Triumph the Insult Comic Dog attended the Republican National Convention and spoke to media and delegates in his own inimitable style.
Triumph is funny. I find it interesting psychologically that when a puppet says something it is funnier than if the comedian operating the puppet (Robert Smigel) were to have said the same things himself. Perhaps the fun is in having people look at and respond to the puppet when the actual person speaking is right there next to it.
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It is interesting how catchwords suddenly go mainstream. I had heard the word ‘alt-right’ on rare occasions before but it was just earlier this week that I noticed that NPR correspondents suddenly using the term repeatedly in describing the extreme right wing sphere. According to this article:
Alternative Right was the name of a website set up by “identitarian” Richard Spencer in 2010. The term has been embraced by those opposed to immigration, multiculturalism and globalism.
The French government has come under widespread ridicule for its burkini ban and commenter deepak shetty added a link to the various reactions around the globe. Meanwhile According to Newsweek:
France’s highest court has suspended a ban on the “burkini” in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, in a decision likely to lead to the overturn of 30 more such bans in towns across France.
…The Council of State judgment said that the ban had breached “fundamental freedoms.”
We are now at the stage in US presidential politics where partisanship kicks into high gear. People choose sides and which candidate they want to win and work towards that end. That is fine. The only problem is that once that decision is made, many people start to defend acts by their own candidate that they would condemn if done by the opponent. At that point, principled politics goes out the window as people start to defend the indefensible simply because their own person does it.
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One of the thing that have had political observers marveling is the remarkable loyalty of Donald Trump’s supporters who have stood by him through a campaign that has been, to put it kindly, a mess. While the reason for this has been ascribed to Trump’s ability to tap into populist instincts to fire up his base, my earlier post suggests that the reason has less to do with him and more to do with the fact that media culture has changed in such a way that the voting public has simply become more shielded from contrary views and thus more immune to being persuaded to change their minds.
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Seth Meyers says that the campaign of Donald Trump has settled into a pattern.
Whenever I see people limit themselves in what they can wear or what they can eat or do because of their religious beliefs, it bothers me as a sign of the hold that religions have on people but I would not seek to prevent them from acting in that way. Hence the new French laws that bans women from wearing the ‘burkini’, a full-body swimsuit garment as seen in this photo that covers them up when they are at the beach, seems to me to be wrong.
Now that the party conventions are over, the next major focus of media attention are the debates. There will be three presidential debates (Monday, September 26; Sunday, October 9; and Wednesday, October 19) and one vice-presidential debate (Tuesday, October 4) all lasting from 9:00pm-10:30pm Eastern time.
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On his show Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver said Donald Trump risks facing humiliating defeat in his campaign for a job that he would be bad at and that he should seek a face-saving way out. He says that his campaign made four good points and now the best thing he could do is drop out of the race, and he gives suggestions for how to do so in a memorable way.
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This presidential election is quite extraordinary in the level of dissatisfaction that the members of one party, the Republicans, have with their presidential nominee and the number of defections that it has spurred, with conservative thought leaders and elected officials staying silent or lukewarm about Donald Trump and others abandoning him and some actively campaigning for his opponent Hillary Clinton. By any reasonable measure, Trump should be heading for a crushing defeat.
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