I know we’d all like to place the blame for Trump squarely at the feet of Fox, but It wasn’t JUST Fox. In 2016, CNN - and to a lesser degree MSNBC (Morning Joe especially) were just as culpable for Trump’s election as they were willing participants in the “$2 billion of free media” he received.
Yes, they did—but they were also more willing to be critical of him than False Noize was. Not critical ENOUGH, but...critical, because criticizing Trump made for a good story and lots of engagement....
CNN was airing every Trump rally live in its entirety. That’s not commentary. I’m in no way defending Fox, I’m saying that ALL of our corporate media is responsible for 2016. Obviously Fox waa part of that, as well as soooooo much more.
Including that "town hall" Trump did earlier this year....
Gods, I hate corporate media—they're like The Ferengi on STAR TREK, going for a short-term "pop!" even when a longer-term strategy would gain them more.
Yeah. It’s still a little shocking to me how little any of them learned covering him since 2016. When Margaret Sullivan left WaPo a year or so ago, she beseeched her colleagues to cover him with more awareness going forward. But here we are, back in the same place with them breathlessly covering every aspect of the Donald. How can America hope to move on from him if the media won’t shut up about him? I keep trying to figure out if it’s *safer* to ignore him. I would settle for LESS, though. I am sure we will have another “OJ’s white Bronco” moment today when he turns himself in to Fulton County. Why? It kills me when he does shit like ask for a SCIF @ Mar a lago because it’s a burden for the city of Miami to have to shut everything down when he wants to review classified docs or discuss them with his attorneys. It’s like, hey bro, if you didn’t announce to the world that you’re going to be in Miami reviewing stuff and requiring that you’ve got a motorcade and that roads are closed to accommodate you, no one would know you’re even there. I can’t imagine Obama, Bush or Clinton(s) shutting anything down because they happened to be driving through. I’ve been on the Vineyard when the Obamas have been in residence and you’d never know it.
I agree with most of this except to say that Trump's domination and control of the Republican party has been apparent for a very long time. It was made crystal clear when the Republicans refused to move on from him after the election and started strenuously white-washing the events of Jan 6th. A special call out to Kevin McCarthy in the one time he showed leadership by visiting Trump and virtually expressing fealty to him so shortly after these events. Too bad it was leadership in the direction of submission and moral bancrupcy.
What surprises me is that they haven't realized that Trump himself is old and a depreciating asset. My guess is his base is getting slightly smaller and his unpopularity outside his cult grows ever bigger. It is not in the party's long or even medium term interest to be attatched to this man's star and frankly I can't see how it can be any less attatched to it in the public mind.
I think he's also a symptom of the GOP, which has been moving further and further to the right since the 80s. He's like the GOP out loud. And once the GOP realized they could say these horrible things out loud and still have a fan base - an even more rabid fan base - they embraced it. Either that or the Russians have dirt on all of them.
Right, and DeSantis is running with it as far as he can go. In terms of owning the libs, or valiantly fighting the woke. I still believe that DeSantis will be the nominee. He and Ramaswamy are tuning their messages to be Trump's heir apparent.
DeSantis can't beat Trump or Biden—he's like a crooked corporate accountant who pretends he's a "tough guy" around the office, but everywhere else is exposed as cowardly little chickenshit who will fold like cheap suit when the auditors come after him! He reminds me of Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor, who is such a fucking wimp Lois Lane could slap him down if the script didn't say otherwise....
He's also got so many negatives outside his base that Biden would romp all over him in a general election. All he has to do is remind people that DeSantis went to war against DISNEY for its belated, halfhearted support of gay rights, and while Bob Chapek might not have had the stones to cross him, Bob Iger (who's going to be wanting blood now that he has to make nice with both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA thanks to his own "tough-guy" blunder!) will delight in taking DeSantis apart by cancelling projects that Disney WAS going to do in Florida but is seeking more congenial climes, and by his lawyers tying DeSantis in knots over his attempts to bring Disney to heel.
Gee, Mr. Kinky Boots—I hope the one-time rush of PWN!'ing America's most centrist movie studio was worth it....
This is the price of intentionally "not reading the tweets" and lazily believing that he would go away after losing in 2020. GOP cowardice has become their albatross.
It also shows why Musk bought Twitter. Although we are supposed to think that people have wisened up about social media, they have not. Anybody notice how so many mainstream stories include a social media element?
Yes, but unfortunately Elon Musk is no damn good at hiding what he's up to! His attempts to be a Right Wing power broker are so transparent he may as well have a glass head....
Also, I don't care HOW rich Musk is, he can't run Twitter (sorry, "X") on Right Wing rage alone. Once the mainstream media gets fed up with him and goes elsewhere, he won't have much of anything left but a pack of rabid dogs who will turn on him on a moment's notice.
