Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Vivek Ranmaswwamy is the future of the GOP

There is a lot of talk these days about what is to become of the Republican Party once Trump is gone. It seems a bit premature considering that Trump is still very much present and whether he wins or loses, he’s not going anywhere until he’s six feet under. Still, the man is 77 years old so it’s natural to consider what’s going to be left of the hulking wreck of the GOP once he leaves this mortal coil.

The fact that Trump is the runaway favorite to win the 2024 Republican nomination despite the 91 felony charges he faces in four different cases really says it all about where the party is today. Polling over the past couple of weeks confirms that most Republicans still believe The Big Lie and are convinced that his legal troubles are trumped up charges by a Democratic Party Deep State conspiracy. Whether they actually buy this is debatable, but it’s clear that they are sticking with their man regardless. Criminal or not, they like what he’s selling. No, actually they love what he’s selling. And what that comes down to is transgressivism.

They love his crude defiance of all social norms, that he acts as though they don’t even exist. They love that he doesn’t follow the rules or even follow the law if that’s what it takes to get what he wants and they love that their enemies can’t make him capitulate even when he’s caught red-handed. They believe that he is being persecuted (just as they believe they themselves are persecuted) for saying things that aren’t politically correct and they love that he won’t stop doing it no matter what. They love that he will do whatever it takes to own the libs, even if it doesn’t make any sense because that is what it will take to Make America Theirs Again.

Are the attitudes that fuel this love for Trump the new ideology (if you want to call it that) of the Republican Party? I hope not but I really don’t know. The sinking of the good ship DeSantis shows that it takes more than “anti-woke” policies to capture these voters’ attention. Trump proved that policy in general is an after thought in today’s GOP. (They didn’t even put out a party platform in 2020, instead just opted for a statement that essentially said, “we’ll have what Trump’s having.”) Trump has no ideology and neither do the MAGA followers. It’s all about defiance, disobedience, breaking the rules. He makes it ok for his followers to let their freak flags (or giant Trump flags) fly, just as he does.

There’s a term for people who do this: edgelords, defined as “someone who intentionally expresses opinions that are likely to shock or offend people, especially on the internet, as a way of making others notice or admire them.” I’m reminded of a young fellow who joined the racists marching at Charlottesville who explained what it was all about for him:

It’s kind of a fun idea. Just being able to say, like, ‘Hey man, white power!’ You know? To be quite honest, I love to be offensive. It’s fun.

Don’t underestimate the fun factor. In a recent Times/Sienna poll of the Republican field they actually asked where the candidates rated on the fun scale and nobody came close to Trump. When it comes to traditional personal qualities one might seek in a president, other candidates actually rate higher on such characteristics as “likeable” and “moral.” But when asked who was more “fun” Trump’s lead on that characteristic, 54%, matches his position overall in the race. That’s what makes him different. He makes owning the libs fun.

So where does this go from here? We caught a glimpse this past week of how that might play out in a Trumpless world. At last week’s Republican debate the nation was introduced to a charismatic gadfly by the name of Vivek Ramaswamy, a previously unknown biotech entrepreneur who has made a surprising surge in the polls after impressing audiences in Iowa.

In the debate you could see that he has a flair for the dramatic and cared nothing for the usual rules and norms of these political events. Like Trump in the 2016 debates he insulted the other candidates, calling them all “bought and paid for” obnoxiously provoking attacks, all the while pledging undying fealty to Donald Trump. He backed the idea of invading Mexico, denied climate change agitating for more use of fossil fuels, and promised to pardon Trump if he wins the election. And it was all delivered with a big, playful smile that gave the audience permission to enjoy the transgressive, edgelord fun.

Most of his commentary is simply bizarre, clearly designed for the express purpose of going viral. He talks a lot and he talks very fast and most of it makes little sense. Here’s an example that will make your head spin:

Dear @VivekGRamaswamy: ICYMI, here is the Schoolhouse Rock video on how a bill becomes a law. https://t.co/dIGROrcCJZ https://t.co/ovITaNG7qD

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) August 27, 2023

This is a man who says he wants all students to pass a civics test. Not that it matters, The Republican base doesn’t care that this is nonsense. They just like the sound of it.

