The Books of Bokonon

 

It just feels wrong that we have a candidate representing one of the two major US parties (in this case the GOP) regularly uses fascist rhetoric at public events and has eyewitnesses who can attest that Trump has praised Adolf Hitler. Yes, that Adolf Hitler. You know, the one that many of our ancestors went to war roughly eight decades ago to defeat (along with other fascist powers aligned with the Nazis). It not only feels wrong but it is wrong.  So where is the media coverage? It's there, kinda sorta. But the reaction among the media pundits seems to be along the lines of "meh." So we're left with late night talk show hosts to fill the void. Thankfully they do the hard work of reporting the facts and showing how tremendously fucked up the situation really is. It's no game. This is real life and folks need to wake up pronto.  Here's Seth Meyers working tirelessly again to wake up a nation sleepwalking its way to fascism: Are you tired of the dumpster fire tha...

I just can't make this stuff up, y'all.  Elon Musk has been setting up fake Kamala Harris websites and has been sending texts to people directing them to those fake sites . The latter may well put Musk in some legal hot water.   This is an actual Associated Press headline, and one I never expected to read: Trump kicks off a Pennsylvania rally by talking about Arnold Palmer’s genitalia . Otherwise it was the usual boilerplate Trump appearance featuring profanity and deranged grievances. That's all he has to offer. Montana GOP Senate Hopeful Accused Firefighters Of 'Milking' Infernos For Extra Pay and Montana park ranger says Senate candidate Tim Sheehy lied about combat wound . This Tim Sheehy fellow is a piece of work. Montanans would be better off sticking with their incumbent Senator, Jon Tester, who seems like a decent guy who has worked to deliver for his state since he first became a Senator in the mid aughts.  I'm sure there is something I have missed.

Never mind that Russia's Putin regime invaded Ukraine in 2014 and illegally annexed Crimea as it fought a low-scale war in the Donbas that had been on-going prior to 2022. Never mind that the same Russian regime ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and have been engaging in human rights abuses ever since. In Trump's deranged and demented mind, somehow it was the president of the invaded country who allegedly started the war with Russia . Yeah, it makes no sense and is completely divorced from reality. But that's Trump for you. It's also a harbinger of what to expect if Trump is reinstalled in the White House. Trump will cede Ukrainian territory to Putin against the will of the duly elected Ukrainian government and the will of the Ukrainian people. Bet on it. Then again, it would be in character for Trump to blame the abused spouse for being beaten (or worse) or the rape survivor for allowing the rape to happen. That's what you get from a former ...

Normally, a town hall event is one in which a candidate addresses questions asked by audience members. Most candidates know how to handle these sorts of events. They answer questions as directly as possible and sometimes they may try to dodge the questions, but they typically look and act like they are firing on all cylinders. Not old Trump. He loses it a few questions in and becomes an impromptu DJ. Someone needs to ask if this guy is okay. He doesn't act like it. And he really needs to mix up his dance moves. That "milking the cow" routine does not really work so well. Maybe mix it up and add jazz hands to the act. Or maybe the guy is just too far gone to understand what jazz hands are.  

Let's start with The Daily Show, since Monday is Jon Stewart's day to host: Seth Meyers has a new Closer Look feature for us: And let's finish with Jimmy Kimmel: Their segments overlap, but each host has his unique take on the events of the weekend. We can all agree that Elon Musk's appearance at a Trump rally was very unfortunate. Seriously, old Elon, as he jumped around the stage like an idiot, looked like he was expecting the Rocky theme song to start any second, only to realize that it never would. So consensus there. And really a lot to be fair. One host spends some time noting the bad old days of eugenics (which NAZIs and MAGATs alike espouse). Another might spend more time on Marjory Taylor Green. We have some enlightened laughs about why Trump really attracts flies at rallies. You get the idea. I'll have more for you all soon.

I'll offer a few videos that go into a few facets of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 document. I will keep the focus on city planning as well as women's rights, but let's be aware that this is an expansive document that would fundamentally alter American life in a way that would harm the average citizen.  Let's start with CityNerd. His focus in the video below is primarily on urban transportation, which is crucial. He also does take a moment to get into some of the bigger picture stuff about how federal agencies would be run by partisan hacks rather than staffed by professionals who actually understand their jobs. He also reminds us that Trump implemented the Heritage Foundation's agenda for him quite faithfully: 64% of its proposals ended up becoming policy. He also takes some time rebutting critics of his Project 2025 videos: Here's another video done in the style of Schoolhouse Rock (for any of us who remember growing up on that): And here is anoth...

Before I try to catch a few hours of sleep, I wanted to post Jon Stewart's opening monologue. It's great to have him back at The Daily Show, even if only for Mondays. This week, he discusses Donald Trump's unhinged ramblings. What's great is the setup. One of the big complaints I read or hear among the legacy media talking heads is how Kamala Harris does not articulate a specific set of policies. So he plays a few clips of some of her talking points, which do address precisely those sorts of concerns and then contrasts that with....whatever the hell Trump is babbling on about. Here's the segment: Obviously Trump's fandom is going to do whatever fandoms do. The reality is that Trump gets portrayed is this heroic action figure when the reality is drastically different. The Trump that you are getting at rallies and interviews is the incoherent fool whose ramblings can only be interpreted as a cry for help from Adult Protective Services and not those of a person who...

