Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Peter Wehner at The Atlantic (gift link) gives the full rundown on North Carolina Governor Mark Robinson and it’s just so … much. As he points out, most of this was known before he became Lt Gov., so apparently the Republicans of North Carolina think it’s all just fine:

Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, has described himself as a “devout Christian.” But a recent CNN story reported that several years ago, he was a porn-site user who enjoyed watching transgender pornography (despite a history of an anti-transgender rhetoric), referred to himself as a “Black Nazi,” and supported the return of slavery. According to CNN, commenters on the website discussed whether to believe the story of a woman who said she was raped by her taxi driver while intoxicated. Robinson wrote in response, “And the moral of this story….. Don’t f**k a white b*tch!” Politico reports that Robinson’s email address was also registered on Ashley Madison, a website for married people seeking affairs. (Robinson, the current lieutenant governor of North Carolina, has denied all of the claims.)

These allegations aren’t entirely shocking, because Robinson—a self-described “MAGA Republican”—has shown signs in the past of being a deeply troubled person. (My Atlantic colleague David Graham wrote a superb profile of Robinson in May.)

Regarding the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, in 2011, Robinson wrote, “Get that fucking commie bastard off the National Mall!” Robinson also has referred to the slain civil-rights champion as “worse than a maggot,” a “ho fucking, phony,” and a “huckster.” During the Obama presidency, Robinson wrote, “I’d take Hitler over any of the shit that’s in Washington right now!” He promoted the conspiracy theory claiming that Obama was born in Kenya. He referred to Michelle Obama as a man and Hillary Clinton as a “heifer.” He compared Nancy Pelosi to Hitler, Mao, Stalin, and Castro and mocked the near-fatal assault on her husband, Paul Pelosi. He is also an election denier, claiming that Joe Biden “stole the election.”

In 2017, Robinson wrote, “There is a REASON the liberal media fills the airwaves with programs about the NAZI and the ‘6 million Jews’ they murdered.” He has used demeaning language against Jews and gay people. He has cruelly mocked school-shooting survivors (“media prosti-tots”). And he supported a total ban on abortion, without exceptions for rape or incest, even though he admitted that he’d paid for an abortion in the past.

(There’s also his hardcore porn which is as raunchy as it gets. It’s definitely NSFW, so be warned.)

The reason I used the gift link is because he gives the same treatment to many of the GOP superstars at the top of the Party — a long list of miscreants almost as crazy and terrible as Robinson and you should read the whole thing to remind yourself just how deeply the rot runs.

The point is:

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY today isn’t incidentally grotesque; like the man who leads it, Donald Trump, it is grotesque at its core. It is the Island of Misfit Toys, though in this case there’s a maliciousness to the misfits, starting with Trump, that makes them uniquely dangerous to the republic. Since 2016, they have been at war with reality, delighting in their dime-store nihilism, creating “alternative facts” and tortured explanations to justify the lawlessness and moral depravity and derangement of their leader.

None of this is hidden; it is on display in neon lights, almost every hour of every day. No one who supports the Republican Party, who casts a vote for Trump and for his MAGA acolytes, can say they don’t know.

They know. They just don’t give a damn.

Tom lives in Asheville, North Carolina which is currently under water from Hurricane Helene. He told me yesterday that he didn’t have power or wifi and cell service was spotty so I assume that he will be out of commission for a while.

Keep a good thought for him and his neighbors. Asheville is a lovely city full of very cool people. This is a major disaster and it’s going to take a huge effort to recover.

Roseanne Barr: They eat babies. It’s true.

Tucker Carlson: so it's not just the dogs and cats?

Barr: Everybody thinks I’m crazy. I’m not crazy. They love the taste of human flesh & they drink human blood

Tucker: I think you have some authority on thispic.twitter.com/qGG5CC41FB

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 28, 2024

I’m sure Tucker thinks he’s being funny. But I would guess that a good number of his audience, people who look up to him, think he’s endorsing this lunacy. Why else would he have her on his roadshow?

The Washington Post reported on the spectacle:

If you think Tucker Carlson’s political relevance has slipped since he was booted from Fox News last spring, then listen to the people who have lined up to see his live shows this month.

