One Tiny Mistake…

Submitted by a lurker:

Ron Wears Lady Clothes… pic.twitter.com/PLC2shlfU0

— C3PMeme (@C3PMeme) May 25, 2023

Whatever you do, DON’T forward this or post it on another social media site or make it go viral in any way.

Evil people want to shove a sock down doctors’ throats

Hey, remember that 10 year old rape victim in Ohio who couldn’t get an abortion because she was too pregnant the day a 6 week abortion ban went into effect? She ended up going to Indiana for an abortion. In Indiana, the doctor who performed the abortion submitted the paperwork to report the rape and then did the procedure. I don’t know if it was surgical or medical. Probably medical.

Then that doctor, Caitlin Bernard, talked to journalists about how serious this case was. A 10 year old was going to be forced to give birth to a baby that was a product of rape. A 10 year old

10.

People all over the country were outraged and justifiably so. A 10 year old is too young physically to have a baby. It’s not her fault that the hormones switched on before her bones caught up. No 10 year old is capable of consenting to sex and most have no idea what sex is unless they’ve grown up in a brothel. This was a clear case of rape of a minor. But it made no difference to the state of Ohio. (We’ll get to what the state of South Carolina said about women yesterday in a minute).

Anyway, Dr. Bernard was breaking the glass when she talked to reporters. What was about to happen after the USSC cavalierly overturned Roe last year has played out exactly as doctors predicted. Women have been denied life saving care in states where abortion is outlawed. We are talking about women who literally have to be dying before they can get an abortion. The laws are written so vaguely that doctors are afraid they’ll lose their licenses if they take any steps to intervene. There are states where Ob/Gyn’s are fleeing. In Idaho, the shortage is so severe that hospitals are closing their maternity wards. Women who can’t get abortions for fatal fetal abnormalities are forced to carry to term only to watch their babies die a couple of hours later. Women who choose to go to other states face long drives and expenses they don’t have the money to cover. There are other stories of lives deliberately upended by having children at the wrong time, tended to by women who had to stop their educations or add another mouth to an already overcrowded house in a time when SNAP benefits are being terminated or reduced.

There are partners killing their girlfriends who returned from their abortions in other states. There are women whose friends are being sued by former husbands.

In South Carolina this week, the swing vote thar ended debate on the 6 week abortion ban said this:

“At some point in time, the right of the state to see the unborn child born does take precedent over the woman’s right to her body,”

Yeah, they said that out loud. Well, I guess they’ve said that out loud for 50 years now. Except now, the fruits of their labor are becoming well known and manifesting in a wide variety of unpleasant ways.

They can’t have that. They don’t want you to know how many women’s bodies have been damaged, how many women’s lives have been permanently changed, by the end of Roe. Even the Supreme Court didn’t want to hear about the expected fallout to women’s lives when they heard from lawyers on the matter before they pulled the plug on Roe. What do women lives have to do with abortion??

They just want to bury those truths. The flood of those truths are going to make the consequences of the undeniably religious, punitive and cruel actions of Republican legislatures, governors and AGs look bad. It will get too much attention. It will burst the bubbles and let reality intrude on the Republican voters that in a frenzy of mob mentality imposed these heartless laws on women and reimposed biology as destiny. It might make those voters question those votes.

That’s why the state of Indiana’s AG brought Dr. Bernard’s behavior to the state medical disciplinary board. She was in danger of losing her license to practice medicine because she talked to journalists. They voted instead to fine her and put a letter of reprimand in her permanent record. Rokita, the Indiana AG was furious that she spoke out and had an “agenda”. I hope she appeals. There can be no greater agenda than to protect her patients and ensure they get the best medical treatment. That is what she did. She pulled the alarm on these cruel laws because they threaten to harm her patients.

Her fine is $3000. I’m sure she can pay this but why should she be faced with a fine for exercising her free speech rights? She followed the rules, submitted the required paperwork and deidentified the patient. There was no violation of privacy.

For this, the voters who wanted to end Roe harassed her, accused her of lying and demanded a retraction. Speaking the truth cost Dr. Bernard. And it will have the effect of stifling the speech of any other doctor who sees something or has to refrain from treating a patient due to these arbitrary rules.

