Reader Amy sent me this bit televised last night by Stephen Colbert, adding “This is very touching. His usually funny monologue was instead a heartfelt editorial.”
The first half of the 16.5-minute segment is Colbert’s unscripted reaction to Trump’s unhinged election monologue last night, taped soon thereafter. Colbert even breaks down about two minutes into the monologue.
The scripted bit starts about eight minutes in, featuring digs at Mitch McConnell, Rudy Giuliani, and Trump’s gonzo spiritual advisor Paula White, whose prayer for angelic interference in the election was truly bizarre.
‘Twas excellent.
The second part is very funny. The first part is very moving.
Is Trumpism here to stay?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszcnt
Someone said on the radio he is really a cult leader.
David Koresh and the Branch Covidians.
Did ‘someone on radio’ also say 1+1=2 ?
Sorry if I’m nattering negativity towards you, but ‘someone on radio’ hasn’t been listening to hundreds at least for at least 4 years, if he/she thinks he/she’s saying anything new.
Are you sure you didn’t mishear them?
Australian here. Have not seen anything from Pence and his reaction. Is he in a bunker or ?
He was last seen out trying to catch a fly.
Bahaha 😂
I know an old Veep who swallowed a fly; I don’t know why he swallowed the fly.
I know an old man who swallowed a fly.
I don’t know why he swollowed that fly.
I guess he died.
Folk Song
Yikes! There’s a seat at my poker table for anyone who thinks Colbert’s “breakdown” was real. I do however feel for him and everyone else who’s entire career for the last 4 years has been virtue signalling their disdain for Trump. Maybe that’s what he was crying about. Lost meaning of life and a plentiful supply of easy content.
I am also happy that Trump is no longer president but I worry for those who look forward to a Biden presidency as though things are going to be okay now. This election was a lose lose situation.
Sorry, Professor Coyne, at your request I did let the last 2 of your posts go by unsullied by this “naysayer” but it’s time to get real again and call out Colbert’s crocodile tears for the obvious well timed performance that they were. No I’m not cynical. Just a really good poker player and fake acting reader.
You know what. If you have to say you are a good poker player, you probably are not. Kind of like saying you are not cynical after you just pretty much said you were.
Or like saying you are a stable genius…
IIRC, Colbert did have a pretty good career, both on his own and with Stewart, long before much Trump stuff became so dominant.
Sorry, but I’m not going to let you rain on my parade. Neither you nor I know whether his moment of emotionality was real. I’ll assume he’s not faking, while you extol your expertise in reading human emotions. Forgive me if I don’t buy your self-aggrandizement.
Attaboy, boss. Raise him right back — or, as they say at a Texas Hold ‘Em table, “go in over the top” of him.
I do indeed forgive you. And I did lay off the last two celebratory posts at your request to let you have your moment. I will also go away entirely at you request if you wish it so. But I will not stop pointing out hypocracy and crocodile tears on both sides of the aisle when I see them.
Colbert is a proud believer in the Catholic God and supporter of the Catholic church. I forgive dumb people for this but not obvious smart people like Colbert. He’s a phoney, which I believe is backed up by the fact that the only good show he has ever done was the one where he was a phoney Republican. He is very good at being phoney, I’ll give him that.
The funny thing is (and it’s hilarious on many levels) many of them didn’t realize at first that he was mocking them. They thought he was real.
When it comes to Republicans, the jokes just write themselves.
Yeah, I recall Bill O’Reilly appearing on the old Colbert Report on Comedy Central. The conceit of that show was that Colbert was an O’Reilly-like right-wing blowhard pundit. Colbert, in character, displayed a fawning deference toward O’Reilly, treating him as his character’s hero. Even though a mocking irony underlay it, and even though O’Reilly on some level understood this, O’Reilly still couldn’t help himself from basking in the glow of the fawning deference.
