Laura Ingraham detects Trump's gender fluidity.

Ingraham: What are your pronouns?

Trump: I don’t want pronouns

Ingraham: So, you’re fluid? pic.twitter.com/KjA8tZxpnw

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 30, 2024

ADDED: As you can see a few posts down, I've been reading "John Adams" by David McCullough. After writing this post, I went out for a walk with my audiobook version and was stunned to hear a passage that fit with the topic of a President's gender fluidity. From pages 659-660, about the presidential campaign of 1800:

Not satisfied that the old charges of monarchist and warmonger were sufficient, [the propagandist James] Callender called Adams a “repulsive pedant,” a “gross hypocrite,” and “in his private life, one of the most egregious fools upon the continent.” Adams was “that strange compound of ignorance and ferocity, of deceit and weakness,” a “hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”

"Ingraham Wants Mitch McConnell to Resign Just So She Can Keep Calling Biden 'Decrepit.'"

 A headline at The Daily Beast.

"Fox Stars Privately Expressed Disbelief About Election Fraud Claims. 'Crazy Stuff.'"

"The comments, by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and others, were released as part of a defamation suit against Fox News by Dominion Voter Systems." The NYT reports.

"I’ve always said that if you want to win an election, you have to win it on election night, okay?"

"But look, I don’t pretend to know the intricacies of how every state counted mail-in ballots and how they were certified. I don’t. But I do know that when you’re running for president, you have to have these legal challenges ready to go. Much as Bush did in 2000. The Trump folks wanted to exhaust every means. But at some point I think Joe Biden’s president."

Said Laura Ingraham, answering the question "Who do you think won the 2020 election?," in an interview in The Washington Post.

That was very well put. I don't watch her show — I don't watch any of the TV news analysis shows — but I can see why she belongs on TV. It's hard to nail down such an amorphous position in short punchy sentences.

From the comments over there: "Pathetic puff piece … the only honest thing she said is that half the country hates her guts. She’s a parasite." And: "Stop giving this lying garden utensil print. She is just another lickspittle for an ignorant, incompetent liar. She has no shame. Hope she and her kids don't get covid from some mask hole."

People have gotten so ugly. I've gotten so I just stand back, observe, and wonder. I do need to give that second commenter credit for the "don't." How did that get in there? A ray of hope.

"For the past few months, Trump and the conservative propaganda apparatus have struggled to make the old race-and-gender-baiting rhetoric stick to Biden."

"But voters don’t appear to believe that Biden is an avatar of the 'radical left.' They don’t think Biden is going to lock up your manhood in a 'testicle lockbox.' They don’t buy that Biden’s platform, which is well to the left of the ticket he joined in 2008, represents a quiet adherence to 'Kenyan anti-colonialism.' Part of this is that Biden has embraced popular liberal positions while avoiding the incentive to adopt more controversial or unpopular positions during the primary. But it’s also becoming clear that after 12 years of feasting on white identity politics with a black man and a woman as its preeminent villains, the Republican Party is struggling to run its Obama-era culture-war playbook against an old, moderate white guy.... 'Joe Biden is a puppet of the radical left,' Trump said [in his Oklahoma rally], before acknowledging that 'he's not radical left. I don't think he knows what he is anymore. But he was never radical left.'... When the Fox News host Laura Ingraham warns that Biden 'will just melt for the macchiato Marxists,' you can sense the weariness of a tired stand-up comic clinging to a set that no longer makes anyone laugh.... ... Republicans struggle to land a punch on an elderly white man with suspicious hair, a reputation for exaggerations and fibs, questionable policy judgment, and a track record of racist remarks who is running a nostalgic campaign for a bygone era...."

From "Trump Is Struggling to Run Against a White Guy/The president is having a difficult time deploying his traditional culture-war playbook against Biden" by Adam Serwer (in The Atlantic).

By the way, I thought I was looking at Nixon...



... when I saw that oddly cropped image of Biden (at the link).

From the often-apt subreddit r/TheRightCantMeme.

Oh, damn! Libs are DESTROYED!!! from r/TheRightCantMeme

"He has an enormous amount of chutzpah to attack me and challenge my perfect, perfect sex life...."

Said Alan Dershowitz, antagonized by David Boies, "who is representing Virginia Roberts Giuffre [who] claims Dershowitz had sex with her while she was a minor after being recruited by Epstein" (Washington Examiner).



"I have had sex with one woman since the day I met Jeffrey Epstein. I challenge David Boies to say under oath that he's only had sex with one woman ... He has an enormous amount of chutzpah to attack me and challenge my perfect, perfect sex life during the relevant period of time."

"In Trump’s right-wing media universe, it was a day like any other."

Writes Isaac Stanley-Becker at WaPo:

Alongside a Daily Caller story about [Michael Cohen's pleading guilty] were laudatory posts about Trump, from the president’s defense of free speech to his status as “the most feminist president.” TheBlaze gave prominence to Trump’s attacks on ESPN for not “defending our anthem,” foregrounding the president’s grievances with NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest police violence.

