From the horse’s — ahem! — mouth

I can’t not pass along this link to the New York Times Editorial Board (unlocked).

This is not fake news. It’s from his own mouth.

I understand that Kamala Harris is pretty unpalatable. At least because my state’s electors are going to Donald Trump anyway, I will vote for a Third Party ticket, as I’ve said repeatedly.

You can figure out your own response, but if Trump wins and does have of the vicious things he’s promising, there’s going to be a lot of buyer’s remorse and phony how was I to know … ?”

Don’t be among tomorrow’s remorseful buyers.


Sociopathy

It would never occur to members of the reality-based community to shoehorn more than 100 false or misleading claims into a single two-hour speech, as Donald Trump did on March 2, 2019. The whole idea of spewing lies strikes them as bizarre and sociopathic (which it is).

Jonathan Rauch, The Constitution of Knowledge


Just plumb worn out

[Y]ou don’t need to think Trump is a fascist to be sick and tired of his show.

Oliver Wiseman


How cynical can politics get?

We thought we’d seen everything in politics, but you really can’t top the spectacle of Democrats attacking California GOP Rep. David Valadao for—get this—voting to impeach Donald Trump. Democrats are more worried about Mr. Trump having coattails than they are that he’ll destroy democracy.

David Valadao turned his back on President Trump and the whole MAGA movement,” says a new TV spot running in California’s 22nd district. The ad cites the five-term Congressman’s vote to impeach Mr. Trump in early 2021 and runs a clip of him saying, We don’t need President Trump.” The ad concludes: With a record like that, who needs David Valadao?”

The ad is sponsored by the Democratic group Voter Protection Project, which is funded by House Majority PAC, which is associated with the House Democratic leadership.

Wall Street Journal


Is the Grey Lady secretly pro-Trump?

In a cosmos apparently consisting mostly of fun-house mirrors, there apparently are people who think POTUS 2024 is close because prestige media have been too easy on Trump.

Freddie deBoer is having none of it:

Donald Trump is a uniquely divisive politician with a lot of baggage who still inspires deep love from vast throngs of people. This election is very tight because Kamala Harris is and has always been a limited politician who has particular difficulty speaking off the cuff, because the Democrats are a feckless center-right party who stand for nothing and thus can’t offer any compelling alternative to the Republicans, and because we live in a country with bozo citizens ruled by a corrupt and evil plutocrat class. But it’s also very tight because Donald Trump is extremely popular with about a third of the population in the United States, a county with an apathetic citizenry and an idiotic presidential election system, such that a guy only a third of the country likes can win the presidency.

Let’s look at the headlines of some recent pieces from the NYT Opinion section.

A Racist Joke at Trump’s New York Rally Could Be a Costly Mistake

Onstage in New York, Trump Gazes Lovingly at His Reflection

That Revolting Rally Was a Sign of Weakness

My Fellow Republicans, It’s Time to Say Enough With Trump: The time has come for my fellow Republicans to put country above party.

Trump Says the Country Is Dying.’ The Data Say Otherwise: Look at trends, not anecdotes.

Why Trump Has an Edge With These 11 Michigan Voters - Even Though They Don’t Like Him

Trump’s Biggest Con: Pretending to Support American Workers

Anita Hill: The Smearing of Kamala Harris

Crazy’ Is Beginning to Sound Like an Understatement [it’s Trumpers who are crazy, if you couldn’t guess - ed.]

MAGA Unchained in Madison Square Garden: Trump’s big rally featured unadulterated racism and more talk of enemies from within.”

Michelle Obama: I Am Asking You, From the Core of My Being, to Take Our Lives Seriously’

The Real Reasons the G.O.P. Is Spending Millions on Anti-Trans Ads: Republicans are banking on an issue that isn’t a priority for voters - trans rights.

Two Billionaires, Two Newspapers, Two Acts of Self-Sabotage [because they didn’t put out endorsements saying Trump is bad -ed.]

Four Lessons From Nine Years of Being Never Trump’

How Bad Do You Want It, Ladies? — Donald, your insecurity is showing

Could Eminem Snap Gen X Voters Back to Reality? [by saying Trump is bad - ed.]

Trump Acts Erratically. Is This Age-Related Decline?

Don Jr. Is Making Plans [e-e-e-evil plans! -ed.]

Maggie Haberman on What an Unleashed Trump Might Do [bad stuff! -ed.]

The Guardrails [That Kept Trump Caged In, Metaphorically -ed.] Failed. Now It’s Down to Us.

Trump Is Telling Us What He Would Do. Believe Him: The former president’s most disturbing statements are not bluster. They are a road map to what he will do if elected again.

How Trump Could Bankrupt Social Security

Trump’s Election Reversal Dreams Are Dead [score one for the good guys!!! -ed.]

There Are Four Anti-Trump Pathways We Failed to Take. There Is a Fifth.

Elon Musk, Robert Kennedy and the Unconfirmables of a Second Trump Administration -Back in the White House, Trump would get input from a bestiary of nihilists, destructionists and even criminals. [are criminals worse than destructionists”? — ed.]

Why Trump’s Closing Argument Is Full of Locker Room Talk’

James Carville: Three Reasons I’m Certain Kamala Harris Will Win

America Is Playing With Fire: It’s both frightening and disturbing to think that American voters could once again make someone as unhinged and unbridled as Donald Trump the president [unhinged AND unbridled! -ed.]

A Second Trump Administration Would Be a Carnival of Corruption and Greed

Why the Oil and Gas Industry Is So Afraid of Kamala Harris: The Democratic candidate’s agenda takes climate change seriously

Sorry, Trump: There Is No American Race or Blood That Outsiders Can Pollute’

The One Thing About Trump I Am Not Worried About: This time around, it would be much harder for Trump to try to steal the election

Trump’s Charity Toward None: The Catholic Church’s latest scandal: fawning over Donald

American Business Cannot Afford to Risk Another Trump Presidency: Donald Trump is not running as a champion of business. He is running as a tribune of populist grievance.

My friends: that all comes from about ten days of the paper’s Opinion section.

It’s incredible that so many people sincerely believe that the Times is a secretly pro-Trump publication, as they don’t even bother to pretend that their op/ed section is a space where actual pro-Trump sentiment is going to be shared, outside of a once-or-twice a year novelty piece. (Pieces which inevitably result in Democrats pissing their pants in rage, to no effect.) There is indeed a loud right-of-center contingent there, but they’re all Never Trumpers, or else they’re like Ross Douthat, which is to say firmly, safely outside of mainstream Trumpist culture war. David French is the country’s most prominent Never Trumper, and Bret Stephens is a Never Trumper, and Pamela Paul is a Never Trumper, and David Brooks is inhabited by the ghost of David Broder. If they go so easy on Trump, why can they not scare up a single authentically pro-Trump voice for the Opinion page?

Big Mommy is Not Coming to Save Us

I gotta say, though, that the Trump era has been very kind to the Grey Lady.

October 30, 2024


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