TGIM and I try not to be my normally dark self. But:
"Semafor (ha ha I know) sent me an email with the lead story headlined “President Donald Trump is winning his war against the media.” The Democratic Leadership certainly acts like it has."
The media at issue actually surrendered by ca 1980 so, you know, this W for our beloved Fuhrer is fully unearned and extra-shitty reporting.
"...while the whole propaganda push since Kirk got killed remains ominous, how it’s actually playing out reminds me more of Tubby’s weaknesses than his alleged strengths."
Did I say I try not to be my normally dark self?
Oops!
This "...reminds me more of Tubby’s weaknesses than his alleged strengths. It actually makes me a little optimistic" would on other days trigger (again, oops) much darkness re the power of the vote, the inherent shiftiness of the national Democrats, etc., etc., etc. But Monday; I'm passing on it.
As for Siebert, the problem isn't the prosecutors but the grand jurors who cannot be sold on Trump Shit®.
As for the suit against, the Times, that dismissal is nothing. It's without prejudice.
And in any case, this is how it'll go:
Trump keeps pulling shit up to the point that it looks like SCOTUS gets involved. At that point, the Times realizes that Sullivan's at risk and they fold instead of letting it maybe get reversed. In other words, Donny will get his money.
But now the good news! To paraphrase our own Worriedman at his Substack--one of the very few competitive with REBID, I'm out of interest. Gone on too long so long I'm boring me.
Just gonna add one quick thing: However bad the Kimmel thing is--at its core, it's standard business practice under an authoritarian--to me the deification and stuff of a sociopathic hate monger is worse.
Re: the “defamation” suit against the NYT, it was more particularly dismissed with leave to amend, but if Team Tubby couldn’t come up with any actual causes of action in their first complaint, theyll have to resort to making shit up that if true would be actionable. That wouldn’t do them any favors in the medium-long run; in the short run it would get a lot of favorable headlines but would ultimately fall flat on its face when it becomes apparent there’s no evidence to support the allegations. So I don’t think Eeyoring this is right.
That’s what without prejudice means in this context: A do-over.
As for allegations, anything goes in the Complaint as long as it’s in the realm of being however relevant to the claimed harm.
However they get there, it ends just before the Roberts junta gets its chance to blow up Sullivan. Which is when and where the Times pays this round of protection money to the godfather.
Yeah, I’ve practiced law, I know what without prejudice means, but the judge said in his order that any amended complaint would have to be less than 40 pages. The original had 58 pages of ranting, propaganda outbursts and self-aggrandizement before listing 2, count ‘em, 2 counts over 4 pages.
If SCOTUS is going to overturn Sullivan they’ll need stronger stuff than this. The falsehoods are supposed to be published by the Defendants, not the Plaintiffs.
Condolences to us both be fugitives from the practice of law 😳.
I assume the 40pp is FRCP-related.
As for tossing Sullivan, there’s the shadow docket. All that’s needed for the junta would be Donny’s ask. OTOH, a fully briefing and decision… NOT GOOD!!!
There’s no injunction involved so I don’t see how it could be on the emergency docket. I don’t know if Trump’s lawyers are clever enough to get the defendants to ask for one.
Bro, we’re past the point rules and stuff matter. Only thing that matters to the Robert’s junta is obliging the Don by whatever means. They’ll keep this stinker alive til the Times pays out.
Really, this should be the Golden Age of Cynicism and Misanthropy…
Here's a legal question: What harm did Tubby suffer as a result of the NY Times actions? He won the election, didn't he? Don't you have to prove - or at least claim - you've been harmed in some non-imaginary way to sue?
What I just told Howlin’: Rules and law and still are irrelevant when it comes to the Roberts junta obliging the Don.
Now, you’d be 10,000% correct under normal circumstances. A piece shot like him cannot be damaged by and slander or libel. I mean, I see no one describing him in worse terms than I do and I’m just being factually accurate—that truth as absolute defense thing.
But before they can prove it, don't they have to at least claim it? OK, in what measurable, material way are you worse off because the NY Times printed some articles you didn't like?
I think there's 2 parallel legal tracks happening with the administration. There's Trump's lawsuits and demands for criminal charges which are about harassing the plantiffs, not convicting them. Then there's whatever legal strategy the Heritage lawyers in the administration are pursuing with their endless appeals to the Supreme Court. No one seems interested in the second, while lawyers spend time trying to make legal sense out of what is not a legal strategy in the first.
So far the thing that's most important to the lower courts is they take their job seriously, and to a degree demand that those appearing before them do the same. To people outside the legal system they grant Way too much deference to the government and its "the dog ate my homework, causing irreperable harm" arguments, but the Times suit shows there are limits to it.
