“Trump hasn’t had a public embarrassment at that level.” To that, I say, HELL yes he has. I would vociferously dispute your assertion. Trump IS a public embarrassment on every level every day. Just like every other media member in America for ten years, you let him play by different rules. He says and does things EVERY day for ten years, any one of which would still sink ANY other politician EVER. Just in the last two weeks he has made insane, misogynistic, cruel and dishonest comments about SEVEN female reporters that should have in a decent and sane
world caused his resignation. I am serious. I am sick of the media, and frankly most everyone else in this country. Thanks for the reminder that Trump has broken our “regular order” as JVL says, and the quote above from you proves it. Shame on you, and frankly all of us.
Thank you! It's infuriating the kind of smiley face filter the press still runs Trump through. Fraud, criminality, and executive overreach aside, he's boorish, ignorant, and insulting. His tired toddler energy has angered our international allies and has rightly made them distrust our government. He is causing untold damage, which Biden never did. Nor did Biden lie repeatedly.
One of the biggest things I blame Trump for is sinking the last nail in the coffin of a reliable free press in the US.
We’re not at the “last nail in the coffin” stage yet and The Bulwark is a fine example of journalism that is alive and awake on a human level. The growth in serious and succinct reporting on subscriber-supported media is going to save democracy. It’s already on the front lines and gaining strength by the hour.
The Biden "embarrassment" was solely (at least compared to Trump) because his voice sounded weak and therefore insufficiently "alpha." Although Trump may be projectile vomiting a nonstop stew of dementia and tertiary syphilis at all times, he does it with a dominant affect. And that's all idiot America cares about, frankly.
His voice has begun having fade-out moments, though, which I find encouraging.
Exactly. A severe personality disorder with mania is credited as "energy". It's ridiculous. Slogans, insults and bullshit. That's all he has, and the press can't, or won't, challenge him on 99% of it.
Rick (and others in this thread): With respect, I think you're misreading Joe's commentary.
From context, it's pretty clear Joe doesn't have any interest in excusing Trump's behavior (and c'mon: Accusing anyone at the Bulwark of letting Trump "play by different rules" is nonsensical).
When Joe says Trump "hasn’t had a public embarrassment at that level," I think his unstated assertion is that Trump hasn't undergone a pervasive, enduring media portrayal as a doddering old man in the manner that Biden did.
SHOULD Trump undergo that? Of course!
Joe seems to simply be acknowledging that that hasn't happened.
I suggest all commenters extend to Bulwark writers the benefit of the doubt. The Bulwark ain't the problem.
Sorry, but that was a silly thing to say by Joe. And the only reason Trump “hasn’t had a public embarrassment at that level” is because the media refuses to call it out and make a big deal about it.
The political press ran more negative stories about HRC’s health when she got briefly sick at the end of a very long campaign back in 16. And Biden? They had him in a nursing home in diapers with their coverage. The media lambasted Dems for “covering up the truth” when they defended Biden. But the GOP? Just the republicans being republicans. It’s part of why we are in this mess. Joe is honest there about their hypocrisy, unlike most of his colleagues beyond the Bulwark.
I'm not sure it's entirely the media's responsibility to explain what's "embarrassing." Any time that they air extended clips of Trump's endlessly nonsensical (not to mention grotesque and racist) ramblings, any responsible citizen should be able to identify that as "embarrassing," or worse. If they lack that basic discernment, I doubt any degree of media hand-holding is going to fix that.
Of course he is incapable of any human emotion, but pretending he is normal is on all of us. We have failed the sanity and decency test thoroughly and miserably.
Does the Cabinet not know they are being photographed praising this sleepy 🥱 PRESIDENT WHILE THEY ARE FALLING ALL OVER HIM. You are all humiliating yourself and letting the world witness!?
Bessent literally called Trump's ability to run a 3 hour cabinet meeting as proof of his stamina in an interview. I guess it is true that Biden didn't have the force of will (or stupidity) to call a 3 hour meeting and put it on TV during his naptime.
To be fair, though, a Trump cabinet meeting full of people kissing his ass probably is a good time for a nap. It's not like anything important is going to interrupt the propaganda.
I can't speak for everyone who's affected by the AI boom (which is, essentially, all of us), but I'm a conventionally published novelist--no mean feat these days!--and when I found out Google AI was "harvesting" parts of my books, I was totally ready to seize the AI responsible for stealing my work and beat it entirely to death with my just-paid-for MacBook Pro.
