A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
@MarkRober is also an established YouTuber and his creation is part Ninja Warrior but hopes to make eating food out of the bird feeder more difficult, he greatly underestimated his opponents.
People also found simple pleasures while staying safe at home. May we not forget the lessons we learned during the pandemic.
That's a wrap for today's fake holiday. The next day inspired by Wester is Norther, which will occur on Sunday, January 19, 2025. In the meantime, stay tuned for whatever I can blog about next.
Bret Baier (Alec Baldwin) welcomes Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) for an interview on Fox News.
Also starring James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump, Ego Nwodim as the Fox News host of the women's town hall, Dana Carvey as Joe Biden, and Marcello Hernandez as the audience member at the Univision town hall. This sketch captured both Baier's obnoxious interviewing tactics and the contrast between Kamala Harris's seriousness and convictedcriminalDonald Trump's silliness, which featured prominently in Weekend Update: Trump Dances for 40 Minutes Straight at Campaign Rally.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like Kamala Harris calling out Donald Trump for gaslighting Americans about January 6.
Trump telling his rally audience "Get that fat pig off the couch. Tell him to vote for Trump. He's going to save our country," reminds me of what I wrote in George Santos sues Jimmy Kimmel and Trump sells sneakers, that "he has long had a very bad case of 'L'État, c'est moi.' As far as he's concerned, he is the country." That's probably was why he called January 6, 2021 "a day of love." It was, for him, not for the country or anyone else. As for Trump working the fryer at McDonald's, I can say it's tougher than he thinks it is, because I worked in fast food while going to UCLA, first at Jack-in-the-Box, then at Wendy's. To repeat what I wrote in 'SNL' tries to turn a week of unfunny news into comedy and gets saved by Adam Driver and Olivia Rodrigo, "[he] should see what it's like from the other side of the counter!"
National Sweetest Day found its beginnings in a holiday founded by the National Confectioners’ Association in 1916 called Candy Day. On October 14, 1916, candy shops around the country filled newspapers announcing their sweetest treats and delights. Originally designated to be celebrated the second Saturday of every October, the confectioners’ convention in Detroit in May of 1916 made the final resolution. Walter C. Hughes, the secretary of the National Confectioners’ Association, encouraged Americans to patronizes (sic) their local candy shops, bakers, and druggist for the highest quality confections.
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Sweetest Day’s theme of charity and giving became apparent in 1921. At the time, four Michigan confectioners united with the Red Cross. Those confectioners included the Detroit Retail Confectioners, Detroit Wholesale Confections Club, Detroit Jobbing Confectioners Association, and the Michigan Confectioners Club. Together, they distributed thousands of bags of candy to hospitals, orphanages, shelters, and homes across Michigan. The celebration also included 100 regulation army target balloons, which dropped coupons worth a box of candy.
I'm willing to advocate for Detroit's role in creating Sweetest Day. If Dave knew, would he at least celebrate today?
I close with my tradition for today, embedding a video of Control Freq's Sweetest Day.
That's a wrap for today's holiday. Stay tuned for a highlights post of tonight's Saturday Night Live as the Sunday entertainment feature — Michael Keaton and Billie Eilish! — followed by a late celebration of Wester.
*I never thought I'd type this, but go Yankees! I'm rooting for a retro Subway Series between the Dodgers and the Yankees over a modern Subway Series between the Yankees and the Mets. It would so disappoint the cast of SNL, but at least they'd be unconflicted over who to root for.
We talk plenty about the presidential race on the 538 Politics podcast, but of course, that is not the only thing on the ballot this November. Americans will cast their votes in races for the U.S. Senate and House, as well as dozens of ballot initiatives.
In this installment of the podcast, we’re going on a road trip across the country to cover as many noteworthy downballot races as possible. We start in the 538 podcast studio in New York state, where House Democrats are hoping for a better outcome than their lackluster 2022 performance, and we end in Alaska. Grab your favorite snacks and get in!