Ask those in Phoenix who braved 108 degrees to see him banter with Russell Brand,the comic actor turned podcaster who says he’s found Jesus.

Or the people in Hershey, Pa., who got drenched by rain whilewaiting to get into Carlson’s event with vice-presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

If anything, they say, Tucker has gotten stronger now that he’s on his own, loosed from the strictures (and paycheck) of corporate media and now sovereign of his own digital channel.

“I think he’s probably even more influential, actually,” said registered nurse Laura Kahler, 64, who was first to arrive at the Footprint Center in Phoenix — well, first after the VIPs who paid $1,600 for a pre-show meet-and-greet with Carlson.

Gilbert Rodriguez, a retired veteran, flew from Georgia to Phoenix to attend the Carlson show. “He’s a realist,” Rodriguez said. “He doesn’t run away from the truth. He’s not afraid to talk about things that people don’t want to talk about.”

One couple arrived to the Giant Center in Hershey at 3 p.m., four hours before showtime, to tailgate in the parking lot, just as they had for a Def Leppard and Journey concert a few months earlier. “I think initially maybe I didn’t like him,” said John Castrovinci, 58, “but then I think the more I watched him and listened, I found I agreed with a lot of the points he made.”z

[…]

While the Giant Center was mostly full, ticket prices dropped as the event neared, a trend that was chronicled thoroughly by journalists from PennLive.com, which reported that tickets that once ranged from $56 to $84 in price were now available for between $35 and $42 a few days before the show.

CNN personality Brian Stelter said on X last month that he removed some writing about Carlson for the paperback edition of his latest book on Fox because “he has lost a lot of his influence since last year.”

And even Carlson doesn’t seem to know what, exactly, he’s doing with this tour. Is he still a media personality? Is he a political activist? He certainly looked like one when he hobnobbed at the Republican National Convention with Trump, a man he once referred to as “a demonic force” in a text message (released as part of the defamation lawsuit filed against Fox by election-technology company Dominion).

“I don’t even know what I do for a living at this point,” he said Saturday night in Hershey.

Sure you do Tuck. It’s called “grifting” and your marks are all the sad, ignorant MAGA true believers who pay you money for this bullshit. But you know that.

Timothy Snyder on Trump’s “negotiating” skills as reflected in his meeting with Zelensky yesterday:

This piece by Will Saletan in the Bulwark is quite good as well:

TRUMP’S FOREIGN POLICY, like his views on everything else, is about loyalty to Trump. He prefers a dictator who likes him to a freely elected leader who doesn’t. As Trump put it at a rally on Monday: “I don’t like anybody that doesn’t like me.” That’s why Trump likes Vladimir Putin. He knows Putin is trying to help him recapture the White House.

On September 7, three days after the Justice Department exposed a Russian disinformation campaign designed to help Trump in this year’s election, Trump rebuked DOJ officials for the announcement. “They don’t look at China, and they don’t look at Iran,” he complained, falsely, at a rally in Wisconsin. “They look at Russia. I don’t know what it is with poor Russia.”

Trump made it clear that he appreciated Putin’s help. With a wry smile, he noted:

I don’t know if you saw the other day, he [Putin] endorsed Kamala. He endorsed Kamala. I was very, uh, offended by that. [Laughter in the crowd.] I wonder why he endorsed Kamala. No, he’s a chess player. “I endorse Kamala.” Should I be—Congressman, should I be upset about that? No, huh? Was it done with a smile, Ron? Was it done with a smile? I think it was done maybe with a smile.

It’s not great for Ukraine that Trump sees Putin as his friend. But until this week, Trump also seemed to have a soft spot for Zelensky. He often praised Zelensky for standing by him during the Ukraine impeachment, when Trump was accused of coercing Zelensky in a phone call. “He was very honorable,” Trump told podcaster Shawn Ryan a month ago. Trump went on:

I got to know Zelensky then, because they asked him at a news conference or something, “Did President Trump say anything that was threatening to you or bad?” . . . And he said: “Not at all.” He was very—he was a gentleman. “He called me to congratulate me.” Said it was a very normal call. Now, he could have grandstanded. I respect him for what he did. . . . He said [I] did nothing wrong. And that sort of ended it all. But he was very honorable.