That’s the point. Shut them up so the politicians and their voters can pretend like nothing bad has happened. Just let the women who are affected go out there on their own without their providers backing up their stories.

It’s evil. Just evil. The people who are doing this to women and the voters who thought it was a good idea to put women back in the nursery are just evil people. But now they’ll be protected from knowing just how evil they are.

But it’s too late. The truth is out there. Pregnant women in Idaho will need to drive long distances to give birth. There will be more unwanted children. Can’t hide that. There will be more murdered women. That’s the kind of thing that true crime addicts get off on. There will be women who will eventually die from lack of treatment. It’s going to happen just like it did in Ireland and Poland. I’m not sure how you can hide that. One day, some pregnant woman will be part of an extended family and the next she’ll just be gone. Permanently.

Voters are eventually going to know. You can’t make women invisible even if you clamp down on publicizing the horrors of their medical treatments.

And it’s too late for another reason. Mifepristone is going to be as available as candy all across the country. You can stop the companies who make it from selling it. You can stop drug stores from carrying it. You can stop abortion clinics from distributing it.

But you can’t stop educated, motivated and trained women from making it. It will be as ubiquitous as fentanyl pretty soon and there’s not a damn thing anyone can do about it.

Then it will be less of an issue for women who get accidentally pregnant. The pills will be there.

Pretty soon, the only women who will be injured, die and made sorrowful will be the pregnant women in the midst of a miscarriage, or carrying a baby with no kidneys or a baby whose medical condition pose a grave threat to their carriers. Or it will be a little girl who doesn’t even know what’s happening. It will be one hard story after another and everyone will know someone.

Tina Turner (1939-2023)

She never ever did nothin’ nice and easy. She started out easy and did it nice and rough.

She had great legs.

We’re going to miss her.

D E F A U L T

The syncopation of the Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin song versions keeps running through my mind. Not that I want to make a joke of it. It is that I become more and more convinced that the Republican arsonist caucus fully intends not to raise the debt ceiling, something that has never happened in America’s history.

I hear the ostensible negotiators for the Republicans say that unless the Democrats rein in spending, etc., they will not have a deal. To me, that is more evidence of propaganda, trying to win political points by framing this on the terms they intend to run on, blaming Biden for the economy that they intend to crash.

It is so appalling that most of the media keep framing this as a budget negotiation. Republican leaders say, “We passed our bill.” What bill? The budget was passed last year in the House. This is about simply paying for the budget, which has passed every single time, except when Republicans hold a majority in the House, and a Democrat is president. This is not supposed to be a negotiation. It never was, until the media let the Republicans claim it is.

So inevitably, the news articles are about Biden reneging on his promise not to negotiate this; or about Progressives being upset. Once again, the Democrats are put on the defensive, to where there is really nothing that they can do to get any kind of “win” out of this, or to avoid at least some major damage to the economy. That was Republicans’ plan all along, it usually is. Run up deficits by giving tax breaks to the wealthy, and then demand that Democrats not spend on social programs. The ultimate trickle down, where eventually we look like feudal Europe.

Republicans are going to demand major concessions, or they have their speeches and media surrogates all ready to blame Biden for wrecking the economy. I had always felt that this was going to happen, and the last few weeks are just Republican posturing.

I am disappointed that according to some sources, reliability open to question, Biden feels that it is too late to try to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment. If that is the case, he should have done it sooner, rather than apparently think that Republicans were actually going to work with him. But of course then I am doing what the Republicans and their media want; to blame this on Biden, because Republicans are not held to any standard.

Bill Clinton was said to have urged Obama to invoke it when Republicans were doing this, but Obama did not. So here we are again. Who could have figured? And wait until there are budget battles this term. Some Democrat president is going to have to make a stand, for better or worse. Invoke the Fourteenth, and let the Republicans yell, and the Supreme Court try to abrogate its responsibility.

As far as the media ever informing people that the debt ceiling was always raised until Republicans started using it as a political cudgel against Democrats; and that Republicans are trying to negate the previously passed budget, and are intending to wreck the economy and blame Biden for it, that is a longer shot than an agreement being reached. “Sock it to me, Sock it to me….All they want, is a major default.”

Does Game Theory Even Help Us Here?

I have never studied Game Theory to any great degree, but we all can grasp the intuitive concept behind it, in terms of decision-making.

