Something bad is going to happen tomorrow night. I am not talking about Donald Trump’s primetime address to the nation about how the 2020 election was stolen from him.
I will not watch the speech, because I cannot stand to see or hear Trump, and I can read about his lies when he’s finished. I also don’t need to see how the media will fail us—I already know.
Speaking of seeing Trump, most online newspaper articles are about him, and they are all accompanied by his photo. Why? We know what he looks like, and some of us feel ill when we see his face. Showing it feeds the baby’s insatiable need for attention. The media should stop.
America is over. Trump was the initial injury, but the mainstream press, who should have been acting as emergency room first responders, instead did nothing. They stood by and watched the patients die because they didn’t want their coffee to get cold.
I hope not, but it's certainly a near thing and might go the rest of the way wrong. We need the House and we need the Senate governed by people with some ethics. Pretty much anyone who is not a Republican, but I suppose there might still be a few Republicans who could turn from the dark side and join the good guys if they feel they could survive doing so. We need enough to impeach a few people. Tough choice who to impeach first -- Trump and Vance? Their crimes and misdemeanors are pretty obvious but difficult to enumerate without scientific notation. Or should it be Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito? They are pretty plainly corrupt, and the helpful thing about impeachment is that it does not require a written code of law to try them, it is sufficient to show that they failed to follow the broad principles of their oath of office. Where to start is a strategic decision that I can't fully game out, but we need to consider that a compromised SCOTUS would continue to forgive Trump for any sin, while every day Trump is in office, he does things that kill people, on purpose. The choice is difficult.
Vance first, because if he becomes POTUS, Peter Thiel and his oligarch tech-bros will control the country. Further, because Vance speaks semi-normally, his fascism requires a bit of analysis. The big problem would be finding a V-P who isn't a MAGAt. My recommended order: Vance, Trump, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, whoever replaces Trump as POTUS, Hegseth, Vought, RFK Jr.....after that, who knows. The biggest problem is anyone impeached and convicted -- except Trump himself -- will have a get-out-jail-free pardon in their back pocket, courtesy of the Orange Blob.
The only way to impeach Trump or Vance (or anyone) is if the Democrats take the House and a significant majority in the Senate (unlikely), but I can hope). Hakeem Jeffries then becomes Speaker, most likely, second in line after Vance. Impeach Trump for the most-easily proven of the obvious reasons, and Vance at the same time for enabling it all. Hence: President Jeffries.
I agree whole heartedly. And impeachment of Alito and Thomas would be a good start. As any good wartime strategist knows, you may not be able to directly attack the core of your opponent, but you can hobble him by eliminating his support systems.
I wish the press would ignore him. He’s not going away, but his incoherent, incompetent bluster will die on the vine if there is no press coverage and no rebuttal.
100% agreement. But I've been saying that for 20 years -- "Why are they giving airtime to this jackass?;?" -- and no longer think it's likely they'll stop. Argh.
I wasn't sure prissily was an actual word, but you were right, it is. I even found the following enunciation exercise for folks taking an English for Journalists online class:
The grizzly bear prissily carries the thistly plant to Sicily.
I've never found that at all hard to say. Nor the one about woodchucks chucking. I don't think they are tongue twisters, really. Now, good blood, bad blood is a tongue twister, as is toy boat.
One of the problems I have with recent media coverage of Trump is that the journos sometimes withhold crucial, nay critical information about him SO THEY CAN INCLUDE IT IN A BOOK THAT WILL BE PUBLISHED A YEAR OR TWO LATER. I find this appalling. Kinda goes against everything journalism is supposed to be, no?
Of course, let's not kid ourselves, this info, no matter how damning, will not sway the diehards (see losses by Kentucky Rep Massie (R), Louisiana's Bill Cassidy (R), etc because they dared to defy Trump on anything), but it does move the independents.
I am a bit late to this particular party but, when I was in my 40s (I’m now 75), I learned something about myself that I never knew.
I learned that I have dysgraphia, which is dyslexia’s little-known cousin. It manifests itself in several different ways, but for me it meant that I had to go through all of my schooling which culminated in a bachelor’s degree without ever taking notes. Simply put, I can’t listen and write at the same time. It also means that I might be attempting to write a word like “such” and an entirely different word, say, “this” will end up on the paper. That can be problematic especially when doing math. I can more or less type but, if I don’t do so for several days, my brain mostly forgets how.
