This Week in PurpleAmerica

The NABJ, Deadpool and Wolverine and The Atomic Bomb

This week, Donald Trump made an ass of himself in front of the National Association of Black Journalists. He accepted their invitation and then tried to back out. When he realized how bad that would look, he decided to go through with it and the whirpool of wackiness ensued. He attacked Rachel Scott for being rude in her questioning, he questioned Kamala Harris’s “blackness” and bluntly stated immigrants were taking black jobs. It was a roller coaster of extreme stupidity. The only conclusion one could come to after seeing this debacle was that in no way should this man be close to the Oval Office ever again. Period.

With the withdrawl of Joe Biden from the field, people are taking a second look at the candidates. Biden, slow when talking and showing his age and frailty, admitted he was no longer capable of running for office. Trump on the other hand, only a few years younger, went off on rants that sound like they come from your crazy uncle during Thanksgiving and seems oblivious to the fact that he no longer demonstrates the competency for the job either. Compared to Biden he was just another old guy, but compared to Harris, he’s a lying, imbecilic boob of a human being. Harris seems like a normal, intelligent, competent candidate that could have been plucked from central casting. Trump looks like a carnival barker in a suit.

But people are questioning “Why did he go before the NABJ to begin with?” Yes, he knew it would be a disaster. But he also wants people to start talking about race. His audience was not those in the room in Chicago, they were his bastions of MAGA weirdos, and an overanxious left ready and willing to pounce on every racial misstatement or falsehood. Once the left fixates on that topic, to the extent they are always capable of overcommitting to, he knows his odds go up, particularly in areas that Democrats need most. It’s a trap.

Democrats do NOT want to overplay that card. It turns swing voters off in a big way. Harris knows this. Jonathan V. Last perfectly described the paradigm this way:

To her credit, Kamala Harris handled it perfectly. She acknowledged he said it, called it weird and crazy, and moved on. That’s exactly what Democrats should do too. Harris handled it so well, I suspect she gained even more supporters to her freight train of a campaign. Hopefully, the press doesn’t hang onto the issue and push it back to the center stage. That would be a disservice. So long as they frame it as “Donald Trump is a crank” its fine, but America doesn’t need to go down the race rabbit hole again. The further Harris can deflect on race instead of dive right in, the better her chances of winning over the middle.

PurpleAmerica’s People of the Past Week

The Good

Simone Biles and Team USA Gymnastics. There’s a reason she’s the GOAT.

Paul Whelan. As a Russian prisoner for five years, longer than Evan Gerschkovich and even Brittney Griner, he was a quiet pawn in a global chess game between the US and Russia. Whereas they had fame and cachet, he had nothing, and endured. Welcome back Mr. Whelan.

The Bad

Netanyahu. He and Israel killed a top HAMAS official this past week in a strike in Iran. The man killed was a moderate involved in negotiating a cease fire. Now Iran is calling for a broader war and Netanyahu is signaling to bring it on. This is going to get worse before it gets better.

American Shooters at the Olympics. The United States has more guns in the world than any other country by far. It has more guns than it has people. So it was noted with some humor that it failed at winning a single medal in this week’s shooting competitions. I guess more doesn’t mean better; so much for the “we like guns for target practice” argument.

The Ugly

Donald Trump’s interview by Rachel Scott and the NABJ was so horrible, it sits in a category all by itself. Here’s a video of the entire exchange, which is one dumpster fire answer after another.

Have a nominee for us to consider? Send an email to purpleamericanunity@gmail.com!

PurpleAmerica Pop Culture Random Top Five

This week: The Top 5 Wolverine Movies

This week, Hugh Jackman opened Deadpool & Wolverine to a stunning $200 Million, making it the biggest opening of a Rated R movie ever, but also Jackman’s biggest opening ever as well. Jackman has now donned the claws in a total of NINE different movies. He’s done it for so long, its hard to picture anyone else in the role. Here is my list of the top five Wolverine films.

5. X-Men: Days of Future Past. The lynchpin between the past and the present, Jackman’s wolverine here is not sure of himself, but is an effective story arch, leading directly into…

4. X2: X Men United. Every superhero has an origin story and in this one we see how Wolverine got his adamantium skeleton and claws. It’s where he first really encapsulated the Wolverine character.

3. X-Men: First Class: He’s in this one for all of five seconds, with Michael Fassbender’s Magneto and James McAvoy’s Professor X walking into a bar to convince him to join them. He has one line: “Nope.” It’s said before they even say anything to him.

2. Deadpool & Wolverine. Watching these two snipe at each other and get into brawls is a hoot. But what makes it classic is how it completely mocks and pokes fun at the entire MCU.

1. Logan. Aside from a strong story and Jackman at his best, it shows the X-Men in decline, and what happens when they age out. Jackman has never been better. Superb storytelling.

PurpleAmerica’s Subscriber Mail

When we here at PurpleAmerica Respond to the Teeming Millions (well, we’re still working on that first million)

The only mail I received was generally positive feedback on every one of my posts this week. Man, I love the teeming millions of PurpleAmerica.

“Yes, MAGA and Trump ARE weird. It feels good to state the obvious.”

“Tim Walz for V.P. He was the only one who called a goose what it was…a gray duck.”¹

“Your pundit grades are right on the mark for most, but a few of them [insert eyeroll]. I mean Van Jones? Really? “

“Glad to see you give Sarah Longwell a much deserved A+”

“Scott Jennings is such a tool. He’s a flat out F. Everything else I kind of agreed with you on though.”

Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at purpleamericanunity@gmail.com

PurpleAmerica’s Historical Note from This Week

On August 2, 1939, Albert Einstein and Leo Szillard, two of the most eminent scientists of all time, wrote a letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt persuading him to start the Manhattan Project and to build a nuclear bomb.

Now, I don’t have to tell you how that turned out. If you’ve seen Oppenheimer, you already get the gist. But I want to talk about something else that occurred in history this week.

The head of the German bomb project was a man named Werner Heisenberg, who was also one of the brightest scientists in the world. One of the big unknowns during the war was Americans not knowing how close he was to making an Atomic Bomb. ² When Germany fell, he and the other members of the German bomb program were rounded up, detained and interrogated. On August 7, 1945, the U.S. captors brought Heisenberg and his scientific team into a room, and they heard a recorded radio message announcing the detonation of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. At first, the group thought it was just propaganda, and they were trying to use it to gain more knowledge about the German program. But when pictures first came back of the damage, their denial turned to disbelief and then outright horror as they realized not only had the Americans buit an Atomic Weapon, they had actually used it.

But ON ANOTHER NOTE, its also the birthday of MTV, that 24 hour music television channel that devolved into reality show crap. 43 years ago, the network first launched with Mark Goodman announcing the start. THe network soon turned into a cultural cornerstone for Gen X.

You can watch the first two hours of it here.

PurpleAmerica’s Dad/Uncle/Cheesy Joke of the Week

Do you know why you never see elephants hiding in trees? It’s because they are so good at it.

And with that…

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. I laughed hard at this one. For those not from Minnesota, they don’t play “Duck Duck Goose” here, it’s called “Duck Duck Gray Duck.”

2. It turns out, he was way off. He had made a series of errors that stymied his progress. Still, his hubris told him he was much further along than the Americans were.