We might try to figure out how some person or entity might act in a situation. We could even chart it out, but that requires some assumptions as to rationality. “If he does this, then this outcome will happen.” That presupposes both that he can access the likelihoods of the events; and that each decision-maker wants what we, observing it, would consider a desirable result, only in terms of him, even if a bad result for others.

An obvious example would be “the kidnapper,” or “hostage-taker.” He or she presumably wants to use the hostage to extract money from those who value the life of the victim. He threatens to kill him if his demands are not met. The family, or employer, or country, does not want that, but they have to be assured of the ultimate safe return of the hostage if they comply. There are obviously all sorts of variations of choice in these examples, often presented as logic puzzles, though they are probably used by real-life negotiators.

To get right to the point at hand, Kevin McCarthy and his Radical Right caucus which essentially controls him, are holding at least the American economy, and the non-very-wealthy people who make up most of it, hostage to their threats not to raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans now do this every time that they have control of the House, and there is a Democratic President. When a Republican is president, they always raise the debt ceiling, and always drastically cut taxes for the very wealthy, showing no concern for deficits; that is only used as a talking point against Democrats.

This should be beyond obvious, but it apparently is not to much of the media, which generally, with a few exceptions, refuses to point this out to their viewers and readers. So McCarthy is allowed to talk about how “we can’t keep spending,” whereas he didn’t care one bit about that under Trump. And Trump bellows about how Republicans should fight all the way against the Democrats here, because Democrats always get everything they want; which of course belies the fact that Democrats did not try to hold the economy hostage by using the debt ceiling, when Trump was president, and he kept bellowing then that they should not. This complete set of lies and hypocrisy, should be obvious to a reasonably intelligent first-grader, but it apparently isn’t to the media.

So if one were charting out a game theory diagram, it would have to include the influence of the media, which moves public opinion, so that somehow much of the public thinks that this “negotiation” is about the budget, which it is not; this budget was passed and signed last year. And people are told by the media that both sides should negotiate this, just because Republicans use their power to try and force it, even though the media never said that when House Democrats routinely approved raising the debt limit. And if Democrats had ever tried it, the media would have called them radicals and traitors.

So this “game” is not played in theory, and there are these various exogenous factors. Now, most importantly, any theorizing in this realm requires assumptions about the rationality of the actors. In this case, we are confronted with a Republican Party which does no seem to hold any value of caring about “the economy.” Fifty or sixty or seventy years ago, one could largely suppose that both parties cared, at least enough of them to avoid this impending economic catastrophe, which McCarthy, Greene, and the rest of the Republican caucus seem not to care one bit about.

What is at stake for Democrats in this decision-making process, is the economy, which would very likely fall into a Recession, and have even worse consequences, if the debt is defaulted on. What is at stake for Republicans? Maybe nothing. They think that either Biden gives them everything they want, cuts programs, thus damaging the economy; or he does not, and they default, damaging the economy. A win either way for them, is likely how they view it, really. They don’t care. It may be that they have no intention of making a deal, this is just for show, to be able to blame it on Biden. Winning the presidency, fully taking over the government, is their goal.

So we have two parties with wholly different goals and values. One wants to save the economy, one wants to destroy it; though they would never say it that way.

What do Biden and the Democrats do in this “game”? Capitulate, and cut the programs, and have Republicans say “We won!”? And have the media run stories about how Progressive Democrats are furious at Biden? They would enjoy doing that.

Stand their ground? Then Republicans would default, and blame it on Biden, and much of the media would frame it that way. Now, some very skillful elucidation by Democrats might help, but you’ve got the media steamrolling over it with their headlines and chytrons.

Try to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment? This is becoming popular among the Progressive wing of the Democratic Senators. But what does “invoking” mean? It would seem to end up as a contested issue at the Supreme Court; and how do you think that would come out? On any issue which comes before them, the Far Right is almost sure to win, which was their goal in spending fifty years trying to bulldoze their way to control of the Court, something that people like Nader, Sarandon, Glaude, and some other political figures whom I will not mention, didn’t seem to care enough about.