Trump’s gratitude to Zelensky has influenced the way Trump talks about the Ukraine war. Earlier this month, Trump continued to say that he could work out a deal to end the war because he had a “good relationship with Zelensky,” in addition to having a good relationship with Putin.

Unfortunately, Trump’s idea of a good relationship was one-sided. In the interview with Ryan, as in other venues, he parroted pro-Russian talking points: that Russia was invincible, that its nukes were too scary to risk further hostilities, and that the United States was vulnerable because it had sent too much ammunition to Ukraine. On September 10, in his debate with Kamala Harris, Trump was asked: “Do you want Ukraine to win this war?” Twice, he refused to say yes.

In their embarrassing meeting yesterday Trump tried to go both ways:

How does Zelenskyy speak better English than Melania and Trump? pic.twitter.com/l6eXJJdV5F

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) September 27, 2024

He is a disaster at foreign policy and national security, the two most important jobs as president.

Trump’s tariff obsession came up in conversation this morning and I realized that many people may not have seen this great documentary about Trump and trade. If you’re curious about why he is so stuck on it, this explains it:

As FRONTLINE and NPR explore in the new documentary Trump’s Trade War, Trump has taken an aggressive stance on trade for decades. He has pushed a tariff strategy since he first toyed with the idea of running for president in the late 1980s — a message that bore notable similarities to the one that helped propel his 2016 campaign.

As the film recounts, Trump’s ire was then directed at Japan’s trade practices.

“The fact is, you don’t have free trade. We think of it as free trade, but you right now don’t have free trade,” Trump said in a 1987 episode of Larry King Live that’s excerpted in Trump’s Trade War. “A lot of people are tired of watching the other countries ripping off the United States. This is a great country.” He shared similar sentiments in an interview with Oprah.

“He believed from the beginning that there’s really nothing worse than being laughed at,” Marc Fisher, author of Trump Revealed, tells FRONTLINE and NPR in the above scene from the documentary. “And he came to see the Japanese as laughing at the United States and taking advantage of the United States by stealing the jobs, by dumping product here.”

After the Japanese economy cratered, though, Trump would shift his focus to a rising economic power: China. The first time former advisor Steve Bannon came face to face with Trump, a significant amount of their meeting was spent discussing China, Bannon says in the film.

“He’s been a guy that’s watched Lou Dobbs for 30 or 40 years,” Bannon says, referring to the TV commentator who has long criticized free trade and globalization. “And the only thing he had formed as a world view was China.”

He watched Lou Dobbs and saw ships unloading Japanese cars and that was that.

That’s the Great Billionaire Businessman who knows more about the economy than anyone in the history of America.

You know he’s actually an imbecile and I know he’s actually an imbecile but a whole lot of people in this country are deluded that his gibberish is some kind of genius. Go figure.

I have no idea if these attitudes are reflective of the MAGA movement as a whole but if they are, it’s good news:

While Trump has yet to commit to accepting the outcome of the presidential election, several of his supporters who attended rallies in Michigan Friday said they’re ready to do so even if he loses.

Jordan Walton, 24, of Warren, is a restaurant worker and Trump supporter who was too young to vote in 2016. In his first opportunity to participate in a presidential election, Walton backed the former president’s reelection bid in 2020. But unlike some Trump voters, he accepted Trump’s loss as legitimate that year.

“It sucks. But yeah, he lost,” Walton said before heading into the town hall event in Warren.

He said he expects a close election this time and would accept another Trump loss. “Ain’t going to be happy, but you know, it is what it is,” he said.

Walton plans to vote in person, but said Trump’s past railing against absentee voting hurt the Republican presidential candidate’s chances four years ago. “Well, I think he kind of screwed himself to be honest, because he wasn’t promoting among his voters vote-by-mail,” Walton said.

