The Conversation -- July 26, 2025
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “As ... [Donald] Trump golfed Saturday at his course in Turnberry, Scotland, hundreds of protesters took to the streets to denounce his presence in Britain, opposing the administration’s policies on immigration, the war in Gaza and myriad other issues. In Edinburgh, one woman played the bagpipes while holding an anti-Trump sign. Mr. Trump ... played with his son Eric and Warren A. Stephens, his ambassador to the United Kingdom, and the diplomat’s son. Donald Trump Jr. also accompanied his father on the trip to Scotland, where they were greeted at Glasgow Prestwick Airport by a crowd of supporters.... 'This immigration is killing Europe,' Mr. Trump said. 'And the other thing, stop the windmills. Killing the beauty of your countries.' On Saturday, the Scots, who opinion polls show have low regard for Mr. Trump, let their opposition to his policies be known. A group called Stop Trump Scotland organized a rally as a 'festival of resistance' against Mr. Trump that drew hundreds in Aberdeen, in Scotland’s north, and Edinburgh.”
Your Tax Dollars at Work. S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: “American taxpayers will shell out at least $10 million over the next several days so ... Donald Trump can participate in a marketing photo opportunity at his golf resort in Aberdeen, Scotland — the profits from which will flow directly into his own pocket. Trump is planning to visit his golf resorts in both Aberdeen on the east coast and Turnberry on the west. His appearance in Aberdeen coincides with the grand opening of a second 18-hole course there, which Trump has been personally publicizing in recent years. The trip is unrelated to a planned state visit to the United Kingdom in September, making it by far the most expensive golf vacation to date in either of his terms. It will also increase the total golf tab in his second term to at least $52 million. He spent $152 million in taxpayer money playing golf at his own resorts in his first term.”
Whistleblower Aid: “A Whistleblower Aid client and a former Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney has lawfully disclosed evidence to the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General that corroborates the thrust of the whistleblower claims regarding Emil Bove and other senior DOJ officials actively and deliberately undermining the rule of law. Our client, whose identity we are protecting, has provided substantive, internal DOJ documents to the Inspector General, supporting former senior DOJ attorney-turned whistleblower Erez Reuveni’s allegations. Reuveni’s whistleblower complaint exposes 'high-level governmental personnel [at the DOJ who] knowingly and willfully defied court orders, directed their subordinate attorneys to make misrepresentations to courts, and engaged in a scheme to withhold relevant information from the court to advance the Administration’s priority of deporting noncitizens.” Here's a Huffington Post item. (You may have to scroll down for the HuffPost item.)
Marie: I keep hearing or reading stories about Trump's plummeting poll number. But also too, there is this: ~~~
~~~ Miriam Waldvogel of the Hill: “The Democratic Party is viewed negatively by 63 percent of American voters — the lowest approval rating of the party in more than 30 years of The Wall Street Journal’s surveys — according to a new poll from the newspaper. The survey found that while voters disapproved of ... [Donald] Trump’s handling of a variety of issues, they generally said they trusted Republicans more than Democrats to take care of those issues in Congress.”
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News from the Pedo FilesTMAkhilleus: ~~~
Glenn Thrush & Valerie Crowder of the New York Times: Ghislaine “Maxwell, once a fixer for the financier Jeffrey Epstein who is now imprisoned on charges of sex trafficking..., has made it clear she wants her 20-year sentence thrown out or reduced or a pardon.... [Donald] Trump, asked whether he would consider pardoning her, said, 'I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I haven’t thought about.' He made the remarks before he headed off to Scotland, wishing her well.... [Attorney General Pam Bondi’s top deputy Todd] Blanche has described his trip [to Tallahassee, Florida, to interview Maxwell] as a neutral fact-finding mission, saying he would share details of the discussion 'at the appropriate time' — yet he has also declared that the federal criminal investigation into targets beyond Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein remains closed. By that standard, new interviews would appear to serve a function beyond the purposes of traditional law enforcement, unless new evidence of criminality has been discovered, current and former officials said. The department offered Ms. Maxwell conditional immunity to discuss the case.... Senator Charles Schumer, the Democratic leader, questioned whether Mr. Blanche had offered Ms. Maxwell 'some kind of a corrupt deal so that she can exonerate Donald Trump.'... Some conservative news outlets friendly to Mr. Trump have begun to soften their tone about Ms. Maxwell.... This week, a host on Newsmax who has praised Mr. Trump went so far as to suggest that Ms. Maxwell 'just might be a victim.'...” ~~~
~~~ An AP story is here. An Independent story is here.
