Taylor Swift has endorsed Kamala Harris/Tim Walz.
Lest you think the Republicans will be steamrollered, have no fear: Donald Trump quickly countered.
When asked Wednesday morning about Swift endorsing the Democratic nominee, Trump tried to shake it off, telling Fox News he prefers Swift’s close friend Brittany Mahomes over the singer.
“I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “She’s a big Trump fan. I was not a Taylor Swift fan.”
Who?
I looked her up on Wikipedia.
Brittany Lynne Mahomes (née Matthews; born August 31, 1995) is an American sports team co-owner and former soccer player who played as a forward for Icelandic club UMF Afturelding. She is a founding co-owner of the Kansas City Current, a team in the American professional top-division National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).
She is married to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
OK, I’m still saying, “Who?”
It’s a good thing that the election won’t be decided by celebrity endorsements, but I do think Harris might have an edge here.
This is rather horrible.
He’s just confirming that the Trump cult is weird and creepy.
Plus, he’s got a strong bench what with Kid Rock and Ted Nugent waiting in the wings when Mahomes stops carrying the freight.
This seems to be his primary reason for liking anyone. Narcissists gotta narcissist.
Also, Brittany Mahomes is not a famous person. She just happens to be married to a famous person, and friends with some others.
What you say? But she has a Wikipedia page! Everyone knows that that makes you a famous person.
Elon’s subtle rape threat against Taylor Swift is par for the course for that creepy little goblin.
Interesting that Brittany Mahomes is married to a KC Chiefs player, and Taylor Swift dates a KC Chiefs player, so that makes them exactly the same in trumpo’s diseased brain.
He is a quintessential male chauvinist pig.
Between the Swifties shaking him off, and the B-hive getting in formation, he really needs those diapers.
Just going to repeat what I said on the last thread about Musk’s creepy comment.
Yeah, saw that last night.
There is something seriously wrong with Elon Musk, something deep and dark in what passes for his mind.
I saw a bumper sticker on a Tesla car a few days ago.
“I bought this before we knew Elon Musk was crazy.”
It has become so embarrassing to drive a Tesla that some people won’t any more.
Saw the first of his butt-ugly trucks the other day , you could already see the rust where people of touched the outer skin.
I suppose Musk thinks that’s clever. In fact, it just makes clear (or rather, even clearer) that he is a dirty old man.
Musk already has enough kids he doesn’t care for. Taylor Swift might be a better guardian for one or more of them, if she wants.
@Musk
Perhaps he didn’t intend it that way. Maybe he hoped to give away the child who has disowned him. But yeah, it came out way creepy.
When Trump gets around to mass-deporting immigrants, maybe Musk and Melania and JD Vance’s in-laws will be top of the list.
Which would still be pretty awful but not shocking coming from him. But if he meant it that way, he would’ve said, “You can take one of mine.”
It’s seems he meant what he wrote, he would impregnate Taylor Swift like he did Grimes.
@11 Grimes consented. At no time has Taylor Swift indicated interest, much less consent.
And history has shown how well that has worked out for Grimes.
https://www.businessinsider.com/grimes-elon-musk-custody-battle-complete-timeline-2023-12
I saw, but did not pursue, that there was something going on between Swift and Mahomes, but they were seen hugging at a recent football game.
“Shaking it off” is an interesting phrase to use here. I suppose there are a few casual Swifties in these parts.
When will the almighty woke conspiracy finally get around to cancelling Musk?
So she’ll be impregnated by Elon Musk? But what does she win?
I wouldn’t trust Musk to feed a cat let alone give his life for one.
I could feel my blood pressure rise in conjunction with my anger at every lie or distortion the tRUMP magat spoke during the ‘alleged’ debate. The moderators (failed news readers, really) were ABSOLUTE failures at controlling things.
Why won’t you see tRUMP and the elongated muskrat together in a stadium?
Because there wouldn’t be enough room in a stadium to hole both their gigantic egos at the same time!
I’m impressed by her as an entertainer even though not a huge fan of her music. But, Taylor Swift has more intellect and integrity than tRUMP and the elongated muskrat and all their evil little minons combined.
