Regardless of my personal feelings about Donald Trump, I have to admit it’s fun to watch journalists and their fellow Democrats wail and gnash their teeth about their worst nightmare coming true.
“How could this happen? Why didn’t those stupid voters listen to us? Whyyyyyyy?!?”
I’ll tell you why, you miserable hacks.
Voters didn’t listen to you because Joe Biden is a dementia-addled mess and you lied about it. He was starting to lose his mind even before the 2020 election, and you covered for him until you couldn’t get away with it anymore.
Reasonable people can disagree about Biden’s policies and their results. But absolutely nobody actually believes he should be in power right now, least of all the people insisting so. They’re all just kicking the can down the road.
You can fool a lot of people about a lot of things, but everybody recognizes Father Time.
Sure, there are plenty of other reasons for Trump’s win. The economy. The border. All the other stuff this incompetent administration has ruined. Kamala’s bizarrely inept campaign.
But beneath it all is a simmering resentment about a massive, coordinated lie:
“Joe Biden is mentally fit to serve.”
“He’s as sharp as a tack.”
“Maybe you’re the one going senile. Ever think about that, you Nazi?”
Libs love to talk about gaslighting, because without it they’d be nowhere.
No Republican could ever get away with such an enormous lie. Trump certainly won’t. He’s the same age now as Biden was four years ago — a few months older, actually — and it’s only a matter of time before he starts slipping. The press will be watching him like a hawk for every little sign of weakness. They’ll be every bit as aggressive and diligent for the next four years as they were lenient and incurious for the last four.
But it’s too late. They didn’t just allow Trump to win, they helped him. They paved his path back to power, every time they told us our eyes and ears were lying to us about Biden.
“Cheap fakes,” my royal Irish ass.
They justified their fraudulence because, after all, Trump lies too. And in the process, they told a lie that dwarfs all of his.
They didn’t speak truth to power. They hid truth for power.
We knew they were covering for Biden, and we knew why. Yet they still wanted us to vote for the woman who lied to us about his condition, with their eager assistance.
People keep telling me I don’t hate the media enough. They’re wrong. I hate them just the right amount.
And their comeuppance is delicious.
By the way, we still don’t know why the president of the United States dropped out of the 2024 campaign on Twitter, during Sunday brunch, in the middle of a weeklong disappearance from the public eye. I want to know what happened to him that week, and who helped cover it up.
Maybe that’ll be Bob Woodward’s next book. He has nothing to lose now. The secret’s out.
Streaming pick: Disclaimer on Apple TV+.
Having watched the entire seven-episode series, I can recommend it. But reluctantly. Very, very reluctantly.
There are some interesting ideas about cognitive bias and the power of narrative to warp reality, and it’s well-acted and -directed almost entirely throughout. But it’s all wrapped up in a ridiculously contrived potboiler revenge plot. Manipulative airport-novel trash, with a heavy coat of prestige TV gloss.
And a generous helping of bitter feminist scolding to boot.
The show feels more like a dare than an actual story: “How much can we mess with the audience’s heads before they realize what we’re doing?” I realize that’s vague, but I don’t want to spoil too much.
It also employs not one but two narrators. Which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. I kept thinking: “Okay, I get what they’re going for here, but come on…”
I keep going back and forth on recommending it, even as I’m writing this. I do think it’s worth your time to watch, if only so I can say I warned you going in.
And it’s always great to see Kevin Kline. This is his best work in years, if a bit broad at times. His comedic chops really come in handy here, keeping the whole thing from becoming a depressing slog.
Oh yeah, and Borat’s in it. If you don’t think he’s funny, you’ll appreciate his casting-against-type here. I guarantee he will not make you laugh even once.
I give it the barest possible single thumb up. It’s not worth signing up for yet another streaming service just to watch it, but if you’ve already got Apple TV+… 🤷🏻♂️
TGIF (Trump Got In, Folks), and thanks for reading. What a week, huh? I’m trying to remember what sleep feels like.
Get some rest, because nothing’s gonna get any smarter or saner from here.
What's the opposite of doom scrolling? Joy scrolling, maybe? Whatever. It's finally over, and I need to turn off the Interwebs, go rake some leaves, and get back to that pile of 75 books I want to read before I die. The clock is ticking...
"They didn’t speak truth to power. They hid truth for power."
Abso-damn-lutely. Best line of the day and one that should be shoved in their smug, self-righteous faces at every opportunity.