I’ve had a few great interviews in the last couple of weeks. I decided I wanted to track them on a media page on my own site. I’m going to try to keep them more organized, but for now I just want to get them linked.
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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.
Trolling, trolling, trolling the Trump campaign The Harris campaign is trying some mind-fuckery with the former president over debate rules. Donald Trump is still looking for a way to back out and complained Sunday night about holding the next debate on ABC, reports The New York Times: “I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” he wrote. He continued, misspelling the name of the Democratic strategist Donna Brazile and using a disparaging nickname for the news anchor George Stephanopoulos: “Will panelist Donna Brazil give the questions to the Marxist Candidate like she did for Crooked Hillary Clinton? Will Kamala’s best friend, who heads up ABC, do likewise. Where is Liddle’ George Slopadopolus hanging out now? Will he be involved. They’ve got a lot of questions to answer!!! Why did Harris turn down Fox, NBC, CBS, and even CNN? Stay tuned!!!” Hand the nuclear codes again to that infant?
If faced with a Democratic Donald Trump what would you do? Someone once asked me who I thought would be the Democratic equivalent of Donald Trump would be and I said Kanye West. He’s world famous, extremely wealthy, narcissistic, unstable, politically ambitious, totally unself-aware and manifestly unfit — except it turned out that he’s actually a right wing anti-semite. I might have said Robert F. Kennedy Jr too at one time, except he’s now endorsed Donald Trump. I’m sure there must be some truly crazy lefty out there who would be a bridge too far for many Democrats but that combination of authoritarianism, pathological character flaws, overwhelming ignorance and demagogic talent seems to inevitably drift toward the right these days. That is not to say that voters aren’t always subject to emotional attachment to their leaders in both parties. In recent decades, Republicans practically worshipped Ronald Reagan and Democrats were head over heels for Barack Obama. There was even a time when even George W. Bush was practically deified.
The Guardian went to Pennsylvania: As Donald Trump emerged to a thunderous roar of approval in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Rust belt, he was back in his comfort zone among the people who once put him in power. But by the time he stepped off the stage nearly two hours later, even some of the former US president’s supporters were wondering whether his rallies are doing his re-election campaign more harm than good. Apparently this county is indicative of the entire region where Pennsylvania could be decided by turnout. The Republican party there has been overwhelmed by infighting with hardcore MAGA weirdos who have recently taken over the local party so they really need Trump to get out the vote. Frank Scavo, a businessman and ardent Trump supporter who was part of a coup that took hold of the county Republican party earlier this year, was clear before the rally about what he wanted to hear from Trump. “These rallies fire up the base to go out there and knock on doors. His base will walk on fire for him, but plenty of other Republicans don’t vote. Are they demoralised? Do they think their vote doesn’t count? Most of it is apathy.
Somebody needs to give him a big steaming cup of covfefe to wake him up!
With all the mockery and joy and good feelings, I hope none of us lose sight of the threat we are facing. To those of you who listen to podcasts, I highly recommend this one: To wrap up our Project 2025 series, Kate, Leah and Melissa are joined by NYU’s Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini To The Present to share her perspective as a historian on the Heritage Foundation’s terrifying plans for the country. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 2:17 Trump Continues to Hide His Project 2025 Connections 5:25 Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Project 2025 21:40 Faux Populism of Project 2025 46:30 What Happens After the First 100 Days?
If you think he won’t do it, you don’t know Trump. He made Ric Grenell the acting Director of National Intelligence. He made Matthew Whittaker the acting Attorney General. He made Ben Carson the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Sure he might have trouble getting RFK Jr confirmed. But he learned to get past all that inconvenient folderol by making his minions and henchmen “acting” officials. He would be happy to let RFK Jr. do whatever he wants. After all, Trump will never have to run for president again. (Either he’ll be term limited, he’ll just refuse to leave or he’ll die in office.) He has nothing to lose.
MAGA finds it easier to rig elections than win them Is there a term for an entire political party suffering a case of flop sweat? The GOP’s brows are gleaming. Stuck with their degenerate (and degenerating) candidate for president and faced with an energized Democratic ticket raking in millions by the hundreds and volunteers by the tens of thousands, Republicans are engaged in a frenzied effort not to prop up their own slates but to strip the right of fellow Americans to express their will at the polls. Republicans have long neglected serious efforts for turning out the vote in favor of suppressing the votes of people they perceive as lower-caste interlopers. Irresponsibles, I’ve called them (ironically). David Frum famously (and belatedly) declared in 2018, “If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.” Frum was years late with that realization. The voter integrity “boot camp” I attended in 2013 was a white-knuckled exercise in “protecting a demographic patch of electoral turf that’s shrinking” beneath Republicans’ feet.
Why Kamala Harris might get coattails from the N.C. governor’s race As well as Vice President Kamala Harris performed in delivering her acceptance speech at the DNC convention last Thursday night (introduced by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper), I could not help feeling it might be Harris who benefits in North Carolina from coattails provided by Democrats’ candidate for governor, Attorney General Josh Stein. Pundits touted the race to replace term-limited Cooper as the must-watch governor’s contest in the country. Stein is as competent a public servant as his MAGA Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark “some folks need killing” Robinson, is a train wreck. Robinson’s own statements are sinking him fast in the polls. So much so that veteran Democratic operative Thomas Mills wonders when his own party will stop throwing good money after Robinson’s floundering candidacy. A lobbyist told Mills last summer that Republicans were giddy at having Robinson, a Black man, atop their statewide ticket. He would draw off enough Black votes in this narrowly divided state to make their retaking of the governor’s mansion a cinch.