Also, the elongated muskrat has ‘given’ too many women too many children already. Someone point a high-powered radar antenna at him, it would be doing the world a great favor if he were neutered.
OOPS, typo “HOLD both their gigantic egos at the same time!”
Oh, wait, maybe ‘hole’ as in ‘put a hole in their gigantic egos’ would be a good idea.
I think Elon was simply implying that Taylor can have one of his kids. Just take a joke in the spirit intended, and ignore it if you don’t find it funny.
@7 muttpupdad wrote: you could already see the rust where people of touched the outer skin. (of the ‘cyberturkey’)
I reply: decent alloys of stainless steel don’t rust. That’s why when Germans invented improved alloys they called it ‘rostfrei’ (rustfree).
That makes me wonder how much rust has developed in the elongated muskrat’s brain
@20 Michael wrote: I think Elon was simply implying that Taylor can have one of his kids. Just take a joke in the spirit intended, and ignore it if you don’t find it funny.
I reply: that may be correct only the respect that the elongated muskrat is a father in the biological sense only. See the articles by PZ on his one child that has disowned him and thoughtfully spoken about his hateful talk about them. the elongated muskrat is an evil excuse for a human being.
We are taking his snide remark EXACTLY as he intended it. Trying to minimize his disgusting behavior as just a joke is bullshit. Ignoring grifting billionaire swine isn’t a great idea when they are actively working to undermine America.
I’m glad Taylor Swift put her thumb on the scale, but my hatred of the “Chiefs” is now carrying over to her beau Travis Kelce (the goofy Gucci hatted) again. Sorry. I still respect his pro-vax commercials and my hatred of his anti-vax archnemesis Aaron Rodgers carries over to the entire NY Jets team who I will hate watch as I did in their loss to the CMCless Niners, if that’s any consolation to the Swifties.
If Brittany Mahomes is a Trump supporter that’s just one more reason to hate the “Chiefs” in my book. They need to change the cringy name and stop the chant they stole from FSU as did the “Braves”. FSU should end their chant and tomahawk chop too IMO.
Hopefully the “Chiefs” don’t threepeat, however disappointed Swift might be about that. I still appreciate whatever help her endorsement gives Kamala Harris. Swift, whatever the merits of her music I don’t listen to, is nothing like Darth Cheney in any controversial aspect of her endorsement. Swifties must love her for good reason. The Beatles were huge too and not entirely to my liking anymore. If Swift did death metal or breakbeat electronica I might be more familiar with her works. Probably a generational thing.
Caitlin Clark ‘likes’ Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris on social media
Have to see if anything further develops there. For those who haven’t heard of her, Caitlin Clark is the Taylor Swift of basketball. She is very good at her craft, and she is very controlled in her public statements.
As an empowered woman, you might expect to find some liberal leanings, but she attended a Catholic high school in what is now a shitbox red state (Iowa).
You may be that stupid, but most people here aren’t, and nor is Musk himself: he knew exactly how it would come across, but left himself marginally plausible deniability.
Michael@20, not @26.
They do.
I heard so much about Taylor Swift that I decided I should keep up with modern popular culture, even as a Boomer.
So I watched some of her music videos. Listened to her songs. Watched some of her Eras tour movies on the internet. Watched some more of her music videos.
I like her music and videos. A lot. Some more than others.
She writes her own songs, does her own arrangements, even plays instruments on some of them. Runs her own business in part. Puts on an impressive live concert show.
Taylor Swift is a very talented, hard working young woman!!!
She worked for her fame and fortune and earned what she has.
I just checked and at no time in the regular season do the “Chiefs” play Aaron Rodgers’ Jets, in which case I would root for the “Chiefs”. If they meet in the post-season I would begrudgingly root for the “Chiefs”, as my visceral hatred of Rodgers runs that deep. Thought I’d clear up that contingency.
Oh and Elon Musk is a super-creep, as if anyone needed me to point that out…Michael@20 his fanboi.
Because replacing a woman’s actual political concerns with a reference to impregnating them is “just a joke”. This is where I see how jokes are and inherent part of social conflict.
Go on Michael, explain the joke. I think it will be instructive. If I am wrong you can show us.