Hearing Nathaniel Rakich and the rest of the panel discuss how Republicans overperformed in New York Congressional contests reminds me of how much differently those elections turned out than expected when I wrote FiveThirtyEight and Sabato's Crystal Ball examine Congressional redistricting in New York State. Two years ago, I quoted Sabato's Crystal Ball, which wrote "If the Democratic plan pans out as intended, the number of Republicans in the New York delegation will shrink from 8 of 27 to 4 of 26." It didn't work out as intended. That map got overturned and replaced with a court-drawn map that eliminated Democratic advantages. Add in a local red wave, and the Republicans won almost enough seats in the Empire State to flip the House of Representatives all by themselves. If the original map had been maintained, then the chamber likely wouldn't have flipped; all else being equal, Democrats would have retained control.
The court-ordered map has since been replaced by one that was created by the redistricting commission and approved by the state's legislature and modestly favors Democrats. That might help return the U.S. House to the Democrats. Then again, maybe not, as three seats in North Carolina are likely to flip back to the Republicans, while one seat each in Alabama, Mississippi, and New York will elect Democrats, while Georgia shows no change. That will be a wash. Democrats will have to count on California to regain their House majority and hope Alaska doesn't flip. Even so, the House looks better than the Senate for Democrats.
Marijuanalegalization is a cause I've been following since at least 2012, when I posted Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ballot. I wrote then "I told one of my students that there would be two changes in his lifetime propelled by his generation--marijuana legalization and marriage equality." The past dozen plus years have proved that prediction correct. Here's to that coming true in Florida and carrying re-legalizing abortion along with it.
I'm encouraged that ElissaSlotkin to replace Debbie Stabenow and Ruben Gallego to replace Kyrsten Sinema are favored to win their Senate contests in Michigan and Arizona, respectively, but I wish Kamala Harris was running even with both of them. Sigh.
That's my reaction to FiveThirtyEight's virtual road trip. Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.
Hurricane Helene and Milton are painful reminders that our oceans are changing. Warmer ocean waters are acting on higher sea levels, causing catastrophic damage to our coastal communities. And what’s scarier is that the sea level rise we’ve witnessed over the past 30 years is nothing compared to what we’ll see in our lifetimes.
In this episode, we take a peek at brand-new flood imagery created by Climate Central’s FloodVision team - imagery that shows just what our coastal communities will look like in 2050, 2100 and beyond. And we’ll uncover detailed maps showing just what our coastlines will look like as the seas rise. So stay tuned to see if your home is on these maps, and what we can do to lessen the impacts in the future.
Weathered is a show hosted by weather expert Maiya May and produced by Balance Media that helps explain the most common natural disasters, what causes them, how they’re changing, and what we can do to prepare.
These models are going back to the Sangamonian Interglacial, which was warmer than the Holocene with higher sea levels to match, but did not have as much carbon dioxide as today's atmosphere. We have to go back 3.6 million years ago to the Pliocene for carbon dioxide levels like today's. As I wrote in 2021, "That was so long ago, terror birds and hyenas roamed North America." Sea levels were even higher then than during the Sangamonian, so in the long term, Maiya May and the experts she's interviewing may not be pessimistic enough. Worse yet, carbon dioxide levels are on the verge of passing the high estimates for the Pliocene and are heading to Miocene levels. Welcome to the 400 ppm world.
We can track our history of eating just about anything back through the fossil record and see the impact it’s had on our evolution. Throughout time, part of the secret to our success as a species has been our early - and sometimes fatal - experimentation with food.
I couldn't resist revisiting paleo diets, a topic I haven't blogged about in a decade, today. Retrieving this video and the next when searching PBS Eons for "food" made it an easy choice.
These relatives of ours lived in Eurasia for more than 300,000 years. They were expert toolmakers, using materials like stone, wood, and animal bone. They were also skilled hunters and foragers, and may even have created cave art. So what caused the decline and disappearance of their population?
Well, in a way...it could’ve been us. But maybe not in the way you might’ve heard.
Hearing the fates of the Neanderthals from Spain, France, and Belgium reminds me of what I wrote about how Westworld treated evolution.
My wife and I are quite impressed at the depth of the ideas explored in the show. The creators have also done their research. Every time they mention something about evolution in Ford's dialog, they're right. This is especially true about the more disturbing concepts mentioned, like sexual selection contributing to the development of the human mind and what humans did to our nearest relatives. As someone who knows the field, that's both gratifying and unsettling.
"Do you know what happened to the Neanderthals, Bernard? We ate them."
Maybe, but it looks like the Neanderthals were eating each other as much or more than our ancestors were eating them.
As one of the sea's most hideous creatures, the hagfish represents all nature's bizarre little creatures. Seek out the icky and disgusting on Hagfish Day.
