Charles C.W. Cooke is very bored (at The National Review).
August 11, 2022
"I am inordinately bored of Donald Trump. I’m bored of the man himself. I’m bored of his opponents. I’m bored of his supporters."
"I’m bored of the manner in which every last question that animates our politics is eventually plotted onto a graph that has his face at its center. You name anything Trump-related, I’m bored of it. It’s utterly inescapable. Before long, every political topic, every prominent politician, every historical trend becomes about Donald Trump in some way, shape, or form. Every piece of journalism does, too. I haven’t yet published this piece, and I’m already bored by the responses that it will engender. That’s how bad it’s gotten: I’m pre-bored — by the emails, by the analyses, by the snark, by the desire to make every last thing in American life about Trump. Nothing is safe. Bring up something almost as old as the nation itself — the Fifth Amendment, say — and within a few minutes, people will be debating whether it is functionally pro-Trump or anti-Trump. They’ll ask if it’s Trump-adjacent, or Trump-resistant, or anti-anti-Trump...."
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138 comments:
So go back to England already. The empire is over.
Boring is good, no? Hasn't Biden brought boring back? Aren't we for boring?
And why "bored of"? Why is everything going genitive now?
It's very easy not to write about Trump. All who complain should give it a try.
"Bored of" must come from leakage from "tired of." The usual is "bored with."
“Pre-bored” has possibilities. Reminds me of the good old days in air travel when select passengers in the departure lounge were told they could begin pre-boarding. Something like that.
Self-awareness of a new era happens only after the new era begins. Trump was easily the most impactful president of my lifetime. I'm not saying good or bad, just assessing his influence.
"I’m pre-bored — by the emails, by the analyses, by the snark, by the desire to make every last thing in American life about Trump."
Cooke, you're way off base. It's not about Trump, it's about me and others like me. Eighty million or so. You didn't understand Trump, you still don't understand Trump, you'll never understand Trump. Team up with Jonah Goldberg, Noonan, Will, get off your recliners and go out and beat the bushes like Saleno Zito. Find out why millions feel the way they do.
The NR is controlled opposition, and/or swamp (democ)rats.
I really am ashamed I was taken in by them for so many years. Once they went woke (Derbyshire, however uncouth, wasn't a reformed traitor like some early NR contributors). Hiring Chambers would be like hiring Assange or Snowden if they 'came clean' and rejected progressivism. Like that would happen.
Bored with Trump. Writes entire piece about Trump. Bless his heart.
Any society who rejects fixed principles of right and wrong always ends up being bored. It’s inevitable. Just like night follows day. When there is no right and wrong everything collapses into one. Nothing means anything. Sin is always sameness.
Democrats certainly are not bored with DJT. They can't get enough of the guy! Colbert just spent an entire evening making money libeling DJT.
It's a form of Trump Derangement Derangement Syndrome.
What else does the left have other than Orange Man Bad?
Cooke's bored with Trump?
Who cares?
It's sort-of okay to write, "the National Review", though it's better to just say National Review. It is never correct to write, "The National Review".
This is what NRO writers wanted and encouraged everyone to vote for in November 2020. A return to normalcy which the Biden administration was sure to bring to this nation.
And, here we are.
BTW, Congrats to Ann for making the WSJ's "Notable & Quotable" in today's edition.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/notable-quotable-trump-biden-and-bork-raid-mar-a-lago-doj-search-florida-cops-fbi-11660164141?mod=hp_opin_pos_6#cxrecs_s
Well, you uniparty Deep State globalists elites have fucked things up so badly that only Trump has the ability and courage to make America great again.
I’m bored with the following:
Inflation
High energy prices
Dependence upon OPEC
Border invasion by illegal aliens
China’s dominance over us
The Green New Deal
The so-called climate crisis
Unending foreign wars
Abandonment of the Rule of Law
BLM
CRT
Everything trans?
Cooke is pure Oxbridge. Grew up in Cambridge and went to Oxford.
Yes. Ignore the diaper wearing elephant in the room. However, that would be ratings suicide.
It's National Review. Not The National Review.
Then find a new job.
I'm bored of the "I'm bored" take, in all its variations.
Also, does he really believe that if Trump were to go away it would all get better? The left wouldn't lose their minds over the next GOP candidate? The very act of pushing Trump out of politics would guarantee that the tactics used against him are used again against DeSantis or whomever the right rallies behind.
I am bored National Review.
When are they find some new way to capitulate to the Democrats, some new way to turn on people who actually want to prevent the ongoing ruin of our country, find some new war to kill tens of thousands of foreigners for no reason and spend $1 trillion on nothing? You know, the kind of things they like. There is no profanity strong enough for what National Review has become.
I agree with Cooke. The only folks more boring than Trump supporters are the opponents. “How can we miss you if you won’t go away?”
There's a game I play every once in awhile when I'm bored and flipping channels at night. I'll select MSNBC and count- in seconds- how long it takes them to say the word 'Trump'. It's typically just seconds, sometimes less than 10. Then I go over to CNN and do the same thing. Prior to the Mara Lago break-in, they were getting a bit better, sometimes taking up to a minute to say the word. I have not checked over the last couple of days, but it's got to be every other word currently.
Charles C.W. Cooke is not incorrect in the over-focus for years now on Donald Trump. Trump was large before he ran for President. But the media pumped him up to the size of the Puff Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters and then kept pumping as he ran for President. Since then they've been steadily shooting darts at the puffed-up man, regularly- and breathlessly- reporting on the outcome. We've got blockbuster news! This could be it for Trump! Oh no, Trump got away with it! (whatever it is on any given week).
At this point, however, it has to be played out. Either the Feds arrest him and put him in jail (which would create a whole warehouse full of disastrous events), or he ends up running and losing, or he ends up running and winning. But at this point, it hs to play out. So we will see no shortage of Trump coverage for at least the next 2-3 years, and possibly more.
