John Lovett (4:47)
No, choose me. In January of last year, In Gracia wrote In the chat, MLK Jr. Was the 1960s. George Floyd and his holiday should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs. A big Dante guy, huh? Because you also like to watch. Look at Dante and Virgil there. Let's punch in on those two. Couple of fucking pervs. Look at that. And look at this bat guy that's also in the painting. Who's that guy? The fuck? Jesus Christ. Replied another participant in the in Gracia chat. That participant, the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg. A month earlier, Ingrazia whipped out an Italian slur for black people and said, From Kwanzaa to MLK Jr Day to Black History Month to Juneteenth, every single one needs to be eviscerated. Do you know how racist you've gotta be to wanna see paid federal holidays come off the board unless you're trying to run a business and then July 4th lands on a Wednesday and it blows the whole fucking week? In February of 2024, Ingrazia wrote of then presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, never trust a Chinaman or Indian. Never. And I know what you're thinking is that Pirates of Penzance. It's not. Ingrazia's lawyer said in a statement that the text could be manipulated or out of context. But if they are authentic, they're clearly self deprecating and satirical. A dry wit that Paul and Gracia. Very dry. A Sauvignon Blanc nationalist, if you will. That's a great joke. Sauvignon Blanc nationalist is a fucking great joke. I'm not saying he didn't laugh the right amount. It got what it deserved. A great joke doesn't need to get a great laugh in my theory. But then on Tuesday, Ingrazia backed out of his confirmation hearing, writing on social media, unfortunately, I do not have enough Republicans at this time. This in classic loser fashion after his mother went to Congress on his behalf. Yes, Ingrazia's mom went to Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia's office in person this summer to confront them after they expressed grave concerns about Ingracia's close association with anti Semitic extremists. But how can Ingracia be anti Semitic when his mother is, at the very least, spiritually Jewish? It's no wonder these guys seek hierarchies that grant status by default. It's why the Trump administration declares war on DEI while filling virtually every leadership position with a bunch of 40th percentile whites like Defense Secretary and guy who is fine to drive. Pete Hegseth, who, according to the conservative Washington Times, has lost the trust and respect of military leaders. But he's gained something even more valuable. Their contempt. The turning point was when Hegseth decided to summon hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to Quantico for an indulgent and pointless pep rally. Extremely insecure behavior in which he talked about appearance and facial hair. It's like that time in college where you drove four and a half hours to Bowdoin to see your boyfriend perform in his acapella group, Treble in Paradise, and then watching him sing, you immediately got the ick. Pentagon sources also describe chaos that's weakening the military. Said one officer, we are bleeding talent, talented generals and flag officers for what appears to be the opposite of a meritocracy bad for our national security. Great for our newest four star general, a gas station attendant who yelled you got this bro while Hegseth was throwing up next to you, but for some reason not in a trash can. Speaking of wanting to puke, let's talk about OMB director and guy who doesn't understand why this trolley situation is being described as a problem. Russ Vote what happens if Moby eats pork after midnight? Zetteo reported on Tuesday that during his 2024 campaign, Trump was obsessed with getting Vote laid after his recent divorce and bragged about all the pussy Vote would get with Trump as his wingman. I'm also sing, I'm also single boss. I gotta know what voice to do. I'm also single boss, said Paul in Gracia while checking to see if anybody left a little shrimp in those tails. Sometimes people turn them. They leave a lot of good meat in those shrimp, said Paul. Ingra said Paul Ingrazia. But it all makes sense. Vogt was one of the architects of Project 2025 and he's a smart guy, but that wouldn't be enough. He could only dismantle the government with this level of enthusiasm and vitriol with the power of divorced guy energy. After all, if you love one person, you love the whole world. If your marriage falls apart, you destroy usaid. Speaking of disgusting shit, over the weekend Trump posted an AI video in which he wears a crown, flies a fighter jet and dumps what sure looks like poop on Saturday's no King protests. You know, just like a king. Almost every point about this absurd video has been made, but I want to add one more this is content for losers. If you get off on watching an AI video of Trump literally dumping on liberals, your life is not a rich one, filled with friendships and bowling and shared apps. Nobody who gets spinach dip for the table found this funny. This is for people that order spinach dip to their home to eat alone. And yes, I do that. And in fact, it's because I have the soul of a loser and the lived experience of a loser that I feel I can speak on this. Remember earlier when I told what sounded like a true story about traveling to see my boyfriend's acapella group in college? I did not have a boyfriend. I had no one. No one from the acapella group would sleep with me. Paul, please. I'm very successful. Exactly what a fucking loser would say. The point is, I didn't understand until we experienced it just how much the dangers of fascism as a political enterprise mirror the worst qualities of the people who implement it. Domination and insularity and vengeance. A kind of guiltless, proud selfishness. It is a movement for the insecure, for people unable or unwilling to process their private hurts and shames and furies, for those whose talents didn't match their ambitions. And I'm not talking about voters. I'm talking about the functionaries and leaders and dedicants. It's a movement of losers. And yes, it calls upon those feelings and qualities in all of us and it spreads because we all have that in us and it can be fed. But while we are governed by losers, we are not a nation of losers. Not yet. Look at how many people turned out at no kings. Are some of us annoying and pedantic? Yes. Are some of our signs cringe? No, all of our signs are cringe. But what is cringe in defense of democracy if not someone who cares too much and wants too much for you to know how much they care? The price of liberty is eternal. Cringe. Sure, there's no equivalent on their side, they just don't have the guess their side couldn't hang a single puny Mike Pence. Just look at the issues they've had with ICE recruitment. Despite $75 billion in new funding, student loan forgiveness and a $50,000 signing bonus and advert blanketing the airwaves. According to the Atlantic, One third of ICE applicants can't pass the physical exam, which consists of 15 push ups, 32 sit ups and running one and a half miles in 14 minutes. And sure, in the game you can run so fast even while fully equipped, but to tackle someone for speaking Spanish outside of Home Depot, you'll need to use your actual arms and legs. And even though you wore an Under Armour T shirt to your niece's baptism, you haven't done cardio since fucking high school and you're going to have to chase people who have been doing manual labor outside for 20 years. There's an entire digital manosphere built around selling a conservative idea to masculinity back to conservative men. Meanwhile, any of these guys would lose a footrace to the average urban liberal who got up at 5am and hauled her ass to Pilates before a pre work networking coffee. Just as fascism mirrors the flaws in people, democracy calls upon their opposite. Collaboration over dominance, curiosity over inwardness, grace over revenge, seeing in the stranger a soul just like yours. And we fail at practicing these virtues even when we're reaching for them. But at our best, we marshal those qualities which are just as much a Part of us. There are far more bloodless and tactical ways to talk about politics right now, but these are ultimately the lines of battle. Losers on one side, underdogs on the other. Which brings me to Graham Platner. Platner is the progressive oyster farmer and veteran who's running for Senate in Maine in a primary against the sitting governor, Janet Mills. And he's been in a massive controversy over his old Reddit post and a tattoo he got while serving in the Marines. And I think it's fair to say that if you begin the week with an apology for minimizing sexual assault in the military and end the week with an apology for calling the British gay, and in between, do a shirtless interview to prove you've covered up your Nazi tattoo. It's not a great week for your campaign. In an interview with Tommy on Pont Save America, Plattner talked about why someone would post that kind of shit on the Internet in the first place.