Does anyone else get the impression that the “just a joke” crowd consists of people who just want to wallow in the feelings of humor and don’t want to think about what humor is? The sensitivity to criticism of humor is strong enough that they want to regulate it in other people, they are socially benefitting from such “just jokes” at the very least.
raven @28:
Nobody ‘earns’ a billion dollars. It’s acquired by inheritance or exploitation of our obscene capitalist system. Entertainers like Swift, or Beyonce, or Messi, or Cristiano Ronaldo, don’t intentionally exploit (not when they start out, anyway), but it comes down to the same thing; milking the rubes for the benefit of yourself and (mainly) the corporations in charge of your chosen field of entertainment.
While I hope young Americans are getting more conceened about politics, there are probably many uninterested ones living in swing states that will now take the election more seriously. And with an election system as archaic as the US one, every vote counts.
If the endorsement puts Harris over the finish line in the electoral college instead of the Orange One she has earned every one of her millions.
@Brony
Nah, “just a joke” guys are usually dead serious, and use the “joke” as a form of plausible deniability. It’s the same shit as schoolyard bullies who shout “It’s a free country, I can do whatever I want!!” while beating someone up. Some might laugh at it, but that just improves the camouflage.
@PZ
Yeah, Musk has gone fascist in a big big way. He’s also been talking about how government should be by “high testosterone alpha males”, as (I am not making this up) “people who can’t defend themselves physically parse information through a consensus filter as a safety mechanism.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elon-musk-trump-harris-high-status-males-4chan-b2606617.html
No word on whether Musk himself can defend himself physically, of course. But this is even grimmer than it looks, esp. combined with the reproductive obsession. This is a guy who wants the entire fucking planet to look like Saudi Arabia.
What has Swift done with at least some of her money? Kelce (grrrr!) can afford his own Gucci hat so not that! Uggh! Why?
https://apnews.com/article/79f5aeedc6ce16f91517a3d00af55a7f
https://www.billboard.com/lists/taylor-swifts-charity-donations-gifts-timeline/march-2020-swift-quietly-donates-to-fans-amid-coronavirus-crisis/
https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-uk-food-bank-donations-cover-year-of-meals-1235719076/
I’m probably near the understandable link threshold to put me in moderation limbo which I don’t want to put PZ through in approving my post. But yeah, Taylor Swift makes a ton of cash but she’s not super stingy. Raven says I should listen to her music and I get that too. Maybe I will explore that treasure trove.
One of my first significant memories of her is Ye walking on stage to rant while she was at an awards thing.That awkward moment didn’t age well. And I think more highly of her than whatever a Kardashian might be.
You’re missing a lot of the subtext. Musk is referring to Swift calling herself a “childless cat lady”, which was in turn Swift referring to an earlier speech by Vice-Presidential candidate Vance, who was using it as “natalist” term-of-art. Vance and Musk are both “natalists”.
This type of “natalism” is basically race-based eugenics and grew out of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. It’s based on the idea that “white” people should be required to have as many children as possible. White people who are unable or unwilling to have children will be second-class citizens, treated only a little better than non-whites.
So, putting it all together: “You win” means, “OK, I understand you don’t want to be a second-class citizen under a Trump/Vance regime. I’ll either impregnate you, or provide you with a child, so that you can continue to enjoy the rights of full citizenship no matter what. Now you have no reason not to support Trump.”
What if we find the joke weird and creepy? Do we have your permission to say that, or do we need to ignore the joke until it’s too late?
Hemidactylus @35:
Wow, that’s on the order of 0.1% of her wealth.
It’s also of similar form to what Trump passed along previously. Instead of taking Taylor Swift’s actual political views seriously, her very body was taken again. First by computer generated lies, and then by Elon making it about impregnating her.
@tallora 34
Jokes are serious, especially in social conflict. That’s part of my point. I can believe they were serious and felt humor.
I should totally listen to all the songs in this feud? My sanity says no though my views on Ye’s meltdowns and whatever the Kardashians are especially given that weird Ye video about Pete Davidson say “Hells Nos!”
