F**king Mondays: The Debate From Hell, Media Protects Trump, Cheney for Kamala, and Glen Beck's Hallucinations
It's that time of the week again!
Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of “F**king Mondays!”. In the round up today:
The media is protecting Trump
Judd Legum asks why major media outlets like the Washington Post, The New York Times, and Politico are sitting on internal Trump campaign documents allegedly hacked by the Iranian government, and refusing to publish them:
This is a much different approach than the Washington Post took after hackers connected to the Russian government leaked internal emails from Clinton campaign officials and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The Washington Post published dozens of stories based on these leaked emails. The steady drumbeat of mostly unflattering articles was a major part of the election narrative in the days and weeks before election day….
Nor was the coverage limited to information that "was truly newsworthy." Any tidbit of information was fair game for coverage. One Washington Post article discussed Clinton campaign chair John Podesta's risotto recipe.
Why is Trump being spared weeks of gossip and scrutiny? According to Politico:
Politico spokesman Brad Dayspring said that Politico "made a judgment" and decided not to publish any of the leaked Trump materials because "questions surrounding the origins of the documents and how they came to our attention were more newsworthy than the material that was in those documents."
As Legum points out, this was not Politico’s position in 2016 when the target was Hillary Clinton:
Politico made a different judgment in 2016. In addition to numerous standalone articles about the hacked materials from the DNC and Clinton campaign officials, Politico published a "live blog" to highlight the minutiae in the stolen emails.
I don’t take the view that the media is consciously trying to help and elect Donald Trump. I take the view that they are pathologically incapable of reporting fairly because their business model requires a horse race. Therefore the media must help Donald Trump because he is completely insane and an obvious threat to democracy. Their job is to normalize all of this so that the public views the contest as a Red vs Blue sporting event they can watch while munching popcorn and drinking beer. Sure we might lose democracy because of it, but wasn’t it fun?
Dick Cheney for Kamala Harris?
If you had told me in 2007 that Dick Cheney would vote for a liberal black woman in 2024, I would have laughed in your face. But Cheney, a ruthless neocon with a long, long record of extreme conservatism, will be doing just that. Reported NPR:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris instead of former President Donald Trump — explaining that his decision had to do with Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again," Cheney, 83, said Friday in a widely reported statement.
He added, "As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris."
Cheney joins several other prominent neocons like Cheney’s daughter, Liz Cheney, William Kristol, Max Boot and Charlie Sykes in an ideological war against MAGA nativism.
The neocons won’t ever undo the massive damage they caused during the George W. Bush administration, but their opposition to Donald Trump is praiseworthy. For all their sins, the ‘Never Trump’ conservatives really do believe in democracy and the peaceful transfer of power, and are placing country over party to protect it from a dictator.
The debate from hell part II
Some people are excited for the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump tomorrow night in Philadelphia. I am not. I have to watch it for obvious reasons, but the prospect of watching Trump lie, slander and demean his opponent for 90 minutes is not my idea of fun.
For what it’s worth, I think Harris will do a good job countering the bullshit, but I’m not expecting a complete demolition. Trump has shown himself to be a deft debater when he wants to be, and his showmanship works well as a distraction from the bullshit he spouts.
I’ll be looking for Harris to drive home three or four major themes. The first should be that Trump is a mortal threat to democracy and should not be allowed near the White House again. The second that she will protect women’s rights, and the third that she is a candidate moderates and independents can get behind. If she does this and presents an inspiring, well thought out plan for change, it should be enough to build on her lead in the polls.
The two will likely satisfy their respective audiences, so barring a Trump meltdown, I don’t think there will be a clear winner.
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Meanwhile in MAGA fantasyland…
I like to keep tabs on what is going on deep in MAGA world so that I know how the other side thinks. The problem is, the deeper you go, the weirder it gets — so weird that you realize it isn’t a political movement, but a giant cult almost entirely detached from observable reality. This was posted on Glenn Beck’s Twitter (X) account yesterday from a conversation he had with Tucker Carlson:
If you deconstruct the quote, you can see that Beck (and Carlson) are genuinely living in an alternate reality. According to Beck, because someone shot Donald Trump, it means he is “willing to die for the country”. This is a bit like saying John Lennon was “willing to die for his music”. I’m a huge Lennon fan, but he wasn’t exactly given a choice when his stalker Mark David Chapman shot him. If someone pointed a gun at Trump’s head and gave him a choice: death or quitting the presidential race, what decision do you think Trump would make?
Given Trump’s long and storied history of narcissism, greed, nepotism, and outright criminality, to suggest that he isn’t in the race for the “fame” or “fortune” is to deny every ounce of evidence available. We know that Trump ran in 2016 because of a bruised ego and a thirst for stature. “A lot of people have laughed at me over the years,” Trump said in a speech before the New Hampshire primary. “Now, they’re not laughing so much.”
We know that Trump raked in hundreds of millions of dollars through international business dealings while serving as president of the United States. We know that he is running in 2024 to keep himself out of prison, and we know that he has never shown any inclination to do what is in the interest of his country over himself.
Beck also suggests that, again, contrary to all available evidence, Democrats are trying to steal the election in 2024. This despite Trump embarking on a fact free campaign claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him, and then trying to steal it himself. Furthermore, the GOP is now engaging in publicly observable dress rehearsals for another, far more organized attempt to steal the election in 2024.
The 2024 election will be another referendum on which reality Americans prefer to live in. The real reality, or the dark hallucinations of aggrieved fascists.
It’s not a difficult choice.
Hope everyone has a great week!
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The Ultimate Poll Breakdown
In The Emergency Meeting Podcast, Ben and Justin break down the latest polls. We talk national polls, statewide polls, and what the Electoral College map looks like. Does either candidate have an advantage in the swing states, and how do we think the election will play out as of today? We also talk about the Trump and Harris campaign’s infrastructure — …
I said this on Threads, too: "Harris is smarter, and better by several orders of magnitude, but this debate still worries me.
Debating Trump is like debating a chimp flinging poop at you, then being judged on whether you stayed clean without dodging."
Someone needs to make a Venn Diagram comparing the Trump 2024 campaign with the Fyre Festival 2025 announcement. Convicted felons. Dupes investors. False promises. Disgusting food. shadowy investors. Z-list talent....