This video even mentions a 300 million year old hagfish fossil, so it connects to today's theme, although it didn't mention that people also eat hagfish. Maybe next year.
That's a wrap for today's multi-holiday post. Stay tuned for a drivingupdate tomorrow, as Pearl's odometer will turn over 66,000 miles today.
In this story from Weathered: Earth’s Extremes, Maiya May pours over giant risk maps with NASA scientist Marshall Shephard to learn the most significant impacts of our changing climate on each region of the US. Using some of the most powerful computers in the world, scientists can project how a warmer world will change our weather. She finds an answer to the question: where is the riskiest place to live as the climate warms, and how can we prepare?
The answer is Miami/Dade County/Broward County in Florida, the parishes just east of New Orleans in Louisiana, and Los Angeles County in California. Meanwhile, Oakland County is slightly more vulnerable than I had thought, but much better than Los Angeles. That makes me extra glad I moved from Southern California to Michigan 35 years ago!
How did Native Americans end up on Reservations? We explore the complicated relationship between the Indian Nations and the United States of America. This episode unpacks the legacy of Treaties and their effect on modern legislation. We answer the most important question: why do Native Americans continue to live and grow their families there?
Watch Tai Leclaire breakdown all you need to know about the Reservation system and why “Rez Life” is critical to the Native American experience.
That's a fascinating exploration of the history of reservations and how reality ended up not matching what was promised in the treaties. I can see why so many people have watched it.
What’s the deal with “Pretendians”? Tai Leclare and experts dissect what it really means to be Native—whether it’s blood, initiation, or just a claim. This episode digs deep into the complexities of identity and last names in Indian Country.
I really wanted to put this first, but it didn't feel quite right to begin this entry with the last video posted. Still, excellent question, one that hits close to home, as "My wife, my ex-girlfriend, and my ex-wife all have Native American ancestry. At least two of them would qualify as Native Americans under U.S. government policy, and one of them is enrolled as a Cherokee..."
Why aren’t Native people– and their stories – ever the crux of your favorite films?
From films used as a tool of genocidal propaganda, to award-winning Indigenous stories in Hollywood, how far has Indigenous media representation come and where is it headed?
Tai Leclaire and experts track the past, present and future of Indigenous entertainment– and how the media and bias prevents Native people from telling their own stories.
While I haven't watched Reservation Dogs yet, I did blog about its Golden Globes and Emmy nominations, so it's on my list. The same is true of Prey, which I haven't watched (yet) but whose Emmy and Saturn Award nomination I covered. On the other hand, my wife and I have watched both seasons so far of Dark Winds, which was also nominated for a Saturn Award, and are looking forward to season three.
Today, many Native Americans live in food apartheid and insecurity.
But it wasn't always this way. Once, their lands were abundant with nutritious food sources—corn, bison, potatoes, squash, and more.
So… what happened?
Forced relocation meant that entire Indigenous food systems were ripped away. This triggered a public health crisis and forced a dependence on government rations that just can’t compare.
I blogged about fooddeserts when I began this blog. It's about time I resumed.
This final entry reminds me that Wednesday is both National Fossil Day and World Food Day. PBS Eons videos about the prehistory of food, anyone? Stay tuned.
Host Steve Harvey (Kenan Thompson) welcomes key players in the 2024 election, like Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph), Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg), Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan) and Joe Biden (Dana Carvey), to face off against Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson), Donald Trump Jr. (Mikey Day) and JD Vance (Bowen Yang) in a game of Family Feud.
Also Chloe Fineman as Kaitlan Collins, Dana Carvey as Joe Biden, and no one as Melania Trump. Too bad, it could have been Heidi Gardner, but it was probably funnier that she didn't show. Here's to hoping that the election turns out like the game with the Democrats winning.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like Trump confirming he wouldn't agree to a second debate against Kamala Harris.
On the one hand, congratulations to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on raising one billion dollars. On the other, my wife and I are looking forward to no longer receiving fundraising texts and emails from the campaign.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like the Supreme Court declining to hear R. Kelly's appeal in his sex crime case.
The R. Kelly and Diddy news is enough to qualify this as the Sunday entertainment feature, but there will be more over the jump.
In the second of our pre-election series we look at America and... climate change. How could Kamala Harris or Donald Trump shape the global response to the climate crisis?