I’m happy I’m kinda aloof from more recent pop culture. But still….WTF?
https://people.com/taylor-swift-and-kim-kardashian-feud-timeline-8412119
I recall seeing some cool cutting edge hiphop output from both Kanye and Mos Def on Chappelle’s Show over 20 years ago, though Dave hasn’t aged well in his own views!
Rob Grigjanis @37
So she has improved the lives of nobody then given her multiple donations? Should she have done more? I guess…
Michael: Why are you trying to tell us how to talk about #QElon’s latest stupid utterances?
I think Elon was simply implying that Taylor can have one of his kids. Just take a joke in the spirit intended, and ignore it if you don’t find it funny.
Would you say this about a racist joke? The “spirit intended” here is one of childish phony machismo and eagerness to put women down, with a noticeable hint of “corrective rape” advocacy thrown in. And whether or not we take it as a joke, it says a lot about #QElon’s character. Ignoring people like him isn’t very wise, however much we might want to.
If Swift did death metal or breakbeat electronica I might be more familiar with her works. Probably a generational thing.
Yeah, kids these days and their music…
That’s the way, Rob @ 37! She must be shamed for only donating tens of thousands of meals! What a tight-fisted skinflint Swift is.
raven@6:
Every techbro is a creepy rapey incel with a veneer of Silicon Valley rationalism plastered on like an amateurish makeup application, and every techbro’s makeup eventually runs to where that inner incel increasingly shows through. It happened with Robin Hanson and with the Lesswrong crowd, and then with Thiel and the rest of the neoreaction crowd, and then it happened with Musk.
Look some of them up sometime, or read Elizabeth Sandifer’s “Neoreaction a Basilisk”. Hanson made a very creepy post about “gentle silent rape” way back; Yudkowsky, Hanson’s blogging partner before they went splitsville over some AI related disagreement, wrote short SF online and repeatedly ideated about decriminalizing “nonconsensual sex” in those works; many of the latter’s
cultistsfellow bloggers have been credibly accused of actual real-world sexual assaults, and of hosting events where women were basically passed around as party favors, Kavanaugh-frat-party style.The toxic misogyny of this subset of nerds is even visible all the way back in the 1980s film series “Revenge of the Nerds” — the original features an outright rape by deception and the inevitable lesser creepies such as panty raids. Techbros, and particularly the TESCREAL crowd, are basically trying to turn “Revenge of the Nerds” from fantasy to reality by becoming the ruling class and then controlling women. Oh hell, I hope no woman ever signs up for a Neuralink trial; Musk will surely try to find a way to use Neuralink to make “The Stepford Wives” cease to be fiction …
tallora@34:
Are you kidding? It’s pretty much a given he was a nerd who got beaten up for his lunch money every single day he was in grade school … and then grew up wanting to become an alpha and bully everyone else, rather than wanting to abolish the institution of bullying.
Not too dissimilar from Trump as a matter of fact, where it was his father who did the bullying and he in turn became a bully.
See also: Project 2025. There’s a reason the Republican base is sometimes referred to as Y’all Qaeda …
Well at least he didn’t say “pussy”. Ahem.
But seriously, this is actual sexual harassment.
badland @43: No, she shouldn’t be shamed. Just as I shouldn’t be shamed for giving a few bucks a week to homeless people. But neither of us deserves forelock-tugging for the distribution of insignificant scraps of our wealth.
Rob @ 46: recognising and appreciating that she donated tens of thousands of meals to a charity is forelock-tugging now?
I really fucking hate the politics of envy, whoever does it.
@20. Michael : “I think Elon was simply implying that Taylor can have one of his kids. Just take a joke in the spirit intended, and ignore it if you don’t find it funny.”
Why do you find it funny? What part iof that sounds comical? The “It was just a joke”” excuse is very transparent, stale & ineffective these days FYI.
Jesus, who let the billionaire simps in?
@20. Michael : albeit he likely already knows too well – but does he know that everyone else already knows?
Source : https://www.npr.org/2021/04/26/990274685/how-extremists-weaponize-irony-to-spread-hate WARNING : Exteme misogynist & violent language quited there.
