A Governor Breaks Up With Trump
Sanctions for genocide?
āThis is how the Russian state will now be perceived. This is your image. Your culture and human appearance perished together with the Ukrainian men and women to whom you came.ā āUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
As the world learns of the magnitude of Russian atrocities in Bucha, a reminder:
Responding to the images from Bucha, at least three top European officials ā European Council President Charles Michel, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the European Unionās economic commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni ā said they planned to impose tighter economic sanctions against Russia.
A fundamental problem, however, remains the billions of dollarsā worth of Russian oil and gas that the world continues to buy, giving the Kremlin a direct financial lifeline.
A thought: Perhaps acts of genocide require a more robust response than economic sanctions.
The Trump joke
There is a widely circulated, but likely apocryphal, story that Trump was inspired to run for president after he was mocked and humiliated by Barack Obama1 at the 2011 White House Correspondentsā Dinner.
That night, wrote the New Yorkerās Adam Gopnik, āthe President took apart Donald Trump, plastic piece by orange part, and then refused to put him back together again.ā
āOn that night, Trumpās own sense of public humiliation became so overwhelming that he decided, perhaps at first unconsciously, that he would, somehow, get his own back ā perhaps even pursue the Presidency after all, no matter how nihilistically or absurdly, and redeem himself.ā
Ah, well, perhaps not. The story is thinly sourced and likely an exaggeration. But Trump is a narcissist, and itās fair to say that very few narcissists enjoy being laughed at, or made the butt of jokes. Whatever the political fallout from the night, it is not unreasonable to assume that a good time was not had by The Donald as he was repeatedly skewered not only by the sitting president of the United States, but also by comedian Seth Meyers, who wielded a scalpel that was unusually sharp for such events.
Indeed, Meyers joked about Trump being a joke (āDonald Trump has been saying he will run for president as a Republican ā which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a jokeā) . . . which in retrospect is both ironic and morbidly funny.
I mention all of this as background for this weekendās interlude of Trump-based humor. ICYMI: New Hampshireās Republican Governor Chris Sununu roasted Trump at Saturdayās Gridiron Dinner in Washington, D.C., although āroastedā may too tepid a word.
'You know, he's probably going to be the next president,' Sununu said of Trump, before going on to sarcastically comment on the ex-president's 'experience' and 'sense of integrity.'
'Nah, I'm just kidding!' Sununu broke out and was met with laughter before saying' 'He's f***ing crazy!'
'Are you kidding?! Come on. You guys are buying that? I love it,' he continued. 'He just stresses me out so much.
'I'm going to deny I ever said it,' Sununu said of his comments about Trump.
He also clarified: 'I don't think he's so crazy he should be in a mental asylum. But if he's in one, he's not getting out.'
Unlike the 2011 dinner, Trump was not in attendance. But I think itās fair to assume that heāll hear about it. And this:
Also at the dinner, Sununu told a story about a time Trump visited his state of New Hampshire and invited him for a ride in The Beast.
During their discussion, Trump stopped talking and pointed out the window at people lining the road holding American flags.
He said: 'They love me,' according to the GOP governor.
Sununu said the only problem was that the man the then-president was pointed at was holding a sign that read, 'F*** TRUMP.'
Exit take: It was just a joke, right? But, if history is any guide, the Orange God King will be not amused.
As for Sununu and Trump? In the immortal words of Taylor Swift: "We Are Never Getting Back Together Again.ā
Update on the Anti-Anti-Putin Right
Confronted with the grim consequences of their Putin-ophilia, conservatives held an āemergency summitā in D.C. to rethink their position on Russia and Ukraine.
Just kidding. They doubled down.
[Joe] Kent is a 41-year-old former Green Beret running for Congress against Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler ā one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump in 2021 over the Jan. 6 insurrection.
By contrast, Kent, who has received Trumpās endorsement and received financial support from Peter Thiel and Stephen Wynn, spoke at the āJustice for J6ā rally in September in Washington, where he declared, āItās banana republic stuff when political prisoners are arrested and denied due process.ā He says that he is running against āthe establishmentā and frequently appears on Tucker Carlsonās Fox News show and Steve Bannonās āWar Roomā podcast.
Addressing the conference via video, Kent explained, āOur political establishment is dead set on driving us into a catastrophic conflict with Russia.ā More lethal aid to Kyiv and cyberattacks on Russia are a path to war.
āWe must be pragmatic,ā he said. His pragmatism appears to consist of granting Putin what he covets: āPutin has laid out what he wants in Ukraine ā a decent starting point,ā and his demands for control over Donetsk and Luhansk are āvery reasonable.ā
Meanwhile:
The circle is complete
Of course he did. āDonald Trump endorses Sarah Palin for Alaskaās lone congressional seat.ā
āSarah shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016, and we won big,ā Trump said in a statement Sunday. āNow, itās my turn!ā
Interesting factoid: There are more than 50 candidates in the race.
ICYMI: From Sundayās Morning Shots:
Once the most embarrassing figure in the GOP, Sarah Palin looks around her ā sees Matt Gaetz, MTG, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, Paul Gosar, and TFG ā and says to herself: Iāll fit right in here.
And sheās not wrong.