Orange xenomorph and vestigial spines: the most original and accurate descriptions I have ever read. You have the most fluent writing style on the left. I have cringed before the elementary grammatical errors of many pundits who should know better or at least proofread before they publish. I also agree with your thesis that Trump has already won. The Republican Party would have to disavow their endorsements of Trump's policies and incitements in order to free themselves of his dominance. They cannot and will not as you have so cogently demonstrated. Thank you!
The ones that crack me up are Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, and Mike Pence. If I were DeSantis or Ramaswamy, I would begin with something like, ”Hey, y'all, I'm not sure what some of you are doing here. This is no longer your party.”
Which is true. Republicans want a dictator, and the sooner we all realize that the better off we will be in 2024. Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy are the only ones speaking their language.
Trump is loyal to one person-himself! His behavioral operation is to use anyone, anything and any system to support his ego and his plan at ALL cost, and that includes Fox News! He is using Fox outcast
Carlson to stick it to the system and using Carlson as a victim to use his own victimization! This plays to his 35-40% of his followers who feel that are victims! His followers do not understand they are being used for Trump’s personal goals! It is about him and not them!
Regarding how Trump now owns the GOP - those of us who grew up surrounded by the kind of people who comprise today’s MAGA movement understand them in ways that people like Bernie Sanders and many other left leaning pundits don’t. In their case, James Carville’s famous words don’t apply – it’s not ‘about economics’ per se, stupid!
Pay more attention to those studies that found bigotry and racism were (and still are) driving forces in support for Trump. His vulgarity and crudeness don't turn them off because they love the idea of having someone who is no better than they are in the White House - the Jackass-In-Chief.
It’s not exactly profound to realize that rightwing media prepared the ground for Trump and his enablers by so many years of pandering to the inherent biases of right leaning voters, both encouraging and reinforcing their worst instincts of bigotry, racism, anti-intellectualism – and perhaps most of all - by pushing the belief that the mainstream media could not be trusted. Thus, the seeds of not paying attention to objective facts and evidence were planted.
Confirmation bias was enough reason to kick start today's mostly badly educated MAGAs to begin their journey toward extremism by turning to rightwing media for their information, after which the well-funded rightwing propaganda machine and rightwing propaganda peddlers radicalized them. Better educated MAGA elites – people like Lindsey Graham (and Ron DeSantis who is trying to woo Trump’s base) are on a political power trip with a broken moral compass and more than happy to go along for the ride.
As I drive thru my town I see signs and bumper stickers with Frumps name or bashing Joe Biden ones. Some really hateful stuff. Alls I can think of is How am I surrounded by so many stupid people ? Even people I like or love can’t escape how disappointed I feel about their choices. I think they watch or listen to too many podcasts by idiots whom I often take as Frumps minions. Anyway I know one thing Frump is destroying our democracy and those dumb fks have no idea what any of it means. The 14.3 Amendment disqualifies him and the DEMOCRATIC PARTY needs to fight to exclude him because we are better than this. Independent voters need to look and distance themselves from the GOP because they are traitors and cowards. If they stick with Frump they’re complicit. We need to amplify the 14.3 until they get it. Then we clean up the rest of the mess that Congress is and get back to work serving the people and not turning away from the criminal element that think they are above any laws. Vote Blue all the way to your towns races because some pretty sick tickets are being put in position to change laws to benefit the GOP not the people. That includes the democrats that allow this to happen.
people have said that, and it's possible...but running against trump isn't necessarily a great way to make Trump like you? he hates anyone who challenges him, even obliquely.
of course people could see it as a way to try for vp. but like DeSantis would probably have had a better chance if he'd stayed out of the race.
If some members of the GOP unite in their opposition to trump's nomination, they could do the following: Get some Stages (GOP dominated) to declare that he is ineligible to run for President. Eligibility to run for president is determined by a State Official who places the name(s) on a presidential ballot. Individual voters could challenge the State official for placing trump's name on a ballot based on the 14th Amendment. Blue State officials could also refuse to allow his name on a ballot. If enough States do this, trump could not possibly get to 270 votes in the Electoral College. He is "defeated." Lots of Lawsuits? Yes, certainly. But the argument that trump is a liability for Republicans is strong(er) if his name on the ballot is in doubt.
I know we’d all like to place the blame for Trump squarely at the feet of Fox, but It wasn’t JUST Fox. In 2016, CNN - and to a lesser degree MSNBC (Morning Joe especially) were just as culpable for Trump’s election as they were willing participants in the “$2 billion of free media” he received.
Yes, they did—but they were also more willing to be critical of him than False Noize was. Not critical ENOUGH, but...critical, because criticizing Trump made for a good story and lots of engagement....