Ramaswamy was called to task on the Sunday shows for a couple of particularly odious comments he’s made on the issue of race. CNN reported that he’d snidely declared:

I’m sure the boogeyman white supremacists exist somewhere in America. I have just never met him. Never seen one. Never met one in my life, right? Maybe I will meet a — maybe I will meet a unicorn sooner. And maybe those exist too.

And he called Rep. Ayana Pressley, D-Ma.,who is Black, “a modern grand wizard of the KKK” and then complained that he was offended that journalist Kara Swisher had referred to him as “Ramasmarmy” citing it as an example of racist speech. That’s a quintessential edgelord trick, to make a heinous comment and then cry victim for something much less egregious, laughing all the way. CNN’s Dana Bash and NBC’s Chuck Todd pushed him hard but he just talked and talked, mostly gibberish and right wing buzzwards, until there was nothing left to say.

There isn’t much good news in this, I’m afraid. This man certainly isn’t going to become the nominee — they have Trump after all — but he’s the one candidate who really gets what the new Republican Party responds to. He’s a very smart, highly educated, savvy, modern hustler who has found that he has a knack for politics. I’m afraid that the era of the GOP edgelord is right around the corner. And it’s not likely to be much fun for the rest of us.

Salon

But you knew that

“Again, bear in mind that Fox is not a news organization,” semi-retired journalist, Sam Litzinger, reminds Mastodon readers. Litzinger refers to this Saturday evening story at CNN Business:

Fox News apologized Saturday to a Gold Star family for publishing a false story last month claiming that the family had to pay $60,000 to ship the remains of their fallen relative back from Afghanistan because the Pentagon refused to pay.

“The now unpublished story has been addressed internally and we sincerely apologize to the Gee family,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement, referencing the family of fallen Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, who was one of 13 service members killed in a terror attack at the Kabul airport in 2021 while assisting with US withdrawal efforts.

The apology came after a Military.com report this week drew attention to the issue and indicated that the right-wing outlet’s top executives had repeatedly been notified by senior members of the Marine Corps that it was pushing a false story.

Fox applied a bandaid to its false story by changing the headline to attribute the claim to Rep. Cory Mills (R) of Florida. But Mills retracted his statement. Fox then deleted the entire story “without a correction or explanation.”

Deleting an entire story is exceedingly rare in news media and is seen as a last-ditch measure if the entire premise of the article is incorrect. Deleting a story without offering readers an explanation or correction is widely considered to be unethical.

In this case, Fox News did not publicly address the incident until the Military.com story ignited backlash against the outlet.

While unethical, the behavior is typical for Fox News. The outlet often breaks traditional news ethics and traffics in dishonest reporting and commentary.

Yeah, we noticed. So did Fox personalities who peddle this stuff. So did Dominion Voting Systems.

CNN Business cites a “Reliable Source”s story days ago about the propaganda outlet:

The dishonorable conduct spelled out in black and white in the cache of legal filings would get most journalists fired at actual news organizations and constitute scandals that would permanently run them out of the news business — maybe even other industries as well.

And yet, just months later, Fox News is trying to move on, as if the shameful behavior brought to light by the Dominion case simply evaporated from history the moment it opened up its checkbook. In fact, while Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch did pay a record sum of money to make the Dominion case vanish, they kept in place the channel’s top executives, Suzanne Scott and Jay Wallace. And, perhaps more importantly, they have expressed zero regrets for the dishonest Fox News programming that threw them in legal hot water.

But Fox News attempting to move past the embarrassing saga is not surprising. It is to be expected. What is striking, however, is how many credible news organizations are failing to describe in clear-eyed terms to their audiences — who count on them, and often pay them to deliver the unvarnished truth — what the network actually is.

Nevertheless, Fox News runs 24/7 on TV sets at restaurants, bars, and on military bases.

Churning in the Donald Trump multiverse

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan is set to consider a trial date for Donald Trump’s trial on federal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith in the Jan. 6 indictment. CNN reports, “Smith wants the trial to begin January 2 – two weeks before Trump’s first big test in the 2024 primary race in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. The ex-president’s team has asked for much more time, and is proposing a date of April 2026. Trump is not expected to be at the hearing.”

Watch Brandi Buchman’s live feed from the Prettyman courthouse in Washington, D.C. beginning at 10 a.m.

In Atlanta, meanwhile, in a hearing this morning, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will present arguments in the case against Mark Meadows who seeks to move his case to federal court.