He's the Frankenstein Monster the media created.
He's lying. He lies awake every night with his head spinning Trump.
Whose fault is that Chuck? His opponents are basically forcing him back into the public consciousness due to the insane anti-Trump mania that has gripped them. Local DA's, State Attorneys General, the FBI, the January 6th Committee, etc, etc, ad nauseum.
I was told by all the smartest, well credentialed brainiacs that once we got rid of President Trump everything would go back to "normal". To be fair, some things went back to normal. None of them good.
But we also kept the chaos of the Trump Administration because his OPPONENTS can't be satisfied just winning an election and having him out of office. No, he must be disgraced, persecuted, indicted, tried, convicted, imprisoned, and every trace of his policies erased from history. Along with every trace of him or his supporters purged from social media.
The bottom line is no one can just stop fighting when your opponents continue to publically punch you in the face.
I'm also inordinately bored of Charles Cooke, who's written the most Charles Cooke piece ever, once again.
A new stance: boredom with Trump. It’s a lie of course. Cooke hates Trump and hate and boredom are not compatible. But it is a sign the NeverTrump crowd is losing and they know it.
Progress!
Charlie Cooke is a proud naturalized citizen of the USA. He is as entitled to be bored by and of Donald Trump as the rest of us are.
Falling right into Charlie's stereotype, I will never forgive the FBI, DOJ, and Merrick Garland personally for forcing me to support Trump for president in 2024. Why did they do it? He's too old. He's too erratic. He is coming back, and this time he is mad.
I am too old for this. Do I have to spend the rest of my life listening to the tedious trio, Trump, Biden, and Hillary? Think about those Boomer presidents: Clinton, Bush 43, Obama, and Trump. Each ghastly in his own way. And Biden isn't even a Boomer. He is too old.
Like Charlie Cooke, I want to vote for DiSantis.
Let the Cathedral grift in peace, Cooke says. Trump is getting the Akhenaten treatment from the Beltway.
Things will get more exciting if his supporters are true to their word and start shooting. But most of them have trouble getting off the couch and into their truck I imagine. Not to mention they are scared chicken shits.
Oh good God. Charles Cooke. Is there anything worse than these smarmy Brits (like Prince Harry) looking down their noses at Americans blind to their own hypocrisy, historical atrocities, and diminishing world influence? GTFO. Go home and order some chicken curry with a side of spotted dick.
I'll trade ya. Leave the southern border wide open and deport these assholes. At least the migrants end up producing something.
Basically in 2022 the whole shithouse is on fire, and this asshole is “bored”. What he’s saying is he thinks he’s above everyone else fighting in the trenches.
Yeah Dickhead. It boils down to Trump right now. And it’s actually because of people like YOU. His fight for the freedom and the working class has turned everyone else into rabid totalitarians. You’re bored watching people betray a lifetime of values because “Orange Man Bad”? You’re bored watching 1984 and Animal Farm come to life?
It’s Dem/GOP/Globalism/Deep State establishment vs. MAGA America First. We're taking on and evil that has infected the world here. A completely new dynamic in a country and a society splitting apart at the seams, while western civilization sprints toward totalitarianism. An epic battle. The watershed of our lifetimes.
Hey Charles. Go buy a $4000 ticket to a Springsteen concert and pretend you understand America.
Before he went Nevertrump Cooke was a fun read. Too many opinion writers like him mistook their personal revulsion at Trump’s manners as disqualifying and grew increasingly butthurt at Americans rejection of that “logic.” Nobody made him write so much about Trump; Cooke chose to do so. Now he wants to bore us with his boring take about being bored. Whatever, Charles! There are a world of subjects you could choose to cover but you can’t quit the Orange Man. I’ll help you out: you aren’t bored you’re obsessed. The problem is you.
LOL, well I'm not gonna subscribe to NR Plus just to see how bored Cooke truly is, but I do sympathize with him, from just that portion you have excerpted here.
To paraphrase Samuel Pepys, if a man is bored of Donald Trump, he is bored of life...
Blogger cfs said...
This is what NRO writers wanted and encouraged everyone to vote for in November 2020. A return to normalcy which the Biden administration was sure to bring to this nation.
And, here we are.
BTW, Congrats to Ann for making the WSJ's "Notable & Quotable" in today's edition.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/notable-quotable-trump-biden-and-bork-raid-mar-a-lago-doj-search-florida-cops-fbi-11660164141?mod=hp_opin_pos_6#cxrecs_s
8/11/22, 7:31 AM
NRO did not support Biden in 2020.
There was great trepidation because the general view was that the race was a Hobson’s choice between George Costanza and Grandpa Simpson but at the end of the day I doubt that there were any staffers who actually voted for Biden.
You can't escape it. My doctor went on a anti Trump rant while probing my innards for cancer. I'm getting good at the noncommittal response.
Cooke's become bored because he's become boring.
You miss a lot of interesting stuff when you're wearing blinkers. That's the whole point of blinkers. But a proper gentleman doesn't remove his blinkers. Certainly not if he wants to write for National Review.
I'm bored that Never Trumpers think they matter.
jim5301 said...
Things will get more exciting if his supporters are true to their word and start shooting. But most of them have trouble getting off the couch and into their truck I imagine. Not to mention they are scared chicken shits.
8/11/22, 8:09 AM
Be careful what you wish for....YOU would be one of the first to go, and you would be crying like the little wimp you really are.
I understand not liking Trump's style. It's not MY style either. But voting against policies you support because you don't like his style? I get it, Trump's a jerk. Are you telling me Biden isn't? So, you voted against policies you historically would support because Trump was a jerk and replaced him with another jerk with policies you never would have supported...that is some twisted logic.
