TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2024
Ezra sticks with "unhinged:" Ezra Klein has published a fascinating interview with Anne Applebaum. Before the actual transcript is offered, his overview starts like this:
Trump Kicks Down the Guardrails
Think back two months. Imagine it’s September. You’re reading the Substack of some resistance-era liberal. They’re ranting about the dangers of the Orange Man coming back. “Imagine what a second term is going to be like,” they write. “You’re going to have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary. Tulsi Gabbard is going to lead the intelligence services. Matt Gaetz is going to be the attorney general. Maybe Donald Trump is going to make a ‘Fox & Friends’ host secretary of defense.”
I think most people reading that would have said: Oh, come on! Donald Trump might be a menace. He is a menace. But that’s a parody of what a Trump-hating liberal imagines a Trump administration is going to be. Let’s be real about this.
But here we are in the real, and that is not what a Trump-hating liberal imagines a Trump administration is going to be. This is what Donald Trump imagines a Trump administration is going to be. It is what he is trying to make it be.
One of the challenging things about covering Donald Trump is that it is hard to talk about him without sounding unhinged—and that is because he acts in ways that are by any reasonable standard unhinged.
According to Ezra, Trump "acts in ways that are by any reasonable standard unhinged."
Why would someone act in such ways? Is there some other type of word or words a straight-talking journalist might consider employing in some discussion of what Trump seems to be like—of what his peculiar behavior may perhaps seem to suggest?
As we've noted again and again, they've all agreed not to say what they think. These are the well-educated public voices of our flailing Blue America. These are our tribunes in action.
As became obvious in an earlier column, Ezra seems to have agreed to play by a certain rule. That said: as we noted above, his lengthy interview with Applebaum is compelling and disturbing.
"Let's be real about this," his one character says. Those words strike us as words to live by, though they may quite frequently be honored in the breach.
Is it "wrong" to play by that rule? We've reported, you get to decide.
Trump-haters are wasting their breath calling Trump unhinged. The rest of us are not buying it.
ReplyDeleteKlein mentions three appointees he doesn’t like as supposed proof of insanity. I don’t like these three either, but they’re not nuts. Every President makes some dubious appointments. Trump has also named a dozen or so good to excellent appointees.
He even has sane reason for Gaetz and Kennedy. He believes their areas are f—ked up, so he selected people who are loyal to him and who will shake things up.
No, Dickhead, he's fucked up. We want people loyal to the constitution, not the King. Go fuck yourself.
DeleteIt's like they've never met a fun or colorful or courageous person. Which is easy to believe.
DeleteAnyway Trump is on his way to Texas to see a SpaceX launch. What a joyful timeline we're living in. If you're not a sad sack Democrat.
SpaceX? Big fucking deal, maggot. I watched NASA put men on the moon. Many times. Elon has perfected going up and down.
Delete“ If you're not a sad sack Democrat.”
DeleteAdmirable restraint, anonymouse 6:11pm.
From The Guardian via Digby, here are suggestions for living in an authoritarian society and protecting yourself against whatever torments Trump implements:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/how-to-survive-the-broligarchy-20-lessons-for-the-post-truth-world-donald-trump?CMP=share_btn_url
Are these suggestions things you can film yourself doing for an X audience?
DeleteOtherwise, no liberal women are going to care.
Too lazy to read them?
DeleteWhat's with that, Cecelia? They post videos of themselves having mental breakdowns while everyone else lives their lives. They obviously enjoy it. Weird hobby.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:13pm, yes. It’s too narcissistic to be a cry for help. I fear for their cats,
DeleteWhy would someone [Trump] act in such ways?
ReplyDeleteBecause no one has ever held him accountable for his wrongdoing, except long ago when he represented his father in housing court, against charges of treating black people in illegal ways. And when E.J. Carrolls sued him for defamation (for claiming he did'n't rape her and hadn't even met her, calling her accusations motivated by money), and when the AG of NYC charged and convicted him of 34 felonies for covering up his payoff to Stormy Daniels, the porn star he slept with while Melania was home with their newborn son. Most Trump gets away with whatever he does.
Now his criminal cases for interfering in the 2020 election, for planning and conducting an insurrection after he lost the election, and for stealing classified documents and showing them to unauthorized people, are being dismissed because he was elected president. Now the Supreme Court has said he has immunity for anything he does as an official presidential act (does that include unconstitutional acts -- that remains to be seen). Now he believes he has carte blance to do whatever comes into his mind, including things typically done by dictators in other countries. He has vowed revenged against his political and personal enemies (is that a presidential act?).
Our nation let Trump get away with unhinged acts whenever he wanted, without censure and without legal constraint. Now we are stuck with an out-of-control monster at the head of our goverment.
Those of us who voted for Harris are not responsible for Trump or what he has become. Those of us who worked toward her election are innocent but we will suffer along with everyone else. I lived in CA when Trump refused to send disaster aid after the wildfire that wiped out Paradise CA. I have no doubt he will treat other blue states the same way, whether Trump voters live there or not. His enemies list doesn't have to make sense.
Those who voted for Trump deserve everything he does to them (even inadvertently while targeting blue states or immigrants or union members). Somerby didn't fight for Harris's election. He showed disdain for her, criticized her at every opportunity, and only praised her smile. Even now, he has no respect for her campaign, which others have strongly praised. If Somerby couldn't bring himself to approve of Harris, then he helped elect Trump, because there are no fence-sitters in this situation. Somerby is one of the bad guys now (as it seems he ever was).
Calling Trump crazy or unhinged while sabotaging the Democrats is being a subversive on Trump's behalf. It is far from admirable behavior and, if there is any justice in the world, Somerby will suffer for it when Trump does his dirty work. But unlike others, Somerby will deserve his mistreatment.
Does anyone think Dr. Oz is competent to run Medicare and Medicaid?
ReplyDeleteHarvard undergraduate. MBA as well as an MD from U Penn. Professor at Columbia U. That’s pretty impressive.
DeleteYou’re easily impressed, DiC.
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