Politico explains why Meadows (and others) might want their cases heard in federal court:

If moved to federal court, the charges — all of which are under Georgia law — would remain the same, and Willis’ team could continue to handle the prosecution. But federal procedural rules, not state court rules, would apply. And some defendants might anticipate other, more substantive advantages in a federal forum.

A jury for a trial in federal court would likely be drawn from 10 counties that comprise Atlanta and its sprawling suburbs, while a state-court trial would likely include jurors only from Fulton County, which delivered a 73% to 26% victory for Joe Biden over Trump in 2020. The broader set of counties is home to a somewhat higher proportion of Trump supporters, though the political makeup is not dramatically different.

All those co-defendants complicate Trump’s Georgia trial and the timing, especially since several want a speedy trial set to minimize the cost of their defense. Most do not have Trump’s deep pockets and fundraising machine. Their electoral machinations on Trump’s behalf will cost them and their families.

Washington Post:

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s request to move his case to federal court will be the subject of an evidentiary hearing Monday. It’s possible that Meadows might need to testify for his request to succeed, and we learned Thursday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis has subpoenaed two central witnesses to participate: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and his chief investigator, Frances Watson. (Politico’s Kyle Cheney said this makes Monday’s hearing something of a “mini trial.”)

Also Thursday, a judge set an Oct. 23 trial date for one defendant, Kenneth Chesebro. Chesebro has requested a speedy trial, which he is entitled to under Georgia law. Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell has also requested a speedy trial, though her trial date hasn’t been set. While their prosecutions might be separated from the defendants who prefer to delay their proceedings (including Trump), an early trial for one or more defendants could get at central facets of the alleged conspiracy.

Powell is what we might call, colloquially, a loon. Murray Waas observes that going to trial with her or with Trump is a devil’s bargain for Chesboro, if not for John Eastman as well.

John Eastman and Ken Chesboro face a difficult choice: Go to trial with Donald Trump who is attempting to scapegoat them to get off the hook himself. Or go to trial alongside Sidney Powell, and lose complete control of the proceedings to her. https://t.co/seFH8rHIhr

— murray waas (@murraywaas) August 28, 2023

Running for a pardon

For all his declarations of innocence, Trump is not looking, as an innocent man might, for trails to exonerate him before voters decide if he should again be president in November 2024. He’s running for a self-pardon, at least on the federal charges (New York Times):

As a further complication, Mr. Trump has made no secret in private conversations with his aides of his desire to solve his jumble of legal problems by winning the election. If either of the two federal trials he is confronting is delayed until after the race and Mr. Trump prevails, he could seek to pardon himself after taking office or have his attorney general simply dismiss the matters altogether.

Finding slots to schedule all the Trump trials into the calendar are a challenge. Even more so since Trump hopes to campaign for president concurrently (if he does not get his delays).

Should state officials or others challenge Trump’s eligibility to appear on state ballots under the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause, Trump and his attorneys will face even more time in court fighting for ballot access. That’s ironic, since Republicans from sea to shining sea spend so much time and effort trying to prevent everyday voters access to voting theirs.

Michael Tomasky asks the question. And it’s chilling:

It’s not just unprecedented that we now have an ex-president with a mug shot. It’s insanely, amazingly, staggeringly, chillingly unprecedented. It makes me think about the past—about how we got to this insane, amazing, staggering, chilling point. And it makes me think about the future—about what grim precedent Trump will drag us into next.

We got here because Donald Trump, now also known as Prisoner P01135809, has never had any regard for laws of any kind. We’ve known this for decades. When I was a young reporter in New York, and Trump was not yet a wannabe dictator, and the working-class men of the heartland registered him in their minds (if at all) as a swanky Manhattan rich guy who had nothing to do with their lives, Trump’s habits and attitudes were well known in New York. Sometimes, people went at him, but no one ever got him. And often, the people with the power to do so didn’t even go at him.

Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney for most of the years Trump was operating in New York, left his office in 2009 with a sterling reputation. And he largely deserved it. But the record does tell us, as Morgenthau’s biographer Andrew Meier wrote in The New York Times earlier this year, that Trump befriended Morgenthau, and the D.A. reciprocated. Trump donated to Morgenthau’s campaigns and his pet charities. Morgenthau accepted an invitation to stay in Mar-a-Lago.