The SAT Isnāt Whatās Unfair
A follow-up to MITās decision to reinstate the SAT/ACT tests for admission. Kathryn Paige Harden writes in the Atlantic:
But the income-related disparities we see in SAT scores are not evidence of an unfair test. They are evidence of an unfair society. The test measures differences in academic preparedness, including the ability to write a clear sentence, to understand a complex passage, and to solve a mathematical problem. The SAT doesnāt create inequalities in these academic skills. It reveals them. Throwing the measurement away doesnāt remedy underlying injustices in childrenās academic opportunities, any more than throwing a thermometer away changes the weather.
Why the Dems failed to modernize elections
Insider look by the Intercept on Congressās botched efforts to increase election funding. āAt the center of the failure was the Brennan Center, which bucked local election officials and told Congress to focus on matters other than election funding.ā
In a letter sent to congressional leadership in late July, a coalition of 19 national advocacy groups, including the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Mi Familia Vota, urged Congress to allocate $20 billion for election infrastructure, citing the hundreds of local election officials, mayors, and secretaries of state who had begged for that amount earlier in the month. āAs the individuals and leaders closest to the administration of fair and secure elections, they have collectively called for federal support in meeting the immense needs they face,ā the national groups wrote. āWe write to add our voices to that important ask.ā
The Brennan Center declined to sign.
āIt was one of the most jaw-dropping moments of my professional life,ā said one election reform lobbyist whose organization signed the letter and who requested anonymity to describe the coalitionās private discussions.
Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center, said his organization āfelt that the dollar amount that the letter was asking for did not make sense based on our expertise and research and policy analysis ā¦ that it was too much,ā though he could not say what a better figure would beā¦
The timing of the ask also didnāt strike them as appropriate, Waldman said. āIt was in the heat of the fight for the [For the People] Act, which we regard as the most important voting rights legislation in half a century. ā¦ I thought that [the request] was a distraction and a detour from the very hard fight needed to pass voting rights legislation.ā..
Speaking of moving Dems to the center
Via Politico: āAdams makes the case for a centrist approach to national crime wave.ā
NEW YORK ā Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday painted himself as a compassionate but tough-on-crime Democrat as he looks to build his national profile amid a rise in gun violence across American citiesā¦.
Adams has declared himself the ānew face of the Democratic Party,ā and a model for how the party could reclaim an authoritative position on public safety issues that Republicans tend to dominate.
Quick Hits
1. David Perdue, Trumpās Sacrificial Lamb
Heās killing his career in honor of Trumpās election grievances, writes Amanda Carpenter.
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The thing about sacrificial lambs is that they can only be sacrificed once. What makes David Perdueās political career unique is that, in honor of Donald Trumpās 2020 election grievances, Perdue is killing it twice.
2. Hungaryās Autocrat OrbĆ”n Fends Off Opposition Challenge
H. David Baer writes in todayās Bulwark:
For OrbĆ”nās American fellow travelersāsome of whom have been grappling awkwardly with their movementās kind words for Vladimir PutināOrbĆ”nās victory will be taken as a confirmation that he is the man of the moment. Here, for example, is Rod Dreher:
Make no mistake: #ViktorOrban is the leader of the West now -- the West that still remembers what the West is.Never mind that on the issue animating and uniting the West right now, Putinās invasion of Hungaryās neighbor, OrbĆ”n has been very far from the Western mainstream. Never mind that, within Hungarian history, the populist (nĆ©pi) tradition that OrbĆ”n claims to represent frequently saw itself at odds with the Westāeven in a time when no one talked about transgender issues.
Cheap Shots
Footnote
āNow, I know that heās taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald,ā Obama said. āAnd thatās because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter ā like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?ā
āBut all kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. For example ā no, seriously, just recently, in an episode of āCelebrity Apprenticeā ā at the steakhouse, the menās cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately, you didnāt blame Lil Jon or Meatloaf. You fired Gary Busey. And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir. Well handled.ā
Dreher and Greenwald are the 21st century equivalents of Lord Haw Haw and Tokyo Rose. It doesn't matter if they are true believers, if they are being paid by the Kremlin, or if they're being blackmailed. We shouldn't pay any serious attention to them, other than to note whether their propaganda is being swallowed by our neighbors.
I think those of us Never Trumpers believe the Republican Party needs better leaders. Almost all of the elected Republicans have proven to be spineless when it came to standing up to a wannabe autocrat taking over the party. But, sadly, at the end of the day, the problem is primarily the GOP voters. We have too many of them who self-isolate themselves from objective facts and choose instead to be brainwashed by a panoply of Trumpian social and traditional media sources. (I don't call those sources "conservative" because such a description would be a bastardization of the term "conservative.") Some Trump supporters, who have isolated themselves, even go so far as to believe the most far-fetched conspiracy theories such as the Qanon nonsense.
With these brainwashed Republican voters, we face exactly the same problem as families who have members who have joined a cult. Cult leaders purposefully isolate their followers from outside information. The way you deprogram cult followers is to physically get them outside the cult information bubble so they are exposed to objective and truthful information.. But how do you deprogram Trump supporters who are intentionally allowing themselves to be brainwashed and who self-isolate from information that doesn't fit the narrative of their cult? I wish I knew.
As a side note, one thing not talked about regarding Ginni Thomas is how she came to become so radicalized. No doubt, it came from self-isolation from truthful information and instead being fed conspiracy nonsense from a constant drumbeat Trumpian social and traditional media sources. The problem is Justice Thomas is in the same household as Ginni Thomas. Maybe he hasn't gone down the same conspiracy-nonsense rabbit hole as Ginni, but you have to wonder.