With Tim Walz, There Is TOO Such a Thing as a Free Lunch
Among the numerous critiques I’ve seen from campaign pros and even Republicans about the Trump team is its advance work. First they put JD Vance in front of a half-hidden banner that made him look like he was pitching the Vice President, and since then they keep putting JD Vance in empty parking lots with anemic crowd set-ups.
Then they tried to force Trump to adhere to a policy topic at a 2,500-person venue in Asheville, NC by putting economic slogans — no tax on tips! no tax on social security! — on the backdrop.
It didn’t work. He still made substance free attacks on Kamala Harris.
Yesterday’s so-called press conference was something else. Trump’s staffers had gone shopping in advance, with a bunch of consumer goods laid out on tables behind him. He mostly ignored the props, while reading from a notebook about rising prices in a bored rant. “Grocery prices have skyrocketed,” he said. “Surreals are up 26%,” he seemed to say.
Indeed they are. It was a real Fruit Loops performance.
After finishing a 45-minute monotone speech, Trump finally turned to the products behind him, “wow!” and read off the list of purported price increases. “Up 65% — wow — school lunches up 65%. How can a family afford that?”
At some point, this has to be sabotage. Because if the problem is that nobody can afford school lunches, then Tim Walz looks like the solution.
Under Governor Walz, Minnesota made free no-questions asked school breakfasts and lunches available to any kids. It’s akin to another of the measures Walz signed designed to eliminate barriers to getting kids in schools learning, just like the free tampon program that right wingers have turned into a transphobic attack.
Even as Trump laid out a problem that, in Minnesota, Walz already fixed, Vice President Harris was announcing anti-gouging initiative to bring other food prices down.
Thank you for the morning reality chuckle.
Marcy wrote:
“Surreals are up 26%” [audible interpretation]
Indeed, though I think that’s lowballin’ it.
Ed Pilkington wrote a piece this morning lending a much needed perspective on Trump’s claim that Gov Walz is a “dangerously liberal extremist”, by comparing Walz’s reforms with other nations:
“Extremist or mainstream: how do Tim Walz’s policies match up globally?
As Minnesota governor he took action on school meals, climate, family leave, guns and more – how does that compare with other developed countries?”
[snip]
“If you step back from the melee, and look at his gubernatorial acts through a global lens, they appear anything but extreme. From the perspective of other industrialised nations, what Trump denounces as leftwing radicalism looks little more than basic public welfare provisions.”
[snip]
“Far from being militant and revolutionary, initiatives such as paid family leave, free college tuition and rudimentary gun controls – all championed by Walz in Minnesota – have long been regarded as middle-of-the-road and unremarkable in large swathes of the world. Through this frame, it is not Walz who is the outlier, but his Republican critics.”
Ed Pilkington
The Guardian
August 15, 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/16/tim-walz-minnesota-policies
“Surreals are up 26%”….??
…hey, I can sell my Salvador Dali prints and make a profit.
This is not a pipe…dream….. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images
The law of supply and demand implies that prices of surreal should be falling. We’ve had an ever-expanding supply for the last 8 years, after all, and however much the American people like their surreal, a satiation point must be reached.
Even conservatives in European social democracies have accepted the social safety net. What is normal in other industrialized nations, the MAGA’s have labeled “radical”. It’s anything but that. Moreover, these policies are popular.
This old man, he played one,
Held a press conference at his other home
With a Tic-Tac, personal attack
Give the Trump some fries
Before he spouts a pack of lies…
I have talked to him many times. I ran into him 2 years ago at the dog park. He is as real as a politician can possibly be.
So you’ve met his mutt??
Tim and Scout did their first TimTok at the dog park along the Mississippi:
https://www.tiktok.com/@timwalz/video/7403798065288613163
Trump’s team is counting on political beat reporters like Peter Baker who claimed that egg prices were twice as high as they were in reality, because he never noticed that the impact of bird flu had ended.
