You can’t escape it. He keeps topping himself. Items today are all about Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally yesterday. With some concluding thoughts about human nature and that famous William Gibson quote.
CNN, 28 Oct 2024: Trump unveils the most extreme closing argument in modern presidential history, subtitled “His rhetoric ranks among the most flagrant demagoguery by a major figure of any Western nation since World War II”
Two New Yorker pieces today.
I mentioned an article a couple weeks ago about whether violence is a disease (or actually, whether MAGA is a disease like violence is taken to be). Here’s another perspective.
The New Yorker, Michael Luo, 17 Oct 2024: Should Political Violence Be Addressed Like a Threat to Public Health?, subtitled “Treating political violence as a contagion could help safeguard the future of American democracy.”
The essay begins by recalling the filth in mid-19th century New York City streets, and the rash of deaths in car crashes in the 1950s. Both were treated as matters of public health and largely fixed.
Robert Reich considers the significance of the withheld presidential endorsements by two big papers.
Robert Reich, 25 Oct 2024: Cowardice and intimidation at The Washington Post and L.A. Times, subtitled “Their billionaire owners are Trump enablers”
He outlines the situation, and ends with the resignation of Mariel Garza, editorials editor of the Washington Post.
Short post today, since as I was sitting down to write it, an hour and a half ago now, the power went out. This was around 4:20pm. I sat and read a book. Power back about 5:40. Car hit power pole, the message from PG&E said. It’s Y’s turn fixing dinner tonight, so let’s see what I can get done before it’s ready. Topics today:
Slate, Steven Greenhouse, 23 Oct 2024: If Trump Wins, Blame the Billionaires, subtitled “Without them, this presidential race wouldn’t be close at all.”
This supports the by-now-truism that the wealthy support Republicans because Republicans given them tax breaks. (While Republicans gather votes by pretending to be concerned about conservative moral issues. Some of them are.)
Let’s look at some non-political items today.
Big Think, Kevin Dickinson, 23 Oct 2024: 3 brilliant critical thinking tools used by Daniel Dennett, subtitled “The late philosopher suggested adding a couple of “Occam’s heuristics” to your critical thinking toolbox.”
Robert Reich, 22 Oct 2024: How the hell can the race be tied?, subtitled “Two weeks before an election in which America should be sending Trump home (and then to jail), he and Harris are in a statistical tie in the battleground states.”
Reich writes about dealing with bullies all his life (in part because he’s short), including (as an adult) Republicans.
So hard to keep up. I think for today I’ll pass over Trump’s stunt at a McDonald’s, and his obsession with Arnold Palmer’s anatomy. You can Google them.
Why would this be?
Slate, 11 Oct 2024, Jill Filipovic: Gen Z Men Are Going Back to Church. Why?, subtitled “Young men are increasingly more religious. Young women are leaving the church in droves. Their motivations might not be so different.”
I was struck by something in this op-ed today. (In today’s paper, it was posted a couple days ago.)
NY Times, Jamelle Bouie, 18 Oct 2024: There Is No Precedent for Something Like This in American History
NY Times, David Brooks, 17 Oct 2024: Why the Heck Isn’t She Running Away With This?”
He wonders why the race is so tied, the polls immobile. And he wonders:
Why has politics been 50-50 for over a decade? We’ve had big shifts in the electorate, college-educated voters going left and non-college-educated voters going right. But still, the two parties are almost exactly evenly matched.