It's time for a closer looks:

Yes, that's a thing. In this case, Derrick Anderson borrowed his friend's wife and kids for a campaign photo-op . That seems totally legit. It's not like people are going to say, "My dude, that's not Derrick's wife and kids. That's his buddy's wife and kids. What are these people into?" Right? C'mon. The neighbors will at least know once they see the campaign literature on their social media feeds or those campaign circulars left on doorsteps or mailboxes. Nothing weird about that. Borrow or rent a family for campaign events and go living one's best incel life (is that doable?) tweeting about all the ways you'll take away women's rights. Nothing weird or creepy about that. </snark>

This scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail encapsulates the absurdity of a significant facet of our political dialog right now. Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog fame has more to say about an upcoming JD Vance campaign stop , involving a pastor who is claiming that Kamala Harris is a witch, and seems to be hell-bent on claiming that those of us not in the Trump camp are demon-possessed. Read through it all, and take a look at the embedded Twitter posts (I refuse to use whatever name a certain mad billionaire calls it now). It is truly theatre of the absurd.  The premise of Steve M.'s post is spot on. The usual scolds on legacy media, including the nominally liberal scolds, keep on telling us that we have to meet Trump's true believers where they are in order to persuade them to at least hear you out. I'll get back to the merits of that in a moment. But first, we need to look at this specific political environment in which we find ourselves. If your goal is to chang...

I am in a bit of a Daily Show mood right now, so here are a few segments that caught my attention:   Jon Stewart has been on fire since his return to The Daily Show. Desi Lydic opens Tuesday's show with a roundup of GOP's gross and weird men. And Desi Lydic again pointing out that Trump really has a better future as a pitchman for infomercials than whatever the hell he thinks he's doing. Finally, Jon Stewart's interview with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. Jon Stewart has a knack of bringing onto his show some of the world's heavy hitters from various sectors that affect our lives and explores some of the big ideas that affect all our lives, with some humor added in for good measure.

Thank goodness for late night talk show hosts. They've turned mocking Trump and Vance's weirdness into art form. Here's the latest from Seth Meyers: Here's The Daily Show's coverage of North Carolina's Gubernatorial candidate, Mark Robinson, who didn't do any weird creepy stuff (/sarcasm) as well as more on the mess Trump and Vance have made of Springfield, and otherwise act like they belong in a halfway house:   And here from last night is Stephen Colbert interviewing Rachel Maddow: 

  Maybe. Leeja Miller certainly makes her case.

  We're only halfway through the week, and it's been, shall we say, a bit weird. Okay. Really weird. The authoritarians are doing their worst, as usual. This is just a very partial list: A Kremlin-run troll farm has been pushing a fake Harris video . Thankfully they've been caught. An Ohio county sheriff has found his inner Stasi Chekist and is demanding the addresses of any county resident who posts a Harris/Walz yard sign .  He also uses a lot of eliminationist rhetoric. There's something oddly un-American about that. Supreme Court Justice Alito is apparently besties with a right-wing German aristocrat who is also obsessed with ending reproductive freedom. Nothing weird about that...oh who am I kidding.  William Kristol (a columnist I would have almost never endorsed a couple decades ago) has reminded us once more that it really is okay to tell the truth and call Trump a threat to democracy . He and his co-author rightly refer to the threats against the Haitian immig...

That is all Trump has to offer. Seth Meyers is willing to call the Orange Fascist out since our legacy media outlets are simply not up to the task.  

One reason for threatening to pardon the criminals who were convicted for their role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election? Trump, as would-be dictator wants a paramilitary squad to terrorize us. The more goons out loose the better from his perspective, and likely the perspective of his followers. It's weird, un-American and anti-American, but this is what we deal with now when one of the major party candidates openly embraces fascism . They're not even hiding it at this point. Vote like your democracy depends on it, because it does.

Why do all the MAGA weirdos hate America? There is an answer , and one in which we are reminded that the seeds of the current Trump cult of personality can be found in 19th and 20th century central Europe. I will give you an extended excerpt from the article: As everyone knows, Donald Trump admires Vladimir Putin, and so a large portion of the Republican Party admires Putin in an imitative and slavish manner. But even before Trump became a candidate, the most regressive elements of conservatism — the paleoconservatives who developed around former Nixon and Reagan staffer (and Hitler apologist ) Pat Buchanan , Christian nationalists and reconstructionists inspired by Francis Schaeffer , and the tech-obsessed neoreactionary movement fueled by Silicon Valley money, which has produced JD Vance — discovered how much there was to love about Putin’s Russia. This New Right also seems to have an easy familiarity with the theorists of totalitarianism. In an interview this June with New York ...

  It's a damn shame. But yes, MAGA is having a media meltdown . It's getting hard to keep up with all the scandals ensnaring MAGA media influencers. They're conflicted over whether or not to be pro-Israel (or at least pro-Netanyahu) or whether to really lean in to that good old-fashioned antisemitism that characterized the original America First movement of the 1930s and 1940s. Tucker Carlson uses his Twitter platform to advance Nazi apologists, as has Elon Musk. It's not a good look. The icing on the cake were the influencers who were duped into spreading pro-Putin propaganda as part of a disinformation campaign , but then again these were willing and useful idiots for Putin's cause as well as the MAGA cause. They are acting punch-drunk about now.  In the meantime, JD Vance is like the standup comic who is being heckled off the stage and Trump's act is so stale that if he were in a TV series, he'd be looking at it being cancelled mid-season. Aside from in...

The Guardian nails it with its history of the use of Democrat Party instead of Democratic Party by those on the right-wing since the 1940s at least. I've certainly seen that term used by the usual suspects on Fox News and by right-wing America First types over the years. As insults go, it's been met by a collective yawn. One thing not mentioned in the article is the potential antisemitic overtones of this particular weird and stupid insult - it doesn't help the cause of those in the GOP that actual antisemites rely on the same pejorative term.