Fuentes, of course, being an actual literal nazi : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Fuentes
This is also known as Disparagement Humor :
Source : https://theconversation.com/psychology-behind-the-unfunny-consequences-of-jokes-that-denigrate-63855
Note WARNING – also quotes example “jokes” there.
Seriously, while I get that hate of billionaires, and dislike the fact that they exist in general, it is necessary to also recognize that there is a vast difference between, “I made so much money in this corrupt system that I literally can’t give it away fast enough.”, and the usual con from billionaires of, “Why do you hate me? I gave a few homeless people the spare change I had in my pocket a whole month ago, and I promise it wasn’t just to get a huge tax break, con the public, and make political gains with some people in the government.” You can still hate that something is freaking possible at all, while acknowledging that there is an abject difference between the people involved. Because this is the idiocy of the US economy. If you have no money, short of winning the lotto, or cheating, there are almost no ways, at all, of any kind, to dig yourself out of the hole you are in. If you have “just enough” to live off you are never comfortable, because any major emergency, especially medical, will utterly erase your comfort, and put you in the hole, with everyone that has nothing, and once you have more than you need to survive that kind of situation, its nearly impossible, unless you are a complete idiot (like Trump), to be able to even throw it away fast enough to not become one of the “hated rich people”. Apparently, there is no “winning” in this economy, because you are either always a victim, or always the enemy of the victims, no matter who you are, what you think, what you do, or how hard you work to either get to the top, or struggle to survive on the bottom. None of it is at all fair, but insisting that someone is garbage because they are doing better than you, by shear accident of their profession… is hardly “fairer”. Should she have, instead, done it all via the regular record industry, like past stars, who would have been robbed blind, and survived off of the scraps thrown from the table by the record execs instead, always one step away from, “We have decided you are not longer popular, so we are only giving you the few cents we agreed on per song/album sale, because you are no longer worth the cost of sending you out on concerts.”, like again, everyone else in the industry? Literally, like the rest of us, “One failure away from being poor.”?
Give me a break.
badland @47: It’s hilarious how so many people assume envy when someone criticizes the ultra-rich. I can only guess that’s projection of a sort. I don’t envy or hate Taylor Swift. It’s great that she’s feeding tens of thousands of people. But my appreciation of her generosity is tempered by the fact that she could feed millions and still be utra-rich.
@25
Caitlin Clark Expands on ‘Liking’ Taylor Swift’s Post Endorsing Kamala Harris
In which she encourages people to educate themselves and to vote, but does not endorse a candidate.
michael
I’m sorry, I suffer from a serious medical condition (working uterus) that impedes my capability of finding it funny when a man wants to “give” a woman a child in a country where rapists get to choose the mothers of their children.
Okay Rob, thank you for acknowledging that donating tens of thousands of meals to a charity is, in fact, a good thing.
Now if you want to have a completely different conversation about taxing billionaires I think we’ll be in violent agreement.
Yeah, not sure if your “envy” comment was directed at my commentary or not, but if so I am going to pretend, real hard, that you didn’t just confuse “envy” with, “Why the F should you have to be super rich to not be either struggling, or on the verge of struggling, because you literally can lose everything over a single medical, or environmental disaster?” Even if so, in the same sense that coveting is both the Biblical, “I would love to steal my neighbors property.”, and, “Gosh, it sure would be nice if I could afford a new car like my neighbor.” But, I would argue, just like there is a bloody difference between those two things, there is a huge difference between, “I wish I was super rich, just to be rich.”, vs., “If the only way to not risk becoming homeless is to be super rich then I think I am pretty justified to want to be freaking rich enough to not have that problem.” Just saying…
I and my cohorts agree with Bernie Sanders: Billionaires should not exist. HOWEVER, I do admire the intelligence, diligence, civility, and intent to be caring of Taylor Swift. She seems to be the of the more beneficent type as in:
@51 Kagehi wrote: it is necessary to also recognize that there is a vast difference between, “I made so much money in this corrupt system that I literally can’t give it away fast enough.”, and the usual con from billionaires of, “Why do you hate me? I gave a few homeless people the spare change I had in my pocket a whole month ago, and I promise it wasn’t just to get a huge tax break, con the public, and make political gains with some people in the government.” emphasis mine
@ 20, 54
http://www.shakesville.com/2009/08/terrible-bargain-we-have-regretfully.html
The author posted this in 2009 and in 2024, the Overton window appears not to have budged an inch and privileged men are still punching down with variations on the classic bullying whine ‘”can’t you take a joke” when really, it’s a certain subset of men who can’t abide the slightest hint that they might have to abandon or even give ground on their lazy, dismissive privilege of never having to consider rape jokes as a possible threat. Because rape jokes against women are the fodder of misogynist comedy but rape jokes against men are considered threats. (See gay/trans panic defense.)
