Also in The Times, Bret Stephens found a perfect metaphor for a certain potentate’s use of social media: “With his every tweet, Trump’s presidency felt like a diesel engine blowing black soot in the face of the country.” In a subsequent article, Bret weighed in on Trump’s climactic remarks in Milwaukee: “In its length, the speech was worthy of Fidel Castro. In its depth, of Justin Bieber.”
Via Frank Bruni
Who do we need for President? A “California lightweight, a dingbat diversity hire and BLM riot enthusiast who failed conspicuously in the single job Biden gave her: managing the crisis on the U.S. southern border”? A childless “abortion-rights fanatic who has been willing to trample the liberties of Catholic and Christian institutions, for the sake of imposing a pro-abortion hard line”
Well, if you put it that way, Rod ….
“I know that there was not the same red meat, sort of blood-and-soil nationalism that you might hear in, I don’t know, other parallel universe Republican conventions, but I do think there were some sort of Easter eggs of white nationalism in [Vance’s] speech. … [He] fundamentally believes in the supremacy of whiteness and masculinity,” - Alex Wagner, MSNBC.
“Like his mentor, like Peter Thiel, who had given him all his jobs in the world, Mr. Vance also when he founded his ‘own’ venture capital firm with help from Peter Thiel, named it after a Lord of the Rings thing. He called it Narya, N-A-R-Y-A, which you can remember because it’s ‘Aryan,’ but you move the N to the front,” - Rachel Maddow, MSNBC, who seems to think Tolkien was a fascist.
“We still don’t know for sure whether Donald Trump was hit by a bullet. … We know almost nothing. Why?” - Joy Reid, MSNBC.
(Via Andrew Sullivan)
“If Trump wins, Biden can still run again in 2028,” - Richard Harambe.
I’d be skeptical of anyone who claimed to become a radically new person on the basis of a single event, however traumatic. It might seem for a time like the person has fundamentally changed. But true transformations like that are extremely rare. And one from a 78-year-old life-long embittered narcissist in the middle of a political campaign that could benefit from an unexpected change of direction? Gimme a break.
…
Trump did seem humble and a little shaken as he described what he called “a providential moment,” though his 6th-grade-level vocabulary and digressive way of speaking often seemed to undercut what could have been a rhetorically powerful evocation of the events …
…
But last night was still useful as a reminder. Oh yeah, this guy is nuts! I hate this guy! It’s been said a million times over the past eight years, but it’s worth rehearsing one more time: It is truly remarkable that this man with this way of speaking and thinking has completely taken over one of two major political parties in the world’s oldest and most powerful and prosperous liberal democracy. That he won the presidency once, governed for four years, lost re-election, attempted a self-coup, set out to run again, and has led the race for the past year is astounding.
…
In a sensible and sane country, the man I saw on stage at the RNC Thursday night should be polling at 10 percent or lower. As it is, he’s leading.
All political conventions are cringe-worthy idolatry fests. But even by those low standards, there was so much abject Trump flattery going on among his cultish speakers that if this had been Kim Jong-un’s convention, he’d have told his propagandists, “Hey, fellas, dial it back a little.”
Trump made many false claims about immigration throughout his remarks, but the most absurd was: “You know who’s taking the jobs, the jobs that are created? One hundred and seven percent of those jobs are taken by illegal aliens.”
Compared with Trump’s acceptance speeches in 2016 and 2020, which were unusual enough, this one was unrestrained, self-indulgent and undisciplined, radiating a sense of grievance. It was Trump untethered, which is the right way to understand what his second term would be. We can’t say we haven’t been warned.
Until her daughter was socially transitioned behind her back, Regino had been a lifelong progressive Democrat. “Now, I’m a registered Republican,” she said.
One reason why Gavin Newsome may be even more toxic than Donald Trump.
The supposedly “Christian nationalist” GOP features lots of non-Christians, including one who prayed a Sikh prayer. The racists, nativists and Christian nationalists are livid.
There’s nothing logical about the idea that being shot by a disturbed young man—and registered Republican—makes Trump more qualified to be president. But it makes emotional sense.
Jonah Goldberg, Joe Biden’s Missed Opportunity
I know full well that Damon Linker was trying to say something quotable about J.D. Vance as the GOP’s Vice-Presidential selection, but darn it, he succeeded:
The old Reaganite Republican Party is now well and truly dead, with any lingering hope for reversion after Trump smashed to bits.
Generally, I don’t think Federal Judges are biased in favor of the party whose President appointed them.
After her dismissal of the classified-documents case, it’s hard to ignore the pile of evidence that Aileen Cannon is the exception.
Adam Serwer generally seems to despise everything I love, but I cannot fault today’s headdline and sub-head.
That is a normative judgment, though — i.e., Trump is still Trump, and even if getting grazed by a bullet chastens him, it won’t transform him instantly into a mensch. But I tend to think that his defiant gesture as he left the podium will improve his image and gain him some votes.
New York Times Opinion | Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Night 1
Be the friction you hope to see in the world.
tinyroofnail on micro.blog, who also links to some older posts (of his, I think) on another platform
Newsweek still chose to go with “MAGA responds with outrage after Donald Trump injured at Pennsylvania rally.”
Yeah, what happened to Trump was a mere injury, and the real story was MAGA outrage (which may not even have been accurate; I dunno because I avoid the seamier parts of the internet.)
Mr. Trump had heard at least one shot, maybe a few. One grazed his ear. He hit the deck, was lifted up in shock, pale. He should have been swiftly rushed from the stage. But no, this is the great genius of American political theater and the reflex kicked in, the same reflex that kicked in after he had Covid and was returned to the White House from the hospital, and wanted to pose on the White House balcony in a Superman shirt with a big S, and somebody talked him out of it. So too at the rally Saturday—he got to his feet, he didn’t wipe the blood from his face, he wanted you to see and understand the whole picture. He got his look of tough-guy fury, the one he showed for weeks walking into court in New York, the one on the mug shot. He raised that fist, pumped it, shouted “Fight,” as part of the crowd began to chant “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
It was epic. Whatever you feel about him, whatever your stand, grant him one of the great gangsta moves of American political history.
As they showed the clip over and over again, this is almost exactly what I thought. I’m no more inclined to vote for him than before, but you’ve got to recognize his genius for self-promotion.
[I]t’s always been clear that the Democratic Party in the age of Trump isn’t as NeverTrump as the truest NeverTrump believers, that it usually chooses “mundane imperatives” and self-interest over emergency measures geared to existential stakes.
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Time and again, from 2016 to the present, the Democratic Party has treated Trumpism not as a “civic emergency” but as a political opportunity, a golden chance to win over moderate and right-leaning voters with the language of anti-authoritarianism while avoiding substantive concessions to these voters and actually moving farther to the left.
“I’m fine with him being president, but he definitely shouldn’t be driving.” Ruby Beijos, PSA Animator
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