The way political journalism worked before Donald Trump seems quaint in retrospect. If it was a presidential election year, a reporter was assigned a candidate to cover. The first task was to contact the campaign and notify them of the assignment. If the campaign was a serious one, press credentials were issued to allow access to the campaign headquarters and into his – it was always a “he” –rallies. In the old days, if the paper or network you worked for was important enough, your pass would get you onto the “press plane” and onto the bus populated by the “Boys on the Bus,” in the words of the title of Timothy Crouse’s best-selling book on the way the press covered the 1972 presidential campaign. The “boys” were the other political journalists following the campaign, because with perhaps one or two exceptions, there were no female political reporters.
We don't have to use our imaginations to picture a Wonderbra coming off when we know that Trump wears both a man-girdle and a diaper. He's literally a 6' tall and 280 pound sack of spray-tanned and combed-over crap wrapped-up in what he claims to be a 6'3", 215 pound sack.
Trump is destroying the USA with one lie after another. He cannot stop himself from lying because he does not even tell himself the truth. What the US media needs to do is reveal the lies and the grifting scams, and the Russian Bots, and other Bots supporting him.
Free pass for having called the bloat “toy fascist.” he swaggers he preens he shouts. But at the end of the day he is the toy of people who know how to get actual bad shit done and are in the wings waiting for the opening, on the gracious nod of the emperor with no clothes. (Well maybe a diaper.)
That Don the Con is a total POS no longer shocks or surprises me. What does stun me is the millions of people who have apparently severed all connection with ethnics, morality and the truth to support him in all his despicable aims. Hopefully he will lose in November but I'm not sure what kind of a country we'll be left with.
This is a big concern of mine. Where did these people come from? They're not "patriots." At least in California, and the Bay Area, I think we could survive on our own, even with climate disaster around the corner at every turn.
One man. One man! What astonishes me isn't so much the U.S.ians eager to follow him—finally, a celebrity who says out loud the churning hatred and fear they feel—but the fact that one single man could totally disrupt our system and millions of lives for as long as you catalog here. How can it be that no one has emerged with the charisma to neutralize this one crook?
In his nyt review of Bob Woodward's new book primarily on Biden foreign policy https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/09/books/review/war-bob-woodward.html A. O. Scott writes, "In a book determined to focus on Biden-era diplomacy, the story of Trump’s latest presidential run is a subplot that keeps threatening to turn into the main event." … One guy!
Dishonest Don's steady stream of lies almost seems quaint by now. The media reports his claims as lies (FEMA spent all the disaster funds that could go to a red state on immigrants), but the MAGA politicians and lemmings fiercely defend the lies as "truth." With JD however lies have become post-truth, he smirkingly admits that they're lies but defends them as necessary to serve a deeper purpose, i.e., the Real Truth. Thus the lies that immigrants eat our pets really shows that immigrants must be deported. We've gone from 1984 memory hole lies to Alice in Wonderland psychedelic lies. Now 27 days until the real fantasy begins.
An incredibly prescient metaphor, but no one could have seen the descent American politics have taken because of one awful, awful person who has no business being in elective office.
(whispers) Norm Ornstein did AND was insightful and brilliant enough to marry it to the decline of the media. Of course, Norm was for the most part was ignored.
Technically qualifies as The Snowball Effect including the ignoring of a valid forewarning.
We are on a broken hinge these days. And we don’t know if it’s going to collapse, dropping us into .. what? … or hold because the accumulated rust keeps it immobile enough to give us another chance.
We don't have to use our imaginations to picture a Wonderbra coming off when we know that Trump wears both a man-girdle and a diaper. He's literally a 6' tall and 280 pound sack of spray-tanned and combed-over crap wrapped-up in what he claims to be a 6'3", 215 pound sack.
Loved all the word visuals, Lucian. Trump as the fake-it-til-you-make-it "Wonderbra of American politics." So apropos and honest. Poetic, even.
I still don’t understand why the “Dean scream” was that big a deal and never will. Especially considering what we see from Trump everyday.