If the publishing world--and other conventional content spaces--doesn't wise up and protect its own source material, it may come down to that level of personal extreme discouragement from all us creative types.
Fellow author here. I couldn't agree more. AI will overshadow the original work of writers, artists, and musicians soon if industries don't take action.
Except as far as I can tell Ai has yet to generate a genuinely sympathetic character and a truly novel plot. (My last BF, long may he rot, used to hand me examples of AI "reading material" to prove its superiority--more fool he!--which is why I'm as familiar with it as I am and he is currently taking up space in a nursing home.)
100%. I asked one of my favourite speakers at a recent writing conference what he thought about all the AI fears in our industry, and he said he wasn't worried one bit because AI churns out material that will try to appeal to the widest possible audience so it will always feel bland and generic.
My BIL used to make up stories for his kids when they were young using recurring characters, and he's a big tech guy, so he used ChatGPT recently to turn his ideas into actual stories and he was super impressed with the writing. He shared it with me and right away I could see endless places for improvement with editing. It was amusing, but at the level of a first draft for a brand new writer, at best.
of course, he's unable to fulfill the duties of the office. imagine a real crisis -- he can't handle it. he can't do it. proof: he couldn't do in the 1.0 version -- he spent 5 mins vaguely doing the right thing with covid and the rest of his time in office doing the wrong thing. now in 2.0 --he's far worse -- this means he can't handle even more ... he has no capacity at all to do it. yet no one will shout it out like during biden. the media is effectively silent. where are the message amplifiers on the not-trump side? i want "thanks trump" stickers on meat display at the grocery like "thanks brandon". if they do it, so should we.
From the start you should know that I am an author whose work was scraped without consent or compensation and am part of the Authors Guild class action lawsuit against several AI developers. I resolutely refuse to use AI for research, writing, graphic design, or editing of my work, putting -ai in my searches. That having been said, I am worried beyond creative content and human unemployment. The family and social fabric is at risk. I am extremely concerned about the recent Stanford report about AI bias against women. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/10/ai-llms-age-bias-older-working-women-research I am also concerned about people sacrificing interhuman relationships for relationships with chatbots. When I read about AI already resorting to blackmail and showing a willingness to sacrifice human life to protect itself, I think of 2001 Space Odyssey’s HAL. I am not a complete Luddite and concede AI has uses, but it’s developing without safeguards, without ethics, in a race to dominance. We should all be concerned, should support human-only content creators, should reward companies who don’t fire their receptionists, schedulers, coders, editors, designers, translators, and such, and should insist data centers fully pay their electricity fee themselves and not throw residential users into blackouts for Russian meme-makers.
I wonder if this bias and other issues raised are because it is using a lot of past published information, when these biases, etc., were more prevalent and accepted. It seems that AI might be lagging with regards to social issues. I recall reading about how some cameras could not "see" black people. When you use a limited set of data for training and development, you get a limited capability system.
As some else pointed out AI is basically telling you what a 38 year old white male on Reddit knows and thinks - not really useful and certainly not comprehensive
The Nancy Mace melt down at the airport brought to mind the current Sec. of Trans concerns of returning civility to traveling. How about he focus less on wearing PJs as the source of the problem and focus on classless rude profane laden treatment of people trying to do their jobs by legislators as a priority. It is always a bad sign when folks attack the workers for rules and policies dictated to them.
I will happily dress up for a flight when the airlines provide more room (leg room and seat width) throughout the aircraft and better meals and snacks for everyone, as well as making sure that their aircraft are actually ready to fly with a rested and capable crew with no delays.
I love your plan. Count me in! Treat me like a first class passenger and I will respect you for it. Treat me like cattle and that is what you get from me.
Thank you, Mr. Perticone. Falling asleep is one thing. The gibberish is quite another. The denial of statements that are on tape is ridiculous. He’s a dangerous life form on several levels - our very lives, our health, our freedom.
I am old, so maybe this is only the effect of nostalgia, but I have the same worries that you (and the Pope!) express about drifting thoughtlessly away from the world of human nuance, interpretation, intuition, and feeling - especially in our work lives.
Trump posting 158 times in 4 hours in manic. There is something really, really wrong with him. It's like he is possessed by a mind that is gone. We are seriously screwed.