You would think I would’ve been aware of this before that, but it seems as if we all get used to aspects of our lives that have always been present.
Fortunately, dysgraphia itself does not in any way impede reading and comprehension skills – although some people have other corollary dysfunctions. And, as far as I can tell, it had one great benefit. When you can’t write things down, you are compelled to remember them which has meant that I have always had an excellent memory as well as being quite good at mental computation.
All things considered, it’s mostly proved to be a minor inconvenience with some clear benefits, but it would have been helpful to know about it earlier on.
The AP newsletter today stated that "the Trump administration ordered ICE" to pause most vehicle stops. I would say that ICE IS the Trump administration, implementing his cruel and brutal persecution of immigrants to provide red meat to his base and to normalize a police state. The AP headline implies that wise leadership is restraining a rogue agency. Reminds me of Peter Sellers wrestling with his own hand in Dr. Strangelove.
Along these same lines, the mystery of McConnell's state of being.
When I think about the decades that someone who has spent their career covering the Senate has wasted building a network of sources, ingratiating themselves with politicians and staffers only to come to this point in our reality when it's not even possible to report whether a Senator is actually dead or elusively still alive, and I seriously hope that haunts them.
Our political press aren't the fourth estate. That's a lie they tell themselves to avoid the reality that they're just easily manipulated scriveners. Tools to manipulate the masses.
I was diagnosed as "hyperactive" (now called ADHD) back in 1971, when I was 6, and long before it was trendy. I *never* developed the ability to sit still.
When I get polygraphed for my clearance it takes several tries to get it done because after an hour I become one big twitch and the readings (worthless as they are anyway) go to hell. It usually takes 3 attempts, each one taking up where the previous left off, to get through.
Thanks for this. As with April Musser's testimony, I had no idea this was a thing. Now, if you'd care to explain about "polygraphed for my clearance"...
My wife had to take one of those for her clearances every do often. Being an Irish Catholic girl, she saddles herself with so much guilt I was amazed she ever passed.
American journalists these days are amoebas. Whether it is fear of retribution from their employers or just genetic spinelessness, they don't defend their colleagues when Trump lashes out at them, nor do they seem to care about questioning the crap that comes out of the administration's mouth. We have come full circle from penny dreadfuls to high school journalism.
I used to have hope that this would all pass, but now I have zero confidence that America will return to the way it was before the cretin descended the gold escalator.
Don’t call him a cretin. My uncle had cretinism; it’s caused by undiagnosed low thyroid. He was considered mildly retarded ( although he could tell you the make, model, and year of every car that passed on the road). But he didn’t lie compulsively like our sociopathic leader.
I mentioned above, instead of Demento’s rant tomorrow night, we can put April’s eyebrows on a loop. More entertaining and, just realized, April’s Eyebrows would be a great name for a band.
OK, so even for the mainstream media, this is a new low. Why do they have to carry his speech LIVE if they KNOW that he is going to lie about the 2020 election, and if he is going to REPEAT claims about voter fraud? Why not carry it with a 15-second delay, and every time he says that the 2020 election was stolen, or that the Democrats allow noncitizens to vote, they could delete the lies? I think that would be hilarious, watching him flapping his mouth while the chryon says Trump is repeating lies about the 2020 election and so on. What's next? Is he going to bitch-slap female reporters on live TV and the networks will refer to it as his freewheeling approach to the news? KEEP POKING HIM, GENE, MAYBE ONE DAY THE BIG FAT AIRBAG WILL JUST EXPLODE.
I will not watch the speech, or any speech. He makes me physically ill, and the complicity of the press makes me even sicker. I spent my journalistic career trying to living up to high standards that are now discarded like buttwipe; it makes me feel like everything I worked so hard for over the years was effort devoted to a completely irrelevant goal--as if I spent decades learning how to be the bestest steamboat captain that ever was. I am sick for my country, and more than a little bit personally depressed.
