Links are at the end.
Yesterday we mentioned the kerfuffle generated by Donald Trump sharing a traditional Thanksgiving meal, pre-Thanksgiving, with noted anti-Semite Ye, who brought along his white supremacist buddy Nick Fuentes.1 We were struck that Axios, supposedly the site of record for Washington’s most insidery of insiders, felt the need to explain why dining with people who hold utterly repellent views about other people might be a bad look for a newly announced presidential candidate.2
Trump released a statement claiming he’d never heard of Fuentes and that his uninvited presence was Ye’s doing, which is likely true but doesn’t explain why the two seemed to hit it off so well.3
Trump has insisted to aides since Tuesday that he did not know Fuentes, a Trump supporter active on Truth Social, the former president’s social media network, though some in his circle said they were skeptical.
. . .
Fuentes told Trump that he preferred when he was fiery and off-the-cuff, particularly as it related to his announcement speech, [former Trump aide Karen] Giorno said. Trump repeatedly talked about his base and young voters, Giorno said. Another person familiar with the dinner said Trump liked Fuentes because he flattered him and encouraged his most pugilistic instincts.
The Washington Post story featured anonymous quotes from Trump supporters who think the dinner was a bad look, along with a few who spoke openly, one of those being the erstwhile president’s erstwhile ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
David M. Friedman, who served as his ambassador to Israel, publicly took Trump to task for consorting with the troublesome pair, tweeting that the former president was “better than this.”
Our friend Cal Lumny, writing in the comments4 on the Post story, had this to say about that, and about the American tendency to say much the same about anything that reflects discredit on our country.
A month or two ago I read a story in the Financial Times which described the U.S. (and the U.K.) as a poor society with some very wealthy people.5 A bit after that I came across a report on the U.S. from the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty,6 who found a number of examples of his brief during his two-week tour of the U.S. (He said he'd never seen anything like it in a wealthy country.) People here say "that's not who we are; we're better than this" about poverty and inequality, and about our grotesque level of gun violence, but that obviously is who we are and we're obviously not better than this. Saying otherwise is just to excuse ourselves.
Same with Trump. He hangs out with anti-Semites and white supremacists — one could accept the most benign explanation of a dinner with Nick Fuentes, but Trump had white supremacist Stephen Miller in his ear for four years — because, contrary to David Friedman, that's who he is, he is not better than it, and Friedman saying otherwise is just Friedman exculpating himself for supporting Trump.
Couldn’t have said it much better ourselves.
Policy policy policy, along with ordinary human ugliness, and a reminder where policy comes from:
[W]hen the affluent prefer policy change and the middle oppose it, the rate of change is nearly identical to when both groups prefer it. When only the middle prefer policy change, the rate of change is the same as when both groups oppose it.7
This is how income inequality in the US came to be about the same as in Malaysia, Haiti(!), Bulgaria, Peru, Côte d'Ivoire, Bolivia, Djibouti, and Turkey, and 50% or more higher than most wealthy countries and many not-so-wealthy ones.8 Policy!
A friend provided us with access to a sportsball network. While browsing around we happened on a women’s NCAA basketball game between UC Santa Barbara and Southern Utah University. The game was in its first overtime period, and then a second, and then a third, with the UCSB team ultimately winning by five points after three of Southern Utah’s best players fouled out. What a great game; what a pleasure to watch; what a pity we missed the first 40 minutes.
More of Dave Alvin, this time in the guise of Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women on the album of the same name; Richard Thompson, “Electric;” Alabama Shakes, “Boys & Girls.”
That, comrades, is all we got. Be well, take care.
Bad Crow Review: Slacker Sunday
"A poor society with some very wealthy people": actually, it's more difficult than that. It's a generally comfortable society with s lot of poor people.