So Biden had the worst performance at his debate, something Felon Trump has not had? That’s because you are excusing him. That debate with Harris was unbelievable with him yelling that cats and dogs are being eaten by Haitians. What was embarrassing is that the candidate for the Office of the President was not censored for those lies, and called out. Biden looked dazed. Trump looked demented.
No wonder Trump keeps dozing off, even when he is not on trial. In addition to the enormous amount of work involved in being President, Trump is the active Chairman of the (soon to be renamed) Kennedy Center, he gets to chose a Board Member for Nippon Steel, is redoing what is left of the White House to ensure that there is no dignity left, is actively directing the wrecking of the East Wing of the White House and the creation of a massive new ballroom (rumors that McDonalds has been closed as the official cateerer have not been confirmed), spends hours each day posting incoherent, false and/or insulting messages on social media, and finding new ways to use his position to enrich himself and his family as well as other "deserving" billionaires and despots. Trump frees up the time do all this and more by not reading or listening to national security or other briefings (except from Putin and Fox News), and by surrounding himself with unquestioning loyalists so he doesn't have to think about anything he says or does.
“Trump hasn’t had a public embarrassment at that level.” To that, I say, HELL yes he has. I would vociferously dispute your assertion. Trump IS a public embarrassment on every level every day. Just like every other media member in America for ten years, you let him play by different rules. He says and does things EVERY day for ten years, any one of which would still sink ANY other politician EVER. Just in the last two weeks he has made insane, misogynistic, cruel and dishonest comments about SEVEN female reporters that should have in a decent and sane
world caused his resignation. I am serious. I am sick of the media, and frankly most everyone else in this country. Thanks for the reminder that Trump has broken our “regular order” as JVL says, and the quote above from you proves it. Shame on you, and frankly all of us.
Thank you! It's infuriating the kind of smiley face filter the press still runs Trump through. Fraud, criminality, and executive overreach aside, he's boorish, ignorant, and insulting. His tired toddler energy has angered our international allies and has rightly made them distrust our government. He is causing untold damage, which Biden never did. Nor did Biden lie repeatedly.
One of the biggest things I blame Trump for is sinking the last nail in the coffin of a reliable free press in the US.
We’re not at the “last nail in the coffin” stage yet and The Bulwark is a fine example of journalism that is alive and awake on a human level. The growth in serious and succinct reporting on subscriber-supported media is going to save democracy. It’s already on the front lines and gaining strength by the hour.
Love the Bulwark people. I stand by my feelings about the inane and insane comment by Joe about “embarrassment.”
I live the Bulwark. It does not change how I feel about the inan
Agree, he only has an embarrassment of that level on a daily fucking basis
Agree completely! As Jeff Tiedrich says every day when he ends his Substack newsletter,
The first reporter to stand up and ask Trump "What the heck is the matter with you" should get a lifetime Pulitzer.
The Biden "embarrassment" was solely (at least compared to Trump) because his voice sounded weak and therefore insufficiently "alpha." Although Trump may be projectile vomiting a nonstop stew of dementia and tertiary syphilis at all times, he does it with a dominant affect. And that's all idiot America cares about, frankly.
His voice has begun having fade-out moments, though, which I find encouraging.
Exactly. A severe personality disorder with mania is credited as "energy". It's ridiculous. Slogans, insults and bullshit. That's all he has, and the press can't, or won't, challenge him on 99% of it.
Rick (and others in this thread): With respect, I think you're misreading Joe's commentary.
From context, it's pretty clear Joe doesn't have any interest in excusing Trump's behavior (and c'mon: Accusing anyone at the Bulwark of letting Trump "play by different rules" is nonsensical).
When Joe says Trump "hasn’t had a public embarrassment at that level," I think his unstated assertion is that Trump hasn't undergone a pervasive, enduring media portrayal as a doddering old man in the manner that Biden did.
SHOULD Trump undergo that? Of course!
Joe seems to simply be acknowledging that that hasn't happened.
I suggest all commenters extend to Bulwark writers the benefit of the doubt. The Bulwark ain't the problem.
Sorry, but that was a silly thing to say by Joe. And the only reason Trump “hasn’t had a public embarrassment at that level” is because the media refuses to call it out and make a big deal about it.
The political press ran more negative stories about HRC’s health when she got briefly sick at the end of a very long campaign back in 16. And Biden? They had him in a nursing home in diapers with their coverage. The media lambasted Dems for “covering up the truth” when they defended Biden. But the GOP? Just the republicans being republicans. It’s part of why we are in this mess. Joe is honest there about their hypocrisy, unlike most of his colleagues beyond the Bulwark.
