If you’d been wondering what the New Yorker magazine and the New York Times were going to do with their “All Trump-Hatred All the Time” formats once the hated dictator was gone, here’s today’s NYT front page:
How much longer can they keep selling Donald Trump as the main topic that Americans need to learn more about?
(What else was going on in the world today? A coup in Myanmar. Climate change that is an existential threat to humanity. Chinese purportedly inflicting a “genocide” on a group that contains some separatists and jihadis. Insane volatility in GME stock (a friend sold a bunch of call options with a strike price of $800; when the stock was trading at $340 people were willing to pay $130 for the option, meaning that the buyers expect GME stock to hit $930). Variant coronavirus preparing to attack the masked-and-vaccinated. Lower income BIPOC school-age children across the U.S. are coming up on a full calendar year without any school (private and public schools for rich white kids are generally open, of course). Russians are in the streets to protest the arrest of Alexei Navalny. Fiji is being destroyed by cyclones. Migrant caravans are trying to reach President Biden’s promised land, but having trouble redeeming that promise.)
Right-wing media talked about Hillary for four years after she lost. I fully expect left-wing media to do the same with Trump. Hillary never won a national election and seemed content to fade into obscurity. It’s pretty clear that Trump is not going to fade into obscurity if he can possibly help it. So arguably Trump is more relevant to the national conversation than Hillary was.
Regarding GME, it looks like your friend made some money, but of course: “the markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.”
George: Do you have a all-Hillary front page analogous to the above that you can dig up from February 1, 2017? I would be interested to see that! (As a NYT subscriber I don’t have much exposure to the “right-wing media” you’re referring to; is there actually a “right wing” newspaper in the U.S.?)
(Even if you do find the mirror front page, I’m not sure that the situations are analogous. On February 1, 2017 the country was coming off 8 years of perfect governance by a saintly Nobel Peace laureate. Today, by contrast, the country is beset by multiple crises caused by 4 years of misgovernance. We have a climate change crisis. We are informed that there is a new humanitarian crisis in China. We have the Trump-caused coronaplague that did not exist in 2017. So maybe in Feb 2017 we could have indulged in the luxury of dwelling on the past, but how do we have the same luxury in Feb 2021?)
What analogue could you find for Hilary’s series of serious misconduct and an attempted coup?
Anonymous,
Between judicial pass to Clinton “misconduct” that would put others into a vault for decades and continuous coup that started on November 4th 2016? NYT could get over it.
Seems like anything with “Trump” in the headlines sells a lot more subscriptions/advertising than all of the other topics you mention. Follow the money.
Trump, especially now that his direct reach is curtailed, has become Emmanuel Goldstein.
You got the title of this post slightly wrong. The title should be, “All-Trump format for NYT and this blog continues even without Trump”
He had crowds of people chanting “Lock Her Up!” He could disappear tomorrow in an antimatter annihilation that obliterated life on earth and it would never be forgotten.
In June of 2020, DJT weighed approximately 111 kilograms. By my back-of-the-napkin calculation, if he annihilated with the equivalent amount of antimatter, it would result in a release of energy equivalent to 4,773 megatons, less than the estimated yield of the combined US & Russian arsenals (~6,600) but nowhere near enough to make them ever forget it.
And I don’t mind telling anyone: the first time I heard that people at Trump’s rallies were chanting “Lock Her Up!” I knew: “We Are In World War IV – And It Is Never Going to End.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/10/trump-time-capsule-140-lock-her-up/503684/?oldest=true&page=1
Where does weight figure of 111 kg come from?
And something wrong with your calculation. Energy in 110 kg is limited by m*c**2 ~ 110 kg * (300,000 m*s**-1)**2 = 9.9E+12 kg*m**2*s**-2 = 9.9E+12 J . 1ktTNT ~ 4.2E+12 J, Even if you double 9.9E+11 since for antimatter annihilation you need particles of different charge but otherwise similar so I assume 111kg of opposite charged matter added you get < 2E+13 or < 5 kilotons < 0.005 of a megaton. Hope that my napkin estimates do not have a typo and that I understand physics well enough.
Moderator, please remove similar comment below. It was meant as a reply to Alex.
Alex,
Your napkin calculation is right right. c**2 is about (300,000,000m*s**-1)**2, not (300,000m*s**-1)**2, had a long day. so you get a little less then 5 kilotons * 1,000,0000 or a little less then 5,000 megatons which is consistent with your figure. Apologies.
@Low Skilled Immigrant: Thanks I was hoping I did the basic calculation right.
Philg has a good point though. You know, they could be devoting a lot more resources to the problems associated with the vaccines. I would think that’s more important news to everyone their newspaper serves. But in the past month I keep getting the feeling that ending COVID through vaccination is not really in the government’s best interest, this whole thing has just been an elaborate shell game, and that it will never happen until the economic devastation is irreversible. I’m really coming to believe that.
@LSI: I got Trump’s weight here (originally Bloomberg):
https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/donald-trump-s-age-and-weight-make-covid-19-particularly-dangerous-120100200704_1.html
“At the time of his annual physical exam in June, the president stood 6-foot-3 (1.9 meters) and 244 pounds (111 kilograms), giving him a BMI of 30.5. A figure of 30 or greater is considered obese.”
Alex, agree about press time but press is really partisan, especially NYT, and they look for rating bump in their key user group. Plus it could be that new administration support people are getting paid on vaccines mishaps and losses, just recall first things first “cash for junkers” program of previous administration that included current president. Disclaimer: I have no specific data about this, just using common sense and regress past observations.
Trump with his 6’3” frame and 244 lb looks trim! I thought he was heavier. He is heavyweight boxer range and I do not think he is all fat, does not look like.
Where does weight figure of 111 kg come from?
And something wrong with your calculation. Energy in 110 kg is limited by m*c**2 ~ 110 kg * (300,000 m*s**-1)**2 = 9.9E+12 kg*m**2*s**-2 = 9.9E+12 J . 1ktTNT ~ 4.2E+12 J, Even if you double 9.9E+11 since for antimatter annihilation you need particles of different charge but otherwise similar so I assume 111kg of opposite charged matter added you get < 2E+13 or < 5 kilotons < 0.005 of a megaton. Hope that my napkin estimates do not have a typo and that I understand physics well enough.