I remember that interview. Bill O Reilly sort-of understood that Colbert was taking the mickey, and he tried to outmanoeuvre him, but he wasn’t really up to it. I think the height of his wit as an anchor was calling people with whom he disagreed ‘pinheads’, so he was never going to keep up with Colbert.
I’m definitely looking forward to President Biden. He’s not perfect, nor do I expect him to be. But he is eminently more qualified and competent than Trump, and has served the public honorably for decades. He will appoint civic-minded, well-qualified people to his administration, and restore the credibility of the U.S.A. to the rest of the world. Things are not going to be “ok” because of Trumpism and the GOP obstruction that will come, but our country will be immeasurably better off now. As for Colbert, I liked the clip. Colbert is undeniably a patriot–and a very funny one at that.
I am just looking forward to a quiet four years with no crazy Trump stuff to ruin each and every day. That would be enough for me. I don’t care if Biden will be invisible. I just want a break from the loudmouthed madman currently in office.
These describe my views. Remember when Trump [insert insane thing he said here], or remember how he [insert incredibly stupid and cruel thing he did here] and the Republicans in congress said nothing? Remember how we became g.d. accustomed to these daily indignities from our president?
So if Biden is boring, that is a definite improvement. *Sigh* Sorry to have to say that, but ’tis true.
Yeah, that’s all I want. A nice boring four years.
If you consider the drone strikes of the Obama/Biden administration that killed thousands of innocent people “boring” this is a concern. If you think the Hunter Biden story is BS and that Biden is not a corrupt Wall Street puppet willing to let poor people suffer with no healthcare because $$$ this is a concern. Excuse me for a minute I just choked myself up with my own talking. Give me a minute. (crackled voice)
Just a little of your “talk” is enough for me, so you can quit any time. Your words prove one thing – you watch way to much Fox news. Why not drag out the Clinton emails as well and you can cover yourself up.
Anyone who brings up Hillary or Hunter email doesn’t understand how email works much less metadata or abstraction layers.
These are the same people who believe they’ve been hacked after giving out their password.
Lol. I’ve never watched Fox news except in funny clips. I’m with the Bernie wing, and also the Andrew Yang Wing. To an establishment democrat I’m much worse than a Fox News fan. I’m a socialist!!!!
Trump sucks. Biden sucks. Trump is worse. This is a lose lose. Nothing to celebrate. We got played. Trump was designed to make us accept establishment Wall St. Biden willingly.
Whoa, where did that come from? Yes, the drone strikes were evil, and I think the Hunter Biden situation is very serious (and I have said so here). But Trump was willing to destroy the whole world because $$, denying climate science; on top of that he has been actively dismantling our institutions and government agencies. And if you recognize the problem of Hunter Biden, I can hardly imagine how mad you must be about the Trump family gang, where every family member and relative of legal age has a hand in the pie, with Ivanka also an accomplice in Trump’s tax evasion schemes.
That was directed at Tim, not Randall.
Trump was horrible in every way. I’m glad he’s out. Everyone should be. And everyone should also be sad that we ended up with the Democrat establishment Joe Biden for president. It is not only reasonable to see this as a lose lose, it is irresponsible to see it any other way.
Tim, yes, I am sad that Biden was the Dem candidate.However, I think the Electoral College vote map shows that the Dems could not have beat Trump if they had been any more liberal. A large part of the country is regressive. This has to be acknowledged. We need to do more work to educate and convince the voters of these regions. Menawhile we have to be satisfied with baby steps.
How is the Hunter Biden situation serious for anybody except Hunter Biden?
Btw has any actual evidence against him surfaced yet?
Hunter Biden accepted a $50k/mo position with Burisma on the same mmonth that the UK began to investigate Burisma. This certainly appears to be a case of influence-peddling. It is impossible for me to believe that Joe never talked to Biden about his work.
After the corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor was fired at Joe’s insistence, Joe signed off on a new prosecutor who was a political hack whose office missed filing deadlines to continue a court case against Burisma.
It would be super nice to have politics fade way into the background for a while.