I'm not sure it's entirely the media's responsibility to explain what's "embarrassing." Any time that they air extended clips of Trump's endlessly nonsensical (not to mention grotesque and racist) ramblings, any responsible citizen should be able to identify that as "embarrassing," or worse. If they lack that basic discernment, I doubt any degree of media hand-holding is going to fix that.
Yes, that was exactly how I interpreted Joe's comment. And people who are without shame are difficult to embarrass.
Trump's incapable of being embarrassed.
Remember, it's the attention he craves, whether it's positive or not.
He wins either way.
Of course he is incapable of any human emotion, but pretending he is normal is on all of us. We have failed the sanity and decency test thoroughly and miserably.
"You are a horrible human being". "Quiet, piggy". "You're ugly." (Just kidding) :)
How do you know so much about me?
Just a wild guess!
I just saw your post after posting the same observation.
Does the Cabinet not know they are being photographed praising this sleepy 🥱 PRESIDENT WHILE THEY ARE FALLING ALL OVER HIM. You are all humiliating yourself and letting the world witness!?
Many people are saying that Kim Jung Un watched that cabinet meeting and was embarrassed for the United States.
Excellent! Wish I could add laughing emoji.
🤣
Yep. Times four.
Bessent literally called Trump's ability to run a 3 hour cabinet meeting as proof of his stamina in an interview. I guess it is true that Biden didn't have the force of will (or stupidity) to call a 3 hour meeting and put it on TV during his naptime.
To be fair, though, a Trump cabinet meeting full of people kissing his ass probably is a good time for a nap. It's not like anything important is going to interrupt the propaganda.
To Trump, that ass kissing is much like a momma singin' her baby a soothing lullaby.
I choose to refer to them as North Korean asskissingathons.
Having no shame, it doesn’t matter to them what obsequious fools they are.
Of course they know. They are very consciously performing for an audience of one.
I think watching Marco Rubio jabbering away while Trump was fast asleep next to him was just too ridiculous to even watch. I turned away.
> Trump hasn’t had a public embarrassment at that level
Au contraire; Trump simply has made embarrassment the norm rather than the exception.
Hate, hate, hate AI; a pox on it.
Particularly concerned about deep fake video, which is getting harder and harder to detect. Very dangerous.
Honestly, I think his falling asleep during work is more of a five-alarm fire than a poor debate performance.
I can't speak for everyone who's affected by the AI boom (which is, essentially, all of us), but I'm a conventionally published novelist--no mean feat these days!--and when I found out Google AI was "harvesting" parts of my books, I was totally ready to seize the AI responsible for stealing my work and beat it entirely to death with my just-paid-for MacBook Pro.
If the publishing world--and other conventional content spaces--doesn't wise up and protect its own source material, it may come down to that level of personal extreme discouragement from all us creative types.
Fellow author here. I couldn't agree more. AI will overshadow the original work of writers, artists, and musicians soon if industries don't take action.
Except as far as I can tell Ai has yet to generate a genuinely sympathetic character and a truly novel plot. (My last BF, long may he rot, used to hand me examples of AI "reading material" to prove its superiority--more fool he!--which is why I'm as familiar with it as I am and he is currently taking up space in a nursing home.)
100%. I asked one of my favourite speakers at a recent writing conference what he thought about all the AI fears in our industry, and he said he wasn't worried one bit because AI churns out material that will try to appeal to the widest possible audience so it will always feel bland and generic.
My BIL used to make up stories for his kids when they were young using recurring characters, and he's a big tech guy, so he used ChatGPT recently to turn his ideas into actual stories and he was super impressed with the writing. He shared it with me and right away I could see endless places for improvement with editing. It was amusing, but at the level of a first draft for a brand new writer, at best.
of course, he's unable to fulfill the duties of the office. imagine a real crisis -- he can't handle it. he can't do it. proof: he couldn't do in the 1.0 version -- he spent 5 mins vaguely doing the right thing with covid and the rest of his time in office doing the wrong thing. now in 2.0 --he's far worse -- this means he can't handle even more ... he has no capacity at all to do it. yet no one will shout it out like during biden. the media is effectively silent. where are the message amplifiers on the not-trump side? i want "thanks trump" stickers on meat display at the grocery like "thanks brandon". if they do it, so should we.
I can’t get on board with, “Trump hasn’t had a public embarrassment at that level.”