Derek Hawkins & Kadia Goba of the Washington Post: “The Republican House will soon be forced into the uncomfortable position of issuing a subpoena for the voluminous criminal file on deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein — putting the Trump administration in the equally uncomfortable position of deciding how to respond. Three Republicans joined Democrats this week in voting to subpoena the records from the Justice Department, as well as to demand testimony from prominent figures from Republican and Democratic administrations as the clamor for transparency about the Epstein case continues to roil ... Donald Trump’s Washington. As chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) is obligated, under House rules, to issue the subpoena to the Justice Department. But he has not said when he will do so.... Comer has already issued a subpoena for Epstein’s imprisoned accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and lawmakers are scheduled to interview her on Aug. 11.”
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “The Trump administration in recent weeks has released a series of reports intended to undermine the conclusion reached by intelligence agencies before .. [Donald] Trump’s first term that Russia had favored his candidacy in 2016 and sought to improve his chances of winning.That assessment, an unclassified version of which was made public in January 2017, has long infuriated Mr. Trump. In disclosing the reports, he and his team are proclaiming that President Barack Obama and his team torqued the intelligence analysis process to deliberately discredit Mr. Trump’s election. The administration has coupled that case with overheated and attention-grabbing claims. Mr. Trump has accused Mr. Obama of treason, and his top officials have made criminal referrals about national security officials under Mr. Obama — all as the administration is trying to distract supporters who are angry about its broken promise to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.... [Savage reports on the methods of compiling the reports & the controversies surrounding the methods -- particularly the rushed nature of the analysis -- & findings.] The finely tuned distinctions and marginal questions raised by the newly available information in the documents sharply contrasts with the overstated and sometimes sensationalized claims Trump administration officials keep making about them.”
“The Art of the Really Stupid Deal.” Paul Krugman: “Earlier this week the Trump administration triumphantly announced that it had scored a big trade deal with Japan. Now the reviews are in, and the deal basically received a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes ... from the manufacturing sector, both management and labor, which Trump’s tariffs were supposed to help.... Japan ... is left facing a tariff of 15 percent, compared with an average of 1.6 percent BT (Before Trump.) Reports suggest that a similar deal may be coming with the European Union.... So far, the burden [of the tariffs] seems to be falling mainly on U.S. businesses, which are definitely seeing a sharp rise in costs.... But once businesses see how high tariffs on Japan and Europe are after they’ve made deals, their willingness to absorb the tariffs rather than passing them on to consumers will evaporate.... Overall, the interaction between this Japan deal and Trump’s other tariffs probably tilts the playing field between U.S. and Japanese producers of cars, and perhaps other products, in Japan’s favor.... Trump’s negotiators probably had no idea what they were doing, and didn’t realize that in their frantic rush to conclude a deal they were agreeing to tariffs that would be highly unfavorable to U.S. manufacturing.”
Miriam Waldvogel of the Hill: “A new $608 million grant program from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will give states money to build detention centers for people suspected of being in the United States unlawfully. FEMA was already slated to cover some of the costs for Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” using a Biden-era program meant for helping asylum seekers. The new facility, quickly constructed in a remote part of the Florida Everglades, is expected to run a tab of about $450 million a year. The new FEMA grant program comes as the Trump administration has increasingly slashed FEMA’s ability to assist disaster response, and as the president has mulled closing the agency altogether. CNN reported Friday that FEMA has proposed cutting nearly $1 billion in grant funding to help local first responders better prepare for disasters and to help bolster cybersecurity.” MB: $608MM doesn't sound like much to me if just running that substandard, flooded, tents-and-cages Alligator Alcatraz facility is supposed to cost about two-thirds of that every year.
Caught on Tape: Trump's Brutal Secret Police. Clare Considine of the Guardian: “On the morning of 2 May, teenager Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was driving to his landscaping job in North Palm Beach with his mother and two male friends when they were pulled over by the Florida highway patrol. In one swift moment, a traffic stop turned into a violent arrest. A highway patrol officer asked everyone in the van to identify themselves, then called for backup. Officers with US border patrol arrived on the scene. Video footage of the incident captured by Laynez-Ambrosio, an 18-year-old US citizen, appears to show a group of officers in tactical gear working together to violently detain the three men*, two of whom are undocumented. They appear to use a stun gun on one man, put another in a chokehold and can be heard telling Laynez-Ambrosio: 'You’ve got no rights here. You’re a migo, brother.' Afterward, agents can be heard bragging and making light of the arrests, calling the stun gun use 'funny' and quipping: 'You can smell that … $30,000 bonus.'” Laynez-Ambrosio's attorney claims the young man was charged with obstruction for “merely the exercise of a right to record what was happening.”