Things I learned without realizing it: how to live with an autistic sister. Long story, but childhood memories and her subsequent life experiences point strongly--very strongly--toward the conclusion that my older sister was autistic. Of course, since this was the 1960s and she was a girl, she was not diagnosed. I got a front-row seat to seeing how she was bullied and ostracized, which I could do nothing about. She was smart and self-aware enough to know she was "different," but without any good explanation as to why, she became resentful--and I became the target of her resentment. I have spent decades trying to figure out a way to have a close relationship with her, and I've failed at that over and over. It took having kids who are also on the spectrum for the penny to finally drop. It makes sense now. It all makes sense. It will never get fixed. I am grieving the loss of a sister I never had.
If you have kids on the spectrum, spare some thought for their siblings. It's not easy.
Never forget Demento made more on his “reality” show than he ever made in any of his casinos, airline, steaks, phone, ad nauseam. John Bolton noted in his Room Where It Happened that the first thing T and Jared did after their meet with N. Korea in Singapore was run back to Air Farce One to get online to check their ratings. He learned the “reality” show formula of manufactured conflict, backbiting and upset well and has used it to turn the entire government into a “reality” show. Unfortunately, we have plenty of pre-conditioned citizens for whom this is now the normal way of managing things because their education of how our government is supposed to work was limited to a few chapters of whitewashed history in elementary school.
I will not watch the speech, because I cannot stand to see or hear Trump, and I can read about his lies when he’s finished. I also don’t need to see how the media will fail us—I already know.
Speaking of seeing Trump, most online newspaper articles are about him, and they are all accompanied by his photo. Why? We know what he looks like, and some of us feel ill when we see his face. Showing it feeds the baby’s insatiable need for attention. The media should stop.
EXACTLY!!! Thank you for explaining what I have been saying for ages.
The media should be using Trevor Irvin's pictures of Trump.
I think we should watch April’s eyebrows in lieu of Demento’s speech. Much more fun to watch.
Know your enemy. In this case, it means observing him more closely than we would like. First hand knowledge helps me monitor who the apologists are.
America is over. Trump was the initial injury, but the mainstream press, who should have been acting as emergency room first responders, instead did nothing. They stood by and watched the patients die because they didn’t want their coffee to get cold.
I hope not, but it's certainly a near thing and might go the rest of the way wrong. We need the House and we need the Senate governed by people with some ethics. Pretty much anyone who is not a Republican, but I suppose there might still be a few Republicans who could turn from the dark side and join the good guys if they feel they could survive doing so. We need enough to impeach a few people. Tough choice who to impeach first -- Trump and Vance? Their crimes and misdemeanors are pretty obvious but difficult to enumerate without scientific notation. Or should it be Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito? They are pretty plainly corrupt, and the helpful thing about impeachment is that it does not require a written code of law to try them, it is sufficient to show that they failed to follow the broad principles of their oath of office. Where to start is a strategic decision that I can't fully game out, but we need to consider that a compromised SCOTUS would continue to forgive Trump for any sin, while every day Trump is in office, he does things that kill people, on purpose. The choice is difficult.
Vance first, because if he becomes POTUS, Peter Thiel and his oligarch tech-bros will control the country. Further, because Vance speaks semi-normally, his fascism requires a bit of analysis. The big problem would be finding a V-P who isn't a MAGAt. My recommended order: Vance, Trump, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, whoever replaces Trump as POTUS, Hegseth, Vought, RFK Jr.....after that, who knows. The biggest problem is anyone impeached and convicted -- except Trump himself -- will have a get-out-jail-free pardon in their back pocket, courtesy of the Orange Blob.
The only way to impeach Trump or Vance (or anyone) is if the Democrats take the House and a significant majority in the Senate (unlikely), but I can hope). Hakeem Jeffries then becomes Speaker, most likely, second in line after Vance. Impeach Trump for the most-easily proven of the obvious reasons, and Vance at the same time for enabling it all. Hence: President Jeffries.
I agree whole heartedly. And impeachment of Alito and Thomas would be a good start. As any good wartime strategist knows, you may not be able to directly attack the core of your opponent, but you can hobble him by eliminating his support systems.
I wish the press would ignore him. He’s not going away, but his incoherent, incompetent bluster will die on the vine if there is no press coverage and no rebuttal.