CNN was airing every Trump rally live in its entirety. That’s not commentary. I’m in no way defending Fox, I’m saying that ALL of our corporate media is responsible for 2016. Obviously Fox waa part of that, as well as soooooo much more.
Yeah, they did, didn't they?
Including that "town hall" Trump did earlier this year....
Gods, I hate corporate media—they're like The Ferengi on STAR TREK, going for a short-term "pop!" even when a longer-term strategy would gain them more.
Yeah. It’s still a little shocking to me how little any of them learned covering him since 2016. When Margaret Sullivan left WaPo a year or so ago, she beseeched her colleagues to cover him with more awareness going forward. But here we are, back in the same place with them breathlessly covering every aspect of the Donald. How can America hope to move on from him if the media won’t shut up about him? I keep trying to figure out if it’s *safer* to ignore him. I would settle for LESS, though. I am sure we will have another “OJ’s white Bronco” moment today when he turns himself in to Fulton County. Why? It kills me when he does shit like ask for a SCIF @ Mar a lago because it’s a burden for the city of Miami to have to shut everything down when he wants to review classified docs or discuss them with his attorneys. It’s like, hey bro, if you didn’t announce to the world that you’re going to be in Miami reviewing stuff and requiring that you’ve got a motorcade and that roads are closed to accommodate you, no one would know you’re even there. I can’t imagine Obama, Bush or Clinton(s) shutting anything down because they happened to be driving through. I’ve been on the Vineyard when the Obamas have been in residence and you’d never know it.
I agree with most of this except to say that Trump's domination and control of the Republican party has been apparent for a very long time. It was made crystal clear when the Republicans refused to move on from him after the election and started strenuously white-washing the events of Jan 6th. A special call out to Kevin McCarthy in the one time he showed leadership by visiting Trump and virtually expressing fealty to him so shortly after these events. Too bad it was leadership in the direction of submission and moral bancrupcy.
What surprises me is that they haven't realized that Trump himself is old and a depreciating asset. My guess is his base is getting slightly smaller and his unpopularity outside his cult grows ever bigger. It is not in the party's long or even medium term interest to be attatched to this man's star and frankly I can't see how it can be any less attatched to it in the public mind.
I think he's also a symptom of the GOP, which has been moving further and further to the right since the 80s. He's like the GOP out loud. And once the GOP realized they could say these horrible things out loud and still have a fan base - an even more rabid fan base - they embraced it. Either that or the Russians have dirt on all of them.
Agree with the Russians having dirt on all of them. Orange Turd has been in Putin's pocket for DECADES.
Right, and DeSantis is running with it as far as he can go. In terms of owning the libs, or valiantly fighting the woke. I still believe that DeSantis will be the nominee. He and Ramaswamy are tuning their messages to be Trump's heir apparent.
DeSantis can't beat Trump or Biden—he's like a crooked corporate accountant who pretends he's a "tough guy" around the office, but everywhere else is exposed as cowardly little chickenshit who will fold like cheap suit when the auditors come after him! He reminds me of Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor, who is such a fucking wimp Lois Lane could slap him down if the script didn't say otherwise....
He's also got so many negatives outside his base that Biden would romp all over him in a general election. All he has to do is remind people that DeSantis went to war against DISNEY for its belated, halfhearted support of gay rights, and while Bob Chapek might not have had the stones to cross him, Bob Iger (who's going to be wanting blood now that he has to make nice with both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA thanks to his own "tough-guy" blunder!) will delight in taking DeSantis apart by cancelling projects that Disney WAS going to do in Florida but is seeking more congenial climes, and by his lawyers tying DeSantis in knots over his attempts to bring Disney to heel.
Gee, Mr. Kinky Boots—I hope the one-time rush of PWN!'ing America's most centrist movie studio was worth it....
This is the price of intentionally "not reading the tweets" and lazily believing that he would go away after losing in 2020. GOP cowardice has become their albatross.
It also shows why Musk bought Twitter. Although we are supposed to think that people have wisened up about social media, they have not. Anybody notice how so many mainstream stories include a social media element?
Yes, but unfortunately Elon Musk is no damn good at hiding what he's up to! His attempts to be a Right Wing power broker are so transparent he may as well have a glass head....
Also, I don't care HOW rich Musk is, he can't run Twitter (sorry, "X") on Right Wing rage alone. Once the mainstream media gets fed up with him and goes elsewhere, he won't have much of anything left but a pack of rabid dogs who will turn on him on a moment's notice.