I am pretty sure the republicans will drop Trump like a hot potato as soon as it is viable to do so.
I do wonder about all the people who seem to have formed their entire identity around hating Trump and blaming him for pretty much everything bad in the world. When utopia does not spring forth, they may well find some introspection is in order.
I have been a Colbert fan for a long time, particularly his work on Strangers with Candy. I sort of lost interest when he pivoted to full-time Trump hate. Not that I completely disagree with him on the issues, but I watch comedy to be distracted from grim reality, not continuously reminded of it.
Congressional Republicans — or at least the ones who did win office in the last four years on Trump’s coattails — may well wish to do so. The problem they have is that if Trump feels they are being insufficiently loyal to him right now, in his hour of need, he may turn on them by taking his hardcore, deplorable base — the people who followed him into the GOP from the Birther movement, the ones who revel in his worst conduct, the ones who wouldn’t care if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue — and form his own third party. (After all, Trump is not a lifelong Republican and has no particular loyalty to the Party, or to anyone or anything else for that matter.)
I don’t think anyone knows for sure how large Trump’s hardcore base may be, but it is no doubt large enough that its loss could cripple Republicans from being competitive in national elections (which the GOP is barely capable of being now) or from being competitive in statewide elections in purple states (especially since most of the GOP’s raw energy these days comes from this segment of Trump’s followers).
This puts congressional Republicans in a precarious position, and it is why they are loathe to distance themselves from Trump’s unfounded ongoing allegations regarding voting fraud, and why they may continue to be loathe to criticize him however batshit crazy his conduct may become between now and Biden’s inauguration day.
+ yet another to that. Getting a break from the constant insanity, and getting a couple of orders of magnitude fewer lies, will be an enormous relief.
I consulted my Big Book of Sincere Sad Faces. It says Colbert’s emotion was authentic. Of course, it doesn’t carry the same authority as a Tim J Reichert Assessment®, but I’ll stick with it nonetheless.
Maybe an updated version will consult more self-proclaimed poker experts. Should make it more accurate and reliable.
I thought it a real but mild & unexpected break in composure. I’ve done that before audiences. Actors can fake it, but they wouldn’t try to cover it up like Colbert did.
I don’t understand what the problem is. Stephen Colbert is an entertainer. Of course what you see every night on his show is an act. Why do you think it matters? Do you criticise everything you see on the telly because it isn’t real?
I’m sorry you are upset that the Democrats didn’t select Bernie Sanders. I don’t think Biden is great choice either but he did at least beat Trump. Sanders couldn’t even beat Biden in a much more left skewed electorate. If he had been the candidate, I think we would now be looking down the barrel of the net four years of the orange turd.
What I find depressing about your point of view, Tim, is the cynicism surrounding anyone who’s position isn’t in line with yours. Denying the possibility that Stephen Colbert might hold sincere beliefs about the horror show display of the Orange Menace is bizarre to me. It is an attitude that poisons the progressive wing of the political spectrum and accounts for why Progressives consistently fail to succeed. You can’t help but convert your friends into enemies.
(For the record, I voted for Sanders in the primary this year as well as the primary four years ago. So please don’t include me in your bucket of “neoliberal hacks”.)
Am I wrong or are you the same Tim Reichert who claimed that Biden was going to lose massively against Trump and that anyone who thought otherwise was irrational?
It’s satisfying watching obnoxious Trump boosters(who’ve spent four years gloating) having a shitfit over this election, but it’s also quite pleasing seeing your kind of ferociously illiberal faux-progressive far-leftists have a tantrum because they didn’t get the exact present they wanted for Christmas.
My advice is to follow the wise words of George Costanza’s father. Close your eyes and say to yourself “serenity now…serenity now….”
Hey, this comes close to insulting a commenter. Can you please be a bit more polite?
Apologies. I’ll pull back on the snark Jerry.
“…as though things are going to be okay now”
Relatively speaking, things are going to be okay now.
