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Achilles had his heel It doesn’t require and advanced degree in psychology to see it. Donald Trump has grumbled his entire adult life that “the world” is laughing at “us” (meaning the United States). Mr. Bundle of Insecurities harbors deep anxieties about being laughed at himself. He’s not very bright. He’s undereducated. He’s overweight. He’s a “tycoon” who sucks at business and cheats at golf. He got where he is with daddy’s money. Underneath the bluster and bullying in recesses of his psyche he dare not explore (self-examination is for the weak), he knows it. Throughout the sad history of Trumpism, comedians have garnered tons of laughs at Trump’s expense. At the White House Correspondents’ dinner in 2011, Seth Meyers famously quipped, “Trump said he’s running as a Republican. Which is surprising; I just assumed he was running as a joke.” The audience roared. Trump seethed. “That evening of public abasement, rather than sending Mr.
Durov’s Russian, and an interesting guy. He refused to cooperate when Russia asked him for user information, for example. He appears to believe in the principle of freedom of speech, which is radical at this point. Telegram was banned in Russia from 2018 to 2021.
There’s nothing quite as satisfying as gardening. Whether growing vegetables or adding color to your backyard, all you need to cultivate healthy plants is sun and water.
Except not that much sun. You don’t want to broil your plants. And lighten up on the water. You’re growing a garden, not a swamp.
Start with an easy plant. Zinnias. Geranium. Basil. They’re impossible to kill. Unless you introduce the wrong amount of water and sun.
Geraniums like full sun. Hostas thrive in partial shade. And arugula needs to be in full sun except when it prefers shade, which is usually Mondays or any day you decide to spend at the beach and neglect your garden.
Green beans, peppers, and tomatoes can be planted in pots. To maintain the perfect ecosystem for each, devote your days to rearranging their pots to optimize sun exposure like they’re teenagers trying to achieve the perfect tan without burning. Don’t forget to remind them every twenty-five minutes to drink water, even if they roll their eyes at you.
Water your plants first thing in the morning when it’s cool, unless they prefer to be watered during the hottest part of the day.
Sommar i P1 är en ärevördig tradition i svensk radio. Redan som barn brukade yours truly tillbringa långa sommardagar med att ligga på Ribban eller vid Luhrsjön och lyssna med medhavd transistorradio. Tyvärr har programmet med åren genomgått samma utveckling som public service i stort — bra har blivit dåligt, dåligt har blivit sämre, och […]
According to The New York Times (23 August), The Justice Department “filed an antitrust lawsuit on Friday against the real estate software company RealPage, alleging its software enabled landlords to collude to raise rents across the United States.” I am not an expert in law or anti-trust, but there is another (systemic risk management) angle to this story that the […]
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August 26th, 2024: This comic was inspired by an actual really nice day! It seems that since they were elected British Labour, principally the Leader and Chancellor, have thought it necessary to put out ever increasing messages of doom and the need for tough fiscal action – aka austerity – despite them claiming when they were wooing the electorate that they would not pursue that ‘Tory’ option. Of…
The headline for this NYT review of David Rhode’s new is puzzling. It says I thought the story was going to be about DOJ employees being afraid of getting in trouble if they spilled the beans to David Rhode. But it doesn’t really reveal anything like that except a passing reference to the fear for their jobs if Trump wins in November and to say that Merrick Garland wanted to preserve the norms of the Justice Department and that was hard because Trump is such a lying criminal. Be that as it may, it sounds like an interesting book anyway: Trump was the first president since Nixon to utterly reject the idea that federal law enforcement should operate independently of the president’s personal desires or prejudices. Rather, he sought to use the attorney general, special prosecutors, U.S. attorneys and the F.B.I. as instruments to help himself and his friends and to punish his enemies. Although Rohde doesn’t hide his conviction that Trump undermined democracy with his salvos against the Justice Department’s independence, he nonetheless writes in measured, restrained language that should hold up well in the light of history.