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/member-features/gay-trans-panic-defense/
https://lgbtqbar.org/programs/advocacy/gay-trans-panic-defense/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_panic_defense
@54 Let’s not lose sight of the fact that rapists routinely use the threat of child custody against their pregnant victims to coerce their victims into dropping the rape charges in exchange for the rapists dropping the child custody legal claims.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/06/19/abortion-laws-bans-rape-parental-rights-column/1432450001/
https://www.prindleinstitute.org/2016/12/8303-2/
https://www.motherjones.com/criminal-justice/2019/08/rapist-custody-abortion/
https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2165&context=faculty-articles
shermanj@58:
That’s probably because she’s a normal person who lucked into it, rather than a sociopath who cheated her way into it or a person born normal who inherited it, then was shielded from consequences for her actions all her life while steeped in elitist propaganda and exposed to cheater-sociopath and elitist role models and wound up coming down with a nasty case of affluenza.
@58 I and my cohorts agree with Bernie Sanders: Billionaires should not exist.
Oh, absolutely. I would never say they should. Though… I would point out one minor complication, in as much that you can also get the other side of things, which is, today, no one would ever be able to build a Disney Land. They managed back when it opened by literally using it as a shill and advertisement platform for other corporations (which just wouldn’t fly today, I suspect), and the alternative is to find some sort of other investors. So… who would those investors end up being without people with deep pockets? What pisses me off is that the attitude of “billionaires” is also, “Heh, I want to build something new! Now, how can I spend literally everyone else’s money to do it, and as little of my own as possible to get there?” That isn’t “inviting investors to join in a venture, to help build it.”, its, “stealing someone else’s money, to build something, knowing you can walk away with little or no real consequence when it fails, or you run it into the ground.” There is as book series I read called Union Station, which involved humanity managing to utterly screw themselves over via Capitalism, to the point where benevolent AI show up to rescue us, and try to get us ready to join a galactic community. While something “like” a Capitalist economy still runs their own system, its more of a mix of equal trade for goods, on a general level, and where money is used its “banked” by the AI. The AI’s solution to billionaires is pretty simple – you can be how ever rich you want, as long as you are doing something that is actually productive with the money, and by “you”, they mean, “You don’t get to sit on your ass and just pay other people to do it.”, but the money is volatile – if not used for “something”, some way, in a set amount of time, there is a trigger point where all that money starts to rapidly vanish. It doesn’t get taxed, it doesn’t get given away, it just gets erased, bit by bit, until all the lovely zeros you had behind the balance disappear. Man.. I can’t help but find that idea just hilarious. If you don’t “need” it, its just gone. If you, however, are going to actually use it to build something that takes vast amounts, then USE IT, but don’t just sit on it and pretend you have big ideas, then waste everyone else’s money when the time comes to do something.
Because, I don’t think every big project should have to die on the vine because you can’t find enough investors, nor should it always have to be subsidized by the government, but I absolutely despise how the people who have the money to do such projects will tank them, literally because they refuse to spend their own damn money to do them, and instead cheat everyone else out of money, and come out richer than they went in anyway. Basically, my view on the subject is.. mostly in line with yours, but I do think there exist… complications as well, and situations where one person holding a lot of money is only bad because the won’t f-ing spend it once they have it, not because they got it somehow in the first place.
A Kickstarter project.
Just like we can replace bosses owning companies with worker collectives, we can replace investors funding projects with funding collectives.
Yes, but compare her to J.K. Rowling, transphobe extraordinaire!