Colbert: “Donald Trump is a fascist.”
There is no consensus among scholars as to what fascism is, just as the term socialism has many meanings. I have no trouble calling Trump a fascist, but if you think the term doesn’t apply, I’ll settle for calling Trump an authoritarian, who doesn’t believe in democracy. That’s good enough for me. But, I’ll give him credit for something. He may very well be the greatest grifter ever.
“Authoritarian” just doesn’t seem to be disdainful enough word to describe Trump, and the permanent damage he has done to our country.
Republicans (including Trump) have always fancied themselves “patriots,” which they seem to define as wearing flag pins, hugging flags, and acting indignant if they believe someone has disrespected the flag. In fact, their behavior reveals that they are more concerned about the flag itself than with any of the actual ideals it stands for.
One would think that if you had to single out just one of those ideals as THE most important, it would be the very preservation of democracy itself. However, given the utter disdain that they show for democracy, Trump, his enablers and supporters are the farthest thing possible from patriots — they are despicable, perfidious, betrayers of what America stands for.
Certainly not a psychologist but some have said psychopath, others say sociopath. I would bet on psychopath because I do not detect any conscience. His performance through the pandemic kind of shows his hand. He claims to be an expert in all things and that requires lying, nonstop.
Luckily for the US and the world, his form of fascism is just as vacuous stupid and fake as everything else he does, and has just fallen to bits. (Though some of the scaffolding for it that his cronies have constructed will be around for a generation or two.)
I wonder if anyone smart enough to make fascism work in the US would also be too smart for Trump supporters to find appealing.
Fascism is “an organized, centralized, authoritarian democracy.”, at least according to Benito Mussolini (From The Doctrine of Fascism, 1932). That seems contradictory, at least on the surface. The treatise is worth a read, although it seems utopian to me. And I know how it turns out. Hung upside down from a girder.
Socialism is “A political and economic theory of social organization based on state or collective ownership and regulation of the means of production, distribution, and exchange” There are slight variations on the wording, but that is the essence of it.
It is trendy these days to redefine various terms to conform with and reinforce woke political beliefs.
I have spoken with people who advocate for socialism and define “what it means to them, personally”, as a system where everyone is really nice to each other. I guess that is easier to sell than the tradition meaning, and it’s usual outcome.
One thing that went unnoticed this year was that Trump vowed to veto the renewal and expansion of the Patriot Act this year. So it was shelved indefinitely.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/27/politics/house-vote-fisa/index.html
I have read claims that he did it for purely selfish reasons. While that is entirely possible, the fact remains that the act is no longer in effect. If I were an aspiring authoritarian, I would expand rather than restrict the power of the state.
Supporting Trump has always betrayed a dubious commitment to American values and ideas, both as unofficial, loosely articulated consensus values (equality of rights and opportunity, etc.) and as specifically spelled out in the country’s founding documents. As Trump’s election theft efforts unfold, there must be a point at which continuing to support him——particularly among elected officials——becomes actively treasonous.
Any confidence I had in the citizenry, which was minimal, is gone. The idea that something like 68 or 69 million people voted for this guy is just stunning. Especially after seeing his act for four years. And I will say again, until money is removed from this politics we are beating a dead horse.
Meanwhile the Dems continue to hold a one seat lead in the Senate. Is it possible the lead will hold up?
This is a source of confusion to me: I thought they had resoundingly lost the Senate, but lately I’ve heard there’s a tiny chance that might not be true. What’s going on, can anyone tell me?
After last Tuesday’s election, Republicans hold a 50-48 advantage in the US senate. Two runoff US senate elections will be held in Georgia on January 5th. (Senators sit for staggered six-year terms, and at most only one senator from a state usually stands for election in a given cycle, but a Georgia senator resigned last year for health reasons, so that senate seat is up for a special election this year to complete that term).