And yet, late in life—Morgenthau lived to be 100, and three years into Trump’s presidency—he seemed to have some regret. Meier visited him not long before his July 2019 death and asked him what his greatest fear was, to which Morgenthau answered: “Trump.”

Trump was sued and deposed over and over and over, but he always had the money and the legal architecture to wiggle out. Like it or not, there’s a complex calculus involving the extent to which the law will pursue a rich and famous man who builds glitzy buildings and makes donations to the Police Athletic League. Prosecutors, too, have budgets, and they think twice before committing them to the pursuit of people who have the power to fend them off for years.

But once a person enters public life, the calculus changes. Then, the money and power and P.A.L. checks don’t matter anymore. All that can no longer insulate you. Presidents take an oath, and they are subject to federal and state laws. Period.

And so Trump’s great, improbable triumph—his ascension to the presidency—was also his fatal mistake: He finally put himself in a position where the law, however slowly, could catch up with him. He didn’t understand or accept this, of course, because he always thought of himself as above the law. He is probably shocked to find that there are potential consequences to saying to a state official that the official just needs to find him 11,780 votes. There’d never been consequences before for anything.

So that, in sum, is how we got here. It’s a simple and very American story of money, influence, and power. And while I wouldn’t say it could only happen in New York, the city was easily the most likely place for it to happen, because New York—especially in the 1980s and 1990s, when money, influence, and power really began to swallow the whole place, its possessors lionized in the newly celebrity-obsessed media—was far more susceptible to a Trump than any other American city.

As for where we’re headed: Well, quickly, let’s review. The precedents Trump has set: winning the presidency with help (wittingly or not, we don’t know, at least from a legal perspective) of Russia; believing Russia’s dictator over his own intelligence agencies; saying, as president, that there were “good people” among the white supremacists who marched with torches in a Southern city; getting impeached twice; refusing to accept election results; losing 60-odd court cases toward the end of overturning that result; and, finally, getting indicted four times.

What’s next? The trials, of course. But what else? Miles Taylor, the former (and repentant) Trump official who is the author of Blowback, told Nicolle Wallace on her MSNBC show Thursday: “All of these things lend themselves to a more volatile and combustible situation. We are about to find out in the next couple of weeks what law enforcement in this country actually thinks about it. Usually in September, we have the heads of the intelligence agencies and the FBI come up and testify before Congress. I predict they will come up and say that the political violence factors and trajectory in this country are worse than it was before, and they are worried about 2024. I think you will hear from the FBI, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, probably around the beginning of September.”

I don’t want to make irresponsible predictions. But am I worried about violence? Should we all be worried about violence? Tucker Carlson asked Trump this question Wednesday. Presidents, of course, usually urge people against such a course when asked such a question. Trump—and here’s another new precedent—did not: “There’s a level of passion that I’ve never seen [and] there’s a level of hatred that I’ve never seen, and that’s probably a bad combination.”

How do you think they heard that in Proud Boys-Oath Keepers-MAGA land?

The next election is about many things: abortion rights, civil rights, the fate of the planet, and more. But it’s really about one thing: Whether one man can corrupt and destroy a 250-year-old democracy. That we’re this unsure of the answer is terrifying.

I agree with every word except that I think the ground was tilled by the Republican Party for several decades to make it possible. And they continue to enable him now. That’s terrifying too.

What is going on down there?

This is truly stunning. They rounded up all the Black kids in the school for an assembly. You won’t believe what it was for:

A Florida elementary school has prompted outrage for singling out its Black students to attend a special assembly identifying them, as a group, as a “problem” because of standardized test performances.

Black fourth- and fifth-grade students at Bunnell elementary school in Flagler county, central Florida, were pulled from class last Friday and mandated to attend the presentation on improving test scores, the Washington Post reported.

Students were chosen to attend the presentation based on race, Jason Wheeler, the communications coordinator for Flagler school district, confirmed to the Guardian.

The nine- and 10-year-old students were shown a powerpoint entitled “AA presentation”, referring to African American, according to a copy of the presentation shared with the Guardian.

A slide labeled “The Problem” claimed that “AA”, referring to Black students, have underperformed on standardized tests for the past three years.

A subsequent slide added that students will be placed in a competition with each other to improve their test scores and could receive a meal from McDonald’s as a prize, according to the presentation.

Several parents were outraged about the assembly and noted how their children were segregated for the presentation, even if they had passed their tests.

