27 Days to Go

Some Straws in the Wind

Great Harris Ad

Hat tip to Charlie Sykes for linking to this absolutely devastating ad from the Kamala Harris campaign.

Hurricane Donald

I suppose it was inevitable that Trump would try to exploit and lie about Mother Nature, but his current excrescences, feeding conspiracy theories and other claptrap even beggars my imagination. I mean, there are real live people who are reluctant to receive absolutely necessary help from the federal government because of his lies. Florida Governor DeSantis denounced this today, without ever mentioning Trump—wouldn’t it be nice if he, Lindsey Graham, Thom Tillis and other regional Republicans held a press conference and told Trump to quit this brutal nonsense? And wouldn’t it have been nice if J.D. Vance had acknowledged the presence of the National Guard and FEMA workers, thousands of them, before he criticized the Biden Administration, questionably, for not sending federal troops immediately? But these people are scum. There is no sinkhole or septic tank they won’t dive into.

CBS Noose

The Free Press continues its excellent coverage of the Ta-Nehisi Coates interview controversy. This is essential stuff for those of us in the media and publishing business. It pulls back the curtain on the arrant wokery that has insinuated itself into the mainstream media. A friend, since deceased, once referred to New York book publishing as “70-year-old Baby Boom editors who are about to retire and their 27-year-old Maoist assistants.”

If the Free Press reporting is correct, and I assume it is, CBS conducted a “struggle session”—that is, something out of the Chinese Cultural Revolution—where Tony Dokoupil was raked over the coals and made to cry. I was once the subject of a similar struggle session at Newsweek, where various mediocrities insisted I apologize for anonymously writing a novel called Primary Colors. I refused to apologize for the book, I did say that I was sorry for any grief it had caused them (I suppose jealousy is a form of grief) and, at the end, I did burst into tears, devastated by the experience of having colleagues, some of whom I respected, forcing me to defend a book that the Wall Street Journal has said is one of the five best American political novels. I left Newsweek six months later to become The New Yorker’s Washington correspondent and I will always be grateful to Tina Brown for seeing past the bullshit controversy.

So, memo to Tony Dokoupil: You did nothing wrong. Your offended colleagues are politically pampered nitwits. Your bosses are cowards. I hope they get around to apologizing to you for not succumbing to the politically incorrect cult of Coates—and if they don’t, I hope there’s an editor of excellence out there, like Tina Brown, who values professional journalism and appreciates your integrity.

Klein Fever Barometer

I am feeling slightly more optimistic because of the Harris ad above, and also due to polling commissioned by the great people at the Bulwark, which finds that more than half of Nikki Haley voters won’t support Trump on November 5.

Still, there are so many imponderables—the effect of the hurricanes, and of Hurricanes Bibi and Putin, who seem to have a vote in this election and are pulling for Trump. So, on a ten point scale, the Klein Fever Barometer stands today at: 5.2.