It’s just nuts how the DC press corps has gotten so hung up on “policy” when few have any concept of what policy really is. Their entire concept of fiscal policy is “deficits are bad” and “taxes slow growth” and if you asked the typical White House reporter to explain even the basics of how supply and demand curves work you’d get a blank look.
They’d even argue there is no need for them to understand anything – their job is to harvest quotes.
Most mainstream reporters are dismal failures who shouldn’t even be allowed out in public, much less allowed to address the public in any meaningful terms.
If I ever win the lottery I’m gonna give Marcy a decent budget and a volcano lair!
In addition to looking at bylines for clues on what beat reporters cover, it’s always worth looking at their bios.
It’s astonishing how thin the backgrounds of most political beat reporters are as they make ridiculously assured policy statements about any subject under the sun.
One of the reasons they are so easily spun is they have no background sense of what’s true. And when their source networks are so slanted toward conservatives, the effect gets even worse.
It’s a feature, not a bug.
Harvest quotes, hype the horserace, and play scandal, gossip and rumor like high school Mean Girls.
Yup. I learned that at around age 12 when Spiro Agnew got in “trouble” in the national press for ‘bigoted remarks’ when he referred to the ‘Fat Jap’ (the nickname for a well-known Baltimore newspaperman at the time). A few years later, I saw free alcohol get great press for Jimmy Carter via the WashPo (though Carter himself had nothing to do with it).
And the newspaper reporter here in MN who asked Kirsty MacColl how she got Steve Lilywhite (who produced the Stones and U2 and …) to produce her album: she deadpanned that she had to sleep with him (she was married to him). And that dutifully showed up in the paper.
https://www.nbc.com/the-11th-hour-with-stephanie-ruhle/video/the-11th-hour-81424/9000373118 – 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle.
Quick quote from here:
Stephanie read a quote from Jonathan Chait, “Media has given up on holding him (Trump) to anything resembling a customary standard of behavior for a presidential candidate.” and then asked the panel to comment on it.
Answer by Isaac Arnsdorf, WASHINGTON POST NATIONAL REPORTER: “There is something implicit there that if we were to do something to hold him accountable that it would change his behavior. There’s no amount of fact checking or accountability of reporting that is going to change his approach to things, it’s a little bit of blaming us for what he does.”
“We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas!”
Someone’s unclear on the concept.
Journalism’s job is not to change the conduct of public figures. Its job is to tell the public what the public figures are doing, without fear or favor. George Seldes, one of the pioneering independent journalists of the 20th century, ends his memoirs with a conversation he once had with William Allen White, editor of the Emporia Gazette of Kansas:
“As his final word, Mr White said: ‘The facts, fairly and honestly presented,’ and I added, more in the nature of a question than a statement, the words: ‘and truth will take care of itself?’
“White leaped at these words. ‘That’s it,’ he said, ‘that is our formula: “The facts fairly and honestly presented; truth will take care of itself.”‘
“I have thought of these words for more than forty years. I know of no better rule for all newspapers of the world.”
More from Seldes’ autobiography at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/11/19/663606/-
Second time today I’m posting this.
Oh, FFS. Nobody is trying to blame you, WaPo, for not controlling Trump. Nothing is ever going to change him.
We’re blaming you for trying to *normalize* his words and actions. Do you not see the difference?
That particular reporter is one of the worst journalists of all time, in the same league as Judith Miller.
I worked in newspapers — albeit mostly with weeklies — and, IMO, hacks like Baker suck at their jobs. Their editors are even worse. No one understands policy, and all of what Pierce calls the DC Village idiots are stuck on practicing access journalism instead of doing their jobs.
Waiting for reports about the hard questions the reporters threw at trump . . .
At least after that ‘press conference’ we won’t have to read more complaints that Harris hasn’t met the press. Will we?
I did a follow-up cataloging them.
They were terrible.
