P.M. Carpentertag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1348302024-03-18T12:45:14-05:00Commentary on political and international affairsTypePadA new bullseye on the J6 committee; and after that, every last Americantag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3ae2421200d2024-03-18T12:45:14-05:002024-03-18T12:52:43-05:00I scroll only so far, since scrolling farther on Truth Social puts one's mental health at risk — and I don't mean that facetiously. With this important safety tip in mind, I pop by the crudely constructed snake pit every...P.M. CarpenterBiden's funny/serious routine at the Gridiron Club, and some seriousness addedtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3adcee8200b2024-03-18T11:29:06-05:002024-03-18T10:12:32-05:00President Biden upheld the Gridiron Club's 139-year tradition on Saturday night, blending gravitas with humor. For starters, he said he was speaking "six hours past my bedtime." Continuing, "One candidate’s too old and mentally unfit to be president." [Pause.] "The...P.M. CarpenterA phobic pausetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3add024200b2024-03-18T10:00:57-05:002024-03-18T10:00:57-05:00With my moderate acrophobia, someone would need to airlift me off. I'd be too petrified to move. Buddha’s Hand located in Guangdong, China pic.twitter.com/CZ7TWlC8Bs — Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) March 17, 2024 A fear of heights might seem a strange affliction...P.M. CarpenterTrump's "bloodbath" dumps a serious question on us tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3adc4a6200b2024-03-18T08:56:40-05:002024-03-18T09:51:15-05:00The phenomenon is among the rarest of rarities. But it happened. While prattling in his usual Castro-length style to a fawning crowd on Saturday, Trump managed to ignite a newsworthy debate. For more than three years the psychopathological conman has...P.M. CarpenterHow impossible is a No Labels win? THIS impossible.tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3adb62e200b2024-03-17T09:17:59-05:002024-03-17T09:18:35-05:00Once again I direct your attention to the recent words of No Labels' founding chair, former senator Joe Lieberman: "We're not going to do this unless we have a chance to win." He said this in a CNN interview (video...P.M. CarpenterOf Great Dictators: the real thing and a second-rate copytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3a9e8fa200c2024-03-16T12:19:52-05:002024-03-16T12:19:52-05:00If you've never seen America's wannabe dictator Donald Trump as lived by Tomainia's actual dictator, Adenoid Hynkel, you have missed a superb tutorial: a dictator and a garish Trump rally as it should be, that is, a dictator and a...P.M. CarpenterA spot of trouble in the ousted Establishment's messaging departmenttag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3ae0167200d2024-03-16T09:03:06-05:002024-03-16T09:03:06-05:00The Establishment in this partisan case is embodied by 31 former U.S. representatives who either happily fled or were muscled out of Trump's Republican Party, or, if you prefer, Republicans' Trump Party. On 7 March these Establishmentarians, known to Trump...P.M. Carpentertag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3ade4e2200d2024-03-15T08:51:04-05:002024-03-15T08:51:04-05:00Today whatever fresh hell in politics comes our way will bother me not. My daughter's arriving from Seattle this morning — and ain't nothin' gonna spoil that for me. I wanted to clear my day for this joyous event, so...P.M. CarpenterIn defense of pollstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3a9aef9200c2024-03-15T08:49:42-05:002024-03-15T09:11:20-05:00In The New Yorker interview with senior Biden officials, one said "polling is broken. You can’t figure out how to get someone on the phone." Had the boss been 15 points ahead in the polls, the senior official would have...P.M. CarpenterThe military mind of Elon Musktag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3adcdfa200d2024-03-15T08:49:18-05:002024-03-15T09:19:59-05:00How did Elon Musk, an idiot, ever become so rich, famous, and admired? The historical ignorance here is staggering. To "historical ignorance" I began to add, "of a man admired and looked up to by millions." It instantly hit me...P.M. CarpenterLet's hope next year it's Trump presenting the award for Best SHORT Subject, Comedy (to himself) tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3a9c4d5200c2024-03-15T08:48:34-05:002024-03-15T09:27:30-05:00Or maybe Best Makeup and Hairstyling? I've never been an awards watcher, not the Emmys, the Grammys, the Golden Globes or Oscars. I enthusiastically avoid them; the thought of four hours listening to saintly mothers and obscure mentors being thanked...P.M. CarpenterUkraine aid, still teetering on the top of Mike Johnson's head tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3a9c152200c2024-03-15T08:47:37-05:002024-03-15T09:35:48-05:00God's vicar works in mysterious ways. This is because Vicar Johnson, also part-time speaker of the House, is a mystery even unto himself. Ordinarily he knows not what he's thinking until he's informed of it by God's messiah (or so...P.M. CarpenterA few seconds of Trumpy irony to either enhance or ruin your daytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3a9bf3b200c2024-03-14T12:59:47-05:002024-03-14T14:05:02-05:00What's so splendidly ironic about this one-minute clip of Trump faking even a rudimentary knowledge of American history is that he undoubtedly would have been among Andrew Jackson's political opponents, many of them from the defunct Federalist Party, which favored...P.M. CarpenterA brief follow-up to Trump and certain defamed countries tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3a9bcec200c2024-03-14T11:54:12-05:002024-03-14T11:57:21-05:00In my previous post I wrote that June 2015 was "the month and year of Trump's vertiginous escalator ride from his hideous imitation-New-Orleans-whorehouse bungalow down into the hellish shithole he was to make of America — ridiculed by the very...P.M. CarpenterA morsel of dated news from the clean worldtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451bc2169e202c8d3ad7363200b2024-03-14T10:14:32-05:002024-03-14T10:14:33-05:00Because of a link I followed yesterday I discovered there was more than just that one really bewildering development of June 2015. That of course was the month and year of Trump's vertiginous escalator ride from his hideous imitation-New-Orleans-whorehouse bungalow...P.M. Carpenter