Meanwhile, conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh asserted that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III isn’t interested in what Trump’s former attorney has to say....

If [Trump] went online shortly before 4 p.m., the only “BREAKING NEWS” alert he would have seen was the one from Fox about the 24-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico who law enforcement officials say killed Mollie Tibbetts, the 20-year-old college student who disappeared last month.

Alarm over the student’s death dominated the president’s feed... “OUTRAGE!” steamed Laura Ingraham....

Hannity dismissed Tuesday’s news as a bloodthirsty campaign against the president. “The media is once again beside themselves with false reporting, speculation and hysteria,” he said....

The only part of this right-wing media coverage I consumed yesterday was a bit of Fox News, which I did not turn on, but only overheard. As I said yesterday:

On Fox News — "The Five" — there's too much talk about the Iowa murder case, with a suspect who's been in the country illegally, and how this might be what ordinary Americans really care about. I was groaning aloud at this labored effort.

My comments section often seems like part — a very small part — of the right-wing universe, and I got a lot of pushback for criticizing Fox for putting an Iowa murder story at the top of the news on such a big national news day.

Examples of comments: "Well Ann I disagree. I am angry about Mollie Tibbetts murderer, but don’t give a damn about Manafort or Cohen." "I kind of do care about murder more than I care about selectively prosecuted financial crimes. Both are bad -- but dead bodies should perhaps get more of our focus." "Mollie Tibbetts' murder is going to enrage a lot of people. Like me. In 2015, when Kate Steinle was murdered by an illegal alien, no politician said a word until candidate Trump began slamming it, slamming our laws, etc. That started momentum that carried him all the way to the White House. I'm willing to bet that people--like me--would rather have him and his policies in the White House than hear about what dodgy Michael Cohen had to say to buy five years."

IN THE COMMENTS: tim maguire said, "Ms. Althouse herself has highlighted Drudge's front page. Stanley-Becker needs to stick his head outside is protective cocoon once in a while is he doesn't want to look like an idiot while talking about people who aren't him." Yes, Drudge is also "right-wing media" (within the Stanley-Becker world view) and — as I showed you in my above-linked post from yesterday — Drudge looked like this:



AND: A day later, Drudge is still showing Trump in Hell. The red is gone, but "IMPEACHMENT FEARS" have arrived:

"Shut Up and Dribble" — the name of a LeBron James documentary series is an insult that originated with Laura Ingraham.

Ingraham said it when — after the 2018 NBA Finals — James declined an invitation White House. The new series is a Showtime production, and "James will executive produce," according to Variety:

“If being a star athlete is inherently a political experience, ‘Shut Up and Dribble’ tells that complex and dramatic story from the past to the present and from the inside out,” said [Showtime president and CEO David Nevins]. “LeBron James is one of many competitors whose place in the spotlight has led not to silence but perspective, and he [and the other executive producers]... have given us an important, insightful docuseries that should bring their fans and fellow citizens to a higher level of discourse, rather than the dismissal satirized in the title.”

Reading between the lines, I see the criticism that the whole project is sort of fake and simply an occasion to take the old insult — "Shut Up and Dribble" — and lob it back into the political discourse right when we're already talking about LeBron James. But somewhere there's the idea of "a higher level of discourse," which sounds like a documentary no one would watch. And yet it's worth making an unwatched documentary if its existence is seen and talked about.

But that kind of talk is, ironically, the lower level of discourse. And that's okay*, because we're human beings having it out, and we're not shutting up. Civility bullshitters may say to a participant in the low-level discourse, shut up and dribble, shut up and leave the talking to boring polite people, shut up (don't tweet) and get back to the job we elected you to do, etc. etc. But the lower level discourse will go on, and it should. I support it. We are low, most of the time.

I have no idea what the Showtime series is actually supposed to be about. Athletes that get involved in politics and the people who try to shush them? But I'm not the one to have ideas about sports documentaries. I don't know if I've ever watched one, and documentaries are my favorite type of movie. I watch all sorts of documentaries, often just because they're documentaries that got great reviews, and yet I didn't go to see "Hoop Dreams" or "When We Were Kings." I'm reading lists of greatest sports documentaries, and I can't find one that I've seen. Ah, wait. If "Touching the Void" counts, I've seen (and loved) that. But that fits the category survival. A favorite topic. Ah. I've seen "Pumping Iron." Long ago.

_______________

* "And that's okay" is a trademark Trump expression, a wonderful component of the low-level discourse of today. What I love about it is that he'll recount attacks on himself and then use "and that's okay" as a transition to the next thought. To my ear, it says: Yeah, big deal, they're attacking me, what else is new, I get it, I can take it, it's actually rather lame, because here's what I've got on them....

I thought Laura Ingraham had called David Hogg a "mother."

I'm reading "‘You’re a mother’: Laura Ingraham faces boycott for taunting Parkland teen over college rejections" at WaPo.