Rational approaches are never part of Republicans’ “plans” for governance. Hate, fear, lies, and control of women’s lives is all they offer.
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The conundrum for Trump is that he would like to make inflation a populist issue (which it is) but the populist solutions would not be exactly savory to his corporate buddies. And his two favorite ideas – deportation of undocumented immigrants (including the workers) and increasing tariffs are both inflationary. Of course, he could try politicizing the Fed which would send the economy into chaos. (“Let’s do fiscal policy by sticking our finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.”). As Trump has demonstrated in his business career, arbitrary and capricious are not good business tools.
I am not sure that Biden and Harris are barking up the right tree with price-gouging. But pointing out the disparity in wages between CEO’s and workers might be useful. And looking at supply chains and monopolies might also help.
Taking on price gouging is an important and long overdue policy. Price gouging is responsible for a large portion of today’s inflation, which comes down hardest on those with the least income. It dramatically enhances corporate power – and the power of those who hold the biggest stakes in large corporations – and income and wealth inequality.
It shows up as record profits, without any other reason for them.
They use their record profits for stock buy-backs, bonuses and increasing CEO pay by Millions! The rich Must get richer, despite the consequences to the poor.
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The wage disparity idea should be an easy one to illustrate. I worked at Starbucks’ roasting and packaging plant in PA, and with the $113M the new CEO is set to earn in his first year, you could have paid every single person there over $200k for the year, from plant manager to the newest high school grad working at the end of one of the packaging lines.
To my eye Surreal is up about 45,000% since Dear Larder came down the golden escalator.
When Trump’s campaign started I used to joke that his candidacy was a meta study by sociologists to suss out just how gullible American citizens are, and that there’s no way people would fall for his bullshit. Now, I’m just flabbergasted how one man can receive so many free passes in one life, and how so many of my fellow citizens are pot-committed to his cult of personality.
The Trump campaign can urge him to talk about issues, but as Ms. Wheeler notes, Trump is completely disinterested in the issues and addresses them poorly. Anything that did not originate in his failing mind seems to be uncomfortable to him.
No matter what he talks about, he’s still 78 years old and he looks and sounds like it.
It seems like an inside job now. They are going squeeze Trump away from his comfortable performances, then blame the impending disaster for their party on Trump. And that might be OK, because the voting public is moving away from the positions that the Republican party adopted to gratify their base and the wealthy contributor class. If they can’t change on the issues the impending 2026 election will likely be the real landslide victory for the Democrats, because Trump will be irrelevant.
My brother (a Liberal, perish the thought) is only 77. I can see that he has a lot of “catching down” to do if he wants to get to Trump’s level.
So far, this is the only rational explanation I’ve heard for the suggestion that this ongoing parade of self-owns must be deliberate in some fashion.
However I don’t think we’ve reached the point yet where Hanlon’s Razor is insufficient to explain what we’re seeing. Trump’s political orbit has been shaped for years now by the gradual process of prioritizing loyalty over competence. The loyalty tests themselves have become more extreme and debasing. There’s been recent reporting that Trump is demonstrably vulnerable to manipulation by the people around him, the example being him verbally attacking one of his major donors, apparently at the behest of a different donor with competing interests.
If the one person who is supposed to be in charge has lost grasp of the rudder, and the opportunists around him are fighting each other to grab onto it, then this should not be an unexpected result.
It wouldn’t surprise me that there are multiple individuals within the power structure who are thinking exactly as you suggest, but I doubt they have full control of the situation either.
Build the Walz
Dump the Trump and Vance goofballs
It’s the perfect time to build some Walz
No more nasty bully brawls
United we stand in the people’s halls
Surreals are up 26 percent
Glad Trump admits that he’s so bent
After all, he gouged us and misspent
tax breaks for the rich, in any event
Poor old Trump has gone Fruit Loops
Another presser with backfired scoops
Keep them coming, oops after oops
Each time he does, his polling droops
8/16/24
Somewhere in America, a nursing home is missing a resident.