One of the books about Reagan's relationship with the news media is titled "On Bended Knee". They just loved their cuddly little guy! So charming and folksy! Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Heritage was building up their empire of lies.
The reporting at the time was suffused with their love of Ronnie, assuring that their reporting would be bullshit. And then the love spread to the Party of St Ronnie which, as a practical matter, like he, could pretty much do no wrong.
And here we are, dumb as fuck thanks to mainstream reporting…
From your lips to god's ear, Roy. I'm not saying you're wrong about any of it, my main fear is that most voters are truly not paying that much attention, and won't be until it hits their wallets harder.
Or perhaps hits their entertainment preferences. The Jimmy Kimmel thing is both encouraging -- most people oppose his firing -- and depressing. So Trump's toadies could remove a large portion of Black women from public sector jobs, could build concentration camps to warehouse kidnapped grandmas, could appoint a baying-at-the-moon lunatic to lead the nation's health organization, and could have a Nazi like Stephen Miller, who makes Jared Kushner look charismatic by comparison, as his right hand man and most people say ho-hum. But heaven's to Betsy, not Jimmy Kimmel! First they came for the talk show hosts...
I think running that maudlin spectacle, fully revealing what weirdos they are, on Football Day was a disastrous mistake, as will be shown in the long run when they shake the plate over it. But we'll see.
People hate when you tell them what they can and cannot watch on TV.
There was no mention of Kirk at all in my local newspaper after the first weekend. The day after it happened, the NFL asked for a moment of silence before the game. I was wondering what kind of sorry shit they were going to go with yesterday while the memorial service was going on. They said nothing.
With the new lawyer in Virginia and with Mrs. KIrk assuming control Turning Point - 'Pubs put two former beauty pageant winners into important positions yesterday. We should be running scared.
We knew from the start that Trump only cares about two things: lining his pockets and getting revenge on his (perceived) enemies. Obviously the first part is going smoothly, but the way I read both the nyt lawsuit and the Siebert affair, the second isn’t. The problem is a lack of there there, so his flunkies are just throwing out laudatory trash like the suit, or stringing things out like Siebert’s non-prosecution, in hopes of placating or distracting him. But Trump isn’t falling for it, so we get this internal pressure cooker instead. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
I've been saying since 2016 that Dems should goad and provoke him, but doesn't that seem even more true now? Just find a microphone or a camera and say nasty, excoriating shit about him. Have the peanut gallery distribute it worldwide via social media. Jeez, if Tim Walz's "they're weird" struck home--as Bertie Wooster says, "Strong language, yes. And I meant it to sting."--imagine how stabby something more pointed would be. Is wanting to give him an aneurysm so very wrong?
Here’s my simple evaluation of Trump: he’s a fraud. He was and is a business fraud, he was a reality tv fraud, he’s a political fraud. Hold on, you say, hasn’t he won the presidency twice? He has, but he’s not a politician, he’s a bundle of greed and vengeance in an ill-fitting suit. He’s even a fascist fraud: he doesn’t care about the country, he only cares about amassing money and fucking over the people he hates, which is almost everybody. It’s a good thing his underlings are mostly frauds, too. It’s a bad thing that so many Americans want a tarted-up fraud in the White House and it’s a bad thing that Democrats aren’t openly calling him that in Congress and on tv - did their parents never read to them “The Emperor’s New Clothes”? Trump knows he’s a fraud, that’s why he blusters and lies about himself and why he holds special rancor for comics who mock him, starting with Obama at that press corps dinner (he’s designated every medium that ever criticized him as “fake,” a giant tell if there ever was one). He’s a catastrophe at the head of government but if he weren’t such a fraud, it would be even worse.
A fraud and a failure. He measures success by how many times people mention him/take photographs and videos of him/how much vulgarity and tackiness he can surround himself with. He takes pleasure in preventing other people from succeeding, because after all if they succeed, that means he failed. That's why his default is "sue me if you don't like what I did". If that isn't a failure I don't know what is.
He's been a short-fingered vulgarian for forty years now. He don't do nothing for free, but despite his countless money grabs he always is three minutes away from bankruptcy.
And any extra cash goes straight to Vladimir Vladimirovich. Gotta pay tribute.
One quibble: He was a reality tv success, albeit in a highly-confected, artificially curated version of himself. If you want to call that a "fraud" I won't disagree. That's why (as I keep saying) he's so obesessed with everyone's ratings--his good ratings were the only success he's ever achieved without cheating.
The show runners made the show a success, partly by editing out his goofs and rewriting when he went off script. Basically, a tv fraud like his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy. Isn’t all “reality tv” a fraud, anyway?