He has. It happens a big portion of the time he speaks, in fact.
We’re just too far above 212 degrees for legacy media to care, apparently.
Given who owns the legacy media, it’s no surprise that they mostly make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear for their Trump coverage.
From the start you should know that I am an author whose work was scraped without consent or compensation and am part of the Authors Guild class action lawsuit against several AI developers. I resolutely refuse to use AI for research, writing, graphic design, or editing of my work, putting -ai in my searches. That having been said, I am worried beyond creative content and human unemployment. The family and social fabric is at risk. I am extremely concerned about the recent Stanford report about AI bias against women. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/10/ai-llms-age-bias-older-working-women-research I am also concerned about people sacrificing interhuman relationships for relationships with chatbots. When I read about AI already resorting to blackmail and showing a willingness to sacrifice human life to protect itself, I think of 2001 Space Odyssey’s HAL. I am not a complete Luddite and concede AI has uses, but it’s developing without safeguards, without ethics, in a race to dominance. We should all be concerned, should support human-only content creators, should reward companies who don’t fire their receptionists, schedulers, coders, editors, designers, translators, and such, and should insist data centers fully pay their electricity fee themselves and not throw residential users into blackouts for Russian meme-makers.
I wonder if this bias and other issues raised are because it is using a lot of past published information, when these biases, etc., were more prevalent and accepted. It seems that AI might be lagging with regards to social issues. I recall reading about how some cameras could not "see" black people. When you use a limited set of data for training and development, you get a limited capability system.
As some else pointed out AI is basically telling you what a 38 year old white male on Reddit knows and thinks - not really useful and certainly not comprehensive
Yep.
The Nancy Mace melt down at the airport brought to mind the current Sec. of Trans concerns of returning civility to traveling. How about he focus less on wearing PJs as the source of the problem and focus on classless rude profane laden treatment of people trying to do their jobs by legislators as a priority. It is always a bad sign when folks attack the workers for rules and policies dictated to them.
I will happily dress up for a flight when the airlines provide more room (leg room and seat width) throughout the aircraft and better meals and snacks for everyone, as well as making sure that their aircraft are actually ready to fly with a rested and capable crew with no delays.
I love your plan. Count me in! Treat me like a first class passenger and I will respect you for it. Treat me like cattle and that is what you get from me.
Thank you, Mr. Perticone. Falling asleep is one thing. The gibberish is quite another. The denial of statements that are on tape is ridiculous. He’s a dangerous life form on several levels - our very lives, our health, our freedom.
I am old, so maybe this is only the effect of nostalgia, but I have the same worries that you (and the Pope!) express about drifting thoughtlessly away from the world of human nuance, interpretation, intuition, and feeling - especially in our work lives.
Trump posting 158 times in 4 hours in manic. There is something really, really wrong with him. It's like he is possessed by a mind that is gone. We are seriously screwed.
So Biden had the worst performance at his debate, something Felon Trump has not had? That’s because you are excusing him. That debate with Harris was unbelievable with him yelling that cats and dogs are being eaten by Haitians. What was embarrassing is that the candidate for the Office of the President was not censored for those lies, and called out. Biden looked dazed. Trump looked demented.
He sounded demented, too. And familiar.
So I listened to a clip with my eyes closed, imagining that Christopher Walken was speaking.
Bingo. In one of his more unhinged roles. I pointed that out in at least one comment at the time. Try it, and you'll hear what I mean.
Thanks. When I get the stomach settled to listen to him again, I will.
No wonder Trump keeps dozing off, even when he is not on trial. In addition to the enormous amount of work involved in being President, Trump is the active Chairman of the (soon to be renamed) Kennedy Center, he gets to chose a Board Member for Nippon Steel, is redoing what is left of the White House to ensure that there is no dignity left, is actively directing the wrecking of the East Wing of the White House and the creation of a massive new ballroom (rumors that McDonalds has been closed as the official cateerer have not been confirmed), spends hours each day posting incoherent, false and/or insulting messages on social media, and finding new ways to use his position to enrich himself and his family as well as other "deserving" billionaires and despots. Trump frees up the time do all this and more by not reading or listening to national security or other briefings (except from Putin and Fox News), and by surrounding himself with unquestioning loyalists so he doesn't have to think about anything he says or does.
DOZY DON…that’s what I call him. I think the name would stick if people start using it. Pass it forward if you wish!
Hope the next protest signs feature plenty of unflattering pics of Dozy Don.