Thanks for the chuckle!
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“At some point, this has to be sabotage.” Sabotage of Trump or sabotage of us? Authoritarians get away with this stuff all the time because authoritarian. He’ll get away with it, too, if democratic guardrails are dismantled. This so-called press conference is either going to end up bookmarked as a reelection prototype or part of a whistling past the graveyard gag reel.
One thing that is often missed in discussions of the free lunch program is that is a real benefit to middle class folks too. Obviously they save on the money but they also save time…no need to make the breakfast and/or lunch.
It has been REALLY popular with all segments of MN’s population.
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I’m so old I remember Poppy Bush getting into trouble on the campaign trail for not knowing about the existence of grocery store scanners.
I’d love to see a reporter or debate moderator ask Trump the last time he was personally in a grocery store, and personally cooked a meal.
I’m not sure if Donnie has ever been in a kitchen to do anything other than fire people or berate them for not doing the food to his standards.
There are standards for burnt steak with ketchup?
I know it looks like sabotage, but it also shifts the conversation, once again, to the antics. His people are already baked in and not moving an inch. The people who see him lie, think it’s like watching a cat play with it’s pray. They think his lying is a funny quark and not a dangerous mix of megalomania and sociopathy.
The former guy has always been the master of media. I feel like these are more planned antics sprinkled with gaslighting. I can’t see this behavior more than creating new lies to get people worked up and not talking about policies. Anything to pull the media’s attention off the positive attention Harris is getting.
In strictly media saturation terms, as long as we are talking about him incessantly, he is winning the media war.
Harris changed all of that in an instant. Everyone is talking about her now, and people are engaging and that gets clicks going and media companies are feeding that desire to see more. She is winning the media saturation war now.
I couldn’t be happier, we are talking about her & Waltz non stop.
It is my theory that it was accidental political genius not to have her in the lime light these past 4 years. 45s team’s hubris didn’t allow them to prepare for her campaign.
For once I feel like the Ds are playing ball at the level they should be playing at. Especially with these stakes.
I heartily agree. They have struck the perfect tone & it is resonating. Is it because younger PR people are working for/with her? Whatever it is to me it seems certainly magical in its effect. Thinking back she stood up to Biden in the debates of 2020 & when she got low ratings she went quiet & stayed quiet as VP but was working behind the scenes the entire time. Perfect timing again.
“…They think his lying is a funny quark…”
Trmp et alia think it’s a charm quark when it’s actually a bottom (feeding) quark and, probably, an anticharm quark.
Quark is a dairy product. In Trump’s case, it’s as amusing as spoiled milk.
Three quarks for Mr Trump, but there has to be a tachyon in there, too: he promises what can’t be delivered.
Good for you (and us) for getting some fundamental humor into this blog. I’d love it if you could also expound on the “spins” and spooky actions. Obviously trmp has hired some failed rocket scientists to help his campaign.
One thing to note is that, over the past few weeks, TFG’s verbal miscues, slurred speech, slip-ups, ad hominem attacks and slurs, outrageous fibs, absurd tangents, and outright lies are starting to be described as evidence of a “decline.”
As if he hasn’t been doing all of that shit since 2015!
In 2015, he was reasonably coherent and showed signs of actual thinking..
In 2015 he was able to hide it better. The whole build the wall scam was dreamed up by the staffers because he couldn’t remember anything more complicated for any length of time that was longer than a few minutes. His thinking process has always been impulsive and erratic.
Bullshit. He said crazed, asshole-ish crap the minute he came down the golden escalator to announce his campaign. Don’t believe me? Ask anyone of Mexican heritage.
ew: “Surreals are up 26%,” he seemed to say.
Indeed they are. It was a real Fruit Loops performance.
Fruit Loopy for sure!