Yes! The press acts as if everything he says is newsworthy and breaking news 🤦🏻♀️
100% agreement. But I've been saying that for 20 years -- "Why are they giving airtime to this jackass?;?" -- and no longer think it's likely they'll stop. Argh.
I wasn't sure prissily was an actual word, but you were right, it is. I even found the following enunciation exercise for folks taking an English for Journalists online class:
The grizzly bear prissily carries the thistly plant to Sicily.
Thank you.
I imagined little Ronnie Howard as Winthrop Paroo lisping that.
Somehow not nearly as hard to say 3 times quickly as the old ' She sells seashells by the seashore.'
I've never found that at all hard to say. Nor the one about woodchucks chucking. I don't think they are tongue twisters, really. Now, good blood, bad blood is a tongue twister, as is toy boat.
The hardest for me is "The sixth sheik's sixth sheep's sick."
I've tried all the tongue-twisters proposed so far. Yours wins by a mile for difficulty.
What about “Unique New York?”
Yes toy boat is tough. Never heard the good blood one before.
Shouldn't that be gristle-ly bear?
One of the problems I have with recent media coverage of Trump is that the journos sometimes withhold crucial, nay critical information about him SO THEY CAN INCLUDE IT IN A BOOK THAT WILL BE PUBLISHED A YEAR OR TWO LATER. I find this appalling. Kinda goes against everything journalism is supposed to be, no?
Of course, let's not kid ourselves, this info, no matter how damning, will not sway the diehards (see losses by Kentucky Rep Massie (R), Louisiana's Bill Cassidy (R), etc because they dared to defy Trump on anything), but it does move the independents.
I am a bit late to this particular party but, when I was in my 40s (I’m now 75), I learned something about myself that I never knew.
I learned that I have dysgraphia, which is dyslexia’s little-known cousin. It manifests itself in several different ways, but for me it meant that I had to go through all of my schooling which culminated in a bachelor’s degree without ever taking notes. Simply put, I can’t listen and write at the same time. It also means that I might be attempting to write a word like “such” and an entirely different word, say, “this” will end up on the paper. That can be problematic especially when doing math. I can more or less type but, if I don’t do so for several days, my brain mostly forgets how.
You would think I would’ve been aware of this before that, but it seems as if we all get used to aspects of our lives that have always been present.
Fortunately, dysgraphia itself does not in any way impede reading and comprehension skills – although some people have other corollary dysfunctions. And, as far as I can tell, it had one great benefit. When you can’t write things down, you are compelled to remember them which has meant that I have always had an excellent memory as well as being quite good at mental computation.
All things considered, it’s mostly proved to be a minor inconvenience with some clear benefits, but it would have been helpful to know about it earlier on.
John
I assume you are *now* 75? Click the ellipsis to edit your post.
The AP newsletter today stated that "the Trump administration ordered ICE" to pause most vehicle stops. I would say that ICE IS the Trump administration, implementing his cruel and brutal persecution of immigrants to provide red meat to his base and to normalize a police state. The AP headline implies that wise leadership is restraining a rogue agency. Reminds me of Peter Sellers wrestling with his own hand in Dr. Strangelove.
HOLY SHIT THIS JUST IN: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-reverses-dhs-policy-orders-ice-resume-vehicle-stops-after-one-day-pause
ICE murders at the pleasure of the president.
UNHOLY SHIT would be more appropriate!
Along these same lines, the mystery of McConnell's state of being.
When I think about the decades that someone who has spent their career covering the Senate has wasted building a network of sources, ingratiating themselves with politicians and staffers only to come to this point in our reality when it's not even possible to report whether a Senator is actually dead or elusively still alive, and I seriously hope that haunts them.
Our political press aren't the fourth estate. That's a lie they tell themselves to avoid the reality that they're just easily manipulated scriveners. Tools to manipulate the masses.
I was diagnosed as "hyperactive" (now called ADHD) back in 1971, when I was 6, and long before it was trendy. I *never* developed the ability to sit still.
When I get polygraphed for my clearance it takes several tries to get it done because after an hour I become one big twitch and the readings (worthless as they are anyway) go to hell. It usually takes 3 attempts, each one taking up where the previous left off, to get through.
