"Trump is no longer a strongman.

[erbeckman@historians.social]

@wdlindsy
I think about John Roberts along similar lines. How did a well-educated man who grew up with modest privilege decide to make dismantling the Voting Rights Act his life work?

[enmodo@mastodon.social]

@wdlindsy AKA "the Emperor has no clothes!" - except it's not just no one but the little boy who spoke up, it's that 50% of the country was deaf to the screams of others.

One day they will look back and give a name to this like they did for Stockholm Syndrome. We may no unironically call it Trump Derangement Syndrome because when MAGA claimed this is what liberals had they were of course projecting - and that was just part of the syndrome.

[greengordon@spore.social]

@wdlindsy

"the interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief...Micklethwait...was perhaps the best example I’ve seen of an interlocutor revealing both Donald’s inability to handle pushback and his stunning ignorance. The titan of business and master of the art of the deal clashed repeatedly with Micklethwait—over January 6 and the economic impact of increased tariffs—and he came out of every exchange looking like a complete fool whose lack of knowledge was surpassed only by his contemptuousness.

[oceanpinesguy@lor.sh]

@wdlindsy Brettlooks likes Botox treatment gone wrong.

[iamcanehdian@mstdn.ca]

@wdlindsy Catholicism moral? You'd never know it from the behaviour. I think Hitchens said it best.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"Donald Trump won’t stop backing out of interviews, and his forces have been left scrambling.

Trump dropped out of yet another interview on Friday, when a Trump adviser told producers of The Shade Room that Trump wouldn’t be following through on talks to appear on the podcast because he was 'exhausted and refusing [some] interviews but that could change,' two people familiar with the conversation told Politico."

~ Edith Olmsted

#KamalaHarris #Trump #strongman
/14

Trump Abruptly Dumps Another Interview, Sending His Team into a Panic

Donald Trump’s team is worried that he keeps dropping out of media appearances, even friendly ones.

The New Republic (newrepublic.com)

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

@wdlindsy

Predicted this earlier this week after Harris did such a great job on Charlemagne Tha God.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

As he wittily observes that the final weeks of this election season are showing us that "the emperor has no closing," Jay Kuo says,

"As we enter the final two weeks of the Election, the 'October Surprise' could be something some of us have long warned of: Trump just isn’t okay."

#KamalaHarris #Trump #fascism #strongman #EmperorHasNoClothes
/15

The Emperor Has No Closing

As we enter the final two weeks of the Election, the “October Surprise” could be something some of us have long warned of: Trump just isn’t okay.

(statuskuo.substack.com)

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"It’s now widely reported that he has missed several recent interviews and events, but let’s lay them out for clarity:

60 Minutes on CBS (Harris accepted)

CNN Debate (Harris accepted)

CNBC News interview with Joe Kernan

NBC News interview with Christine Romans

NRA Rally in Georgia for the 2nd Amendment"

#KamalaHarris #Trump #fascism #strongman #EmperorHasNoClothes
/16

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"One thing is already clear: Trump’s closing argument is not only landing with a thud, his campaign is actively removing him from view to limit the damage. His handlers simply don’t want voters to see how far he has declined from his former self, and they are hoping now to run out the clock, before the naked truth is revealed for all to see."

#KamalaHarris #Trump #fascism #strongman #EmperorHasNoClothes
/17

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"The reason the US is a knife’s edge away from electing a fascist is significantly a media problem, both the existence of the hermetically sealed world of Trump propaganda and the collapse and/or abdication of credible media for other reasons. The people who would make this election a blowout loss for Trump are often not accessing truthful information."

~ Marcy Wheeler

#KamalaHarris #Trump #fascism #strongman #EmperorHasNoClothes #media
/18

Could This Week's Developments Change the Race? - emptywheel

A series of events in the last ten days may finally have stripped the disinformation that would otherwise leave 8 to 13% of voters believing Trump's disinformation about himself and Kamala Harris.

emptywheel (www.emptywheel.net)

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@mastodonmigration Yes — has been a fascinating, and almost fated, thing to watch, hasn't it?

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@iamcanehdian Yes — and then there are the 8 in 10 white evangelicals poised to vote for Trump and the 6 in 10 white mainline Protestants.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@OceanPinesGuy What a perfect comment. Really does make me laugh out loud, because it captures him to a T.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Greengordon Great commentary — and from someone who knows the man inside and out.

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

@wdlindsy

Indeed. He is coming apart at the seams and all the billionaires in the world can't put Donald back together again.

It is really a remarkable effort in unreality they are playing at.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@enmodo "It's that 50% of the country was deaf to the screams of others": yes. And in some ways, I think that's essential to the Andersen story, isn't it? Everyone sees but pretends not to see, except for the child.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@ERBeckman I ask that question, too. Part of it has to be, I think, grooming by elite circles of power and wealth that prove so alluring to those who grew up with modest privilege, in many cases.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@72mz Yes. And I wonder what about his upbringing predisposed him to be groomed so easily.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@ElpasYou_2 And then there are those 8 in 10 white evangelicals who are reporting they'll vote for Trump and the 6 in 10 white evangelicals reporting the same thing.