Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
Freelance writing about the wild, old and dead. (Plus comics.) Bylines in The New York Times, SciAm, Undark, Texas Monthly, and lots of other places. Repped by @desir.ee at Looking Glass Literary.
Thereās no way Trumpās felony conviction doesnāt come up in the debate, right?
I canāt speak for the other news sections, but Iāve actually got no complaints about the Science section ā they pay a buck a word, the editing process isnāt too onerous to make it worth it, and theyāre generally moreā¦discerning in what they run than some other desks
My younger self would be boggled to know that my byline is regularly in the Times, and dismayed by how little that actually matters
Just offering a prayer that weāre finally on the brink of an honest to god permanent ceasefire ā hopefully, one that will lead directly to increased support for Palestinian statehood
Is this resurfacing of (truly fucking wild! Holy shit!) racism in honor of some recent event, or just for fun
But I take your point ā I think these people *deserve* a lot of things, but that isnāt and canāt be the primary consideration where self-government is concerned and youāll go mad if you start thinking about things that way
I wouldnāt be *okay* with it precisely but I would grudgingly accept it if it meant I never had to deal with him again
two things can be true here: that Barr did quite a lot of damage on his way out the door, and that Garland has been overly cautious in a way thatās ultimately pretty damaging
And like, look: thatās a crazy position to stake out, but fine. Freaking out and posting endlessly because you canāt understand a common figure of speech? Nuts
I followed the meltdown and simply couldnāt parse what her actual complaint (besides the weird dick fixation) was, other than just a general sense that Garland was being unfairly slandered
A fun thing about having an (occasionally) free roaming bearded dragon is that sometimes ā say, if youāre putting up shelves ātheyāll just come over and see what youāre up to
this is the most *slap* āget AHOLD of yourself, MANā thing Iāve seen in a second
The devil is old and has many faces, and the Stars and Stripes is only one of them
Quite possibly! I'm not interested in litigating the question of what Trump would or wouldn't do here, though, so much as the question of what *Netanyahu* is doing and the obvious reasons he's doing it
This is a great example of Americans forgetting that while the American state is connected to a lot of bad things, everything bad does not ultimately revolve around America
While I have no doubt that Netanyahu wants Biden to lose, he's not acting according to American political considerations, but Israeli ones (Indeed, we're making it easy for him to focus on the one and not the other. That's the problem!) The war is not there to be *stopped.*
Look, I genuinely understand wanting Biden to be punished, and I think there's good faith disagreement to be had over whether he and Trump would have an equivalent policy on Gaza. But this highlighted bit is frankly deranged
I may very well be wrong about this, but I suspect that at some point a.) someone is going to openly tell the Supreme Court to go pound sand and b.) people are going to be shocked when the sky doesn't collapse in response
Similar to the Trump Invulnerability Effect in this way, actually: it gets its power because people defer in advance
The supreme court has psyched Americans into thinking they are a sort of super-branch that can overrule all the others and do whatever it wants to and that's not true constitutionally or practically
If there's one thing any left-wing person should know, "Do you have any balls at all" as an exhortation to action rarely comes from people operating from a position of strength
There remains genuine danger of stochastic violence in this election, I think, but it's notable that the riots and demonstrations people were predicting if Trump was convicted have not, as yet, occurred.
āFind some freaking nutsā: Trump extremist ominously urges MAGA to ādo somethingā
āFind some freaking nutsā: Trump extremist ominously urges MAGA to ādo somethingā
Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that his multiple prosecutions are a conspiracy led by President Joe Biden to sabotage his reelection efforts.No matter that there is no evidence to support Trumpā...
www.rawstory.comContinually mistaking āoughtā for āis,ā every step of the way
Also, what part of the theory "Donald Trump pays his debts" bears any resemblance to observable history
Oh, interesting ā canāt wait to hear yāall do a post-game dive into it!
Boy he looks *bad*
They see Trumpās ability to wiggle out of things as something that rubs off on people like them rather than something fueled by burning them
The kinds of people who are inclined to see Donald Trump as their ladder are the sorts of people who will always assume theyāre different, theyāre savvy, it wonāt happen to them
I think quite a lot of people have, without really realizing it, decided to comply in advance here
āThis trial will help Trumpā
Yes, that explains why he has worked desperately to delay, disrupt and throw it out at every possible juncture, and why heās clearly furious at this outcome
The dangerous thing about Trump is the amount of people in various institutions who will stick their necks out to cover for him, or simply throw up their hands rather than nail him. That means you can never totally count him out, sure. But that is a far, far cry from him being impossible to nail
āTrump is invincibleā is a paradoxically comforting sentiment: itās anesthetizing, makes us feel savvy, means we donāt get our hopes up. Where itās right, itās always through self-fulfilling prophecy. And itās usually wrong!
I had a friend post the "Let's see Donnie wriggle out of this mess" tweet to IG after the verdict came down, and it made me realize there's a bunch of people who are just never going to be able to accept the idea that he can be held accountable because they'd have to grapple with being wrong
Oh, I certainly agree about that. Iām wondering more why Demās failure to attack him on it is still bad for him
Could you unpack this a bit? I'd think it'd go the opposite way!
Wouldnāt be British if she werenāt inserting herself into other peopleās business
Him forcing his lawyers to litigate whether or not he slept with Stormy Daniels was a really stupid move
Honestly impressed by the magical thinking (in all senses of the term) on display here
