywhere to close to saying what their alternative plan would be.

“The first Debate with Kamala Harris, for President of the United States of America, will be with FoxNews on September 4th, 2024, LIVE from beautiful Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The second Debate will take place on Fake News ABC, home of George Slopadopoulos, to be anchored by David Muir, on September 10th, 2024, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The third Debate will take place on NBC, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on September 25th, 2024, to be anchored by Lester Holt – Details to follow. I look forward to seeing Kamala at all three Debates! DJT” posted convicted felon former President Trump late Saturday. We’ve still yet to hear from Fox News about the 4th.

Weeks before the US general election, a hacking operation sponsored by a foreign government distributed emails and other communications stolen from one of the two major Party candidates, Politico reports.  This time, though, it’s the Trump campaign who has had their systems breached by Iranian-backed group.

Politico received emails from someone calling themselves Robert that had attached what appeared to be a 271-page dossier on JD Vance compiled by the campaign through February 23rd.  It included publicly-available information such as articles and interviews, as well as a section labeled “Potential Vulnerabilities” that included Vance’s past anti-Trump statements.  “Robert” claimed to have other communications and records from the Trump campaign.

The hack was likely facilitated when a senior Trump campaign official responded “spear fishing” email, perhaps from Trump’s long lost Nigerian cousin.  Unlike 2016, when Russian hackers stole and distributed them through Wikileaks to benefit the Trump campaign, Politico will not publish stolen information.

Today, Celine Dion’s management team and her record label, Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., became aware of the unauthorized usage of the video, recording, musical performance, and likeness of Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On” at a Donald Trump / JD Vance campaign… pic.twitter.com/28CYLFvgER

— Celine Dion (@celinedion) August 10, 2024

“The latest swing state polls of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin conducted by the New York Times and Siena College helpfully include the recalled 2020 presidential vote between President Trump and Joe Biden. They have dramatically understated President Trump’s support both among all registered voters and in their likely-voter model. In each state, the gap between the survey’s recalled 2020 vote and the reported 2020 election results is more than the margin between Kamala Harris and President Trump. Once again, we see a series of public surveys released with the clear intent and purpose of depressing support for President Trump,” writes Trump Campaign internal pollster Tony Fabrizio in the intro to yet another finely detailed memo cranked out on a summer weekend trying to unskew a shitty poll result for the Orange God Emperor against the veep.

About last night: Some are calling our rally the largest in Arizona political campaign history. pic.twitter.com/f1jlv498mw

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 10, 2024

You should see some of the replies to this tweet. Just one MAGA influencer after another “fact checking” the Harris campaign, claiming the crowd got paid $15/hour to be there, pointing out that Trump supposedly had a bigger rally way back when, so on and so forth. None of them realizing that they’re being walked into a perfect inversion of the way they’ve handled propaganda over the last nine years: Make a spurious, unsupported claim, then watch the libs react furiously to debunk it and by that time Team MAGA is already onto their next lie. Lather, rinse, repeat. Always repeat.

Was this the largest in Arizona political campaign history? It sure looks pretty freaking crowded in there but seriously: Who the fuck actually cares? Every minute spent truther-ing Harris’s rally is a minute the assclowns aren’t spending making shit up about her and Tim Walz.

It’s making us worried. The last few weeks have already been some “Mandela Effect” shit and now we’re feigning concern for the MAGAverse’s ability to confidently assert their alternative facts.

A new New York Times/Siena College survey of likely voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin finds Vice President Kamala Harris leading convicted felon former President Trump by 50 to 46 percent separately in each of the three states in the head-to-head race. When Russian assets Robert F Kennedy Jr, Jill Stein, and Cornhole Cornel West are included, Harris leads 48 to 45 percent in Michigan, 46 to 44 percent in Pennsylvania, and 49 to 43 percent in Wisconsin.

You don’t have to buy this. We still don’t. Trump’s fanboys were ultra-enthusiastic before Biden dropped out and that was inflating his numbers. Now Dems are fired up on coconut energy and response bias is likely boosting her standing in these states too. But if this serves to demoralize MAGA nation and makes them (and their Orange God Emperor) more unhinged then we’ll take it.

The Maggie Haberman-Jonathan Swan New York Times report from behind the scenes of convicted felon former President Trump’s campaign since Joe Biden called it quits you’ve been waiting for is here and it’s ugly. “Trump has often been in a foul mood the past few weeks. He has ranted about Harris. He has called her ‘nasty,’ on ‘Fox and Friends,’ and a ‘bitch,’ repeatedly, in private, according to two people who heard the remark on different occasions,” they write. Other lowlights:

Telling donors at a dinner in the Hamptons “I think I was right” to question Harris’s racial background at that NABJ shitshow and that they’ve “got to stop the steal” when the rich assholes present were more concerned about winning the actual election than pre-excusing a defeat to Harris.