Orange xenomorph and vestigial spines: the most original and accurate descriptions I have ever read. You have the most fluent writing style on the left. I have cringed before the elementary grammatical errors of many pundits who should know better or at least proofread before they publish. I also agree with your thesis that Trump has already won. The Republican Party would have to disavow their endorsements of Trump's policies and incitements in order to free themselves of his dominance. They cannot and will not as you have so cogently demonstrated. Thank you!
aw, thanks!
The ones that crack me up are Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, and Mike Pence. If I were DeSantis or Ramaswamy, I would begin with something like, ”Hey, y'all, I'm not sure what some of you are doing here. This is no longer your party.”
Which is true. Republicans want a dictator, and the sooner we all realize that the better off we will be in 2024. Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy are the only ones speaking their language.
Trump is loyal to one person-himself! His behavioral operation is to use anyone, anything and any system to support his ego and his plan at ALL cost, and that includes Fox News! He is using Fox outcast
Carlson to stick it to the system and using Carlson as a victim to use his own victimization! This plays to his 35-40% of his followers who feel that are victims! His followers do not understand they are being used for Trump’s personal goals! It is about him and not them!
Regarding how Trump now owns the GOP - those of us who grew up surrounded by the kind of people who comprise today’s MAGA movement understand them in ways that people like Bernie Sanders and many other left leaning pundits don’t. In their case, James Carville’s famous words don’t apply – it’s not ‘about economics’ per se, stupid!
Pay more attention to those studies that found bigotry and racism were (and still are) driving forces in support for Trump. His vulgarity and crudeness don't turn them off because they love the idea of having someone who is no better than they are in the White House - the Jackass-In-Chief.
It’s not exactly profound to realize that rightwing media prepared the ground for Trump and his enablers by so many years of pandering to the inherent biases of right leaning voters, both encouraging and reinforcing their worst instincts of bigotry, racism, anti-intellectualism – and perhaps most of all - by pushing the belief that the mainstream media could not be trusted. Thus, the seeds of not paying attention to objective facts and evidence were planted.
Confirmation bias was enough reason to kick start today's mostly badly educated MAGAs to begin their journey toward extremism by turning to rightwing media for their information, after which the well-funded rightwing propaganda machine and rightwing propaganda peddlers radicalized them. Better educated MAGA elites – people like Lindsey Graham (and Ron DeSantis who is trying to woo Trump’s base) are on a political power trip with a broken moral compass and more than happy to go along for the ride.
The GOP waved the Orange Guy in and they don't want to let him go and now we are all suffering.
As I drive thru my town I see signs and bumper stickers with Frumps name or bashing Joe Biden ones. Some really hateful stuff. Alls I can think of is How am I surrounded by so many stupid people ? Even people I like or love can’t escape how disappointed I feel about their choices. I think they watch or listen to too many podcasts by idiots whom I often take as Frumps minions. Anyway I know one thing Frump is destroying our democracy and those dumb fks have no idea what any of it means. The 14.3 Amendment disqualifies him and the DEMOCRATIC PARTY needs to fight to exclude him because we are better than this. Independent voters need to look and distance themselves from the GOP because they are traitors and cowards. If they stick with Frump they’re complicit. We need to amplify the 14.3 until they get it. Then we clean up the rest of the mess that Congress is and get back to work serving the people and not turning away from the criminal element that think they are above any laws. Vote Blue all the way to your towns races because some pretty sick tickets are being put in position to change laws to benefit the GOP not the people. That includes the democrats that allow this to happen.
Could this also be an audition for the Vice-Presidential spot? Haley seems like a likely candidate, being a "good one."
people have said that, and it's possible...but running against trump isn't necessarily a great way to make Trump like you? he hates anyone who challenges him, even obliquely.
of course people could see it as a way to try for vp. but like DeSantis would probably have had a better chance if he'd stayed out of the race.
Yeah, the only really suck-uppy sycophant I could think of was Lindsey Graham, and he's too old. Scott Perry?
Not Stages, I meant "States" (GOP dominated)
If some members of the GOP unite in their opposition to trump's nomination, they could do the following: Get some Stages (GOP dominated) to declare that he is ineligible to run for President. Eligibility to run for president is determined by a State Official who places the name(s) on a presidential ballot. Individual voters could challenge the State official for placing trump's name on a ballot based on the 14th Amendment. Blue State officials could also refuse to allow his name on a ballot. If enough States do this, trump could not possibly get to 270 votes in the Electoral College. He is "defeated." Lots of Lawsuits? Yes, certainly. But the argument that trump is a liability for Republicans is strong(er) if his name on the ballot is in doubt.
If the Republican Party weren't in such fear of their lunatic base? That's just what they would have done.
But they're terrified, so they don't....
Powerful stuff, Aaron.
🍊 is the new 🍊 🟧 📙 ✴️ 🟠 🤣