I didn't want to put this in the headline, because I keep getting email from Google Ads saying they're punishing me for failing to stay within the bounds of good taste, but I come from a time when "mother" was an epithet that meant "motherfucker." Based on Urban Dictionary, I think that usage is dead.

But so what did Laura Ingraham say about David Hogg if she didn't call him a mother[fucker], which I agree would be out of line?

She just said: "David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.)"

Why is that boycott-the-advertisers material? Yes, it was a little mean to use the word "whines," considering that Hogg is only 17 or 18 years old, but he's made himself a big public figure and he issues denouncements of others, so using a modestly judgmental word to describe his tone of voice is really nothing. Especially compared to calling him a motherfucker, which is what I thought happened.

So this is really a story about insanely over-the-top reaction.

And look, it's Hogg himself setting the fire of overreaction and fanning the flames:

Soooo @IngrahamAngle what are your biggest advertisers ... Asking for a friend. #BoycottIngramAdverts

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 29, 2018

Pick a number 1-12 contact the company next to that #

Top Laura Ingraham Advertisers
1. @sleepnumber
2. @ATT
3. Nutrish
4. @Allstate & @esurance
5. @Bayer
6. @RocketMortgage Mortgage
7. @LibertyMutual
8. @Arbys
9. @TripAdvisor
10. @Nestle
11. @hulu
12. @Wayfair

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 29, 2018

Yeah, but he's a kid so don't criticize him!!! No, I've got to say he is an over-empowered inciter who's way too eager to break things. Kids need limits.

As for "You're a mother," that was somebody's tweet pushing back Laura Ingraham. Which I read as sexist. Are special demands for empathy imposed on women who have given birth? As long as that's considered a strikingly pithy argument — as WaPo's headline strongly implies — we'll never have a woman President... unless that tweeter meant Laura Ingraham is a motherfucker.

UPDATE: The headline is now: "Facing boycott, Laura Ingraham apologizes for taunting Parkland teen over college rejections." I'm tempted to say, I get results! But the apology is new:

“On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland,” Ingraham tweeted. 

Really only a nonapology. Sorry you're hurt.

"There is zero appetite for the ‘Never Trump’ movement in the Republican Party of today.

"This party is now defined by President Trump and his movement," said Andy Surabian, "an adviser to Great America Alliance, the 'super PAC' that is aiding primary races against Republican incumbents, quoted in "As G.O.P. Bends Toward Trump, Critics Either Give In or Give Up" (NYT).

Also quoted:

Laura Ingraham: “We’re not an element. We’re the party.... There’s no constituency for open borders, endless war and these international trade deals that are skewed against the United States.”

Steve Bannon: "This thing [Republicans like Jeff Flake have] got today doesn’t work, it doesn’t move with urgency... It’s very nice. But it’s a theoretical exercise. It can’t win national elections.”

"Many readers would probably be stunned by some of the people who are secretly supporting Trump and don’t want to admit it on the record."

Says James Hohmann in WaPo:

His coalition includes not just rock-ribbed conservatives and God-fearing evangelicals but Ivy-League-educated professionals. Some realize he’s not actually that authentically conservative and look the other way. Some, who fancy themselves moderates, admire the businessman’s malleability....

The more that Republican elites express alarm, the more a swath of these folks think that Trump might be just the change agent that’s needed to nuke Washington.... From Massachusetts, for instance, The Post’s Ben Terris argues that Trump is the favorite because he’s perfectly channeled the voice and spirit of a loudmouthed sports fan from the state....

To be sure, many who harbor pro-Trump sentiments have not fully thought through the implications of making him the Republican standard bearer or, more significantly, the president of these United States.... It’s also undeniable that Trump terrifies up to half of self-identified Republicans. They worry that he’s making a mockery of conservatism....

Isn't the strongest antagonism to Trump coming from conservatives? That's how it looks to me. But maybe that's because he's fighting other Republicans now and taking what they see as their party away. Democrats can still inhabit the place called denial, where reality is almost half a year away. It's a calmer, less frenetic place and the words of the day are not "panic" and "freakout."

ADDED:  When I wrote "Isn't the strongest antagonism to Trump coming from conservatives?," I was thinking of Establishment Republicans as well as the more ideological conservatives who don't think the Establishment is conservative at all. That shows where I am. I'm a moderate!

And as long as I'm here, let me link to this Elizabeth Price Foley post at Instapundit, linking to Laura Ingraham on “The Suicide of the GOP Establishment.”

An excellent discussion of the latest Hillary Clinton email problem on "Fox News Sunday."

This is a bit long and starts slow, but the different commentators bring different perspectives that I'll try to highlight, so stick with me:

CHRIS WALLACE:   In 2011, when an aide was having trouble sending her material by a secure fax, she sent these instructions: "If they can't, turn into nonpaper with no identifying heading, and send nonsecure." Bob Woodward, why is this important?