When Trump was elected, I was worried that he was effectively a Democrat and the Democrats would play to his ego and work with him to pass Democrat legislation. Well, they and the media were so busy demonizing him they made him more of a Republican than I thought he was in 2016.
He isn't bored, though. He's lying for effect, like so many talking heads.
He's seething that his politics are still in terminal decline and saying he's bored is simply another way to express his contempt.
I am coming around to the thought that the raid might be 12 dimensional chess on the part of the Democrats.
Their only hope to staving off the Red Wave is to make the election about the Fat Tub of Goo.
Their greatest dream is that the Fat Tub of Goo declares that he is running in 2024 prior to the midterms.
Prior to this the efforts to make the Fat Tub of Goo relevant to 2022 were wasted - as seen by the ratings at CNN and MSLSD - because Trump was in the past and there were more pressing issues concerning Americans and the Democrats are in the wrong side of all those issues. The solution to this - bring Trump into the present.
Mission accomplished.
""I am inordinately bored of Donald Trump. I’m bored of the man himself. I’m bored of his opponents. I’m bored of his supporters.""
You all are missing the point of his article.
He is trying to get people to feel bad about supporting Trump. He is directing his attention to lawyers and politically active people who want to be seen as smart. You see people on these posts saying things like I don't like Trump's personality or I don't really support Trump or I only support Trump because democrats are bad.
His goal here is to make the type of people who spend time in this chat feel like it is socially embarrassing to support Trump.
Look at all the conservatives here who have to stipulate in their posts they think they are smarter than Trump and the rest of his supporters.
Look at how Ann treats Trump and his supporters as low brow losers who are obviously lower status.
This article is directed at the status conscious people who pride themselves on being better than Trump supporters.
The left are addicted to their hatred of Trump.
That's why, unless they are fed a vapid talking point about the glories of a horrid law passed by the senate, the collective left have nothing to say about crook Biden, inflation, how the democrats want the kind of power Xi has. etc...
Trump! Trump! Trump! Look at me!
I am coming around to the thought that the raid might be 12 dimensional chess on the part of the Democrats.
Their only hope to staving off the Red Wave is to make the election about the Fat Tub of Goo.
Their greatest dream is that the Fat Tub of Goo declares that he is running in 2024 prior to the midterms.
Prior to this the efforts to make the Fat Tub of Goo relevant to 2022 were wasted - as seen by the ratings at CNN and MSLSD - because Trump was in the past and there were more pressing issues concerning Americans and the Democrats are in the wrong side of all those issues. The solution to this - bring Trump into the present.
Mission accomplished.
Howard said...
Yes. Ignore the diaper wearing elephant in the room. However, that would be ratings suicide.
When he's right, he's right.
Cooke is inordinately bored with having been shown to be just another feckless ineffective "advocate" for a set of policies that, in the end, have been abandoned by the "principled" "true conservatives" because those policies have inexplicably been far more effectively pushed by a gloriously wild haired uncategorizable real estate and media personality that has captured the loyalty of the base of the republican party.
National Review, which is now basically The Weekly Standard about 2 years before the WS imploded into so much pro-democratical-ness that Phil Anschutz took a look and said: uh, yeah, I'm outta here.
That's right. I'm predicting that NR's current biggest funders (google execs, leftist billionaires, etc) will be taking NR right over the cliff in just another couple of years. Right about the time the leftist funders figure out that NR is no more effective in its role as "conservative" spoiler to conservative causes than the Lincoln Pedophile Project and The Bulwark Against Conservatives.
""Bored of" must come from leakage from "tired of." The usual is "bored with.""
Yes, boredom is more of a relationship with the thing that is boring. Tiredness... you're more distant. A member of the audience for the thing that is tiresome.
Everyone's talking about getting pronouns right. More attention should be paid to getting prepositions right.
LOL, I was just watching a biopic on Benedict Arnold and they included a single face shot of his drunkard, ne-er do well father and the guy is a dead ringer for Donald Trump, they even contrived a period accurate hairstyle that looked like his hair.
It's inescapable. I stopped watching WWII documentaries because they have developed a tendency to describe Hilter in ways that reflect NeverTrumper tropes.
AMDG: "NRO did not support Biden in 2020.
There was great trepidation because the general view was that the race was a Hobson’s choice between George Costanza and Grandpa Simpson but at the end of the day I doubt that there were any staffers who actually voted for Biden."
This little dance the anti-Trumpers put on is it itself tedious and boring.
We are binary electoral system.
If you are in any way even a nominal republican, than a non-vote for the republican is an actual vote for the democratical.
The non-Trump voters like to keep lying to themselves about this because they want a way to not be responsible for foisting these current policies upon the rest of us.
Sorry. There is no escape hatch here. You voted for Trump or you voted/"voted" for Biden and what that has wrought.
What? Trump isn't the perfect vessel for all you believe? Tough tiddlywinks. Find someone who is and get them nominated. Otherwise, you go to political war with the candidate slate you have, not the one you wish you had.
Unless, of course, you have no intention of ever really going to political war against the dems....
NR has been co-opted by lefty billionaires as a way to try to manage the opposition. FBI knob-licker Andrew McCarthy is the kind of stuff they are after. "You can trust the FBI, they are 'good people'! Remember Efram Zimbalist Jr?"
I believe it was another Samuel, Johnson rather than Pepys, who said that" if a man is bored of London he is bored of life."
AMDG said...
I am coming around to the thought that the raid might be 12 dimensional chess on the part of the Democrats.
Their only hope to staving off the Red Wave is to make the election about the Fat Tub of Goo.
Their greatest dream is that the Fat Tub of Goo declares that he is running in 2024 prior to the midterms.