The Coalition has rebounded strongly from their NSW council election debacle, where they managed to not enrol their candidates, despite having 4 years to do so, by launching their slogan for the upcoming Federal election. ”Vote For Us Or Linda... Read More ›
In a recent column, the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen wrote, “What Henry Luce called ‘the American Century’ is over.” Cohen is right. All that remains is to drive a stake through the heart of Luce’s pernicious creation, lest it come back to life. This promises to take some doing. To solve our problems requires that we see ourselves as we really are. And that requires shedding, once and for all, the illusions embodied in the American Century. When the Time-Life publisher coined his famous phrase, his intent was to prod his fellow citizens into action. Appearing in the February 7, 1941 issue of Life, his essay, “The American Century,” hit the newsstands at a moment when the world was in the throes... Read more As we know, the MAGA cult (aka the Republican party) has epic piles of chutzpah and sheer gall. But their new attack on Tim Walz as a pathological liar has got to be the most audacious projection they’ve ever done. Kevin Drum helpfully unpacked their ridiculous claims: Let us investigate the vast history of lying by Gov. Tim Walz as alleged by the Trump campaign: Retired from the National Guard as a command sergeant major.He did rise to the rank of command sergeant major, but upon retirement his rank reverted to master sergeant. Had children via IVF.Walz almost always refers only to “fertility treatments,” but a couple of times has used the term IVF. In fact he and his wife underwent IUI, commonly referred to as IVF but actually a different, more affordable fertility treatment. Won an award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce (2006).It was the Junior Chamber of Commerce, Taught in China for a year through a program at Harvard University (2006).It was a program affiliated with Harvard. Earned the title of Nebraska Citizen-Soldier of the Year (1989).He did indeed earn this award, but so did 51 other people.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 25 2024 by Tony Wikrent Strategic Political Economy How Europe Could Reinvigorate Their Economy Ian Wlesh, August 22, 2024
Oh Lindsey. You are just as dishonest and delusional as your daddy: “You saw a hate fest full of insults. And Donald Trump said to Barack Obama, you’re a nice man after President Obama insulted and and jabbed President Trump continuously,” Graham said. “It was designed to draw him into an exchange of insults.” “It was light on policy, heavy on insults. So I told President Trump, then and now, you’re going to win this thing if you focus on policy,” he added. Graham then noted that people are not “joyful” on several matters including inflation and cost of living, and pitched a Trump second term. Democrats have been using themes of “joy” heavily since Harris became the nominee. “I think President Trump offers the best solution to change the trajectory of the country. And finally, if you’re waiting on Kamala Harris to come up with new policies, you’re going to die waiting, because she will continue what they’ve been doing for the last four years,” Graham said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton seems bereft of the qualities required in a leader, so it’s worth pondering how he and those who support him could show leadership. There’s no fixed prescription for leaders, but imagination, vision and a concern with altruism are invaluable, as long as those traits are augmented with touches of humanity, as Continue reading »
We need a no-holds-barred attack on corporate power to meet global threats. Humanity cannot — now — avoid troubled and turbulent times. Extreme events will powerfully influence the course ahead, the shape of things to come after the turmoil. They could help or hinder: provide the moral force for urgent action, or preoccupy us with Continue reading »
Following up the post below, I did want to highlight at least one newspaper who is asking “the question:” Even some of Donald Trump’s supporters are now asking the question that was the undoing of Joe Biden: is the former president fit for office? But while Biden’s run for re-election was largely sunk by a single disastrous televised debate before a national audience, Trump is ramping up doubts with each chaotic, disjointed speech as he campaigns around the country. While rambling discourse and outrageously disprovable claims, interspersed with spite and vitriol, may seem nothing new to many of Trump’s supporters and critics alike, the former president appears to have been driven to new depths by suddenly finding himself running against Kamala Harris a month ago.
Of course this is nothing new… That’s just a smattering of the commentary on this. Something very strange is going on and you have to assume it comes from the editors who earlier made it clear that they were unhappy with the Democrats for failing to give them the proper respect to which they believe they are entitled. (That would be, at the very least, adapting their electoral strategy to run to the Times whenever they are beckoned.) Combined with the “Both Sides” journalism which leads them to have to whitewash Trump’s outrages in order to balance their coverage, we have a serious problem. Donald Trump’s pathological lying and his party’s scorched earth tactics are not even on the same planet as the Democrats’. Sadly, it’s not just them. I guess the Democrats have no choice but to simply accept the asymmetry of the press coverage which is made many times worse by the fact that the right already has an extremely effective partisan media dedicated to pushing Trump’s lies. We’ll just have to maintain a critical eye through the campaign and beyond.
But not the click-hungry media James Fallows notes the lack of balance in how the media treats Republicans vs. Democrats: A reminder in campaign coverage: -Dozens of serious stories in major outlets examined Biden’s age and cognition as matters of “fitness to govern.” -I still have not seen any such story about Trump. I welcome learning of ones I’ve missed. -Instead, these are*all played as “campaign messaging challenges.” Politics, not governance. Latest example, big front-pager in WaPo, with print headline “Aides seek to steady a swaying Trump.” Not “is he fit to govern.” Online hed shown below. Biden: threat in governance. Trump: lost mojo for campaign. These are not the same. But Trump has lost his more than his mojo. He’s losing his audience. Kamala’s comms team is trolling him relentlessly over it. I don’t know if Digby posted these already. (I’ve been kinda busy.) But if we’re not comparing sizes, but mojos, Team Harris has it. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download.
The dark-money web behind a voter purge, the Senate obstacles standing in Harris’ way, and more from The Lever this week.
Did you detect a theme at the DNC? An underappreciated story from the DNC convention last week was how Democrats finally seemed to get their messaging act together. Speeches at the DNC convention that ended Thursday night dwelled less on Donald Trump and his many crimes and miserable plans for this country. Democrats focused more on where they want to take America and everyone in it. As Vice President Kamala Harris said in her acceptance speech Thursday night, “we have so much more in common than what separates us.” Freedom was the central theme of the convention. Freedom is a core American value. For conventioneers and viewers slow on the uptake, Beyoncé’s “Freedom” regularly blasted the United Center as a bumper between program segments. Throughout the four-day convention, speakers invoked freedom not as an abstraction or as justification for stockpiling weapons. Democrats embraced freedom as the expression of personal and family autonomy, freedom as the catalyst for realizing people’s hopes and dreams for a better future.
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