So the decision-making by Democrats now is very fraught. One can feel empathy for Biden, who, with the great help of Pelosi and Schumer, and their caucuses, did so much to try to improve things, and who now sees Republicans gleefully wanting to destroy most of it, and him as well. Of course, this well could have been anticipated if Republicans won the House, and thus blame goes to some of the voters as well.

It seemed obvious to me, and likely to most of us, that this was going to happen. It feels like a play which has already been written, and we are just seeing the strutting and fretting which accompanies its progress.

Does anyone with a deep knowledge of game theory, have an idea where Biden and the Democrats can emerge from this, if not the winners, at least in a tenable position with regard to saving the economy, and winning the crucial next election? A Biden speech to the nation? Would the media actually run it? Or would they accede to Trump and the Radical Republicans’ demands for equal time?

Some Positive Election Results

The results of the limited amount of elections on Tuesday were heartening. I never know how much one can extrapolate, but it’s much better to win them.

Donna Deegan was elected Mayor of Jacksonville, which is actually the biggest city in Florida. It is sort of a city and a county. and not the kind of typical “big city” which Democrats win in Blue states; Democrats have not been routed there as they have been in much of Florida, but this still is a notable victory, in a state where the general consensus has been that Democrats are a virtual anachronism. Apparently a good candidate, and some major ground efforts, can still make a difference. I would hardly think that Democrats will win the state vote there next year, but it does provide some much-needed hope and enthusiasm.

In Fort Collins, Colorado, considered a “Conservative? stronglhold, Yemi Mobolade, a Nigerian immigrant, was elected mayor. He ran as an Independent, defeating a Republican, in an officially nonpartisan race. He is the first person not identifying as a Republican, who has been elected mayor there, since they started electing them 45 years ago.

And in Pennsylvania, Democrats managed to hold onto their one-seat majority in the statehouse. How a state with a Democratic governor, two Democratic senators, and other key state officials, has barely a majority in the state legislature, is another testament to the “shellackings” of 2010 and 2014, and relentless gerrymandering, of the sort which allows North Carolina, where the governor is a Democrat, and where Biden lost by 1.8% in 2020, to have a veto-proof Far Right majority, which just essentially took away abortion rights there.

So there is that kind of bad news among the good. But at least when it comes to elections, Democrats are overperforming expectations in important places. What they need to do is to somehow convince voters that voting for Republicans for state legislatures, allows the Far Right to game the system and control the state.

For example, there is no way that North Carolina can get back the 20-week protection for abortion rights, because the odds of them taking over the state legislature in the next ten years or so is very small. The Trojan Horse woman who ran as an abortion rights Democrat, and then five months later, switched to the Republican Party, and voted to essentially ban abortions, saw to that. Voters simply must stop voting for Republicans for any position, and also to be wary of these kind of abhorrent tactics from a party which will do absolutely anything to win.

Almost ironically, every time that voters get a chance to affirm abortion rights, they do. But “somehow,” in North Carolina, where polls show that a strong majority favored the 20-week period, they have ended up with 12 weeks. Republicans are stupid and evil, and know very little, but they do know how to use political power to control a state and the Supreme Court.

There is no way to know what will happen in the elections of 2024, but it does seem that Democrats are favored in terms of the public sentiment on many important issues. The crucial part is turning that into actual votes in districts and states, not to mention the electoral college, of course.

What We Are Up Against

Erdogan, unquestionably a fascist, forced into an election runoff n Turkey. This despite the fascist Elon Musk cutting off access to the internet sites of the opposition, and Turkish authorities recounting the ballots in one district some fifteen times, because they did not like the vote total.

DeSantis acting more fascistic than Erdogan, perhaps, seeking to ban books, set all the teaching curricula, threaten educators’ jobs, if he or any parent doesn’t like how or what they are teaching.

Trump battling to show he is more fascistic,, saying he would pardon most of the insurrectionists, whom he of course did not describe in that way, if he were elected. Imprisoned Proud Boys demanding that DeSantis also promise to do that.

Republican state legislators in North Carolina passed a bill making any abortion after twelve weeks a crime.The previous law had been twenty weeks. Democratic Governor Cooper vetoed the bill. The Republicans vow to override the veto with their two-thirds majority. That includes a female Representative who had run as an abortion rights Democrat, but after winning the seat, switched parties, and ostensibly changed to an anti-abortion position. An obvious Trojan Horse, a trick used by fascists throughout history, including Trump, Musk, and George Santos.