The press did that. You can be accused of lying, and survive, but you cannot be ridiculed successfully without collaborators.
Trump is destroying the USA with one lie after another. He cannot stop himself from lying because he does not even tell himself the truth. What the US media needs to do is reveal the lies and the grifting scams, and the Russian Bots, and other Bots supporting him.
Just looking at his face, and hearing his voice, makes me sick. He is utterly revolting !
Love the Wonderbra reference!
How pathetic, and not you, but the "Wonderbra Man".
What's even more pathetic is that people believe him and his surrogates.
And that list goes to powerful places. We must defeat the orange monster.
So this is where we have come!! But people are falling for it. What does it mean? I fear for the future even if Harris wins.
This is a big question. Where did these Magas come from? Who would have tolerated them in 1980?
They were racists enrolled by the Obama Birth Certificate Lie ...voila!
Free pass for having called the bloat “toy fascist.” he swaggers he preens he shouts. But at the end of the day he is the toy of people who know how to get actual bad shit done and are in the wings waiting for the opening, on the gracious nod of the emperor with no clothes. (Well maybe a diaper.)
It Depends...
That Don the Con is a total POS no longer shocks or surprises me. What does stun me is the millions of people who have apparently severed all connection with ethnics, morality and the truth to support him in all his despicable aims. Hopefully he will lose in November but I'm not sure what kind of a country we'll be left with.
This is a big concern of mine. Where did these people come from? They're not "patriots." At least in California, and the Bay Area, I think we could survive on our own, even with climate disaster around the corner at every turn.
I read this the other day and while I agree it was not "hopeful" regarding the future:
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnpavlovitz/p/maga-can-have-their-hate-cult-they?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4wug3
Thank You for this Pavlovitz piece, Greg. It is important. Shared.
He's written some really great commentaries on "Christians"
All the "Christians"...
CINO and RINO...
One man. One man! What astonishes me isn't so much the U.S.ians eager to follow him—finally, a celebrity who says out loud the churning hatred and fear they feel—but the fact that one single man could totally disrupt our system and millions of lives for as long as you catalog here. How can it be that no one has emerged with the charisma to neutralize this one crook?
I hope it won't be Musk.
? Muck is a jumpin' collaborator without potential, I don't think, of turning foe.
In his nyt review of Bob Woodward's new book primarily on Biden foreign policy https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/09/books/review/war-bob-woodward.html A. O. Scott writes, "In a book determined to focus on Biden-era diplomacy, the story of Trump’s latest presidential run is a subplot that keeps threatening to turn into the main event." … One guy!
Dishonest Don's steady stream of lies almost seems quaint by now. The media reports his claims as lies (FEMA spent all the disaster funds that could go to a red state on immigrants), but the MAGA politicians and lemmings fiercely defend the lies as "truth." With JD however lies have become post-truth, he smirkingly admits that they're lies but defends them as necessary to serve a deeper purpose, i.e., the Real Truth. Thus the lies that immigrants eat our pets really shows that immigrants must be deported. We've gone from 1984 memory hole lies to Alice in Wonderland psychedelic lies. Now 27 days until the real fantasy begins.
Damn, if I were a Yalie I would hate how Vance represents. What an absolute unprincipled bullshitter.
He has totally eliminated Empty Greene and Boburger as the Head Bozo!
And he’s way more dangerous
Lux et veritas!
An incredibly prescient metaphor, but no one could have seen the descent American politics have taken because of one awful, awful person who has no business being in elective office.
(whispers) Norm Ornstein did AND was insightful and brilliant enough to marry it to the decline of the media. Of course, Norm was for the most part was ignored.
Technically qualifies as The Snowball Effect including the ignoring of a valid forewarning.
We are on a broken hinge these days. And we don’t know if it’s going to collapse, dropping us into .. what? … or hold because the accumulated rust keeps it immobile enough to give us another chance.
Trump has shown us we need a bigger boat. The biggest ever
I hope someone from the Harris/Walz campaign is one of your subscribers. This is brilliant.