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As one of the world’s largest producers of fossil fuels and carbon emissions, the US plays a pivotal role in addressing climate change. The environmental policies of the next president could reshape American industry and the economy, while influencing the global fight against climate change.
Sumi Somaskanda speaks to the BBC’s climate editor Justin Rowlatt and Carl Nasman, who covers US climate issues for the BBC.
Project 2025 is calling for the breaking up of the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA). Monica Medina, former Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, joins Morning Joe to discuss as Hurricane Milton is set to hit Florida.
That's damage that's already been done and needs to be repaired. I'd rather not imagine the impact of breaking up NOAA, which paid my salary twice. That would make the consequences of extremeweather and other natural disasters worse.
This year’s presidential election will determine the fate of our democracy and, with it, hard-won environmental and climate gains. Project 2025, the conservative playbook for another Trump term, promises to completely eviscerate climate policy and empower Big Oil. Activist and author Bill McKibben and Monica Medina, a former top climate official at the State Department, DoD, and NOAA, join Ali Velshi to discuss what’s at stake this November. 'Biden has done more to support clean energy by far than any president before,' says McKibben. Trump “won’t just politicize the weather – he will weaponize it,” warns Medina.
Not only did McKibben imagine what a U.S. without NOAA would be like, he compared it to convictedcriminalDonald Trump's response to the pandemic, "if we don't know, then we don't have to talk about it." He also brought up Ron DeSantis forbidding mention of climate change in Florida's official documents, all while the Sunshine State was already facing one of the worst hurricane seasons forecast. So far, that dire prediction is coming true. Speaking of which, Trump weaponizing the weather against his enemies isn't a prediction; it already happened during his time as President.
I have three more MSNBC videos about Project 2025 and climate policy to share, but I have papers to correct and dinner to grill, so I'm saving them for part 9. In the meantime, stay tuned for a highlights post of tonight's Saturday Night Live as the Sunday entertainment feature. Ariana Grande and Stevie Nicks!
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program
RuPaul Charles - RuPaul's Drag Race (MTV)
Alan Cumming - The Traitors (Peacock)
Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjavec - Shark Tank (ABC)
Kristen Kish - Top Chef (Bravo)
Jeff Probst - Survivor (CBS)
Nine editors voted for RuPaul to return to the stage, while two agree with the Gold Derby TV Awards voters that Alan Cumming will win. The experts are less sure with five picking RuPaul and four choosing Cumming. In contrast, the top 24 users agree with the editors that RuPaul will reign supreme for one more year, while four chose Cumming.
There has been no change since Sunday. I would pick RuPaul to RePeat.
I never did register at Gold Derby, but I would have been wrong anyway, as Cumming won. His win keeps the LGBTQ+ theme of today going, as Cumming is bisexual and an LGBT activist. That partially makes up for RuPaul's Drag Race, Queer Eye, RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked, and We're Here all being shut out, despite two of them being favored to win their categories.
Alan Cumming chats with ET's Nischelle Turner after winning Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program for season 2 of 'The Traitors.'
Cumming should be impressed by beating RuPaul; that's not an insignificant achievement.
Now to revisit the predictions for Cumming's second Emmy.
Outstanding Reality Competition Program
The Amazing Race (CBS)
RuPaul's Drag Race (MTV)
Top Chef (Bravo)
The Traitors (Peacock)
The Voice (NBC)
RuPaul's Drag Race has won this category five of the past six years, including earlier this year for 2023 and the forecasters at Gold Derby agree, as ten of eleven editors, eleven of sixteen experts, and fifteen users have chosen it as the winner. One editor, five experts, and six users think The Traitors could walk away with the statuette in an upset (three users haven't made up their minds yet). I would pick RuPaul's Drag Race given the opportunity.
Like me, the remaining top 24 users jumped on the RuPaul's Drag Race bandwagon with one user switching from The Traitors to RuPaul's Drag Race. I bet they regret that decision, as The Traitors won. Watch Reality Competition Program: 76th Emmy Awards from the Television Academy.
The Team from The Traitors accepts the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Program at the 76th Emmy Awards.
Congratulations to Cumming and the rest of The Traitors team!
Follow over the jump for the rest of the reality TV Emmy winners.
John Oliver discusses how Donald Trump has impacted our federal courts, what he could do if reelected, and how Judge Steve Harvey fits into our judiciary branch.