Every day, there is another fascist attack on he foundations of our democracy. They come from many angles, and sometimes in different guises. We will see a couple of them who do not identify as Republicans, running for President.

It is exhausting to deal with them, but that is what they want. Just give in, say that you love the fascist state,. Tucker Carlson and Rupert Murdoch and his heirs want you to . Do you wonder why Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson are running for President again; why RFK, Jr., with the support of Steve Bannon, is challenging President Biden, claiming that the CIA killed JFK, and covered it up?.

Fascist Republican Congressman James Comer alleges that the “Biden family” has engaged in corrupt business dealings. He claims that he has information from “whistleblowers,’ but they always disappear when it comes time for them to testify. Then Comer says that all his witnesses have strangely ended up in prison, or disappeared; as if Biden had done this, rather than them being invented by Comer, just like Tucker Carlson’s alleged witnesses.

Fascists on the march, and they will never rest until they get their fascist state, with all the power and riches it would bring. Rudy Giuliani, formerly “America’s Mayor,” was apparently trying to sell pardons for $2 million, and wanting to do it with Trump sharing the money. Did you ever see the movie “The Departed”? The person who wrote that obviously knew something.

Fascists have many ways to win. Spend billions to flood the airwaves. Control at least two of the major news networks. Suppress the vote, claiming non-existent voter fraud as the necessity to do it. Never accept the results of any election which you lose. Create an insurrection intended to overthrow the government. Incite your followers to kill elected officials from the other side. Plant pipe bombs which are intended to go off, and give the fascist President the excuse to declare martial law.

The fascists, the totalitarians, from Germany, Italy, and Japan, were defeated 80 years ago. But totalitarians expanded their power in Russia and China. Virtually every European country now has a fascist vying for or holding political power , Orban in Hungary, wildly cheered by Republicans whose ancestors bravely fought to defeat tyrants like that, Le Pen in France. Erdogan in Turkey. The ruling powers in India and Italy. The people who got Brexit passed in England, an early test of the power of corrupt social media, and high-powered computer identification and targeting of voters.

All of these people and parties and networks and social media are aligned with Russia, So was Tulsi Gabbard, but when Hillary Clinton exposed her in 2020, the media screamed at Clinton,, and so did some very suspicious Democrats, but then Gabbard went away, as did Jill Stein, both having done what they could for their cause.

It’s not enough just to vote, although we wish it would be. You have to identify the fascists, including those that pretend to be your side; make up false resumes, claim that they are “no labels.” Wait until they perfect the use of AI, which used to be a three-toed sloth, for crossword puzzle aficionados.

Actually, we cannot afford to wait. We have to vote, every one of us. We have to figure out who and where the good people are, even if Musk has banned them from social media. We need to do everything and .more that our parents and grandparents did to temporarily defeat totalitarianism. There are still millions who want to do that, but they have to work together , and not be fooled by the protean fascists who will try to convince them that there is no hope. ,or that fascism isn’t so bad. or that you need to rest, and find something else to do. And somehow that small remaining segment of the media which has the capacity to read, and understand what is at stake,, and to not both-sides things, has to do everything they can, because we probably can’t do it without them.

Some More Wordle Challenges

Some interesting Wordles in the last ten days. Here is a brief review, through Saturday

On May 4, it was a somewhat difficult one, where I had a u, a y, and a p, no other vowels. The p was not first.The y was probably last. I thought of puppy, and guppy, but I was not sure if it were spelled guppie, although printing it out, it looks obvious that it is not. So I tried bumpy, a la Bette Davis in “All About Eve,” but it was not right, though the y was last, and thee was a u second and a p fourth. So with – u – p y, I did try GUPPY,, which was the word.

Then I had a word where it showed an e, o, and l. after three tries, none in the right spot. No, h, no n, so word not hovel or novel. No y to end word. I had thought of rolex, but I think it is a brand name, but who knows what Wordle might do with a word like that which is in the vernacular. Anyway, no r in word. So what did word end with? Not likely e, not noble, no n; not likely o. So perhaps w? I finally came up with BElLOW.