There's a hypothesis that the first kings and queens were play rulers. In a real sense, they still are. Only when institutions such as bureaucracy and armies, or the will of the peple, give them reach and power do they cross over into real rulers.
It seems the bellwether of whether Tub o’ Flab can become a real boy dictator is whether and how the mid-terms go. If the Normal Party can get a toehold by taking the House there’s a chance he can be stymied, at least legislatively.
My hope is that the House would impeach him (again — “so many impeachments — nobody’s seen so many!” — which would definitely (at least I think so; wiser people may disagree) distract him from his Nazi project for a good while. Probably wouldn’t happen, and anyway, the Senate, may it rot in the anachronism graveyard somewhere, wouldn’t convict him. And the way things are covered in the legacy media we would barely hear about it there.
More immediately, there’s the possibility that the Dems will refuse to go along with the GOP proposal to keep the government funded. This could have many doors of opportunity to open.
It all seems like the contradictions in our particular state of authoritarian onset are soon to be heightened to a truly harrowing level.
Not to detract from this excellent sorting of the present moment's chaos, I have been watching short documentaries about the difference between American industrial power and efficiency and the inefficiency of the Axis nations.
Taken with the inefficiencies of both the Soviet Union and Maoist China, the crude take away ought to be authoritarianism is not more efficient at getting things done. Not even its own genocidal goals.
On the other hand, the reason things seem to be trending towards a public acceptance of this utter nonsense is because too many of us and, of course, the media, are focused on it. Familiarity breeds contentment, not contempt. If we hear, read, see things often enough, we adjust and become comfortable with them. We are wired to be suspicious of novelty. Risk aversion and greater fear of losing than aspiration to win.
Which also is one way to account for why Democratic non-leadership behaves as it does. You can't teach some people anything. They are in their natural state of lower intelligence than house pets.
In a book I read recently, ("Hitler's First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced the Third Reich", by Peter Fritzsche), the author relates an observation by a journalist who interviewed a village farm woman in early 1942. She described how tough they had it: coudn't buy this, not enough of that, things weren't working well. The reporter cautiously asked her if she might be regretting Hitler's ascendance. She waved him off, saying essentially, oh dear god no, things would have been so much worse, I'm glad he's in charge because at least we're all united.
There's kind of acceptance AND denial that I think has an echo today, although the US in general isn't nearly so agreeable.
A CNN story about the farm crisis created by Tubby's Tariffs showed one farmer nervously eyeing a field full of beans that may not find a buyer and he says, "Well, I think we need to give the President a little more time for these things to work out."
Another farmer said about China, "Either they come around or they starve." Man who makes his living growing soybeans doesn't know other countries grow soybeans.
Look, buddy, I'm not expecting you to understand what's happening at CDC or NSF or NOAA, or how the only hospital within 60 miles of your farm is gonna close because they're fucking with Medicaid, but is it too much to ask that you understand YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS?
They're conservatives. "We give you soybeans and you give us money. This is the way things were, are, and forever shall be."
They spend too much time fighting culture wars and not enough time understanding trade wars. Besides, their god-king Trumpov no longer needs or wants their votes.
Even after Germany's defeat there were Germans who stated Hitler never lied to them. Humans are not rational and can hold contradictory ideas if it feels easy, in stories that feel consistent.
Didja see Chuck Schumer doing a pitch-perfect parody of Chuck Schumer on the teevee yesterday? "Leader Jeffries and I are DEMANDING to sit down with Donald Trump and negotiate a bipartisan deal. That's the way it's always been done." Imagine the self-restraint Dana Bash had to summon in order not to say, "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, MAN, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
Well there is some value to documenting the atrocities. But I'd suggest that the Kirk thing is more of a combo of our old friend Horst and the Reichstag fire. It remains to be seen if Trump can pull off his own Enabling Decree.
I'm sure Jeffries and Schumer will be right on top of this in their usual competent ways.
It's like a bubble-world collapsing in on itself. Unable or uninterested in talking to normal people in a normal tone of voice about normal things, all that matters is Tubby's delusions and obsessions.
China bought more than half the US soybean crop last year, this year they haven't ordered a single ton. Farmers are panicking, Tubby is talking about the new White House ballroom.
But this is what happens with celebrities, right? They're surrounded by an entourage of ass-kissers, every crackpot idea that pops into their heads is celebrated by said entourage as "brilliant!" and some people can't handle that and go waaay off the rails like Kanye. Or Matthew Perry, none of whose "friends" could say, "Hey, Matt, you've had enough drugs for one day, OK?"
Some Presidents become celebrities, but if I'm not mistaken Tubby is our first Celebrity President. He got a head start on the delusion and corruption, so he's farther along in the late-Elvis process.