“They segregated our kids, [in] 2023,” Jacinda Arrington, a parent, told WFTV 9, the local ABC affiliate based in Orlando.

“To me, it told my child that she’s not good enough. The color of your skin means that you’re not good enough when, in fact, she’s one of the smartest kids in her class,” Arrington said to Fox 35 Orlando.

“This was solely based off of color,” Nichole Consolazio, the parent of a fifth-grade student, said to Daytona News Journal.

Parents also said their children were reportedly told that if they did not do well in school they would end up dead or in jail.

The Power Point they used was filled with grammatical errors, by the way.

This is the state that says teachers should teach that slavery was beneficial for the slaves. Have they lost their minds?

You knew they would:

The former president has raised $7.1 million since he was booked at an Atlanta jail Thursday evening, according to figures provided first to POLITICO by his campaign. On Friday alone, Trump raised $4.18 million, making it the single-highest 24-hour period of his campaign to date, according to a person familiar with the totals.

The campaign’s fundraising has been powered by merchandise it has been selling through his online store. After Trump was taken into custody, the campaign began selling shirts, posters, bumper stickers and beverage coolers bearing Trump’s scowling mugshot. The items bear the tagline “NEVER SURRENDER!” and range in price from $12 to $34.

The mug shot literally documents his surrender.

Trumpers’ brains would rattle in a thimble.

Alabama is on the hunt for the best killing ritual

Horrifying:

Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen.

The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used. [Oklahoma and Mississippi have also authorized nitrogen hypoxia.]

Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen. While proponents of the new method have theorized it would be painless, opponents have likened it to human experimentation. […]

Alabama has been working for several years to develop the nitrogen hypoxia execution method, but has disclosed little about its plans. The attorney general’s court filing did not describe the details of the how the execution would be carried out. Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters last month that a protocol was nearly complete.

The United States of America is allowing states to experiment on prisoners now to determine if their ritualized method of killing them is humane enough. WTF is that?

Yesterday there was another horrific hate crime perpetrated down in Florida when a racist walked into a Dollar Store and gunned down 3 people because they were Black:

“This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference early Saturday evening.

Waters said the shooter, who he described as a White man in his 20s, shot and killed himself after the attack. The suspect left behind what the sheriff described as three manifestos outlining his “disgusting ideology of hate” and his motive in the attack.

All three victims, two men and one woman, were Black.

Waters said the shooter lived in Clay County, Florida, south of Jacksonville, with his parents. Jacksonville is located in northeast Florida, about 35 miles south of the Georgia border.

Waters said the shooter told his father by text to “check his computer.” The father found documents described by Waters as manifestos and called authorities.

But Waters said by the time authorities were alerted about the manifestos, the gunman had already started the attack in the Dollar General.

Last week a California shop keeper who flew a pride flag on her storefront was gunned down:

The man who shot and killed the store owner last week over her display of a pride flag outside her store was a far-right conspiracy theorist who shared deeply anti-LGBTQ and antisemitic content on his social media accounts.

Travis Ikeguchi, 27, shot Laura Ann Carleton, 66, on Friday after “yelling many homophobic slurs” about the store’s pride flag, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said at a news conference Monday.

The shooter fled the scene but police officers tracked him down later on Friday. When confronted, police said in a press conference, the 27-year-old fired at multiple patrol vehicles with an unregistered semi-automatic handgun before he was shot in what was described by officials as a “lethal force encounter.”

Authorities said they are continuing to investigate the murder as a possible hate crime. While they believe the shooter acted alone, authorities are continuing to look into the possibility that he was affiliated with  a hate group.

But a review of 27-year-old’s social media accounts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and the far-right social network Gab, show that the shooter had fully embraced a wide range of conspiracy theories—from claiming the 9/11 attacks were staged to suggestions that former first lady Michelle Obama is a man to denying climate change. He also posted content opposing gun control measures.

The shooter spent much of his time online sharing anti-LGBTQ content, reposting and responding to content shared by right-wing figures like commentator Matt Walsh and fringe networks like One America News. His pinned tweet, posted in June, simply showed a rainbow flag on fire with the caption: “What to do with the LGBTQP [sic] flag.”