If the Democrats were to win both the Georgia US senate seats in the January 5th election (which seems a longshot, given that Georgia is a traditionally red state that Joe Biden looks to be barely winning in the presidential election this year, which would be a first since 1992), there would be a 50-50 tie in the senate. In US senate votes where there is a 50-50 tie, the US constitution provides that the vice-president gets to cast a tie-breaking vote.
Consequently, a win in both of Georgia’s runoff elections would give Democrats control of the US senate.
I see. So a very long shot, but technically possible.
Trump behaved like a toddler who doesn’t get his lollies.
As an Aussie expat living in the USA, I just can’t believe the level of anger, hatred, and smug schadenfreude that Americans are throwing around at each other at the moment. With Biden himself being a notable exception, there seems to be very little conciliation or grace, nor attempts to mentally walk a mile in the other sides’ moccasins to understand why they might vote differently to you. Families are tearing themselves apart. People have distanced themselves from us because we won’t declare our allegiance for their preferred candidate. 60% of the population has nothing but derision and scorn on their lips for other other 40%, and vice versa. And that’s just the beginning — you seem perfectly poised to enter at another decade of political gridlock and increasing polarisation, and for what? Nothing but pride, as far as I can tell. For christ’s sake, just chill out and try to get along a bit. Grab a few beers with someone of the opposite political persuasion, and realise that they probably just want a better life for them and their family too. You’re screwing up your society and your democracy, while Russia, China, and authoritarian regimes the world over look on with wry smiles.
It is very hard to talk to the dyed-in-the-wool Trump supporters who live in their imaginary world completely disconnected from reality.
“…nor attempts to mentally walk a mile in the other sides’ moccasins..”
It would be interesting to hear how you would explain a sympathetic understanding attitude to an avid supporter of him–a man who will have murdered (not man-slaughtered, after hearing Woodward’s tape) something like ¼ million of his fellow citizens by the time he (hopefully) pisses off on Jan. 20. I have explained the number elsewhere based on what decently humane government policies have done to keep the deaths down to at most ⅓ of what has been happening quite blatantly with the Mass Murderer donald’s policies. There’s a limit to any decent person’s sympathetic understanding of someone who is prepared to have that murderous behaviour continue for several more months, even possibly years.
Great speech. Two points:
1. Colbert seemed to be channeling Jon Stewart in parts of his spiel. Stewart used to get pretty serious in the midst of a comedy show.
2. Colbert is, in spite of having to ridicule society night after night, is not cynical. He genuinely believes in America as a bastion of values. Refreshing.
I’ve read that rump can run in 4 years time. You might not have heard he last from him.
This does not qualify as a real problem we are likely to face.
After this squeaker of an election, I’m definitely seeing Mencken’s point.
The mere prospect of that should be cause for Democrat celebration.
By then Trump will be four years older and his faddish aura will have withered away for everyone but the die-hard. He will have spent almost half a decade of being known as a one term loser and faced multiple prosecutions from every legal direction conceivable.
So the thought of him blundering into the 2024 GOP primary race and hoovering up all the base votes, or better yet running as an independent in the GE, should chill the blood of every Republican.
Unfortunately, I think he’s more likely either to be on the run in Russia or chowing down on prison food.
I am late to this discussion, but I think Benito Mussolini would be insulted by the accusation that Mr. Trump belongs with him. Yakaru makes more sense in pointing out that Trump’s “form of fascism is just as vacuous stupid and fake as everything else he does”. What Trump reminds me of most is American commercial radio. Listen for a few minutes to its incessant self-promotion, to the quackery of much of the advertising, and to the torrents of bullshit you can enjoy on programs from “Coast to Coast” to talk shows to the numerous broadcasts of radio-religion.
