DL Open Thread Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024

Trump’s flailing, tweet-based excuse for a campaign is nearly exhausting the media’s informational oxygen. Everybody who fails to show him complete obeisance gets trashed on his failing social media platform, and political reporters treat every person targeted as worthy of a separate story. Did you see what Trump said about Oprah? Taylor Swift? Bill Maher? … I could go on and on, because he does. The media loves it, because they get to cover a “campaign” without leaving their desks.

Click-hungry assignment editors have stumbled onto a new genre, the surprisingly Trump-supporting celebrity. Just this week we got Lady Gaga’s father and Janet Jackson, which I suppose is valuable for whoever’s collecting names for the Big Book of Assholes.

Speaking of assholes, one of the stories that got buried under the blather deserves more attention. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana used the platform of a hearing on hate crimes to commit one, as he attacked the hearing’s only Muslim-American witness. This is the true difference between liberals and conservatives: Conservatives love Israel and hate Jews. Liberals are the opposite.

Speaking of theocracy, ProPublica has a disturbing story about Ohio giving taxpayer money directly to private religious schools for capital costs. Their reasoning: They passed a school voucher law that will lead to more demand, so they’ll give money to the religious schools to meet the demand they themselves created. So congratulations, I guess. You no longer need move to the Middle East to live in a theocracy.

The floor’s yours.