On Gab, one of his pinned posts was even more explicitly threatening to the LGBTQ community. “We need to STOP COMPROMISING on this LGBT dictatorship and not let them take over our lives,” he wrote. “Stop accepting this abomination that the government is forcing us to submit to these mentally disordered tyrants.”

Another pinned post on Gab featured a link to a video entitled: “When Should You Shoot a Cop,” along with the caption: “There will come a time that we have to do this.” While the shooter’s X profile remains active, his Gab profile was removed late on Monday. X and Gab did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The majority of the suspect’s posts are infused with an overt Christian nationalism, which quickly gives way to virulent antisemitism in much of the content he shared online.

The shooter only followed 19 people on X, including One American News, former President Donald Trump, and conspiracy theorist David Knight, who once worked with Alex Jones. The shooter also followed and boosted rightwing professor and conspiracy theory promoter Jordan Peterson, antivax activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and the right-wing satirical website the Babylon Bee.

Trump has said nothing about any of this, of course. He’s too busy bragging about his golf game. DeSantis took a moment on the campaign trail to call the Florida shooter a scumbag. Ramaswamy said “The reality is we’ve created such a racialized culture in this country in the last few years so that right as the last embers of racism were burning out, we have a culture in this country …. that throws kerosine on that racism.” If only everyone would shut up about racism everything would be fine.

Racism was almost gone until people started talking about it in the last few years. Ok then.

Here’s the latest from the man tens of millions of Americans worship like a god. I just thought you ought to know even if you don’t want to.

In case you were wondering, Trump always cheats at golf. Here’s an excerpt of one of many, many stories about it:

Jack O’Donnell worked with Donald Trump for four years as vice president of Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City. O’Donnell’s dad was one of the founders of Sawgrass, the iconic Pete Dye golf course near Jacksonville, Fla. “My dad always told us to respect the game,” O’Donnell says. “That’s the one part of the game that tells me what kind of person you are. You play the ball where it lies.” So when O’Donnell’s office colleague, the late Mark Eddis, came back after his first round with Trump, O’Donnell couldn’t resist asking.

“So, does he improve his lie?”

Eddis looked at him and threw his head back in laughter. “Every shot but the tee shot.”

Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf. He cheats like a three-card Monte dealer. He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs. At Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, the caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: “Pele.”

“I played with him once,” says Bryan Marsal, longtime Winged Foot member and chair of the coming 2020 Men’s U.S. Open. “It was a Saturday morning game. We go to the first tee and he couldn’t have been nicer. But then he said, ‘You see those two guys? They cheat. See me? I cheat. And I expect you to cheat because we’re going to beat those two guys today.’… So, yes, it’s true, he’s going to cheat you. But I think Donald, in his heart of hearts, believes that you’re gonna cheat him, too. So if it’s the same, if everybody’s cheating, he doesn’t see it as really cheating.”

Okay, but …

a)  Everybody isn’t. Except for an occasional mulligan on the first tee and accepting a gimme (a short conceded putt) from an opponent, 85 percent of casual golfers play by the rules, according to the National Golf Foundation.

b)  To say “Donald Trump cheats” is like saying “Michael Phelps swims.” He cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching, and he cheats when they aren’t. He cheats whether you like it or not. He cheats because that’s how he plays golf, that’s how he learned it, that’s how he needs it, and whether you’re his pharmacist or Tiger Woods, if you’re playing golf with him, he’s going to cheat.

I know you are well aware of how nuts he is. But I believe it’s important to remind ourselves of it often. He’s a very disturbed individual and yet he has tens of millions of followers. Will they ever be reprogrammed?

Is it too much to ask?

Heather Cox Richardson posts, “Reading a paper today and it gave me a crazy idea: how about interviewing some Democratic voters for a change? Maybe that’s just too out there to be on the table, though….”

Other than mocking lefties for eating avocado toast, the press doesn’t view them as newsworthy subjects of inquiry unless they occupy Nancy Pelosi’s office, that is, when they show up where political reporters normally do their jobs. There are few political reporting safaris to where Democrat-leaning voters hang out in cities large and small unless they are on college campuses or represent the lunatic fringe. But angry right-wingers at school board meetings? That bleeds. Even when it doesn’t.

Are there no coffee shops? No book stores?

Marianne Williamson visited one in little Aiken, SC recently (in a county that went 61-38 for Trump in 2020). Local papers reported the press release. Nothing on the rarities who showed up with opinions.