Prior to this the efforts to make the Fat Tub of Goo relevant to 2022 were wasted - as seen by the ratings at CNN and MSLSD - because Trump was in the past and there were more pressing issues concerning Americans and the Democrats are in the wrong side of all those issues. The solution to this - bring Trump into the present.
Mission accomplished.
This is a perfect example of a mediocre mind who needs to think he is better than those icky Trump supporters.
Cooke's article was targeted at people like this.
People who value their perception of status more than actually getting things done or implementing conservative ideals.
"Everyone's talking about getting pronouns right. More attention should be paid to getting prepositions right."
That is a movement I can endorse.
Bored of, bored by, bored with....but what about "bored around"?
Have you noticed the creeping hegemony of "around" in the world of prepositions. This was first pointed out to me by my wife. Suddenly "around" has become the indefinite proposition of choice, displacing in, by, of, with, and so forth.
There is nothing more dangerous to democracy than...
Hillary, Pelosi, Biden, our current corrupt FBI and DOJ... and the rot this is our biased press.
and Cheney family to the list of Soviet money grubbing insider Soviet Xi's on the left.
I've been bored with the Hillary Clinton for President National Review for over 5 years. Cancelled and haven't even clicked.
Thank you for keeping me from doing it again.
Blogger Achilles said...
His goal here is to make the type of people who spend time in this chat feel like it is socially embarrassing to support Trump....Look at how Ann treats Trump and his supporters as low brow losers who are obviously lower status.
I can't figure out how Althouse perceives the commenters here. Althouse is a good writer and a good ring leader. She knows how to light up a discussion. Obviously the comment section is a big part of the blog. I spent two years away from the blog after the post 2020 election comment ban where "conservative" commenters were accused of being the problem.
She has to know we are not a group on uneducated, uninformed, inarticulate rubes. And I can't imagine that after a career spent at liberal UW, she would be surprised that liberals don't chime in much. She likes Madison, but after so many years there has to understand what it is.
But I don't know. I can't read minds, and there are certain things she will not reveal. Like her real opinion on the 2020 election fraud. My gut tells me in 2020 she didn't want to look at it and was glad Trump was gone, but two years later has great suspicion it was real.
But, I disagree with you that she treats us a low brow losers. If she did, the comment section wouldn't have been resurrected. And she is willing to absorb some criticism from the commenters.
I give her credit. Madison, WI and UW are places where outside opinions are not allowed and are taboo. It is cancel shout down culture there. One thought fits all. I can't imagine there is any other Professor or Administrator at UW that would allow this type of free expression.
I share Cooke's boredom with Trump. But I'm also bored with Cooke.
NeverTrumper says no more Trump. Is that the cure for boredom his readers (sic) need?
The excerpts remind me of occasional comments on this blog complaining that Althouse blogs too much about WaPo, NYT, The New Yorker, etc. It's not that it's not true. It's that it's such a boring observation. Not that I haven't posted such a comment myself, but Cooke isn't writing a throw away comment on a blog. Someone is presumably paying him to come up with something of interest, and he doesn't have the good sense to recognize that this isn't it.
Bored with Trump? And the answer is to write more about Trump? And complain the whole time about being bored with Trump? Remind me again what is boring.
Got me thinking about supporting a jerk and whether I am being consistent. Consider many feminists continued to support Clinton after the Lewinsky situation. Is that different? To me it is because actions in violation of a principle is more than simply being a jerk...or am I rationalizing?
jim5301 said...
Things will get more exciting if his supporters are true to their word and start shooting. But most of them have trouble getting off the couch and into their truck I imagine. Not to mention they are scared chicken shits.
You are truly insane. You need help.
The good news for 2024 is that Althouse is for boring.
"Trump Sucks!" is this era's "Heil Hitler!"
You think the Germans didn't get bored of that?
Of course they did, but they damn sure weren't going to stop doing it.
cassandra lite: "I share Cooke's boredom with Trump. But I'm also bored with Cooke."
Is it "bored", or really just "worn out"?
If you read online papers like Daily Mail and Daily Express from England, they commenters all use the expression "bored of." It seems to be the standard there.
I long ago got bored with the POS anti-Trump, NeverTrump National Review. What Cooke bitches about he and his comrades at The National Review (yes, the "the" is an intentional slight since there is no "the") created. And they are still doing it, even with fellow bitches like Goldberg moving on to their own sandbox.
Of course Cooke is "Bored". He hates Trump and he's a FAKE conservative pretending to be a "Concerned Rightwinger". He can't tell the truth, because National Review is still PRETENDING to be a conservaative magazine. And he can't go the David French route and support Biden or write that he wants Trump and his supporters destroyed.
He has to keep up the pretense. So, he goes the "Gosh, this is so boring" route. National Review now exists, so it can occupy space in the Media as the Anti-Trump "reasonable" conservative alternative. Its writers can be quoted by the NYT/Wapo, and show up on Fox, CNN, etc. Its the "Controlled opposition". chuck todd can have a NR Writer on MTP and say "look, we're balanced" knowing full well, Cooke or whoever, won't disagree about anything the liberal/left holds dear.
I could get all outraged over someone being "Bored" with the ex-POTUS being treated as no other president in the history of the USA. Or the jack-booted contempt for Democracy and the 70 million who voted for him. But what would be the point? Why expect Cooke to care? He's really on the Biden side.
Amadeus 48: "Like Charlie Cooke, I want to vote for DiSantis."
If I am DeSantis and I'm watching the supposed true conservative believers running away with their hair on fire from the 1 guy who was the most effective pusher of conservative policies in 2 generations, I'm thinking, no way will I run right now. These same "true conservatives" will run away from me just as fast as they are from Trump as soon as I get the same Trump treatment for 15 minutes.
Better to let Trump keep fighting in the breach and maybe, eventually, the "true conservatives" will develop a real stomach for the real fight that is going on with or without them.