The next word had a, e, r, and then n. I thought of amber, but of course no n in amber. I then came up with ANGER, “Now that I’m out of touch with anger/And I’ve got nothing to live up to/I don’t know when to start joking/When I stop, I hope that I am with you.” (Howard Devoto, Magazine, “Parade.”).

Then one where I made a rare early guess, which made things more difficult. I had o u., and I decided to guess trout. But there was no t and no r. I had – – o u -. So I tried aloud, and there was no a, no d, but an l, not second. So I had – – o u =with an l. The l was almost certainly not first, so it had to be fifth. – – o u l. And so the word was likely GHOUL, and it was, just in time for the MAGA convocation, which they called a “town hall.”

Then a respite, with a nice word, though hard to get. After three guesses, I had, o, a, and l. After some thought, I tried alamo, though I did not know if it was considered a proper name of a place, or a word in usage. Well, wordle accepted the guess, but it wasn’t the word. That is sometimes the problem with trying a word like that, it may be that they would never use it as answer, but would take it as a guess.

Well, it did show the a first. a – – – -, with l and o. I had thought of allow, but l could not be second, so not the word. Could not be ao, aolian has six letters. I thought of other consonants, and I finally thought of AGLOW, a nice word.

Then I had an a, an o, and a c, after three guesses, the c not fourth, and the a and o not first. I remembered Wordle using cacao as an answer; and as I do not like chocolate, I scarcely knew the word, but thought that cocoa was derived from cacao? Well, I wondered if they would taunt me again, with cocoa, this time, and COCOA was the word.

The next game showed an i, a t, an e, a c and an h in my first three tries. – – – – -, with i, e, t,h c. ETHIC.

Then a harder one for me. I had an o, third. Then an r, second. At least no – – o – e. Instead. – r o – -. There were still many combinations. I thought of frock, or crock. I decided to try flock, to test f, l, c, and k. But one of the letters were in the word. So then I tried grown, to test that word, and brown. But neither of those letters were in the word, either! There were no other vowels, although a y was possible. I had used up many of the consonants. Proxy not possible, no p. Finally, it occurred to me that there could be another o i the word. And since the word could not be brood or brook, BROOM was likely, and that was the word, in five guesses.

The next day, I had a, s, n, and c, Not that many words, no other vowels. SNACK was the wotf.

Getting up to date, I had i, r, a and d in two tries. Seemed easy, but one can never be overconfident. I was pretty sure that diary was the word, but it was not. Then I was thinking of radia, is that a word? Not for wordle. Then I thought, radii, the plural of radius. But no, that was not the word, either!

I had the four letters, but the only correct spot was an i fourth. – – – i -, with r, a and d. R did not start the word, nor did d. Finally, I considered that d not first, not third, not fourth, so second or fifth. If d second, then a first. a d – i – with an r, no word there. If d last, then a – r i d? ACRID? That was the word.

So not too hard overall, but aglow and broom were a real challenge. I hope this was a bit of a welcome respite from the ongoing stress of dealing with Trump, the Republicans, and their media enablers. I’m sure that none of them is very good at Wordle, it takes too much of a knowledge or words and language for them. Plus you can’t spin it, you either get the word, or you don’t!

How to beat Trump.

I would be very surprised if media outlets didn’t already know the answer to this question. I’m beginning to think the outrage response to the CNN town hall is part of some tag team wrestling event. They’re trying to generate anger so viewers keep tuning in for the next time Trump sucks the oxygen out of the room.

But you know, I don’t want to live through another 5 years of Trump bogarting our attention, wrecking the economy, giving parts of Ukraine to Putin, signing a national abortion ban, and pursuing his enemies with a red hot fury. Do ANY of us need that?

Fascism is like getting a case of drug resistant gonorrhea. There are always going to be some vulnerable people who are drunk on power who can be lead to let their guard down by some sleazy guy who knows how to sweet talk them. Then, once they have the infection, it starts attacking, destroying some pretty important organs. It will wreck havoc and cause permanent damage before it gets under control. And that guy who gave it to you? He won’t GAF that part of your life is destroyed. It will be YOUR fault that you didn’t protect yourself. Just like you wouldn’t put a mask on or support universal background checks. Every time you allow him and his buddies be aggressive without consequences you make it that much easier for him to infect your body.