LOL, because it's not a tradition for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, although it is one for 60 Minutes.
As for Stephen's invitation to convictedcriminalDonald Trump to "go fvck himself," I second his emotion.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is honored to be the only late night television show on Vice President Kamala Harris's media blitz, while her Republican opponent is busy undercutting FEMA's efforts to dig out from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, and his friend Elon Musk is once again the internet’s favorite laughing stock.
I'm glad Stephen returned from break for this episode. Doing so was good for his show, Vice President Harris, and the country.
The Democratic nominee for president of the United States returns for her seventh visit to The Late Show and sits down for a four-part interview with Stephen Colbert. Watch as she and Stephen discuss the devastation of Hurricane Helene and the crude cynicism of Donald Trump who is spreading misinformation about FEMA's response as the potentially catastrophic Hurricane Milton approaches landfall in Florida. Stick around for three more segments with Vice President Kamala Harris!
I made Funkadelic's "One Nation under a Groove" my personal theme song for Harris's campaign back in 2019 and revived it once she began running again this summer, as shown by this tweet of mine.
Well known across southern States in America, 99 Cents Only Stores was a growing company, focused on customer service and offering products at a gimmicky, yet very enticing price point... 99 cents. But after corporate takeovers and rising costs, this chain of around 300 locations would begin to struggle and ultimately declare bankruptcy. Join me to find out why.
I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling my reaction from May.
Jake joins Company Man Mike and Erik in that assessment and so do his viewers; the comments on this video nearly unanimously blame the leveraged buyout by private equity for the chain's demise. I'm joining them.
So concludes this tale of the RetailApocalypse. I might just return to this season's big story, the election, tomorrow. That is, if I don't cover hurricane season instead. Stay tuned.
I think I should start paying attention to Peter Thiel and Curtis "Mencius Moldbug" Yarvin, both of whom have cyberpunk villain ideas straight out of SnowCrash that are influencing Vance. They would be right on target for this blog.
Rachel Maddow shows JD Vance explaining his lack of faith that democracy can deliver on his conservative ideals, and shows the influences behind Vance's preference that the United States government be gutted and instead run by a dictator.
Rachel Maddow looks at the conservative history of attacking universities for exposing students to ideas that conservatives don't like, and highlights JD Vance in his own words discussing ideas for punishing universities and well as businesses that he sees as being on the wrong side of the culture war he is waging. This is part one of two clips cut from the Monday, September 30, 2024 Rachel Maddow Show. Find part two and other Maddow clips on YouTube at MSNBC.com/Rachel.
As Maddow points out, Vance is continuing a cause championed by cranky people pursuing a sometimes explicitly fascist agenda. I call that being on the wrong side of history. May Vance and Yarvin also be on the wrong side of the future.
Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) and Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg) watch the vice presidential debate between JD Vance (Bowen Yang) and Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan).
Also Dana Carvey as Joe Biden, who stole the skit, Heidi Gardner as Norah O'Donnell, and Chloe Fineman as Margaret Brennan. They gave the vice presidentialdebate exactly what it deserved, a good razzing. "Honey, we have the soundbite!" Yes, Tim Walz got JD Vance to give "a damning non-answer." Vance has bought the Big Lie.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like it being released that Trump was scrolling Twitter during January 6, Elon Musk attending a Trump rally and Trump not wanting to release his medical records.
I can tell SNL's writers regret missing out on RFK Jr. this summer when his shenanagans were fresh and took this opportunity to make fun of him before it was way too late. His candidacy has already turned into a pumpkin just in time for Spooky Season, but will rot in November, just like all the other jack-o'-lanterns.
The news about Diddy and Daniel Day Lewis was enough to qualify this post as the Sunday entertainment feature, but I couldn't resist including Weekend Update: Jane Wickline to introduce a new cast member playing and singing about parties, just not the political ones.
Jane Wickline stops by Weekend Update to perform a song about Gen Z partying.
Now I'm wondering if this song is eligible for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics at next year's Emmy Awards. I'll have to wait until July to find out!
Follow over the jump for a classic skit and its sequel.
Against my better judgement, I accepted the idea that Project 2025 isn't Trump's "real" plan, and instead looked into Agenda 47, which I was assured by certain viewers was much more reasonable (and an accurate description of what Trump proposes to do if he wins back the presidency). What I found was disturbing on more levels than I can count.