[…]

Thomas Van Overloop, a 19-year-old currently studying at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, said he wanted to make sure his first vote in a presidential election is cast at the polls, likening it to a rite of passage. 

While Trump disputed, and continues to dispute, his 2020 electoral loss in Michigan, Van Overloop said he doesn’t plan on contending any election results, should Harris win the state.

“I wasn’t a big fan of (Jan. 6) and the stolen election thing,” he said. “I think we’ve got to look to the future instead of looking back.”

Standing across from a table urging Trump voters to request an absentee ballot, David Ortez, 28, of Northville, said he plans to vote in-person on Election Day because he likes “the vibes.” He said he likes going with other people in his life to go vote together, saying it feels like more of an “event” than absentee voting.

Ortez said he would accept another Trump loss and doesn’t think the election was stolen four years ago. He said he’s had conversations with other Trump supporters who disagree, but he said when that happens, he nods his head and tries to avoid an argument.

No matter who wins in what he expects will be a close presidential race, he said he hopes voters will accept the outcome and doesn’t want to see a repeat of Jan. 6. “No crazy s***. We don’t need that. We have too much nonsense in the world right now, and we don’t need more violence. That’s the last thing we need,” said Ortez, who works at a hospital.

While some Trump voters say they’re certain Trump’s 2020 loss was illegitimate, Lauren Marougy, 38, of Commerce Township, hasn’t made up her mind on the matter. “I don’t know, like I really don’t know. I think he won,” she said after a long pause. Marougy said it’d be sad if Trump really did win the 2020 election but didn’t end up in the White House. “I wouldn’t really want to believe that,” she said.

Marougy said she would accept a Trump loss in November. “I accepted it last time,” she said. “I mean, what can I do? I’m not going to like lose my mind over it.” She said she wouldn’t protest his loss, “Because it wouldn’t get me anywhere.”

I can’t imagine there’s going to be another January 6th even if Trump calls for one. They know it’s futile. And J6 was always motivated as much as a (lame) answer to the Women’s March, which naturally turned violent, as anything else. But this time I worry about some discrete militia types deciding to do a little terrorism instead of protest. Blow up a building or two, something along those lines. That would not surprise me at all. But a big protest in DC? I doubt it.

And I think a whole lot of the MAGA types will react the way those quoted above did. After year after year of listening to their Dear Leader lie and whine and complain, I would guess that many of them are tired of it. They’ll vote for him of course. And if he wins again they will feel vindicated. But if he loses, there’s a big part of them that will be resigned if not relieved. He’s exhausting for everyone.

A very big baby penguin!

Meet Pesto, the internet’s favorite fuzzy baby penguin! https://t.co/ZFZVHNJSWZ pic.twitter.com/kzrnTpiemf

— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 23, 2024

The Smithsonian Magazine wrote it up:

In late January, caretakers at Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium in Australia were ecstatic when a king penguin chick successfully emerged from his shell. The baby, which they named Pesto, was the only king penguin born at the aquarium in the last two years. He weighed less than a pound.

They’ve since watched as the youngster grew—and kept growing. As of Wednesday, Pesto weighs a whopping 51.8 pounds, according to the aquarium. 

His fame took off when the aquarium threw a gender reveal party (they can’t tell through a blood test.) Now he’s an internet superstar.

But why is Pesto such a big boy?

Caretakers chalk up his unusual size to a “hearty appetite”—he eats more than 25 fish a day—and good genes. His biological father, a king penguin named Blake, is one of the biggest and oldest penguins at the facility, weighing in at around 39 pounds, per New Atlas’ Bronwyn Thompson.

However, Pesto is being raised by a younger couple, Tango and Hudson, who have been taking good care of him, according to the aquarium. For reference, they both weigh just about 24 pounds. As Jacinta Early, the aquarium’s education supervisor, tells BBC News’ Tiffanie Turnbull, Pesto “eclipses” the pair, “which also makes him look comically large.”

Right now, Pesto is still covered in fuzzy brown down. But in the coming months, his baby feathers will be replaced by black, white and orange plumage.