Until then, I (DeSantis) remain a staunch Trump backer and keeping Trump in front to take all the arrows.
DeSantis is also smart enough to know that ALL the energy is with Trump, and that Trump has greatly accelerated the migration of traditional democratical voting blocks to the populist republican side.
You know who hasn't done a single thing in his entire life to actually help "win" against the dems? Charlie Cooke.
But, and I will hand this to Charlie Cooke, he has been well compensated for many years to sit around cocktail parties and eating giant shrimp and saying "harrumph" and "tut tut" quite a bit.
AMDG said...
I am coming around to the thought that the raid might be 12 dimensional chess on the part of the Democrats.
Their only hope to staving off the Red Wave is to make the election about the Fat Tub of Goo.
I actually agree with some of this analysis. I have been thinking recently that the current situation is similar in some respects to 2016 where the Democrats were either obviously boosting, or at least not tearing down, Trump's effort to win the GOP nomination.
They have little hope in this year and probably also in 2024 of generating much of a positive message. Biden was all about a 'return to normalcy' but that ain't happening any time soon.
In boosting of pro-Trump candidates in some GOP primaries, they seem to be latching on to a strategy of trying to get the Republican Party to implode in a fight between Trump and some other player to be named later. The problem with that strategy is something that was little remarked on in 2016, and that is the fight puts all the energy into the side that's fighting. Make-up sex is great sex. Despite all the ink spilled over NeverTrumpers, Trump held on to 90%+ of Republican votes, just like Romney. I'm willing to bet something very similar would happen in 2024, regardless of who wins the nomination.
Steve Hayward posted Trump's recent video message at Powerline, and added the observation that despite it being an obvious 2024 campaign ad, nowhere in the 3 minutes was the outcome of the 2020 election mentioned. By 2024 the Democrats are going to be the ones looking back to the past and trying to relitigate the 2020 election.
"Have you noticed the creeping hegemony of "around" in the world of prepositions. This was first pointed out to me by my wife. Suddenly "around" has become the indefinite proposition of choice, displacing in, by, of, with, and so forth."
It's the influence of women, I believe. There are all these arcs and curves. We eschew straight lines. Those are phallic and unsubtle. We're always "circling back" and making sweeping unresolved gestures.
Christopher B,
"By 2024 the Democrats are going to be the ones looking back to the past and trying to relitigate the 2020 election."
They'll be the ones saying "Stop laughing at me, motherf***ker!"
National Review before 20-25 years ago was great. But THE National Review has been unreadable ever since the next generation took over from the founders.
I think Althouse is pretty clear that she finds some comments interesting and some tedious. The same with commenters. She is completely open to people having their say, within bounds of civility, although she stretches those bounds. Speaking personally, I value the comments of Inga, Howard, Freder, Robert Cook, and others because they look at things completely differently than I do
I don’t know what Althouse thinks of all the righties here, but she got used to hearing a lot of baloney from law students, so she is used to intemperate and half baked assertions.
Thanks for everything, Althouse.
If you’re bored of Trump, it’s you who are boring, not Trump.
Bored bore is boring.
An essay that disproves its own premise. Trump apparently has broken Cooke's mind, too.
Why Trump infiltrates every left-wing discussion? It is because the dems can only define themselves in terms of what they oppose and because Trump is the boy in The Emperor's New Clothes. He makes them lose their minds because he clearly and fearlessly calls them out for what they are. They keep trying to destroy him because the policies they are pushing are actually not popular. Shutting down fossil fuels and sky-rocketing gas prices did not ever win a referendum.
I use "bored with" and "bored of". However, I think I use them differently- when the thing or matter is immediately at hand, I am "bored with it", and if it is something intangible I am "bored of it".
I am baffled that someone whose job is to cover politics is "bored" with the key political figure of the day around which all politics revolves. I mean, seriously, we just had an unprecedented armed raid on the former President's house complete with armed men, and you are "bored"? Seriously?
Find a new job, dude.
Good deal! Maybe if they get bored enough of Trump the Dems can turn to discussing actual policy. But I get the feeling that's not going to happen. For obvious reasons. The differences and results between Dem policies and Trumpian policies are so stark they have no choice but to make it about personality. But if they are so bored by it all maybe they should just opt out. Politics is so boring and policy is just too hard. Tired of all this shit? Why even bother voting? Booooring.
“It is the influence of women, I believe”
I wouldn’t touch that topic with a straight, phallic, unsubtle ten-foot pole. I’ll have to think about that.
I'm bored of statism.
The rabidness of Trump hatred extends to undermining the Abraham Accords, turning our back on Israel, canceling working policies like his development of vaccines rapidly, Stay in Mexico policy, etc. Just oppose it because it was Trump's.
Dems have been screaming about Trump in 2 impeachments and now the Jan 6 hearings. Lies lies lies in an effort to destroy him. They really really want to put him in jail. They are willing to burn the house down to kill the spider. There is a whole industry dedicated to attacking Trump. Cooke should notice who it is doing the talking.
Mr. Cooke--you want to talk bored? I had a four hour drive from LA to Boulder City a couple of days ago. I put on an audiobook of Miranda Devine's "The Laptop From Hell" thinking it might help pass the time on the drive up, and the drive back the next day.
I quickly grew bored. Hunter's drug fueled shenanigans, his corruption, Daddy Slow Joe's corruption, the quasi criminal drug and misdemeanor crime activities of the extended Biden clan was just too much. In the two days of driving I probably got through about four hours of the book--maybe 50% of the way through. I finally said "Basta"--I know these grifting jerks are rotten people. But I just didn't want to listen to any more of it. Joe is a liar and a crook. Hunter is a sleazy whining drug addled loser. Point made.