So, how to defeat him? Let’s first talk about what doesn’t work. Paul Waldman who writes for WaPo wrote this thread this morning that explains why Kaitlin Collins drowned in a sea of bullshit yesterday. Click on the tweet to read the whole thread:

1. One thing last night made clear is that not only doesn't "fact-checking in real time" work on Trump, it's actually JUST WHAT HE WANTS. Allow me to explain…

— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) May 11, 2023

Basically, his power is to flood the questioner with a firehose of lies, never directly respond to the question, and make fact checking irrelevant. It is a performance of sociopathic aggression. That’s why he appears to be unstoppable against someone as well prepared as Kaitlin Collins. She brought a knife to a gunfight. They’re not even engaging with one another. So the town hall was a pointless exercise if the purpose was to get Donald to play by the rules of traditional journalism. You can’t do that with a guy who has been repeatedly rewarded for all of the manifestations of his cluster B personality disorders. He feeds off of ripping journalists to bloody gobs because he is a predator.

Now, let’s talk about the other side of this problem: his base. What is it they are getting from this? Bryan Mast, Republican congressman from Florida tells us exactly how Trump gets their attention and loyalty:

Brian Mast spitting truth on CNN:

"The full weight and force of the federal government was exercised to subvert an election." pic.twitter.com/PQpPz5WjKn

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 11, 2023

To summarize, his base loves him because he doesn’t back down from a debate, he doesn’t read from a script, therefore, he’s authentic, he tells them what he thinks and how he feels, he projects strength, international adversaries fear him.

Facts are stupid things that rational people use to make sense of the world. His base can’t relate to them. It’s all about getting up in your grill as a red faced, angry, belligerent asshole. They like that he’s an asshole and gets away with it.

So, what is the number one method of undermining your political opponent? You attack their strengths.

This will mean journalists will have to do some unorthodox things, things that will be unpleasant to watch. I’m not going to give any ideas away but I can think of three or four off the top of my head that would sap his strength. If you have been watching the January 6 hearings, you’ll already know a couple of ways to do this. It would be pretty easy to throw a misophobe off his game. Unnerve him, make him anxious. Have you ever seen that clip of Trump freaking out over a loud bang at a campaign stop?

You know why he didn’t testify at E. Jean Carroll’s trial? It’s because he didn’t want to be confronted in public about the statements he made in his deposition. They’re damning. I don’t think for one second that attorney Roberta Kaplan fears him in the least. It wasn’t just facts that won the case for Carroll. It was Trump’s feeling of entitlement. His arrogance. His attitude of being untouchable. A good attorney would have worked with that. That’s why he didn’t even show up at court. She would have been speaking directly to his image of himself. It wouldn’t have been pretty. He knew it. He’s a coward.

Anyway, if you’ve been to middle school, you know what to do. As Julia Ioffe says about Vladimir Putin, he needs to have his nose bloodied before he’ll back down. You can’t bloody Trump’s nose with facts. You’re going to have to fight dirty. And smile sweetly for the cameras as we all watch.

Get Nicolle Wallace to do it. I’d pay to see that.

What I learned from listening to CNN tonight

• Listening was bad enough. Never watch cable news. Just listen to the words.
• E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers are delighted about their prospects at appeal. Is it possible for the jury to increase her compensation? Inquiring minds want to know.
• Speaking of defamation suits, can those two black poll workers in Georgia sue Trump? Does Roberta Kaplan have time?
• Fani Willis definitely needs to beef up security. No doubt about it.
• Trump’s multitudinous lawyers are tearing their hair out tonight.
• Jack Smith will want to know who Trump showed those documents to.
• Pennsylvania Biden voters are really sick of having our integrity impugned and our enfranchisement threatened by Big Orange. If he’s looking for election fraud, he’s more likely to find what he needs in NY and California. (Just kidding. Or am I…?)
• Trump said he talked to Putin about invading Ukraine many times. Merrick Garland might want to follow up on that.
• Kaitlin Collins was relying on fact checking. CNN has not learned that fact checking is not effective against a sociopath. Or maybe it has learned but the ratings were too good to pass up. Malice or stupidity? 🤷🏼‍♀️

And last, but certainly not least…

Trumpers and MAGA Republicans are shameless assholes who “showed their quality” tonight.

We find it wanting.

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