“He’s going to start losing that really adorable baby fluff,” says Early to the Associated Press’ Rod McGuirk. “It might take him one to two months to really get rid of it. Then he’ll be nice and sleek and streamlined.”

Around the same time, he may also lose some weight. As he matures, he’ll likely settle in at closer to 33 pounds, per NPR. Still, Pesto will probably always be a “big boy,” Smale tells CNN’s Lilit Marcus.

“He’s already significantly taller than his dad,” she adds.

Apparently they usually weigh between 31 and 37 lbs. Wow. But they aren’t as big as the emperor penguins which can weight up to 100 lbs! What???

Luckily these birds are not on the endangered species list. In fact, their numbers are increasing. They are very, very cool.

He’s going to prosecute Google because there are too many negative stories on the page?

He’s out of his friggin’ mind. What an infantile moron.

Does anyone know about it? Not if they watch Fox. They barely even mention the stock market highs.

Varney spends less than 10 seconds on the Dow hitting ANOTHER all time high, then quickly pivots to bashing Harris while unflattering photos of her flash on the screen pic.twitter.com/d5S60K4Dnw

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 27, 2024

T%his is why we can’t have nice things.

I mean, he really hates them,…

Media Matters found a number of examples of JDs irrational hostility toward childless people, particularly women who haven’t given birth. It’s creepy and bizarre:

Vance on conservative podcast: Childless American leaders are “more sociopathic” than those with children, and they make the country “less mentally stable.” In a November 2020 interview, Vance said that “so many people, especially in America’s leadership class,” don’t have the “cadences of life” that come with having children, adding, “I worry that it makes people more sociopathic and ultimately our whole country a little bit less, less mentally stable.” He went on to say that the “most deranged” and “most psychotic” posters on Twitter “are people who don’t have kids at home.” [CNN.com, 7/30/24] 

Vance tweet: “Our country’s low birth rates have made many elites sociopaths.” [CNN.com, 7/30/24; Twitter/X, 3/21/21]

Vance to Sebastian Gorka: Kamala Harris is part of a “childless cabal of people who don’t really care about the future.” On the July 12, 2021, edition of America First with Sebastian Gorka, Vance said: “Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, all of these people. It’s like a party where the next generation of leaders, none of them have kids. … The entire Democrat Party is like this childless cabal of people who don’t really care about the future.” [America First with Sebastian Gorka, 7/12/21]

Vance tweet: “Paul Krugman is one of many weird cat ladies who have too much power in our country.” [Twitter/X, 7/25/21]

Vance tweet: “We should give miserable, childless lefties less control over our country and its kids.” [Twitter/X, 7/27/21]

Vance on Fox: “If you want to experiment on somebody’s kids, Kamala Harris, AOC, and so forth, have your own kids.” On the July 30, 2021, edition of Fox News Primetime, Vance said he was “sick of these bureaucrats experimenting on my children” by requiring kids to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and recommending masking in schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Vance added: “That’s experimenting on our kids. If you want to experiment on somebody’s kids, Kamala Harris, AOC, and so forth, have your own kids — lay off of mine.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 7/30/21]

Vance on Fox: Democrats are the party that “doesn’t have kids,” so they are “dominated by a bunch of sociopaths who don’t care about America’s children.” On the August 4, 2021, edition of Fox News Primetime, Vance said that Democrats “feel comfortable experimenting on children” because they are “increasingly the party in the movement that doesn’t have kids.” He went on to say, “I think basically what we’ve done is that we’ve allowed the Democrats to become dominated by a bunch of sociopaths who don’t care about America’s children. And we just need to call it out.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 8/4/21]

Vance on Fox: The left “has effectively been taken over by a lot of childless people, by the AOCs of the world, the Kamala Harrises of the world.” On the August 8, 2021, edition of Fox’s The Next Revolution, Vance said that he supported giving parents extra votes to represent their children. He explained that this would counterbalance “the left,” which he said “has effectively been taken over by a lot of childless people, by the AOCs of the world, the Kamala Harrises of the world. Those people now run the agenda of the Democratic Party, and we’ve got to push back against that.” [Fox News, The Next Revolution, 8/8/24]