Cooke has missed the point just as The National Review has missed the point.
John Podhoretz, no great fan of Trump, got the point: "[Trump is] an unworthy vessel chosen by God to save us from the evil on the Left." (For the heathens, this does not mean "chosen" like a messiah, but chosen like all leaders are chosen, with God's providence.)
TDS/RINOs don't see the evil of the left like fish don't see water. They are part of it.
"Steve Hayward posted Trump's recent video message at Powerline, and added the observation that despite it being an obvious 2024 campaign ad, nowhere in the 3 minutes was the outcome of the 2020 election mentioned. By 2024 the Democrats are going to be the ones looking back to the past and trying to relitigate the 2020 election."
The people who seem most obsessed with the 2020 election are the ones who continue to complain that Trump won't let it go.
People who disagreed with a lot of Trump’s political positions now pretend to support them, lest their dissent be cast as disloyalty to the man himself.
From my experience, that's not usually the case. People support Trump because they agree with his policies, though they may not care much for how he behaves or for some of the things he says or tweets. For example, I object to a Muslim ban, but that wasn't a policy. It wasn't something that Trump did. It was just something that came out of his mouth.
People who once agreed strongly with the positions that Trump chose to adopt now oppose them vehemently, lest they be accused of alignment with the man himself.
That happens, but one can question just how serious they were about those policies and positions. Politicians and columnists often take "positions" without expecting, or even intending, to make policy out of those positions. Many conservatives were turned off by Trump's personality in 2016. Some of them still may not support him, but they haven't vehemently opposed his policies. Others still hate Trump and now support Biden and his agenda, but for the most part they were never committed to or attracted by Trump's policy positions.
“Trump broke us,” people say. Indeed. We used to talk about ideas, rules, positions, consequences. Now we talk about him. Previous generations argued about slavery or tariffs or free silver or the interstate commerce clause. We argue about Donald Trump.
That is a convenient way to avoid arguing about illegal immigration or deindustrialization or China. It also turns attention away from inflation, the recession, Biden's Russia/Ukraine policy, Biden's energy policy, Afghanistan. Writing this "bored of" column contributes to the distraction, which may have been the idea.
I heard "of" used "incorrectly" in some youth-oriented TV show or movie. It stuck out like a sore thumb, but I guess it's the future.
"It's the influence of women, I believe. There are all these arcs and curves. We eschew straight lines. Those are phallic and unsubtle. We're always "circling back" and making sweeping unresolved gestures."
This is a natural consequence of being confused.
Blogger Achilles said...
AMDG:
This is a perfect example of a mediocre mind who needs to think he is better than those icky Trump supporters.
Am I smarter than the people who take the word of people like Sydney Powell and Lynn Wood over that of Bill Barr than I plead guilty.
Let me tell you where I m coming from - The thing I fear most is the Democrats controlling the government in January if 2025 with the votes to end the filibuster. At that point it is over.
It is my belief that Donald Trump provides the best path to achieve that.
Like it or not he will be the worst candidate the GOP can put forward. DeSantis would be a better candidate, and more importantly, a better President than the Fat Tub of Goo. Think of this as 1976. Trump is Elvis and DeSantis is Springsteen (before he went Woody Guthry).
jim5301 said...
Things will get more exciting if his supporters are true to their word and start shooting. But most of them have trouble getting off the couch and into their truck I imagine. Not to mention they are scared chicken shits.
Anyone on either side of the current divide in America hoping for a Lexington and Concord moment is insane. There is a lot of mud slinging here, but this comment by jim5301 is the first I have seen with an open wish for all out violence. Only fools think war and violence are "exciting".
The divide is no longer along a Mason-Dixon line. In many areas the divide exists along county lines. Here in Wisconsin for example.
My kids are Generation Z, and they are dominated by the left and their current cultural influence. I wish them happiness and peace, the entire generation. I just don't think they are going to find it in the direction we are going. Their generation has been screwed.
I would also imagine that fear exists on both sides. There's nothing cowardly about fear. They are not the same thing.
Maybe he should give up and quit writing.
The raid on Trump's home called for a sympathetic response from even NRO.
Cooke just couldn't do it. "I'm bored with it all" was his fallback.
I got bored with NR pretending that Trump was especially awful in some unspecified way. They didn't much care for Reagan either.
I got bored with NR pretending that Trump was especially awful in some unspecified way. They didn't much care for Reagan either.
How about bored "by". I guess that would refer to an ongoing issue.
As to twelve dimensional chess....A commenter suggested the feds got snookered. Somebody called them and said there's a superdupersecretqclearance document Trump is about to destroy if you don't get there STAT! Guy would have been working for Trump. Interesting possibility.
Cooke is so bored he can't stop writing about Trump.
"The thing I fear most is the Democrats controlling the government in January if 2025 with the votes to end the filibuster. At that point it is over."
Then you are far too optimistic. You need to fear next January, not the one in 2025. The Democrats intend to stuff the ballot box again this Fall with fraudulent mail-in-ballots, and I don't see the Republican Party doing anything to stop it.
Blogger Mark said...
National Review before 20-25 years ago was great. But THE National Review has been unreadable ever since the next generation took over from the founders.
Blogger Mark said...
—————
What positions espoused by NR are fundamentally different from those espoused 25 years ago?
"It's the influence of women, I believe. There are all these arcs and curves. We eschew straight lines. Those are phallic and unsubtle. We're always "circling back" and making sweeping unresolved gestures."
While I am on record with the assertion that "women ruin everything", this may be a bridge too far. Although ...
I can see a connection a good deal more direct than some kind of "sweeping, unresolved gestures", between women and "around". Perhaps it requires a male outlook.
Blogger Howard said...
Yes. Ignore the diaper wearing elephant in the room. However, that would be ratings suicide.