As CityNerd observed, at least the writers of Project 2025 could put together coherent policy proposals, even though their ideas are bad. They're supposed to persuade Trump and the people around him to adopt them should he be elected. Since a lot of the chapter authors were members of the previous administration and would be likely to be part of the next one, heaven forfend, that isn't a hard lift. On the other hand, the individual items that compose Agenda 47 are emotional appeals that Trump himself can understand and get behind and that he thinks will appeal to his supporters, although it's not always clear who those are. They're definitely not the same supporters for every proposal, which makes them as incoherent as a whole. In that case, they reflect the candidate.
One of those proposals, "freedom cities" to solve the housing crisis, is one of the "cyberpunk villain ideas straight out of SnowCrash that are influencing Vance" I referred to in Kosta, Colbert, and Hayes react to the VP Debate. They're also influencing Trump, too, or this concept wouldn't be in Agenda 47. I wrote "They would be right on target for this blog" so expect me to blog about them.
Five years ago, I juxtaposed two quotes from James Howard Kunstler to reconstruct a prediction about American politics from the movie "The End of Suburbia."
There will be a great battle to preserve the supposed entitlements to suburbia and it will be an epochal act of futility, a huge waste of effort and resources that might have been much better spent in finding new ways to carry on an American civilization.
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Americans will elect maniacs who promise to allow them to keep their McMansions and their commutes and that’s going to produce a lot of political friction, probably a lot of violence, probably a threat to our democratic institutions.
Kunstler was both right and wrong about that prediction, as I pointed out when I revisited that quote in my comment on Slowly, Then All at Once (ETA: this is now a dead link, as Kunstler has moved to Substack).
As for Trump, you once predicted that Americans would elect maniacs who would promise that they could keep the entitlements of suburbia. Trump has shown you to be right and wrong about that. Yes, they'll elect maniacs to protect the entitlements of suburbia, but those entitlements turned out to be psychological and social, not physical. Trump's support is more a response to threats to the social environment as it is to losing SUVs and McMansions, which with the price of oil being low right now, are not issues like they were in 2008 and 2012. Instead, it's immigration, terrorism, and "law and order."
What I also wrote, but didn't post because I didn't want to inflame Vlad, who now goes by Janos, and his fellow deplorables was a second observation.
The one thing missing from "The End of Suburbia" was any discussion of White Flight; the movement to the suburbs was all phrased in class terms, not racial ones. That's something my students from Detroit and its suburbs notice.
It's not what, it's who Trump promises to save the suburbs from. I know who and so does Governor Whitmer, which is why she called it a dog whistle, one people in Michigan have been hearing for decades. I suspect King does, too, which is why she asked.
Trump is still blowing that dog whistle and it sounds throughout all these proposals.
The 165 page filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith details the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and cites evidence, including conversations with Trump’s family members, that shows his actions were not covered by the Supreme Court’s ridiculous presidential immunity ruling.
I've been waiting for Jack Smith's response to the Supreme Court's immunity ruling as well as the opportunity to laugh at it for more than three months. I'm glad it came before the election. As for the prosecution itself, it's another example of what I repeated most recently in Meyers and Kimmel take closer looks at Sidney Powell pleading guilty and Jim Jordan's 'Groundhog Day' of losing votesETA — I repeated it more recently in Updates on three Trump trials: "'The wheels of justice are grinding slowly in this case, but I expect they will indeed grind exceedingly fine.' May they also grind exceedingly fine for Trump and his seditious supporters, if not as slowly." No thanks to the Supreme Court, the wheels are grinding slowly here, too.
We are now 33 days away from the election, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s damning new report was unsealed and it details a mountain of evidence against Donald Trump in relation to the January 6th case in DC, many of the names are redacted but it’s not difficult to figure out who is who, Trump pressured Pence relentlessly to break the law, more than 43 million Americans tuned in for the debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz, JD had many untruths but it was an otherwise civilized discussion, Orange Julius Caesar was said to be very pleased with JD’s performance, he appears to be running out of steam on the trail, we pull out the chalkboard to break down a crazy lemonade rant Donny went on, Forbes Magazine unveiled their list of the 400 richest people in America, and fellow luminaries wish Jimmy Carter a happy 100th birthday.