Vance campaign email: “We’ve allowed ourselves to be dominated by childless sociopaths” who “don’t have a direct stake in this country.” An August 2021 campaign email, written in Vance’s voice and obtained by CNN.com, highlighted “the serious issue of radical childless leaders in this country,” adding, “We can’t have people who don’t have a direct stake in this country making our most important decisions.” The email continued, “We’ve allowed ourselves to be dominated by childless sociopaths – they’re invested in NOTHING because they’re not invested in this country’s children.” [CNN.com, 7/30/24]

Vance campaign email: “Our country is basically run by childless Democrats” who “don’t have a direct stake in it.” A second Vance campaign email read, “Our country is basically run by childless Democrats who are miserable in their own lives and want to make the rest of the country miserable too… What I want to know is: why have we turned our country over to people who don’t have a direct stake in it?” [CNN.com, 7/30/24]

Vance tweet: “The cat ladies, man. They must be stopped.” Vance was responding to a poll which found a “significant percentage fear having children because of climate crisis.” [Twitter/X, 9/14/21] 

Vance on conservative podcast: Journalists are “miserable and unhappy” because their biological clocks have run out. On the September 20, 2021, edition of the Moment of Truth podcast, Vance attacked people “who can’t have kids” because they “passed the biological period when it was possible” as “miserable” people who pursue “racial or gender equity” to give “their life meaning.” He also claimed that “a core part of what’s wrong with journalism in America is that you have a group of people who are dealing with their own, like, psychotic breaks” because “one of the weird lies the elites have been told is “hat it’s very easy to start a family when you’re 45,” but “God says otherwise.” [American Moment, Moment of Truth, 9/20/21]

Vance on Breitbart: “The Kamala Harrises, they don’t have kids” but “want to take our kids and brainwash them so that their ideas continue to exist in the next generation.” On the October 4, 2021, edition of Breitbart News Daily, Vance claimed that the left’s “next generation leaders,” including “the Kamala Harrises, they don’t have kids. And so there’s this weird way where they want to take our kids and brainwash them so that their ideas continue to exist in the next generation.” Vance added: “If you want to brainwash children, have your own kids to brainwash.” [Breitbart News, Breitbart News Daily, 10/4/21]

It appears that the Trump campaign vetters (whoever they were) didn’t think any of this was relevant. The Bulwark reports:

The opposition-research dossier put together by the Trump campaign on JD Vance—and allegedly stolen from them by foreign hackers—was published on Thursday by journalist Ken Klippenstein on his Substack.

And what stands out is not what’s in the 271-page file, but what was left out.

Vance’s infamous “childless cat ladies” comment was not listed among the liabilities that the Trump campaign assessed about the then-prospective running mate.

That comment from Vance—which was made, among other places, during a 2021 Fox interview with Tucker Carlson—ended up dogging both him and the Trump campaign in the weeks after he was selected, helping Kamala Harris’s campaign drag down his favorability ratings and define him negatively. Taylor Swift, among others, referenced the “childless cat lady” dig when announcing her support for Harris.

[…]

The exclusion suggests that Trump campaign researchers either missed Vance’s incendiary remarks or thought they were no big deal. The former, however, seems implausible as the document posted by Klippenstein included dozens of other citations of Vance’s appearances on Carlson’s show.

Indeed, much of the oppo file, Klippenstein notes, consists of a copious scrubbing of the public record that is “factual and intelligently written.” It’s typical opposition research assembled with open-source information available online and in the news media concerning Vance’s prior criticisms of Trump, his “obstructionist” stance on Ukraine funding, his support of abortion restrictions, opposition to marijuana legalization, support of “pseudo Christian values,” and comments on race.

Vance comes across as a right-leaning classical liberal who became a Trump era conservative populist. There was nothing obviously disqualifying in it, which explains, in part, how he got selected for the post.

Maybe they just didn’t see what a problem such misogynist commentary might cause. But it sounds as though someone wants to present Vance as a regular Trump guy instead of the tech-bro authoritarian ideologue he really is. This guy isn’t Marge Greene or even Tim Scott.