Even on the Right, most still need to believe that the people they hurt are bad to enjoy doing it or watching it done.
The greatest misstepness of getting Jimmy Kimmel fired is that the man's entire schtick has always been Nice Regular Guy. I actually watched a bit of "The Man Show", and though Kimmel's right to be embarrassed over it (as I am, or at least mine Autist's Mask is) where Carolla was extra-leery and -piggy, Kimmel was EveryJoe whose friend sometimes goes a little too far.
I saw a bit of him on Comedy Central's roasts, and he unfailingly was the least cruel of the participants.On his own show, what little I saw of it seemed often to be critical of
the Trumpists but not ideologically so, more 'Iʼm a sane guy who doesnʼt understand this nonsense.'. (Jon Stewart often does this too, but as a New Jersey Jew he can not be a Regular Guy to anyone in M.A.G.A. or adjacent thereto.)
People not in the cult but who might listen to Trump and can often accept his portraits of the people he hurts as Nasty People already know the Jimmy Kimmel persona. Just as no amount of fact could shift many of them away from Trump is a Mega-Competent Billionaire, nothing will shift their opinion of Nice Regular Guy Kimmel, leading them to see what's happened to him as bad.
The thing that all the law-talking guys don't get about Trump's demands to file loser charges is that he doesn't care whether they stick or not. Harrassment lawsuits for eleventy-zillion bucks has been a go-to move forever, his way of saying "I'm gonna be a huge pain in your ass until you pay me to go away" or in some cases until you drop your charges. Filing charges lets him try his case in the media as well. Always remember his ask to Zelenskyy "just announce the investigation, we'll take it from there". He's The President but he still thinks like a corrupt developer from Queens. All his bullshit prosecutions make no sense legally but he's not thinking legally. He can't. Spare a thought for Poor Pam Bondi who can think legally and has to navigate this river of legal bullshit. Its probably driving her crazy.
On a lighter note, I heard Dr Volokh's denunciation of the Trumpist Kimmel-sacking (which is _not_ hacky-sack played using a small bag of caraway seeds):
…, and after the host back-announced the segment at its end with a bit of trouble with the name, my head was for a moment filled with the voice of the late Allen Ginsburg shouting 'VOLOKH!'.
TGIM and I try not to be my normally dark self. But:
"Semafor (ha ha I know) sent me an email with the lead story headlined “President Donald Trump is winning his war against the media.” The Democratic Leadership certainly acts like it has."
The media at issue actually surrendered by ca 1980 so, you know, this W for our beloved Fuhrer is fully unearned and extra-shitty reporting.
"...while the whole propaganda push since Kirk got killed remains ominous, how it’s actually playing out reminds me more of Tubby’s weaknesses than his alleged strengths."
Did I say I try not to be my normally dark self?
Oops!
This "...reminds me more of Tubby’s weaknesses than his alleged strengths. It actually makes me a little optimistic" would on other days trigger (again, oops) much darkness re the power of the vote, the inherent shiftiness of the national Democrats, etc., etc., etc. But Monday; I'm passing on it.
As for Siebert, the problem isn't the prosecutors but the grand jurors who cannot be sold on Trump Shit®.
As for the suit against, the Times, that dismissal is nothing. It's without prejudice.
And in any case, this is how it'll go:
Trump keeps pulling shit up to the point that it looks like SCOTUS gets involved. At that point, the Times realizes that Sullivan's at risk and they fold instead of letting it maybe get reversed. In other words, Donny will get his money.
But now the good news! To paraphrase our own Worriedman at his Substack--one of the very few competitive with REBID, I'm out of interest. Gone on too long so long I'm boring me.
Just gonna add one quick thing: However bad the Kimmel thing is--at its core, it's standard business practice under an authoritarian--to me the deification and stuff of a sociopathic hate monger is worse.
Now don't be so hard on yourself!
Haha!
Thats a Tuesday-Thursday thing. (Fridays are for memory failures.)
"Fridays are for memory failures"
How do you know?
Thanks for the kind words! I posted my 400th page today.
Of what?
My primary Substack page - the one you graciously recommend.
I know because I try to remember stuff that I sort of think I should be able to remember and stumble into a wall instead.
Congrats on the Big 4-0-0. Love to Barncat.
Barncat goes 'yeah, whatever...where's my treats?!'
Re: the “defamation” suit against the NYT, it was more particularly dismissed with leave to amend, but if Team Tubby couldn’t come up with any actual causes of action in their first complaint, theyll have to resort to making shit up that if true would be actionable. That wouldn’t do them any favors in the medium-long run; in the short run it would get a lot of favorable headlines but would ultimately fall flat on its face when it becomes apparent there’s no evidence to support the allegations. So I don’t think Eeyoring this is right.