I doubt that TV ratings depend much on Biden.
Cooke has spent hundreds of hours dreaming up new ways to bash Donald Trump. He has applied the full force of his considerable intellect, he has devoted unstinting energies to the all-consuming task. He has thrown years of his productive life into the ever-so-needful struggle against Trump! To no avail. Trump abideth. Nay, he burgeoneth. Cooke is not bored, he is exhausted. He has given his all, he can give no more. Alas! Once more, unto the breach!
Many people surrendering an obsession claim to be bored with it. Exhausted or defeated would be more accurate.
I’m for boring.
AMDG:
If you're going to call someone in politics a "Fat Tub of Goo", you really need to be more specific: the phrase applies equally well to Charles Schumer, Jerry Nadler, Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams, and Chris Christie.
If you're going to use such a disgusting phrase at all, you should avoid doing so three times in one post, and if you do that, in defiance of sense and taste, you really need to make absolutely sure you don't double-post (8:45, 8:58). Writing it six times makes it look like the F.T. of G. is between your ears.
Someone should tell him: when you're bored with life, the best and only remedy is to kill yourself.
Is Musk's Boring Company boring?
What a whiny child Cooke is. "I don't want to actually think about any of the reasons why (political) Trump exists. Can't we just go back to the way things were? When politics was boring, and the fine buyers-and-sellers of government power could continue to accumulate wealth without being seriously bothered by peasants?"
"Is there anything worse than these smarmy Brits (like Prince Harry) looking down their noses at Americans blind to their own hypocrisy, historical atrocities, and diminishing world influence?"
Worse, (or easily as bad): Self-absorbed, self-satisfied, jingoist Yank blowhards looking down their noses at the rest of the world, blind to their own hypocrisy, historical and current atrocities, and diminishing world influence.
Gusty Winds - If you think I'm calling for violence you have a serious comprehension problem.
“Anyone on either side of the current divide in America hoping for a Lexington and Concord moment is insane. There is a lot of mud slinging here, but this comment by jim5301 is the first I have seen with an open wish for all out violence. Only fools think war and violence are "exciting".”
I’m pretty sure most people understand that jim5301 is using a rhetorical device to point out that violence is what the Trump cultists have been screaming for since day before yesterday. All one has to do is read commentary here and it’s evident. The revenge porn was getting revved up even before the search of Mar a Lago.
Rabel: "The raid on Trump's home called for a sympathetic response from even NRO.
Cooke just couldn't do it. "I'm bored with it all" was his fallback."
The thing is, its not at all that Cooke couldn't do it because of boredom. The reality is that Cooke is FOR what happened. And Cooke is for that happening to anyone who isn't aligned with his views. And Cooke is happy, very happy, to have all these deplorables sacrificed to the New Soviet Democraticals.
And all the rest of them are just like Cooke.
They are objectively and operationally pro-dem deep state.
Without exception.
AMDG: "Like it or not he will be the worst candidate the GOP can put forward"
Filed under: Things said in 2016.
"(For the heathens, this does not mean 'chosen' like a messiah, but chosen like all leaders are chosen, with God's providence.)"
Given there is no god, how can there be "god's providence?" More frightening, assuming for argument's sake a god exists, believing that any politicians are put in place by means of god's providence is rather messianic, and raises the troubling idea that god favored the rise to power such figures as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc., etc.
In a representative society with "leaders" elected by votes of the citizens, it's actually disturbing to think of and treat those we elect as "our leaders." We, the people supposedly direct our government and its policies, with those we elect to manage our affairs just that, managers who are our hirelings.
To the extent we do see them and allow them to act as our "leaders," they are that, and we are self-subjugating ourselves to their rule, and to the plutocratic entities they actually serve.
ccscientist: "The rabidness of Trump hatred extends to undermining the Abraham Accords, turning our back on Israel, canceling working policies like his development of vaccines rapidly, Stay in Mexico policy, etc. Just oppose it because it was Trump's."
Yep.
All the while claiming that really and truly, cross their hearts and hope to die, they are the true advocates for just such policies.....just, uh, you know, not this very moment, but soon, and even betterer!! And just not with that terrible Trump or his horrible supporters.
Talk about being boring. The entirety of NeverTrump which is completely NeverRepublican-adjacent.
This was how I felt about Obama, even as he was destroying our country from the inside.
Blogger jim5301 said...
Gusty Winds - If you think I'm calling for violence you have a serious comprehension problem.
All I did was read the words you wrote. You wrote them without any apparent sarcasm nor satire. You wrote them, not me. You own them, not me.
Given there is no god, how can there be "god's providence?" More frightening, assuming for argument's sake a god exists, believing that any politicians are put in place by means of god's providence is rather messianic, and raises the troubling idea that god favored the rise to power such figures as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc., etc.
How do atheists resemble vegans? In 5 seconds they will tell you.
"Everyone's talking about getting pronouns right. More attention should be paid to getting prepositions right."
‘bored of’ might be a Britishism. They do prepositions differently. For example, they say ‘different to’ whereas we say ‘different than’ or ‘different from.’
Which raises the point that often prepositions are arbitrary and a matter of local dialect. New Yorkers stand ‘on line’ while most others are ‘in line.’ They also are ‘by’ rather than ‘at’ someone’s home (“I’m staying by the Goldsteins”). That last one seems to be specifically a Jewish NY thing.
And congrats on the WSJ appearance.
"This was how I felt about Obama, even as he was destroying our country from the inside."
I was no fan of Obama, and I didn't vote for him...he was just another in a long line (leading up to today) of presidents who served the plutocrats and did what they could to maintain America's geo-political dominance in the world, but...how, in your opinion, was Obama "destroying our country from the inside," (as you hysterically put it)...at least, how moreso than his predecessors and sucessors?
