Election 2024: Image World (10)

Get Out The Vote!

I don’t take the politics of my readership for granted. I know for a fact that several of this blog’s subscribers are of the conservative/Republican persuasion, so I assume they tolerate my liberal-left bias because we share a common interest in photography and visual communication, or because they’re open to listening to contrary opinions. Or both.

If Kamala Harris and Tim Walz defeat Donald Trump and JD Vance (especially if they do so resoundingly), and the transfer of power from the outgoing Biden administration to the incoming Harris administration takes place uneventfully and peacefully on January 20, I do not expect to spend much time thereafter writing about Mango Mussolini.

However, as I write this we have a mere eight days before the election. And while many signs point to a Harris-Walz victory, and possibly even a blue wave, we can’t take that for granted. Every vote counts, so we need to ensure that every vote gets cast and counted.

If, reading this right now, you have any resistance to voting for the Harris-Walz ticket (and the straight Democratic ticket all the way down), or have an inclination to sit this one out, or know anyone who’s still undecided, I recommend spending some time with the following as fortification:

• Michelle Obama’s electrifying introduction of Kamala Harris in Kalamazoo, MI, on October 26 — and Harris’s following speech.
• “What has Kamala Harris done?” Posted by the Miami-Dade Democratic Party on October 17, 2024. For those who claim — against this comprehensive evidence — that somehow “we don’t know enough about Harris” and/or “she hasn’t sufficiently shown us who she is.”
• Trump’s racist, rageful October 27 neo-fascist rally at Madison Square Garden, ostensibly the “closing statement” of his campaign. Entirely predictable: With Velveeta Voldemort it’s Festivus every day, especially the “airing of grievances” part. You can watch it here in its entirety (not recommended — it’s three hours of your life that you’ll never get back), or sample some highlights here (comedian Tony Hinchcliffe), here (Staten Island artist Scott LoBaido), and here (grifters Donald and Melania Trump). Suffice it to say that comparisons to the 1939 Nazi rally at MSG understate the similarities.

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Things You Can’t Unsee

Because the Harris-Walz campaign involves people who — the political crisis notwithstanding — qualify as normal (within the usual margin of error), they don’t tend to generate imagery that sticks in the mind. Sure, seeing MVP hugging Queen Bey makes my day, but celebs endorsing pols doesn’t break new ground. And yes, the camera likes both Kamala and Tim, but not more than it likes TFG and his Mini-Me.

Nowadays it takes the extraordinary to viralize an image. And, though it’s not necessarily to his benefit, Trump has the magic touch in that regard. The past several weeks have yielded multiple Trump-related imagistic gems, including, but not limited to, these:

• Trump dancing and swaying to his playlist — Pavarotti singing “Ave Maria,” the Village People singing “YMCA” — for 39 minutes straight at his own rally;
• Trump describing the size of the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia;
• Trump pretending to work the fries station and the takeout window at McDonald’s during a staged photo-op.

Donald_Trump at the McDonald’s drive-thru window, Feasterville, PA, 10-20-24, screenshot

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Trump on Cows

I’ve separated out from this list and reserved for special mention Off-Brand Orban’s professed devotion to those of the bovine persuasion, because his declaration that “I love cows!” offers, IMHO, an insight into the workings of his mind.

My best guess as to Trump’s thought process (and I use the term advisedly):

• Harris and the Democrats believe in climate change as a global crisis.
• They believe that greenhouse gases represent a major cause of global warming.
• They accept the science that indicates that massive deforestation in the Amazon and elsewhere, done to increase pastureland for cattle, done in turn to provide more beef to fill the demand for more hamburgers, is a major factor in global warming.
• They also accept the science that indicates that methane gases released by cattle constitute a major factor in global warming.
• They also accept the science that indicates that the cost per pound of raising cattle and other livestock for human consumption — in terms of feed, waste disposal, transportation to market, etc. — is hugely inefficient compared to other methods of generating food-grade protein.
• And many of them, of course, accept the evidence that the vast majority of animals raised for slaughter live and die under appallingly inhumane conditions, and that their slaughter takes place under conditions that exploit and endanger the workers involved as well as the health of consumers.
• Therefore, just as advocates of action to combat global warming encourage a move from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, they encourage a move from beef and other slaughtered meats to alternative protein options, from lab meat to tofu.
• Trump’s brain, predictably, reduces this complex cause-and-effect sequence to “They’re coming for your cows!” (That’s “the weave.”)

Two things worth noting here: First, despite Trump’s claim that he “loves cows” and finds them “cute,” he’s unlikely to have ever gotten closer to a cow (or chicken) than his latest Big Mac (or bucket of KFC).

Second, he’s not wrong. Yes, any sane attempt to avert the climate crisis as we trot ever closer to the fatal tipping point requires a massive transition from commercially raised meats to protein substitutes. If we’re to survive, the current population of the planet may be the very last to take for granted the eating of meat harvested from live animals.

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The Man Who Would Be Kink!

Moving on from Trump himself to one of his prime fluffers, Tucker Carlson’s “Dad Comes Home” riff — presenting TFG as the necessary punitive parent in an erotic-spanking fantasy — became an instant social-media classic. You can read more about it here.

Tuckums seems to have forgotten that — at least according to Stormy Daniels — when it comes to OTK (over-the-knee) sex play, Trump prefers to serve as the spankee, not the spanker. Where’s that copy of Forbes with his picture on the cover?

Forbes magazine, 400 Richest People in America, 2006 edition, cover

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Stephen Colbert Speaks to Me (No, Seriously)

I don’t normally toot my own horn this way, but I can’t resist: In his opening monologue for the October 8 “bonus episode” of the Late Show, featuring a lengthy interview with Vice-President Kamala Harris, Stephen Colbert singled me out and spoke directly to me on-screen.

I didn’t believe it when it happened, but he actually called me by my name. You’ll find it here; the relevant passage starts at timestamp 2:02.

Stephen Colbert speaking directly to A. D. Coleman, The Late Show, October 8, 2024 (screenshot)

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