Greg Olear

@gregolear.bsky.social

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Lapsed novelist, #RoughBeast author, PREVAIL columnist & podcaster, co-host of The Five 8, enjoyer of Friday Manhattans.

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"A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." —Declaration of Independence

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Americans are too busy rushing forward to look in the rear view mirror. Russia plays the long game. If you’re 18 years old and casting your vote for the first time, the carrot colored clown has been painting the town red with the Russians for twice as long as you’ve been alive.

Congratulations to Donald Trump, who became a Kremlin property on the Fourth of July 1987, when he took his first trip to Moscow. Here's to 37 years of Russian ownership, Donald!

I always look forward to Friday nights, because I enjoy The Five 8 so much, but THIS Friday night I'm especially looking forward to. Great guest & lots to discuss. Please do join us tomorrow! 🍸🥃🎱 www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdWD...

97: King Me!www.youtube.com Stephanie Koff and Greg Olear, LIVE, on Friday night!

Congratulations to Donald Trump, who became a Kremlin property on the Fourth of July 1987, when he took his first trip to Moscow. Here's to 37 years of Russian ownership, Donald!

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JFK: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. RFK: Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. RFK Jr.:

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Um. From May.

Speaker Mike Johnson urges Supreme Court to "step in" on Trump verdictwww.axios.com Johnson said of the justices: "I know many of them personally – I think they are deeply concerned about that as we are."

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I kinda feel like now that the Supreme Court has declared it legal for a president to straight-up murder people they don't like, it's probably even more important to not elect people who seem extremely inclined to murder people they don't like

At long last, I'm pleased to report that the #RoughBeast audiobook, narrated by Yours Truly, is now available! It will be on Amazon & iTunes in a few days. For now, it's on Audible: www.audible.com/pd/Rough-Bea...

Rough Beastwww.audible.com Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Who is the real Donald Trump? A serial liar with long ties to both organized crime and the Kremlin. A corrupt demagogue whom most historians consider the wo...

For all of Alito’s and Thomas’s bluster about “originalism,” where they ask WWJD (where “J” stands for “Jefferson”), the one thing we Americans—even little kids, ffs!—know for sure about the Founders is that they did NOT want another king. gregolear.substack.com/p/kingmakers...

Kingmakers: The Immunocompromised Supreme Courtgregolear.substack.com Coke Can Clarence, Strip Search Sammy, and the four other Leonard Leo justices are doing their level best to end American democracy.

Well, Trump has recently demonstrated Chapter 1 (he's a liar) and Chapter 2 (he's a crook) of #RoughBeast. If you want to know what he would do in a second term with his newfound kingly powers, I direct you to Chapters 5-7. www.amazon.com/dp/B0D47CMX17

Rough Beast: Who Donald Trump Really Is, What He’ll Do if Re-Elected, and Why Democracy Must Prevail: Olear, Greg: 9798218435196: Amazon.com: Bookswww.amazon.com Rough Beast: Who Donald Trump Really Is, What He’ll Do if Re-Elected, and Why Democracy Must Prevail [Olear, Greg] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Rough Beast: Who Donald Trump Really Is, What He’ll Do if Re-Elected, and Why Democracy Must Prevail

Insurrection by definition cannot be an official act.

"That I did not become that person is a minor miracle & required a self-awareness I didn't realize I possessed, as well as no small amount of dumb luck. This isn’t me bragging that I made the right choices. This is me being pleasantly astonished that I did." gregolear.substack.com/p/sunday-pag...

Sunday Pages: "This Is Water"gregolear.substack.com A commencement speech by David Foster Wallace

This:

I once worked with an activist who was a great coder who described the essence of Trumpism as a DDOS attack on American politics and governance. I think about that a lot.

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God Bless Paul Davies and the @PhillyInquirer: "The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump...There was only one person at the debate who does not deserve to be running for president. The sooner Trump exits the stage, the better off the country will be."

To serve his country, Donald Trump should leave the race | Editorial Boardwww.inquirer.com Biden had a horrible night Thursday. But the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.

The Chevron ruling is going to hasten the demise of the country and the planet. But on the plus side, I got Wordle in two!

1/ Why the Dem freakout after the debate? We are all traumatized by 2016, and the debate triggered our collective trauma. "No! Not again!" Hence the panic.

We were so fortunate to have the brilliant Dahlia Lithwick on the show, on the day that SCOTUS overturned the Chevron precedent. She is very good at explaining why this is very bad. www.youtube.com/live/ZukPIY9...

96: Debating, Debasing (with Dahlia Lithwick)www.youtube.com Stephanie Koff and Greg Olear return from hiatus, just in time for the debate!Dahlia Lithwick is Slate's senior editor and the author of LADY JUSTICE.

Less than half an hour until showtime: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZukP...

96: Debating, Debasingwww.youtube.com YouTube video by The Five 8

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Lot's of people discovered the Gish Gallop after @hcrichardson.bsky.social mentioned it in today's column. Here's Mehdi Hassan describing it. www.c-span.org/video/?c5081...

User Clip: Medhi Hasan describes the Gish Gallopwww.c-span.org Medhi Hasan describes the Gish Gallop

My thoughts on last night's debacle. #DebateNight "At one point, Trump *blamed the insurrection on Nancy Pelosi*, which, I mean, if Tapper and Bash don’t correct the record on THAT, why are we even here?"

Debating, Debasing: Notes on the CNN Shitshowgregolear.substack.com That was no debate for old men.

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I’ve been saying for like nine years that the only questions Trump should be asked are like “what does NATO stand for” and “what is Medicaid” just let him drown in the shallowest imaginable water

BIDEN: (stumbles through smart, thoughtful answer) TRUMP: LIE LIE LIE LIE LIE LIE LIE LIE MODERATORS: Next question.

We missed you! The return of The Five 8 from our short hiatus happens to fall on the day after the first, and hopefully only, presidential debate. We will discuss this and four other choice topics, LIVE on Friday night! 🍸🥃🎱

96: Debating, Debasingwww.youtube.com YouTube video by The Five 8

“Hold Me Now” is one of the best songs of the 80s, and that bass fill in the third verse gets me every time.

"There are lots of pros to being a dictator, no doubt—as Mel Brooks said, 'It’s good to be the king!'—but there are some cons, too: not least the fact that strongmen are constantly worried that someone will go Macbeth on them." gregolear.substack.com/p/et-tu-vp

Et Tu, VP?gregolear.substack.com When absolute power is just a heartbeat away, Donald Trump must take great care in selecting his running mate.

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Julian Assange is going to buy a Cybertruck, isn't he

No words.

What in the ever-loving fuck… www.rawstory.com/trump-attack...

Soviet Russia, for him, was an “uncircus of noncreatures.” Later, Cummings described it as a “subhuman communist superstate, where men are shadows & women are nonmen; the preindividual marxist unworld,” where unworld is both a truncation of underworld and the opposite, or the absence, of world.

Sunday Pages: "my sweet old etcetera"gregolear.substack.com A poem by E.E. Cummings

The replies to this are amazing:

name the band

"The price the rest of us pay for Clarence living high on the Harlan hog is more gun carnage, more government-mandated births, and more women dying from lack of medical care. He is, for all intents and purposes, jeopardizing 333 million American lives to make money he doesn’t need."

Clarence Thomas, the Gordon Gekko of the Supreme Courtgregolear.substack.com How much is enough? And at what cost to the country?