AMDG said...
Am I smarter than the people who take the word of people like Sydney Powell and Lynn Wood over that of Bill Barr than I plead guilty.
Let me tell you where I m coming from - The thing I fear most is the Democrats controlling the government in January if 2025 with the votes to end the filibuster. At that point it is over.
It is my belief that Donald Trump provides the best path to achieve that.
As I said, a mediocre mind.
To the extent that I don't believe you are actually that stupid and you know what you are doing is helping the democrats win.
jim5301 said...
Gusty Winds - If you think I'm calling for violence you have a serious comprehension problem.
Jim doesn't just call for violence. He actively supports it.
BLM/Antifa have burned and looted and murdered.
Leftist crazies chase politicians out of restaurants.
The FBI gets fraudulent warrants and raids houses.
The IRS goes after opponents of the regime explicitly.
Democrats shoot up softball practices.
Jim knows that the leftists have already started shooting. He is just mad that we might start fighting back and treating them like they have been treating us.
AMDG said...
What positions espoused by NR are fundamentally different from those espoused 25 years ago?
They support a sitting administration/president using the FBI to persecute their previous and likely next re-election opponent.
AMDG said...
What positions espoused by NR are fundamentally different from those espoused 25 years ago?
NR now also supports unlimited mail in voting, and open borders, and endless wars, and higher taxes/inflation, and more regulations, and importing all manufactured goods from China.
Wait. Never mind you are right. They always supported those things.
They were just pretending to be conservative the whole time and supported candidates like Bush and Romney they knew would betray republican voters.
Cooke's just doing the Jonah Goldberg "a plague on both your houses" shtick. I'd have no problem, if Cooke and NRO would just stop calling themselves "Rightwing" "Conservative" or "Republican".
And start some truthful labeling. Like calling NRO "Moderate Liberals". Or "Joe Manchin Democrats".
Tired of playing the game? Aint it a fwickin' shame? Charles Cooke is so Bored, or is he just So Tired?
So AG Garland has requested the court to unseal the search warrant and the list of things taken, by 3PM tomorrow. Now let’s see if Trump’s lawyers will object to the unsealing and try to block it. Trump could’ve released the search warrant and the list already, why didn’t he? The warrant and the inventory of items taken was not sealed to Trump and his lawyers, Trump was/ is free to make it public…unless there is something in there he wants kept secret because it might incriminate him.
Time to shake off your cult leader and come back to the world of rationality.
"I was no fan of Obama, and I didn't vote for him."
Cookie, have you ever voted for any candidate, who won? It seems to me that you always know what is wrong, but you never say what is right.
It's three days now and the left is still shrieking the onus is on Trump to share the substance of the warrant.
No. Not the government officials who executed the warrant. The person who was served.
Thugs. Each and every one of you. Boot-licking thugs.
Now let’s see if Trump’s lawyers will object to the unsealing and try to block it. Trump could’ve released the search warrant and the list already, why didn’t he?
The resident dullard always believes the Democrat version. His attorneys have said that they saw it at a 10 foot distance.
jim5301 said...
Gusty Winds - If you think I'm calling for violence you have a serious comprehension problem.
Jim doesn't just call for violence. He actively supports it.
jim1234 is all in favor of BLM burning down cities and shooting Trump supporters.
He doesn't think about 75 million people with 300 million guns.
jim 1234 isn't very bright.
Stylebooks have been saying don't say "center around," say "center on" for years, so it must have been common, possibly reflecting that things in the real world are rarely as exact as stylebook writers think.
I get that Trump fatigue is a thing, but it's more a matter of exhaustion or irritation or exasperation than of boredom. Cooke and others may be tired of Trump, but boring is what they want. Politicians are supposed to be boring and pedestrian and leave the cleverness to columnists. One thing that Charles Cooke and Jonah Goldberg and Kevin Williamson and Tim Miller object to when it comes to Trump is that he's more entertaining than they are, and while his act has been going on for a long time now, and may be wearing thin, that's still true.
During the 90s and 00s, conservative media and elsewhere began to be infiltrated with types that weren't really conservative. And, no, I don't mean neo-cons. I mean the type that insisted that John McCain and Mitt Romney were conservative. Them and libertarian types.
National Review was one of those that were infiltrated. Then they hired like-minded people.
Hahahahah!!
4more years!!
I am with Charlie all the way. One heck of a top-notch writer, who is never boring. Some of the remarks against him here are embarrassingly dopey. His point is well taken. My best guess is this raid is meant to keep us from getting bored with Trump so that he runs again, in which case they think then they will beat him. I am not sure they will beat him. But I do know, Trump was only a catalyst and his meltdown and wasted time fretting over losing the election is a sign he has no intention of ever being anything more than a catalyst. It is time for the Republicans to take what he did as a start and get serious about becoming an alternative. I am pretty sure that is what Cooke wants. I know for sure it is what I want.
Weird to write that column this week.
Althouse loves boring politicians, so if Cooke is right, Althouse is now crazy for Trump.
Ex-presidents, as a class, are boring.
Trump, as a person, is unpredictable and not boring at all. I often find him annoying -- his personality grates on me -- but a lot of that is just personality stuff. I hate pickles. Some people love pickles.
I've been avoiding the kangaroo court JS insanity. It's all super-predictable, highly annoying and (yes) boring. But invading his house? That's super-weird. The Democrats are not letting go of their Trump hatred. They're escalating it.
In general, when things are predictable, they are boring. When you don't know what's going to happen next, they are interesting. The raid surprised me, so it was interesting. Did Cooke expect the raid? Does he expect Trump to be arrested and convicted? What future does he see that is so certain that it bores him?
People who are bored are themselves boring.
Cooke is feigning boredom. Which is mildly interesting. Why? What's he up to?
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