Tim Balk of the New York Times: “After a team of talented teenage baseball players from Venezuela swept through a qualifying tournament in Mexico last month, it seemed they were bound for the Senior League World Series in the United States, ready to take on some of the world’s best youth ball clubs. But when the championship round begins in Easley, S.C., on Saturday, the undefeated squad from Venezuela will not be there. The team, Cacique Mara, has been denied the visas necessary to attend, Little League Baseball International said Friday.... Cacique Mara said on social media that players and coaches from the team sat for interviews on July 14 to try to secure visas, but were denied by an immigration officer.... Venezuela has long been a baseball hotbed. Some of the most dazzling stars in Major League Baseball in recent years — Miguel Cabrera, Johan Santana and Jose Altuve among them — grew up in Venezuela. Teams from the country have won the Senior League World Series three times.” ~~~
~~~ Carlos Rodriguez of the AP: “They told us that Venezuela is on a list because Trump says Venezuelans are a threat to the security of his state, of his country,' said Kendrick Gutiérrez, the league’s president in Venezuela.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. MB: I'm having trouble figuring out how a small team of kids, stuck for a few days in the backwater town of Easley, S.C. (pop. about 23,000), could threaten U.S. security, but as usual, the mind of Marco works in mysterious ways. So, thanks, Marco, for protecting me from these dangerous foreign operatives menacing us with lethal baseball bats. And cleats. And maybe fastballs.
Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: “The White House will release $5.5 billion in frozen education funds, administration officials announced on Friday, bringing an end to a chaotic month for school districts that had counted on the money with just weeks to go before the start of the school year.... [Donald] Trump had faced growing pressure over the delay from within his own party, including from 10 Senate Republicans who had signed a rare public letter urging the White House to release the funds. The Department of Education said that it would begin sending the money to states next week. The money was part of nearly $7 billion in education funding that had been approved by Congress and was set to be released by July 1, before the Trump administration abruptly withheld it a day before the deadline.” Politico's report is here.
Anusha Mathur & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: “Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on leave this week.... Former agency officials said both Steve Volz, assistant administrator in the agency’s satellite division, and Jeff Dillen, deputy NOAA general counsel, held positions that allowed them to push back against Trump’s NOAA appointees. While the pair had only occasionally worked together while at NOAA, they also led the investigation into the 'Sharpiegate' scandal during the first Trump administration. Volz was not given an explicit reason for being placed on administrative leave but said tensions between him and Trump’s appointees had been rising. Volz said he had recently pushed back during discussions of commercializing satellite operations.”
Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: “Tyler Hassen, a former Texas oil executive from Elon Musk’s government efficiency team who was given sweeping powers to overhaul the Department of the Interior, is leaving the agency, he confirmed on Friday.... According to a secretarial order that [Interior Secretary Doug] Burgum wrote, Mr. Hassen was given authority to take 'all necessary actions' to carry out 'consolidation, unification and optimization' at the department and its bureaus. That move drew criticism from many Democrats and environmental activists, who said Mr. Burgum had turned over too much authority to Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.... Senator Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico, wrote in a letter to Mr. Burgum[,] 'Delegating sweeping authorities and responsibilities to a non-Senate-confirmed person in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act is baffling and extremely troubling.'...”
Here is the Trump administration thumbing its nose at and retaliating against people devoted to promoting world peace. Who does it put in charge of an institute devoted to promoting peace and countering terrorism and violent extremism? -- A racist bully who "pals around with terrorists." ~~~
Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. -- Darren Beattie, newly-appointed Acting Director of the U.S. Institute of Peace ~~~
~~~ The Best People. Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: “A senior State Department official who was fired as a White House speechwriter during the first Trump administration for attending a gathering of white supremacists has been appointed acting president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, according to the State Department. Darren Beattie, who will lead the institute, is responsible for leading 'public diplomacy outreach, which includes messaging to counter terrorism and violent extremism' at the State Department, according to its website. He will continue in that role, a State Department official said on Friday.... Earlier this year, the Trump administration moved to gut the historically bipartisan entity as part of its wide-ranging effort to shrink the federal government.... [A] confrontation, facilitated by Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, was one of the more shocking attempts by the administration to assert power over the capital’s institutions.