That’s what without prejudice means in this context: A do-over.
As for allegations, anything goes in the Complaint as long as it’s in the realm of being however relevant to the claimed harm.
However they get there, it ends just before the Roberts junta gets its chance to blow up Sullivan. Which is when and where the Times pays this round of protection money to the godfather.
Yeah, I’ve practiced law, I know what without prejudice means, but the judge said in his order that any amended complaint would have to be less than 40 pages. The original had 58 pages of ranting, propaganda outbursts and self-aggrandizement before listing 2, count ‘em, 2 counts over 4 pages.
If SCOTUS is going to overturn Sullivan they’ll need stronger stuff than this. The falsehoods are supposed to be published by the Defendants, not the Plaintiffs.
Condolences to us both be fugitives from the practice of law 😳.
I assume the 40pp is FRCP-related.
As for tossing Sullivan, there’s the shadow docket. All that’s needed for the junta would be Donny’s ask. OTOH, a fully briefing and decision… NOT GOOD!!!
There’s no injunction involved so I don’t see how it could be on the emergency docket. I don’t know if Trump’s lawyers are clever enough to get the defendants to ask for one.
Bro, we’re past the point rules and stuff matter. Only thing that matters to the Robert’s junta is obliging the Don by whatever means. They’ll keep this stinker alive til the Times pays out.
Really, this should be the Golden Age of Cynicism and Misanthropy…
Here's a legal question: What harm did Tubby suffer as a result of the NY Times actions? He won the election, didn't he? Don't you have to prove - or at least claim - you've been harmed in some non-imaginary way to sue?
What I just told Howlin’: Rules and law and still are irrelevant when it comes to the Roberts junta obliging the Don.
Now, you’d be 10,000% correct under normal circumstances. A piece shot like him cannot be damaged by and slander or libel. I mean, I see no one describing him in worse terms than I do and I’m just being factually accurate—that truth as absolute defense thing.
Careful there, boyo – you're throwin' 10,000% in front of a maths guy...
That’s what they would need to prove once they establish defamation.
But before they can prove it, don't they have to at least claim it? OK, in what measurable, material way are you worse off because the NY Times printed some articles you didn't like?
That 'supposed to' is proppin' up a ton o'surmise...
I think there's 2 parallel legal tracks happening with the administration. There's Trump's lawsuits and demands for criminal charges which are about harassing the plantiffs, not convicting them. Then there's whatever legal strategy the Heritage lawyers in the administration are pursuing with their endless appeals to the Supreme Court. No one seems interested in the second, while lawyers spend time trying to make legal sense out of what is not a legal strategy in the first.
So far the thing that's most important to the lower courts is they take their job seriously, and to a degree demand that those appearing before them do the same. To people outside the legal system they grant Way too much deference to the government and its "the dog ate my homework, causing irreperable harm" arguments, but the Times suit shows there are limits to it.
"media surrendered by ca 1980"
One of the books about Reagan's relationship with the news media is titled "On Bended Knee". They just loved their cuddly little guy! So charming and folksy! Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Heritage was building up their empire of lies.
The reporting at the time was suffused with their love of Ronnie, assuring that their reporting would be bullshit. And then the love spread to the Party of St Ronnie which, as a practical matter, like he, could pretty much do no wrong.
And here we are, dumb as fuck thanks to mainstream reporting…
From your lips to god's ear, Roy. I'm not saying you're wrong about any of it, my main fear is that most voters are truly not paying that much attention, and won't be until it hits their wallets harder.
Or perhaps hits their entertainment preferences. The Jimmy Kimmel thing is both encouraging -- most people oppose his firing -- and depressing. So Trump's toadies could remove a large portion of Black women from public sector jobs, could build concentration camps to warehouse kidnapped grandmas, could appoint a baying-at-the-moon lunatic to lead the nation's health organization, and could have a Nazi like Stephen Miller, who makes Jared Kushner look charismatic by comparison, as his right hand man and most people say ho-hum. But heaven's to Betsy, not Jimmy Kimmel! First they came for the talk show hosts...
I think running that maudlin spectacle, fully revealing what weirdos they are, on Football Day was a disastrous mistake, as will be shown in the long run when they shake the plate over it. But we'll see.
Hey, I want you to be right! Fingers crossed.
Au contraire, sir. For the kind of people who like that sort of thing, that thing was the sort of thing they like.
Holy crap – they shook the plate?
Some people...
It's harder for low-information voters to ignore.
Ah, the low-information voters, AKA "The people who hold our fate in their grubby, careless hands."
People hate when you tell them what they can and cannot watch on TV.
