Originally published at: Outlaws On The Verge Of Power - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Hello, it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender 
One way of thinking about the time since Donald Trump descended on a golden escalator into American political life is to conceptualize it as a spree. Trump has been gambling since 2015; he entered the GOP primary that year as a demagogic wildcard. People laughed at…
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I just posted this on yesterday’s MM, now I see The Weekender is up!
Don’t have time to write something new, I am recycling 100s and 100s of lbs. of computer equipment I have gathered in my la-bore-atory since we moved in here. Will be many trips.
My rant is about TV advertising. Just like we are always surprised that the Rs can be 3 times worse than your possible lowest estimate, how could anyone know 10 or 15 years ago how much nastier and more saturated the horrific negativity of mass-brain-washing-advertising would become. It’s out of control, really really detrimental to society, and nobody talks about it as campaigns burn thru billions and billions.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/01/republican-operatives-angry-spending-stratgy/
Archive link
https://archive.is/mPlg5
Excerpts:
"along with complaints over which races the money is flowing to, there are also questions about exorbitant salaries and bonuses being paid out, as well as money spent on lavish parties.
A central complaint in the report is the massive amount of money being spent trying to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) by boosting GOP contender Tim Sheehy while other races, including those in the critical so-called “Blue wall” are scraping by.
As one consultant put it, “We’re in the middle of a dogfight. Each one of these dollars could go to more television advertising or more mail or door knocking.”
“The NRSC hiked pay for its own staff, further angering GOP operatives who felt nickeled-and-dimed by the committee. From the start of 2023 through the first half of October 2024, the NRSC has paid staff over $17.4 million, including lump sum payments to a company that provides retirement and benefits, according to their FEC filings. That’s a 24 percent increase in payroll from the same time in 2022, which totaled $14.1 million. In 2020, payroll totaled $12 million over the same period,” the report states before adding, “While about half of the payments were routed through a payroll company that provides no details about who received payments, some individuals were directly paid by the NRSC. Their paychecks show huge jumps between 2023 and 2024, which operatives believe is due to large bonuses kicking in.”
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Come on Mr. Consultant, it would go thru your agency for the fat commissions and lavish spending…then whatever is left would go to advertising. Not door knocking.
The ads, the dark money, the coordination, the brute force marketing of video is the real 800 lb gorilla nobody is talking about. Citizens United and the naked lawlessness has the costs of campaigns rising geometrically. So, too, the punishing and abusive use of advertising and near-total brain-numbing saturation levels.
TV and streaming advertising may not be the absolute best campaigning weapon or most effective way to get people to vote for you…but it is by far the easiest, cheapest, and most available means. Done with enough repetition and psyops efficacy…campaigns can be successfully run on nothing else.
I am stunned we haven’t heard any other grousing from the campaigns on the mismanagement or monopolization of their money supplies - until this article. We knew that the Chump leeches would starve most other campaigns…and we haven’t heard all the crying and whining I expected. I think that speaks to how the dark money just flows in and replaces the R machinery. Which lends itself to complete takeover by the super-wealthy. And also helps double-bind the ‘coordination’ part…fewer and fewer magnates controlling the whole show can coordinate/collude 100% better than having it spread all over the place.
The candidates get the advertising and money ‘appears’…but the candidate may have no control of how it’s used.
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“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom I seek to reach.”
– Adolf Hitler
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Now Shecky Fuckface doing his standup routine is now also simulating oral sex with the microphone on stage…and its all very apparent what he’s doing.
Seriously, this guy is disgusting and disgraceful. The full simulation he performs begins around 4:05 mark. Now which reporter is going to ask him why he’s simulating a blowjob with a microphone as his closing argument, and what does that have to do with leading the country as president?
Does anyone really think this is the person we want our children and grandchildren to look up to? Everyday he shows what a complete inappropriate buffoon and sexual predator he is.
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Folks right behind him left that event. video below
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I think many is doing a great deal of work there. Sure there were some, but watching vile Republicans being humiliated by an even more vile Republican was never particularly satisfying. Even the schadenfreude I felt was short lived. After the Bush era, the rise of the Tea Party and the Freedom caucus it looked like Trump could ensconce himself at the head of the Neo Know-nothings. With 20/20 hindsight we can imagine it as inevitable, it was not. We did not take the risk of a con-artist and sideshow huckster seriously, and that was (is) the liberal version of American Exceptionalism.
I think it’s time for us to stop saying “this is not who we are,” because it quite clearly is. Asking when it happened seems reasonable, and I think you could peg it to the descent (literally) down the golden escalator. Everyone can be manipulated, have their vanity appealed to, or be intimidated. No one is immune, you can only be aware of the danger and be on guard against it.
I have an apocryphal story from childhood about Marten traps. The story was that you could trap martens by chopping a wedge out of a tree and lining the opening with nails. Once the marten took the bait they would not let go and became trapped by their own unwillingness to give up the bait. It sounds more like human behavior to me.
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He’s certifiable.
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Kamala better win.
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He’s owning the libs the only way he knows how.
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Big Gretch responds to Mike Johnson’s aim to repeal the Chips and Science act. Johnson has been tripped up more than once at the end of this campaign.
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“Through a strategy of delay, some fecklessness by those empowered to hold him accountable…”
Looking at you, Merrick Garland.
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@leftcoaster
Thanks. But how can I like that?
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Love the HuffPost title on this. 
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Related stories?
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Still kind of ick. On the other hand the woman on Trumps left seems to be all in for the “humor.”
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Also his ‘rally’ in Michigan (I think I heard he was in Dearborn) yesterday was very poorly attended.
https://x.com/i/status/1852483137017934332
He will lose Michigan. I can feel it in my bones.
ETA: I see it was held in Warren, MI yesterday, not Dearborn. Warren is home to the Reagan Democrats originally. Maybe not this time around. We shall see.
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Mike Johnson is a typical low-information congressperson. Asinine is as apt moniker for the willfully ignorant folks who legislate their prejudices and privilege
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