“The institute’s ousted staff sued, and a federal judge in May overturned both the takeover and the mass firings, calling the moves unlawful and a 'gross usurpation of power.' The headquarters, which had been transferred to the executive branch, was restored to the institute. But the administration appealed that ruling, and last month, a federal appeals court in Washington returned control of the building to the administration while the case was under review.... Mr. Beattie was appointed by the institute’s board of directors, which includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”
~~~ Marie: You know, Marco, I'll bet Beattie doesn't think a Cubano can be a "competent white man."
Daniel Hampton of the Raw Story: “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to dismiss all 16 members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, disparaging them as too “woke,” people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal on Friday night. The independent panel of national experts is tasked with making recommendations about clinical preventive services, such as screening tests, counseling services, and preventive medications. The task force became a target for the right by using terms such as 'pregnant persons' and highlighting racial discrimination during a discussion on risk factors for anxiety in older children and teens, according to the report.... The expert panel ... decides which cancer screenings and other preventive services insurance plans are required to cover....”
Another Sign of a Nation in Free-fall. Buh-bye, First Amendment. Kenneth Vogel, et al., of the New York Times: “Media Matters, a nonprofit group that has played a key role in liberal politics, is struggling to withstand months of legal assaults by ... [Donald] Trump’s allies, offering a glimpse of what might be in store for even well-funded targets of his retribution campaigns. The organization, which is funded by some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, has racked up about $15 million in legal fees over the past 20 months to defend itself against lawsuits by Elon Musk, in addition to investigations by Mr. Trump’s Federal Trade Commission and Republican state attorneys general.... Media Matters stands as an example of how legal warfare waged by powerful ideological opponents can squelch influential voices and stifle political dissent. The group says it has dialed back its criticism of Mr. Musk and the Trump F.T.C. Media Matters has also been frozen out by some allies. And it has faced plummeting staff morale, rising infighting and security concerns.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Matt Novak of Gizmodo: “The Federal Communications Commission finally approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance on Thursday after several changes at CBS that were widely seen as efforts to placate ... Donald Trump. Part of the deal will apparently require an ombudsman to check the media company’s supposed political biases. And FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has been doing the rounds to brag about how he’s getting people on TV to be nicer to the MAGA movement. 'They made commitments to address bias and restore fact-based reporting...,' Carr told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly ... Thursday night.... Carr went on to explain that CBS had committed to 'ending invidious forms of DEI,' a pretext Trump has used to purge the federal government of anyone who isn’t white and male in leadership positions.... 'One of the things they’re going to have to do is put in an ombudsman in place for two years,' Carr said. “So basically a bias monitor that will report directly to the president....'”
Carr and Paramount don't seem to agree on which president this babysitter will report to: Trump or president of Paramount. Novak: “Before the second Trump era, it would’ve been seen as a ridiculous violation of the First Amendment to have some kind of monitor making sure the media was being nice to the president.” ~~~
~~~ Colby Hall of Mediaite reports on one of Carr's boastful interviews: “FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr defended controversial provisions imposed on the recently approved Skydance-Paramount merger during a Friday morning appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, calling them 'a change whose time has come.' His comments came amid growing concern over the regulatory role the FCC is playing in shaping the editorial direction of media companies.” ~~~
~~~ David Bauder of the AP writes a related story that covers several aspects of the arrangement between Paramount & the FCC.
Michael Casey of the AP: “A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally, issuing the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide since a key Supreme Court decision in June. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, joining another district court as well as an appellate panel of judges, found that a nationwide injunction granted to more than a dozen states remains in force under an exception to the Supreme Court ruling. That decision restricted the power of lower-court judges to issue nationwide injunctions. The states have argued Trump’s birthright citizenship order is blatantly unconstitutional and threatens millions of dollars for health insurance services that are contingent on citizenship status. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court.”
Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Illinois dismissed a lawsuit on Friday in which the Justice Department argued that state and local officials were violating the Constitution by enforcing so-called sanctuary measures that limit cooperation with immigration agents. The lawsuit, filed in the early days of Mr. Trump’s term, was one of several brought by the Justice Department challenging immigration policies in Democratic-led jurisdictions. On Thursday, the Trump administration filed a similar lawsuit against Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.... In dismissing the case, Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins wrote that the Justice Department had failed to show that the state and local governments were violating federal law.” Politico's report is here.