There was no mention of Kirk at all in my local newspaper after the first weekend. The day after it happened, the NFL asked for a moment of silence before the game. I was wondering what kind of sorry shit they were going to go with yesterday while the memorial service was going on. They said nothing.
With the new lawyer in Virginia and with Mrs. KIrk assuming control Turning Point - 'Pubs put two former beauty pageant winners into important positions yesterday. We should be running scared.
In America, Stepford Wives run YOU.
I might saunter disturbed, but run? Scared? First of all, they'd never keep up in those heels. Second, they are too absurd to be scary.
I suspect I wasn't very serious about that.
If you were serious you'd be gettin' out the dog cart. Just try and catch me in THIS, motherfuckers!
Dogs be goin' "FINALLY we get to do somethin' besides POSE!"
I'm workinhg on it. You really can't buy one so I have to build it which is cool except I'm busy AF.
You can buy a sacco - $5500 bucks.
That would put a big dent in to the hookers and blow allowance.
https://saccodogcart.com/pages/cart?srsltid=AfmBOooSUz5rWJ7oqY8efQL2PXyJ-XWyLufDqT_QynQYZ3Z5THj8J6xn
They make a Ceasar Milan edition for $8500
Don't even ask how much they get for the Vanzetti
What does this indicate about our country's definition of "freedom"?
We knew from the start that Trump only cares about two things: lining his pockets and getting revenge on his (perceived) enemies. Obviously the first part is going smoothly, but the way I read both the nyt lawsuit and the Siebert affair, the second isn’t. The problem is a lack of there there, so his flunkies are just throwing out laudatory trash like the suit, or stringing things out like Siebert’s non-prosecution, in hopes of placating or distracting him. But Trump isn’t falling for it, so we get this internal pressure cooker instead. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
If it weren't for real bad lawyers he wouldn't have no lawyers at all...
Gloom, despair, and agony on him
Born under a real estate sign
He's been a creep since he began to crawl
If it wasn't for bad lawyers
He wouldn't have no lawyers at all
I've been saying since 2016 that Dems should goad and provoke him, but doesn't that seem even more true now? Just find a microphone or a camera and say nasty, excoriating shit about him. Have the peanut gallery distribute it worldwide via social media. Jeez, if Tim Walz's "they're weird" struck home--as Bertie Wooster says, "Strong language, yes. And I meant it to sting."--imagine how stabby something more pointed would be. Is wanting to give him an aneurysm so very wrong?
Here’s my simple evaluation of Trump: he’s a fraud. He was and is a business fraud, he was a reality tv fraud, he’s a political fraud. Hold on, you say, hasn’t he won the presidency twice? He has, but he’s not a politician, he’s a bundle of greed and vengeance in an ill-fitting suit. He’s even a fascist fraud: he doesn’t care about the country, he only cares about amassing money and fucking over the people he hates, which is almost everybody. It’s a good thing his underlings are mostly frauds, too. It’s a bad thing that so many Americans want a tarted-up fraud in the White House and it’s a bad thing that Democrats aren’t openly calling him that in Congress and on tv - did their parents never read to them “The Emperor’s New Clothes”? Trump knows he’s a fraud, that’s why he blusters and lies about himself and why he holds special rancor for comics who mock him, starting with Obama at that press corps dinner (he’s designated every medium that ever criticized him as “fake,” a giant tell if there ever was one). He’s a catastrophe at the head of government but if he weren’t such a fraud, it would be even worse.
A fraud and a failure. He measures success by how many times people mention him/take photographs and videos of him/how much vulgarity and tackiness he can surround himself with. He takes pleasure in preventing other people from succeeding, because after all if they succeed, that means he failed. That's why his default is "sue me if you don't like what I did". If that isn't a failure I don't know what is.
"fraud and a failure" who's now racking up Billions in crypto, and other scams for his family...he's a financial success now.
Yes, he and crypto were MADE for one another. Fraud respects fraud.
SOMEbody gonna crack his account and BOOM, pockets emptied, pulled inside out, charity case (and charities be goin' "NOPE NOPE NOPE").
Password: STORMY69
Trump would never do 69. Women pleasure him, but he couldn't pleasure them if he wanted to.
Okay, THAT'S entertainment.
Where a guy fucks his daughter and everything ends in slaughter.
He's been a short-fingered vulgarian for forty years now. He don't do nothing for free, but despite his countless money grabs he always is three minutes away from bankruptcy.
And any extra cash goes straight to Vladimir Vladimirovich. Gotta pay tribute.
DrBDH - you are right on all counts.