[Unless noted, the following quotes are from Aaron Rupar’s Xitter Thread]
5:02 PM it’s low energy “sir” story time with Trump [VIDEO] // CNN cut away from Trump’s press conference at the top of the hour, before Trump took a single question
5:03 PM Fox Business is still claiming this is an “economic” press conference. In reality, Trump is currently telling a sir story about MS-13 “killers” and ICE agents brawling with migrants. [screenshot]
5:05 PM Trump claims Kamala Harris has “a very strong communist lean” and will deliver “the death of the American dream.” [VIDEO]
5:08 PM Trump: “We don’t have energy. And they’re getting set for the AI because they’re gonna create so much electricity and we’re not gonna be able to do it, but you’ll do it if I have it. Because that’s an emergency.” [VIDEO]
5:09 PM Trump rants about “windmills” — DRINK! [VIDEO]
5:13 PM William Shakespeare [of BlueSky]: Why, what’s the matter? Does he rave? https://bsky.app/profile/shakespeare.bsky.social/post/3kzrxbq3z7524
5:18 PM Trump: “We’re gonna be friendly, I hope, with Iran. Maybe. But maybe not. But we’re gonna friendly I hope.” [VIDEO]
5:20 PM Trump has been incoherently ranting and raving at his private Bedminster club for nearly an hour with containers of coffee and cereal behind him. Absolutely bonkers stuff. [VIDEO]
5:22 PM Trump on the head of the Taliban: “He called me ‘your excellency.’ I wonder if he calls that to Biden. I doubt it.” (Reminder: This is supposed to be an “economic” news conference) [VIDEO]
5:23 PM
5:30 PM reporter asks Trump if he’s reflected on why god saved his life. Trump says maybe god wants him to save the world. [VIDEO]
So Corey’s “I’m back” xeet was on par as campaign oof’s go in admonishing everyone to get off the couch!
Trump team advance work is making comedy writing SO easy and the Dems campaign work equally easy. A win-win!
I’m here for the efforts that boomerang!
Look at all that processed food. I see weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and kidney failure. There were no fresh fruits or vegetables on the table. Give me frozen vegetables and oatmeal with raisins instead of Fruit Loops any day.
However, the reason why the prices stay high is because people are not currently substituting superior or normal goods for inferior goods. Until people start eschewing roast beef for baloney the prices will stay high. The retailers always play the game of demand destruction. When they destroy their demand they then squeal about the economy that they weakened.
We are starting to the see the retailers back filling. McDonald’s is starting to offer $5 value meals and Wendy’s is offering a $1 Frosty.
It’d the former guy’s (and his campaign’s) idea of What People Buy In Groceries. None of them shop for their households, so they don’t know.
(Have you priced fresh produce? It’s not cheap.)
I’m using my garden for fresh stuff. But, I find frozen vegetables and meat reasonable at Costco.
I think they raided the club pantry. Which all gets delivered.
Slight correction: Froot Loops
They can’t be called Fruit Loops as they have zero fruit in them.
I didn’t see any $60 bibles on his display. Must’ve been an oversight.
Eff this guy. So sick of him.
Q: Do you know why there are no warranties on manure spreaders?
A: Because no manufacturer will stand behind their machinery!
What a shi$&?&&t show!
LB
Tim Walz is a normal Midwestern guy. Donald Trump is a pampered East Coast elite socialite. Trump has never done an honest day’s work in his life (look at him on YouTube struggling to use a shovel at a ground-breaking ceremony). He probably has never shopped for groceries himself and has people wait on him hand and foot. The contrast between Walz’s folksiness and Trump’s phoniness could not be more stark – all the way up to that phony, bleach blonde bird’s nest glued to his head!
Great post. A somewhat late and personal aside, but Marcy, I love how you are going full-bore against Trump-Vance in this election! With someone with your intellectual heft, broad knowledge of national security and American law and prolific writing skills, the clowns in the Trump-Vance clown car have plenty of reason to be worried about the outcome of this election! TY