No, it's not difficult to figure who is behind the black spaces. I don't even have to go to Emptywheel to find out who is who. Also, Jimmy wasn't buying Vance saying that Trump saved Obamacare, either.
A new bill was signed into law this week by Governor Newsom that will allow marijuana dispensaries to serve food and non-alcoholic drinks, Trump hit Truth Social hard last night to complain about the 165 pages of incriminating evidence the judge released detailing every step of his attempt to overthrow the election, he visited Michigan to rave and rant about windmills before his teleprompter went out, Republicans who were very worked up about Joe Biden’s age don’t seem to have the same problem with Trump, the MAGA faithful are still showing up and buying merch, Melania came out to promote her book and to reveal that unlike her husband she is pro-choice, RFK Jr. has reportedly had affairs with at least three women over the past year, Americans are panic buying rolls of toilet paper in response to the port strike, Trump loves America a lot, and This Week in Unnecessary Censorship.
"Rignoramus" — snort! That reminds me of what I recall writing in a tweet four years ago in response to someone posting that the Republicans were going to steal the election. I wrote that they would try, but that they would fail. That came true, but the outcome was closer than I expected. I wasn't pessimistic enough!
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for something other than talk show hosts tomorrow.
Seth takes a closer look at Trump backing out of a 60 Minutes interview while JD Vance brazenly lied about everything from health care to abortion to January 6.
As I wrote yesterday, "Vance saying Trump saved Obamacare didn't pass the smell test. Really? Even if it were true, most people wouldn't believe it." Seth certainly didn't.
Tonight was the Vice Presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz, Fox News is desperate to exploit any kind of oddness that they can conjure up about Tim Walz, the two candidates were pretty polite to each other, CBS opted to not fact check live but to have a QR code on the screen instead so we created our own – just go to MattDamonSucks.com, Trump did a play by play of the debate on Truth Social, he was in Wisconsin today where we was in full babble mode, and JD Vance (Haley Joel Osment) has released a new ad making his donut shopping a top priority.
Jimmy remarked about how polite the debaters were, but I'm reminding my readers that "the civility of the debate, the 'Midwestern nice,' masked two political movements at total odds with each other." Still are, as evidenced by convictedcriminalDonald Trump's (un)truths. Histrionic him couldn't help but make it all about himself.
The Vance-Walz debate was universally hailed as “normal,” the former president looked tired and confused at recent speeches, and Stephen’s favorite Alaskan forest animal has returned in time to defend his Fat Bear Week title.
Stephen didn't buy Vance saying Trump saved Obamacare, either.
Michael Kosta tackles last night's VP debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz and the cable news pundits who have been hard at work spinning who won. Plus, Troy Iwata is in the post-debate spin room with a definitive, scientific debate-scoring system.
I agree that Vance was slick. If he won, and the polling was a statistical dead heat, it was on style, not substance. He lied more smoothly than Walz told the truth. That's not a good thing.
Governor Whitmer talks about all the artists on the “True Gretch” playlist from her book, her friendship with Tim Walz, her response to tonight’s VP debate between Walz and JD Vance, being 30 minutes late to her first debate, being described as a “Happy Warrior,” her grandmother teaching her to look for the best in everyone, something nice she could say about Donald Trump, her parents being in a mixed marriage politically, and whether or not Americans will ever be able to find unity.
That was an insightful take on both Walz and debating. I'm glad I included it in today's post.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned to see what I blog about tomorrow.
Michael Kosta goes live after the first and only vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. The stakes are as low as possible: one of these men will lose and we’ll never hear from them again, and one will win, become vice president, and we'll never hear from them again.
The opening joke, which is in the video description, reminds me of the vice presidency being described by John Adams as “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived” as I quoted in A History of the US Vice Presidency for Veep Day. Kosta returned to the next joke at the end, when he pointed out that the civility of the debate, the "Midwestern nice," masked two political movements at total odds with each other. The Trump supporters could have just said "yes, we are" to "we're not going back," but instead they were vulgar and misogynistic. Yuck.
All proceeds from this song will be donated to Clark County SPCA in Springfield, Ohio.
My wife and I were already fans of The Kiffness for his musical remixes of pet sounds (no relation to The Beach Boys album), but we really loved this video. So did nearly ten million other people, as the video now has 9,916,667 views. Wow!
