Reminder: None of This is Remotely Normal

The GOP's latest walk of shame

I had no intention of sending out an unscheduled, random, and irregular newsletter today. But damn.

Today’s ritualized ceremony of self-abasement in New York cries out for comment, if only because we need to continually remind ourselves that we no longer inhabit a remotely normal political universe.

But, first, the obligatory dog pictures.

Two years ago today. Seventeen-and-a-half-year-old Pete defied the odds and made it back to the lake for the 14th year. He enjoyed it.

Auggie and Eli enjoyed it too.

The GOP’s (Latest) Walk of Shame

Let’s start with yesterday’s ritual suck-up. Via the HuffPo:

“Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist noted the “ongoing debasement” of [GOP Senators JD Vance and Tommy Tuberville] who defended Trump outside the courthouse. Tuberville lamented the “tough time” that Trump was going through in the “most depressing” courtroom. Vance, a potential Trump presidential running mate, said he was there “to show support for a friend.”

Geist described their comments as performative outrage on behalf of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee

Vance “is a United States Marine, for God’s sake, where it’s all about honor,” Geist said. “It’s very sad,” he added.

Scarborough agreed and reminded viewers of Vance’s previous disdain for Trump.

“He said that in 2016, if you love Jesus, if you were a Christian, you cannot support Donald Trump,” said Scarborough. “Now furiously on the vice presidential treadmill, he has changed his mind and has decided that this is the most noble of men in his porn star trial, in a ‘very, very depressing courtroom.’”

**

I regret to tell you that today was even worse. A quick tour d’horizon:

In other words, not at all normal.

And, of course, Liz drops the hammer.

Why is this happening? A reminder from MJF:

And, of course, there’s the fund raising grift.

**

I have a question. (And, yes, I know the answer is Ukraine. But still.)

BONUS: Apparently, there was a dress code.

Reviewing Nellie

I’m reading Nellie Bowles’s new book (which I am thoroughly enjoying).

I’ll have more to say later, but I have to admit that I am morbidly entertained by some of the reviews — which are nesting dolls of bad faith, unintentional hilarity, and self-owns. Her primary sins seem to be that she is (1) not Joan Didion, (2) married to Bari Weiss, (3) unimpressed with progressive cosplay, and (4) wickedly funny, a trait that her critics decidedly do not share.

But this hostile review in the Wapo did make me laugh out loud.

In a snide chapter on police abolitionism, Bowles insinuates that crime increased in 2021 because of defunding initiatives. “When the crime wave came — and it did — it baffled leaders,” she writes in a passage implying that progressive politicians should have known what defunding the police would yield….

Because, really. Who knew?

**

Freddie DeBoer also has some thoughts on Nellie and her critics.

He’s uniquely qualified because last year, he also published a book — How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement — that also “functions as a set of criticisms from the left” of the period when “a lot of upwardly-mobile liberal professionals went from Barack Obama to bell hooks, from Pod Save America to the 1619 Project. This evolution was very welcome in spirit, but in practice tied contemporary liberalism to a type of identity politics that was long on rhetoric and short on potential.”

In his newsletter (to which I subscribe), he focuses on this review by Molly Fischer for The New Yorker, which he describes as “the flagship publication of Boerum Hill liberals who can’t decide if it’s time to take the BLM sign down from the window of their tasteful brownstones.”

Fischer complains that Bowles’s critiques are too predictable and thus of little use, but is this review not itself so predictable as to be useless? Is there anyone in the world who could read that bio and say “Ah, yes, that’s a person who’ll give a book by Nellie Bowles a fair shake”? Her resume reads like a parody of an ambitious radlib woman’s sweaty climb up the ladder of fancy pants New York media. It’s an artifact of a very particular time in media’s history, a deeply unhealthy one, and an unembarrassed statement of the exact kind of politics you have to embrace if you’d like a job at whatever’s left of Conde Nast….

Read the whole thing.

Nota Bene

Conor Friedersdorf: “Jerry Seinfeld’s Speech Was the Real News - The Atlantic”

“What I need to tell you as a comedian: Do not lose your sense of humor. You can have no idea at this point in your life how much you are going to need it to get through. Not enough of life makes sense for you to be able to survive it without humor.”

Seinfeld went on to defend “the slightly uncomfortable feeling of awkward humor,” arguing that it is “not something you need to fix,” because even as Gen Z improves the world, it will remain “a pretty insane mess.” Humor, he said, is “the most survival-essential quality you will ever have or need to navigate through the human experience.”

All of that is newsworthy. Seinfeld is a perceptive observer of life and an undeniable expert on comedy. Plus, as he told the graduates, “I am 70. I am done. You are just starting. I only want to help you.” If he is convinced that humor is a crucial salve—“the most important thing I am confident that I know about life”—those of us who’ll never enjoy his success or wealth had really better keep laughing.

Yet coverage of the commencement treated something just before his speech as more newsworthy: As the Associated Press reported, roughly 30 student protesters walked out of the graduation ceremony as Seinfeld was introduced. They represented a tiny fraction of the 7,000 students present.