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Israel/Palestine/U.S., et al. Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: “Amid growing alarm about mass starvation in Gaza and images of Palestinians suffering from severe malnutrition, the Trump administration is hardening its tone toward Hamas, blaming it for the humanitarian crisis. Hamas “didn’t want to make” a deal in this week’s round of ceasefire negotiations and now it would probably be 'hunted down...,' Donald Trump said Friday. Special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said the day before that the United States was at least temporarily pulling out of talks in Doha, Qatar, and would seek 'alternative options' to end the conflict because Hamas was not 'acting in good faith.' Basem Naim, a Hamas official, said on Facebook that Witkoff had mischaracterized a Hamas response that was 'very close' to what Witkoff himself proposed.”
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Reader Comments (11)
More Gray Lady euphemisms
“By that standard, new interviews would appear to serve a function beyond the purposes of traditional law enforcement.”
Um, yeah. How about the purpose being to see if Maxwell would accept a bribe to help out a certain fat rapist?
Christ! These weaselly expressions. When Fat Hitler accepted a $100 million bribe from the Qataris, the Times said: “Trump’s Plan to Accept Luxury Jet From Qatar Strains Bounds of Propriety.”
Ya think?
Right up there with describing Fatty’s illegal power grabs as a “shifting relationship with the Constitution”. What relationship? He pisses on the fucking thing.
But hey, let’s play along. Jeffrey Epstein was a financier with an expansive view of dating decorum. Sounds better than “child raper”, right?
How about describing Eva Braun Bondi as an Attorney General whose admirable sense of loyalty could be interpreted by some as a challenge, but not an insurmountable one, to rigorous application of federal legal statutes. Hey, better than “intransigence on a criminal level astounding even for typically incompetent Republican AGs”.
What about KKKaroline? The president’s press secretary occasionally answers questions by offering responses that seem unsupported by factual evidence. No? Okay then. She’s a lying bitch.
This is easy. And way more fun than boring old outright honest reporting.
According to Ghislaine's attorney, she answered question about 100 people Todd Blanche asked her to discuss. Because of my extensive close friendships & associations with the top people in Trump's DOJ, I just received a preview of some of Maxwell's "queen for a day" assertions to Blanche:
On Donald Trump: "Oh, my, what a gentleman! He would never have anything to do with the young ladies we suggested he "date." Sometimes he would demur, saying it would be wrong because he was so well-endowed, but mostly I think he just had a lot of respect for women. That's just the kind of decent, caring man he always has been.
On Bill Clinton: "Could not keep that guy away from the young girls. He was just amazing. Voracious. Even Jeffrey tried to get him to, well, lay off. I tried, too, of course. Once I spoke to Bill for bringing his own very childlike date to a party, and he just brushed me off. He said, "I did not have sexual relations with that little girl."
On Hillary Clinton: She had sex with Jeffrey. She had sex with me. She went for the ménages à trois. Whatever. But she must have preferred Italian, because she kept recommending the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in D.C.
A Kennedy to the rescue? gift link
A Kennedy Toils in Mississippi, Tracing His Grandfather’s Path
"Joe Kennedy III, the former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, gazed out his window at endless fields of cotton and soybeans as he drove across the Mississippi Delta one sweltering afternoon last month. He was a long way from home, but in a sense returning to it.
“People living here have been receiving boil-water notices for two years now,” he said, using an expletive. “We should be banging the drums on this every day.”
Mr. Kennedy, 44, was retracing the steps of his grandfather, Robert F. Kennedy, the former attorney general and candidate for president, who toured the Delta in 1967 and encountered the kind of hunger and poverty more often associated with the developing world. “Those images Bobby took away of children with bloated stomachs and open sores had a huge impact on him,” said Evan Thomas, a biographer of both the elder Kennedy and his brother, President John F. Kennedy."
^^^ oops - Robert Draper, in The New York Times
LawyersGunsMoney talk about MAGA's obsession with kids.
"In the MAGA world, pedophilia isn’t a crime or abuse that needs to be stopped. It is more a legitimating tool which provides a license for cleansing acts of retributive violence and revenge."
@RAS. Thanks. I also found Robert Paxton's definition of fascism somewhat revelatory. For years I was shaking my head & joking about incidents that demonstrated IOKIYAR. And I don't think it ever dawned on me that what I was joking about was nascent fascism. Not so funny.
Marie,
What, no juicy invented tidbits about Hussein Obama? That would have sealed the deal. Trump would not only pardon her, he’d install her in Jeffrey’s old mansion and give her a few mill for spending money.
This is a tricky one for Fatty (and, as usual, ham handed and stupid). I’m sure Maxwell had her attorney there and will be happy to say whatever they want as long as she gets out. But if she does, even the MAGAts will know it’s a set up. Of course, they could also “suicide” her like Epstein, but that will look bad too.