Asked about that “weird” attacks at the fundraiser, Trump said they’re “not about me. They’re saying that about JD.” Trump has also been questioning whether his advisors knew about the “childless cat lady” rants before he announced Vance would be his replacement for Mike Pence.

Tony Fabrizio complaining to the Times that Harris “has gotten the equivalent of the largest in-kind contribution of free media I think I have ever seen in all the years I’ve been doing presidential campaigns,” something the Orange God Emperor always feels deeply entitled to having.

Fabrizio also keeps telling people polling is going to improve, but the Times mentions that “Two private polls conducted in Ohio recently by Republican pollsters – which Mr Trump carried in 2020 with 53 percent of the vote – showed him receiving less than 50 percent of the vote against Ms Harris in the state, according to a person with direct knowledge of the data.” If those polls found Harris ahead the Times probably would’ve said that, so more likely it means Robert F Kennedy Jr and the other third party shitbags are eating into his support in the Buckeye State.

• I’m voting for the candidate who doesn’t have a side gig as a sneaker salesman.
• The Harris-Walz ticket has one thing badly needed in America since 2015:  a layer of gleeful energy.  (Dare I say, hope?)  After a period where the guy who won the election painted the nation from Day One as a demonic hellscape 24/7, genuine smiles and laughter and vision are welcome.  And Democrats weren’t the only ones who needed it; the nation did.
• Dem VP selection Tim Walz will become the favorite of crossword puzzle creators across America.
• Funny how the first fake corruption claim against Joe Biden touted by House Republicans was that “the Biden crime family” got $10 million from China (or maybe it was Ukraine) and that was the accusation that launched a thousand investigations, but now we learn that Trump took $10 million from Egypt.  Every accusation is an admission, down to the dollar amount.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CLXXXV”

A civilian engineer for the Defense Department who printed and took home at least 155 pages of highly classified material was arrested at his Virginia home Friday morning as he was waiting for his Uber to the airport, the Washington Post reports, and he’ll face charges for mishandling the information.

A dual citizen of Turkey and the US, Gokhan Gun was waiting for his ride to the airport to start a Mexican vacation when the FBI raided his home and arrested him, finding the documents not in a bathroom or on stage, but stacked on his dining room table and in a backpack.  As an engineer with a DoD contractor, Gun was allowed to access the information at work, but could not print it or remove it.

Unable to claim presidential immunity or move his case to a Florida district court, Gun is currently facing one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified information, with other charges pending.  Gun apparently told investigators that the documents were no longer classified, so it was okay for him to have them–a defense that sounds strangely familiar.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are in Arizona while convicted felon former President Trump is (supposedly) going to make it to Bozeman, Montana.

Second quarter revenues for Trump Media, the money laundering operation that operates Truth Social, fell by 30% compared to the same quarter last year, resulting in a net loss of $16.37 million over the quarter, CNBC reports. The company reported $839,000 in revenue, versus $1.2 million in the same quarter in 2023.

Trump Media closed Friday at $26.21, far below its 52-week high of $79.38.  The second quarter’s performance, while unsustainable, was still a significant improvement from the first quarter when it reported a net loss of $327.6 million because it wrote off “noncash expenses.”

Convicted felon former President Trump was in his plane “Trump Force One” en route Friday to the one rally he has scheduled this week when a hydraulic leak forced an emergency landing in Billings, Montana, about 120 miles east of the venue for the rally in Bozeman, the AP reports.

Must’ve been pretty bad if a Boeing jet couldn’t limp on for another 10 or 15 minutes just to get to his actual destination. Plenty of MAGA chodes were already claiming this was the result of intentional sabotage, none of them realizing that Trump’s a cheap bastard who almost certainly cuts corners on maintenance and upkeep. Also funny too is that this comes just one day after the fat fuck falsely claimed he was nearly in a helicopter crash with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

Enough games, Madam Vice President. Stop hiding. Show yourself to the American people already.

They see you for what you are: A coward who lives in bubble wrap, simply too scared to face questions about why you have blood on your hands for that white girl who was murdered by an illegal immigrant while YOU were supposed to be serving as the border czar. And why the history books in Tim Walz’s classroom said Walt Whitman was a homosexual. And why you played identity politics when you told the Associated Press in 2016 you were the first Indian-American senator and THEN four years later NBC News reported that you were the first Black vice presidential nominee.

It’s time for you to sit down with a real journalist like Tucker Carlson to answer those tough questions and then some. It won’t be easy or fun, but Americans won’t accept you as their legitimate president if you win in November without a tough, lengthy interview on an episode of “Tucker on X.”