One quibble: He was a reality tv success, albeit in a highly-confected, artificially curated version of himself. If you want to call that a "fraud" I won't disagree. That's why (as I keep saying) he's so obesessed with everyone's ratings--his good ratings were the only success he's ever achieved without cheating.
The show runners made the show a success, partly by editing out his goofs and rewriting when he went off script. Basically, a tv fraud like his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy. Isn’t all “reality tv” a fraud, anyway?
There's a hypothesis that the first kings and queens were play rulers. In a real sense, they still are. Only when institutions such as bureaucracy and armies, or the will of the peple, give them reach and power do they cross over into real rulers.
"tarted-up fraud"--exactly. Couple big red dots on his cheeks and he'd fit right in at the pre-Revolution French court.
Thanks for the Monday morning sunshine. Ish.
It seems the bellwether of whether Tub o’ Flab can become a real boy dictator is whether and how the mid-terms go. If the Normal Party can get a toehold by taking the House there’s a chance he can be stymied, at least legislatively.
My hope is that the House would impeach him (again — “so many impeachments — nobody’s seen so many!” — which would definitely (at least I think so; wiser people may disagree) distract him from his Nazi project for a good while. Probably wouldn’t happen, and anyway, the Senate, may it rot in the anachronism graveyard somewhere, wouldn’t convict him. And the way things are covered in the legacy media we would barely hear about it there.
More immediately, there’s the possibility that the Dems will refuse to go along with the GOP proposal to keep the government funded. This could have many doors of opportunity to open.
It all seems like the contradictions in our particular state of authoritarian onset are soon to be heightened to a truly harrowing level.
Not to detract from this excellent sorting of the present moment's chaos, I have been watching short documentaries about the difference between American industrial power and efficiency and the inefficiency of the Axis nations.
Taken with the inefficiencies of both the Soviet Union and Maoist China, the crude take away ought to be authoritarianism is not more efficient at getting things done. Not even its own genocidal goals.
On the other hand, the reason things seem to be trending towards a public acceptance of this utter nonsense is because too many of us and, of course, the media, are focused on it. Familiarity breeds contentment, not contempt. If we hear, read, see things often enough, we adjust and become comfortable with them. We are wired to be suspicious of novelty. Risk aversion and greater fear of losing than aspiration to win.
Which also is one way to account for why Democratic non-leadership behaves as it does. You can't teach some people anything. They are in their natural state of lower intelligence than house pets.
In a book I read recently, ("Hitler's First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced the Third Reich", by Peter Fritzsche), the author relates an observation by a journalist who interviewed a village farm woman in early 1942. She described how tough they had it: coudn't buy this, not enough of that, things weren't working well. The reporter cautiously asked her if she might be regretting Hitler's ascendance. She waved him off, saying essentially, oh dear god no, things would have been so much worse, I'm glad he's in charge because at least we're all united.
There's kind of acceptance AND denial that I think has an echo today, although the US in general isn't nearly so agreeable.
A CNN story about the farm crisis created by Tubby's Tariffs showed one farmer nervously eyeing a field full of beans that may not find a buyer and he says, "Well, I think we need to give the President a little more time for these things to work out."
Another farmer said about China, "Either they come around or they starve." Man who makes his living growing soybeans doesn't know other countries grow soybeans.
Look, buddy, I'm not expecting you to understand what's happening at CDC or NSF or NOAA, or how the only hospital within 60 miles of your farm is gonna close because they're fucking with Medicaid, but is it too much to ask that you understand YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS?
They're conservatives. "We give you soybeans and you give us money. This is the way things were, are, and forever shall be."
They spend too much time fighting culture wars and not enough time understanding trade wars. Besides, their god-king Trumpov no longer needs or wants their votes.
"China paid for my combine" must be like quantum physics to these guys.
Yeah, but Nature won't give him a little more time.
So unfair, nature is. Such liberalbias.
Even after Germany's defeat there were Germans who stated Hitler never lied to them. Humans are not rational and can hold contradictory ideas if it feels easy, in stories that feel consistent.
Didja see Chuck Schumer doing a pitch-perfect parody of Chuck Schumer on the teevee yesterday? "Leader Jeffries and I are DEMANDING to sit down with Donald Trump and negotiate a bipartisan deal. That's the way it's always been done." Imagine the self-restraint Dana Bash had to summon in order not to say, "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, MAN, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
I missed it. It seems unbelievable these bozos persist in the farce of business as usual.
They're all bozos on that bus.
Apropos of very little, if any of y'all are going to be Raptured (as if!) this week, can I have your records?
I ain't goin' nowhere
I'm wearin' slip-on shoes just in case...
Oh, and should add here where were you 15 years ago when I gave away alla my records?
My medical records? 🤔
😆
Based on my records, I'm damn sure not going to be Raptured.