Did they not game this out? It could be as simple as letting the Orange Monster protest that they tried everything they could to get to the bottom of things, dammit, but no soap,
The stink continues to attach itself to the fat felon. Hey, maybe he can spritz on some Eau de Trump. Unless it smells like dead bodies, it has to be an improvement.
Decades ago, when we were quite young, my sister told me that she thought people needed conflict, needed it so much that if there wasn't a conflict, they'd start one. At the time, I thought that was ridiculous. As I got older, I began to think she might be right, at least for some people.
The people in this country have suffered through a lot of hot wars. There was a generation who fought in WWI. The generation after that fought in WWII. Then the next generation fought in the Vietnam War. Slightly more than a generation later, we got into wars with Afghanistan & Iraq. IOW, most every generation in the last century had its war. Armed conflict. A more-or-less common enemy. (That's less true of Vietnam, where the nation was internally divided.) You will recall all the talk after 9/11 about how "unified" the country was: all the members of Congress -- Republicans and Democrats -- stood together on the Capitol steps singing "God Bless America" a capella.
More than half of the U.S. population was born after 1985, according to the Googles. None of this half+ of the population has fought in a war. That is, more than half of Americans have been "deprived" of an experience of war that most of the people of the world before us have known. These younger Americans may need conflict, as my sister proposed, but circumstances have not provided them with a handy, acceptable conflict.
I have long thought that the reason right-wing conspiracy theories were so popular is that the stories behind the theories are far more exciting than the dull business of good governance. Josh Marshall's theory on right-wing's obsession with exposing and punishing elite pedophiles seems to fit right in to my kid sister's theory of "needing" conflict -- or, more generally, of defining an "enemy" to battle. And pedophiles, as Marshall implies, are so awful that at least to some people, "total violence is acceptable and necessary" to conquer them. And, wow, it sure would be thrilling to vanquish a gang of pedophiles.
I'm not suggesting we get into another international war so we can all hang together. But I am saying that a lot of the reason for the crazy may be that a lot of Americans just want something thrilling to happen to them.
@Akhilleus: When Obama was president, there was a well-developed right-wing conspiracy theory that Obama was gay. There was some kind of complicated backstory to it that I can't recall but you can probably find it floating around the Internets.
Given this theory, Obama would not have enjoyed an Epstein/Maxwell-style party. Todd probably didn't even ask.
Marie,
Interesting idea. I’m thinking that conflict and the challenges it imposes has played a significant role in human evolution and our success as a species. Learning ways to overcome obstacles, whether that be the tribe upstream pissing in our water supply, the best way to bring down big game so the kids can have wooly mammoth burgers for supper, or coming up with better defenses against invading Mongols, have all contributed to our dominance on the planet.
Conflict also serves as a way to develop group identity by bringing members of a tribe together against a common enemy, sort of like “Hey, those guys are trying to steal our stuff/land/water/gold/. Let’s get the bastards!”
As things became more complex, villages turning into towns, towns into cities, cities into countries, there was still the occasional need to “Get the bastards”, but we learned that resolving conflicts in less violent ways offered a chance to develop trade, which led to economic structures more efficient and robust than “I’ll give you this shiny rock for that pointed stick”, which in turn led to better quality of life for everyone. This was called civilization. Pretty neat, right?
Sure, that also led to newer types of conflicts, and as we got better at inventing newer ways to kill people, a lot more bodies if things came down to “Let’s get the bastards”, but at least now and then groups saw that it was to everyone’s benefit not to go bananas if diplomacy could work.
The problem we have now, with weaponized social media and one entire group dedicated to both “bananas” and “getting the bastards”, is that the advances of civilization (ie, not everything becoming a zero sum game) are largely cast aside in favor of all out hatred of the other side, for such ridiculous things as pronouns.
Pretty much the entire right-wing, specifically the MAGA tribe, only knows “Get the bastards”. Which in turn prompts some on the Not MAGA side (except The NY Times, Paramount, CBS, etc.) to adopt a similar approach, just for survival, except without all the made up fantasy shit. In fact, most of the right has reverted to pre-civilized “Let’s get the bastards” and “bananas” full time.
Oh Joy.
So who needs a shooting war?
Oh, wait. With a whole army of Kyle Rittenhouses, it IS a shooting war.
Never mind.
Marie,
Ahhh…that would have been the gay, black, Muslim, not born in America, sending black helicopters to take the guns, tan suit gambit.
Got it.