I’d like to sink into the same state of blissful forgetfulness that many of the above commentators are hoping for once the squaling 74 year old infant in the White House has finally left the scene. But I think it would be a serious mistake to do so. Have a look at the hard, grim analysis in The Atlantic at https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/trump-proved-authoritarians-can-get-elected-america/617023/. The bleak title of the article, ‘America’s Next Authoritarian Will Be Much More Competent’ concisely announces the author’s point: we were lucky with Trump because his antidemocratic, authoritarian tendencies were constantly thwarted by an almost surreal incompetence in the political game. Here’s his warning, in a nutshell:
‘The situation is a perfect setup, in other words, for a talented politician to run on Trumpism in 2024. A person without the eager Twitter fingers and greedy hotel chains, someone with a penchant for governing rather than golf. An individual who does not irritate everyone who doesn’t already like him, and someone whose wife looks at him adoringly instead of slapping his hand away too many times in public. Someone who isn’t on tape boasting about assaulting women, and who says the right things about military veterans. Someone who can send appropriate condolences about senators who die, instead of angering their state’s voters, as Trump did, perhaps to his detriment, in Arizona. A norm-subverting strongman who can create a durable majority and keep his coalition together to win more elections.’
‘Make no mistake: The attempt to harness Trumpism—without Trump, but with calculated, refined, and smarter political talent—is coming. And it won’t be easy to make the next Trumpist a one-term president. He will not be so clumsy or vulnerable. He will get into office less by luck than by skill.’
After reading the article, I’m pretty convinced that the author’s dead right. Definitely, we deserve a few months to savor a world in which Donald Trump is no longer making us nauseous on a daily basis. But the deeper problem that the the author of the Atlantic piece points out is not going to go away.
And the author, Zeynep Tüfekçi, is of Turkish origins. After 17 years of the Erdoğan dictatorship (he became prime minister in 2003, and as president from 2014), she probably knows what she’s talking about. Great, but ominous, article.
Unsurprisingly, anyone who associated with Trump will likely suffer career repercussions and might end up a pariah. I do not fear for Trumpism having a future because Trump still has no friends among America’s elites. Out of office, he will be rambling on, but alone, powerless, and forever gone in a few years.
I still recommend SSC’s “Trump: A setback for Trumpism”: https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/12/13/trump-a-setback-for-trumpism/
I think you are badly mistaken about this. In many states there are large populations who are rabid and completely blind followers of Trump. And a large fraction of the elites will want to harness that enthusiasm.
I think both you and Lou are right. I don’t think Trump will vanish, but at the same time
I don’t think he’ll be damaging to the Democrats so much as he will to the Republicans. His background presence and influence will be enough to stymie their efforts to reform, to pivot away from nativism and the ugly white identity politics of the last four years. That doesn’t sound good in terms of national unity, but it is good for the Democrats in electoral terms.
As a congenital optimist, I understand his disappointment. Even though Trump has proven over and over that his flaws run wide and deep, I keep hoping he will show some shred of dignity and respect for others.
Also, I can’t imagine what the past 4 years must have been like for people who have to script a show daily. Every day is a roller coaster for them. My daily work grind depends only on what my boss wants, and I don’t have to worry that I’ll have to throw out a day’s work at the end of the day every day. So I think he may really have choked up, if only from the stress of a 4-year marathon running switchbacks uphill.
I have an old and very good friend who for reasons inexplicable to me has for the last dozen of so yrs wintered in Tavares, which is near Orlando. This year, because of overthinking the COVID risk, he’s been in FL all summer and is still there. Bad enough to be quarantined in FL for the summer, let alone under a pandemic virus, let alone surrounded by a mask-dismisssing populace. and then to add further insult to injury, he just found out that Paula White is HQ’d nearby. I didn’t know much of anything about her, but he told me today when he called to share the good news, that she apparently stiffed an outfit called something like the Evangelical Credit Union for $29M in declaring bankrupcy, and then just moved on to set up another fraud. Some of that is covered here.
Trials and tribulations of what it took for the same guy to get his absentee ballot from PA is a much longer story, but it ends with it costing him $54 to 2-day FedEx his ballot back to Franklin Co PA, and given PA’s contribution to the outcome he has no regrets.