Well there is some value to documenting the atrocities. But I'd suggest that the Kirk thing is more of a combo of our old friend Horst and the Reichstag fire. It remains to be seen if Trump can pull off his own Enabling Decree.
I'm sure Jeffries and Schumer will be right on top of this in their usual competent ways.
To use a more recent example, I'm sure Bush and 9/11 has crossed their minds. 90% approval rating, baby!
As if. This guy makes George W. Bush look smart.
It's like a bubble-world collapsing in on itself. Unable or uninterested in talking to normal people in a normal tone of voice about normal things, all that matters is Tubby's delusions and obsessions.
China bought more than half the US soybean crop last year, this year they haven't ordered a single ton. Farmers are panicking, Tubby is talking about the new White House ballroom.
But this is what happens with celebrities, right? They're surrounded by an entourage of ass-kissers, every crackpot idea that pops into their heads is celebrated by said entourage as "brilliant!" and some people can't handle that and go waaay off the rails like Kanye. Or Matthew Perry, none of whose "friends" could say, "Hey, Matt, you've had enough drugs for one day, OK?"
Some Presidents become celebrities, but if I'm not mistaken Tubby is our first Celebrity President. He got a head start on the delusion and corruption, so he's farther along in the late-Elvis process.
Hunkahunka burnin' chunks
Our first celebrity president? Have we forgotten Ronnie so soon? TBF that does seem like a million years ago.
Usually when I say "If I'm not mistaken" it's because I'm pretty sure I'm mistaken.
Kidz be goin' [eyeroll] "We know, Mister B" [eyeroll again]
Eye Calisthenics With Mr. B
Soon's I free up some space in my gummint cheese grotto I'm gonna load up on that gummint soy !
Since I live in Liberal Madison, I'm gonna see if I can get a group of my neighbors together to mail tofu recipes to Iowa.
This, my friend, is public service in ACTION! 2marks!
What? Horst Wessel LIED?
Can we believe anything, now?
He's the Horstest with the Worstest
Wurst Wessel is the Worst Wessel (being made of off-cuts of untermenschen, boiled in a pig's bladder and seasoned with regret and gunpowder)
Not only that, he sang like a canary.
Even on the Right, most still need to believe that the people they hurt are bad to enjoy doing it or watching it done.
The greatest misstepness of getting Jimmy Kimmel fired is that the man's entire schtick has always been Nice Regular Guy. I actually watched a bit of "The Man Show", and though Kimmel's right to be embarrassed over it (as I am, or at least mine Autist's Mask is) where Carolla was extra-leery and -piggy, Kimmel was EveryJoe whose friend sometimes goes a little too far.
I saw a bit of him on Comedy Central's roasts, and he unfailingly was the least cruel of the participants.On his own show, what little I saw of it seemed often to be critical of
the Trumpists but not ideologically so, more 'Iʼm a sane guy who doesnʼt understand this nonsense.'. (Jon Stewart often does this too, but as a New Jersey Jew he can not be a Regular Guy to anyone in M.A.G.A. or adjacent thereto.)
People not in the cult but who might listen to Trump and can often accept his portraits of the people he hurts as Nasty People already know the Jimmy Kimmel persona. Just as no amount of fact could shift many of them away from Trump is a Mega-Competent Billionaire, nothing will shift their opinion of Nice Regular Guy Kimmel, leading them to see what's happened to him as bad.
I won't have any opinion about the "memorial" yesterday until Peggy Noonan channels Charlie Kirk in heaven.
The thing that all the law-talking guys don't get about Trump's demands to file loser charges is that he doesn't care whether they stick or not. Harrassment lawsuits for eleventy-zillion bucks has been a go-to move forever, his way of saying "I'm gonna be a huge pain in your ass until you pay me to go away" or in some cases until you drop your charges. Filing charges lets him try his case in the media as well. Always remember his ask to Zelenskyy "just announce the investigation, we'll take it from there". He's The President but he still thinks like a corrupt developer from Queens. All his bullshit prosecutions make no sense legally but he's not thinking legally. He can't. Spare a thought for Poor Pam Bondi who can think legally and has to navigate this river of legal bullshit. Its probably driving her crazy.
On a lighter note, I heard Dr Volokh's denunciation of the Trumpist Kimmel-sacking (which is _not_ hacky-sack played using a small bag of caraway seeds):
https://laist.com/shows/airtalk/abc-suspends-jimmy-kimmels-late-night-show-indefinitely-how-do-first-amendment-rights-play-in
…, and after the host back-announced the segment at its end with a bit of trouble with the name, my head was for a moment filled with the voice of the late Allen Ginsburg shouting 'VOLOKH!'.