I am sorry that you have to endure the polygraph.
Thanks for this. As with April Musser's testimony, I had no idea this was a thing. Now, if you'd care to explain about "polygraphed for my clearance"...
Polygraph, AKA "lie detector", is required for some security clearances.
Most people regard it as being bogus.
My wife had to take one of those for her clearances every do often. Being an Irish Catholic girl, she saddles herself with so much guilt I was amazed she ever passed.
So sorry to read this. The poly is a nightmare even if you are able to sit still.
American journalists these days are amoebas. Whether it is fear of retribution from their employers or just genetic spinelessness, they don't defend their colleagues when Trump lashes out at them, nor do they seem to care about questioning the crap that comes out of the administration's mouth. We have come full circle from penny dreadfuls to high school journalism.
Good news. Ovaries are gonads.
(Edit for context: Gene fixed the sentence this was referring to.)
ah! true. will fix.
I think the replacement works better anyway.
I used to have hope that this would all pass, but now I have zero confidence that America will return to the way it was before the cretin descended the gold escalator.
Don’t call him a cretin. My uncle had cretinism; it’s caused by undiagnosed low thyroid. He was considered mildly retarded ( although he could tell you the make, model, and year of every car that passed on the road). But he didn’t lie compulsively like our sociopathic leader.
I apologize for offending you. I did not know the historical context of the term.
I didn't know either but I am glad to be informed.
April Musser's eyebrows alone are worth more than $5 a month (and yes, I kick in more than $5 a month).
I mentioned above, instead of Demento’s rant tomorrow night, we can put April’s eyebrows on a loop. More entertaining and, just realized, April’s Eyebrows would be a great name for a band.
Even her eyebrows don't sit still!
OK, so even for the mainstream media, this is a new low. Why do they have to carry his speech LIVE if they KNOW that he is going to lie about the 2020 election, and if he is going to REPEAT claims about voter fraud? Why not carry it with a 15-second delay, and every time he says that the 2020 election was stolen, or that the Democrats allow noncitizens to vote, they could delete the lies? I think that would be hilarious, watching him flapping his mouth while the chryon says Trump is repeating lies about the 2020 election and so on. What's next? Is he going to bitch-slap female reporters on live TV and the networks will refer to it as his freewheeling approach to the news? KEEP POKING HIM, GENE, MAYBE ONE DAY THE BIG FAT AIRBAG WILL JUST EXPLODE.
I will not watch the speech, or any speech. He makes me physically ill, and the complicity of the press makes me even sicker. I spent my journalistic career trying to living up to high standards that are now discarded like buttwipe; it makes me feel like everything I worked so hard for over the years was effort devoted to a completely irrelevant goal--as if I spent decades learning how to be the bestest steamboat captain that ever was. I am sick for my country, and more than a little bit personally depressed.
Things I learned without realizing it: how to live with an autistic sister. Long story, but childhood memories and her subsequent life experiences point strongly--very strongly--toward the conclusion that my older sister was autistic. Of course, since this was the 1960s and she was a girl, she was not diagnosed. I got a front-row seat to seeing how she was bullied and ostracized, which I could do nothing about. She was smart and self-aware enough to know she was "different," but without any good explanation as to why, she became resentful--and I became the target of her resentment. I have spent decades trying to figure out a way to have a close relationship with her, and I've failed at that over and over. It took having kids who are also on the spectrum for the penny to finally drop. It makes sense now. It all makes sense. It will never get fixed. I am grieving the loss of a sister I never had.
If you have kids on the spectrum, spare some thought for their siblings. It's not easy.
Never forget Demento made more on his “reality” show than he ever made in any of his casinos, airline, steaks, phone, ad nauseam. John Bolton noted in his Room Where It Happened that the first thing T and Jared did after their meet with N. Korea in Singapore was run back to Air Farce One to get online to check their ratings. He learned the “reality” show formula of manufactured conflict, backbiting and upset well and has used it to turn the entire government into a “reality” show. Unfortunately, we have plenty of pre-conditioned citizens for whom this is now the normal way of managing things because their education of how our government is supposed to work was limited to a few chapters of whitewashed history in elementary school.