Since Trump is determined that we are going to talk about the Afghanistan withdrawal let’s talk about it. Kevin Drum has the best discussion that I’ve seen: The entire operation had only one serious failure: the death of 13 American service members (and 170 Afghans) to an al-Qaeda suicide bomber at Abbey Gate. Multiple investigations by the Pentagon concluded that there wasn’t really anything that could have stopped it. Everyone processes grief differently, and I can’t bring myself to reproach the families that blame Biden for the deaths of their children. But the fact remains that Biden wasn’t at fault; the Army wasn’t at fault; and deaths in the line of duty are a natural occurrence in war. The withdrawal wasn’t handled perfectly, but there weren’t any huge mistakes. Nor was it really possible not to withdraw given the situation Biden inherited: the Taliban’s takeover was inevitable as soon as Trump signed the withdrawal agreement with them. It might well have been inevitable even without that.
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Zach Beauchamp at Vox wrote this sometime back: On November 21, 1922, the New York Times published its very first article about Adolf Hitler. It’s an incredible read — especially its assertion that “Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so violent or genuine as it sounded.” This attitude was, apparently, widespread among Germans at the time; many of them saw Hitler’s anti-Semitism as a ploy for votes among the German masses. Times correspondent Cyril Brown spends most of the piece documenting the factors behind Hitler’s early rise in Bavaria, Germany, including his oratorical skills. For example: “He exerts an uncanny control over audiences, possessing the remarkable ability to not only rouse his hearers to a fighting pitch of fury, but at will turn right around and reduce the same audience to docile coolness.” But the really extraordinary part of the article is the three paragraphs on anti-Semitism.
The Clown Prince of Grievance Every time one thinks Donald Trump cannot possibly get more demented, he surprises. It’s as if Mark Levin were interviewing The Joker. Except The Joker sports a wide, lipstick-red smile. Trump: “Who ever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it.” Who ever heard you get indicted for embezzling billions from the U.S. Treasury when (immunized by “conservatives” on the U.S. Supreme Court) you “have every right to do it”? Think “the short-fingered vulgarian” won’t plunge his stubby mitts into the national cookie jar if reelected? That is, if he hopes to impress Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and get richer doing it? No one more sentient than mold slime doesn’t know that’s exactly what Trump will do. Maybe even before sending troops into the streets to apprehend and throw into concentration camps anyone brown and migranty-looking . For context, Trump was commenting on the superseding indictment filed last week by special counsel Jack Smith in the stolen documents case.
Trump is cooking up some plans of his own too He’s going to let the foxes right into the henhouse and one fox in particular: Behind closed doors, former president Donald Trump and his advisers have been talking for months about forming a commission led by prominent business executives to comb through the government books to identify thousands of programs to cut. Lately, one particularly famous candidate has made clear he’d be up for it: Elon Musk. And he may have much to gain personally from the endeavor. On several occasions, including on X, the social media platform he owns, the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has expressed interest in being part of a “government efficiency commission” aimed at eliminating wasteful regulations and spending. Musk in August posted an apparently artificial intelligence-generated image of himself behind a lectern labeled “Department of Government Efficiency,” with the acronym DOGE — a meme-based cryptocurrency Musk has previously embraced.
It’s labor day and the blue-collar billionaire, friend of the working man has quite the record: Here’s something he said just a couple of weeks ago that ought to make his union fans think twice, but it won’t: That’s illegal, of course. But as we know, the law means nothing to Trump. Or Musk, for that matter. How about this one? Happy labor day to all the suckers and losers who work for a living.
During Trump’s very weird event with Moms for Liberty last week he lied many times as he always does. And this particular lie is one he keeps telling and it keeps not being true. After telling them that he had wanted to make Ivanka “UN Secretary” (which would not have been possible) he said this: “Daddy, I just want to help people get jobs….” Yeah right. Reality (from 2019) Trump signed an executive order creating the National Council for the American Worker, co-chaired by Ivanka Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. One of the council’s priorities is asking companies across the US to sign the Pledge to America’s Workers. The pledge involves “committing to expand programs that educate, train, and reskill American workers from high-school age to near-retirement,” according to the White House. Two hundred companies have agreed to the pledge, with each providing different numbers of training opportunities. This brings the total number of opportunities pledged to just over 6.5 million.
Trump cannot change, nor will he “Are we in La La Land?” asks Colbert I. King in the Washington Post. “He’s on our side,” Donald Trump told a rally crowd on Friday as police hauled off a supporter for attempting to assault reporters. Associated Press: JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A man at Donald Trump’s rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, stormed into the press area as the former president spoke Friday but was surrounded by police and sheriff’s deputies and was eventually subdued with a Taser. The altercation came moments after Trump criticized major media outlets for what he said was unfavorable coverage and dismissed CNN as fawning for its interview Thursday with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz. The man made it over a bicycle rack ringing the media area, and began climbing the back side of a riser where television reporters and cameras were stationed, according to a video of the incident posted to social media by a reporter for CBS News. People near him tried to pull him off the riser and were quickly joined by police officers.
I can see why he said this was a horrible interview. He was asked about the Florida abortion ban and royally screwed himself with that answer. And now this. It’s amazing what a couple of straightforward questions can elicit. More people should try it.
Simon Rosenberg on the “Trump underperforming the polls” thing: [Y]ou often hear commentators talk about Trump overperforming public polling in 2016 and 2020 which means we need to be up by 3-4-5 points or more in the polls to win. That may have been true in 2016 and 2020, but it is core to our understanding here that everything in American politics changed with Dobbs, it was a before and after moment, and that: Republicans have underperforming public polls in races of all kinds all across the country since Dobbs. We’ve been overperforming public polls not them. Trump underperformed – not overperformed – public polls in his primary elections, sometimes by a big number The fascists underperformed public polls in the recent European and French elections, and the right got blown out in the UK. Every election is unique, not like any other. I think comparisons to 2016 and 2020 are unhelpful, for Trump 2024 is now an insurrectionist, a rapist, fraudster, traitor, felon, and the man who stripped the rights and freedoms away from the women of America. He is far more degraded, diminished and extreme.
Trump at Moms For Liberty on Friday, the group that just can’t stop losing elections: “The transgender thing is incredible. Think of it. Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child and you know many of these childs [sic] fifteen years later say, ‘What the hell happened? Who did this to me?’ They say, ‘Who did this to me?’ It’s incredible.” What the ever loving fuck is he talking about? We really need to start talking about the serious problem with our society. It’s one thing to have fringe freaks out there who say stuff like this. That’s always been true. Nothing you can do about that, it’s a free country. But never has one of them mesmerized almost half the country into voting for him for president. Something’s gone very wrong. And here’s one reason why. Check out the headline from the LA Times: No, that is not an adequate way of describing what Trump said. That headline should say “Trump says public schools are performing transgender surgeries on students.” That’s what he said.