Kurt Andersen

@kurtandersen.bsky.social

2724

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Co-creator Command Z (with Steven Soderbergh), author Evil Geniuses, Fantasyland, True Believers, Heyday, Turn of the Century, etc., previously host/co-creator Studio 360, columnist New Yorker, editor New York, co-founder Spy https://www.kurtandersen.com/

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I get and empathize with these scared guys’ reactions. And they’re cute. But they’re also sad and foolish. 🙉🙊🙈

Apart from SCOTUS immunity decision impacts on Trump’s prosecutions & a Trump presidency, aren’t real conservatives who know there will indeed be future Democratic POTUSes (i.e. aren’t counting on an end to free elections) concerned about the prospect of an immune leftist POTUS?

Agree with Ezra Klein about taking the risks of nominating someone else, and the upside opportunities for excitement & attention. On the optimal openness of the nomination process: 🤷‍♂️. And I have yet to see a Stick With Biden essay remotely as strong. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2024/07/07/o...

Opinion | Jim Clyburn Is Right About What Democrats Should Do Nextwww.nytimes.com To find a new nominee, Democrats need to hold a real contest.

Great! Although he's still (closely) behind in 6 of these 8 states and much further behind than he was before in a very important 7th, Pennsylvania. Because even though I think it'd be better to nominate somebody else, if it's Biden I'll be rooting like crazy for him (and all Democrats) to win.

Biden trails Trump by just 2 points across key states, a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult shows, even as three in 10 Democrats say he should leave the race trib.al/GlWZVox

Excellent President Biden = King Lear parallel by Maureen Dowd today. And it made me think: the ultimate tragic ending would be if Biden's vanity and blindness result in our own Richard III--corrupt, sadistic, deformed, evil Donald Trump--succeeding him. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2024/07/06/o...

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Blind Spotwww.nytimes.com The president just doesn’t see that it’s time to take the win.

Wow! I didn’t dare let myself believe this might actually happen. Just amazing. And he won 55% to 45%! www.nytimes.com/2024/07/05/w...

Reformist Candidate Wins Iran’s Presidential Electionwww.nytimes.com Masoud Pezeshkian defeated an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, in a runoff.

If you believe the best chance of beating Trump (& maximizing down-ballot wins) is Biden, okay, there are reasonable arguments for that belief. But if you’re also now complaining Stephanopoulos was unfair, you are (as Colbert put it) accusing reality of having a political bias.

Six ⁦‪@nytopinion‬⁩ columnists were asked to make pitches for who’d make the best Democratic nominee. One of them, conservative ⁦‪Ross Douthat‬⁩, proposes former Democrat Joe Machin. What a dumb and disrespectful fuck-you to his editors’ premise. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/o...

Opinion | Who Should Lead the Democratic Ticket? Six Columnists Weigh In.www.nytimes.com Gretchen Whitmer, Kamala Harris, President Biden — who is best positioned to beat Donald Trump in November?

Next Parliament membership per exit polls: LEFT Labour 63% center-left Liberal Democrats 9% RIGHT Conservative 20% far-right Reform UK 2% Heartening to see. And ironic: day we celebrate breaking away from them, and 3 days after SCOTUS decides presidents may act like kings.

Is there a new movie in theaters right now, Hollywood or indy/foreign, that one should see in a theater and I might like a lot? (Inside Out an obv candidate.)

Just saw the new production of Cabaret on Broadway. After, read the NY Times review that I knew had been a vicious pan. I’d also (surprisingly?) never seen any production of Cabaret, stage or screen. I thought it was great. Lesson: coming to a famous cultural work with few expectations is a treat.

Just discovered that rock stars who die young do so at age 27. And during the warmest 6 months of the year, mostly on the 3rd, 4th or 5th of the month. Brian Jones 7/3/69, Janis 10/4/70, Jimi 9/18/70, Jim Morrison 7/3/71, Kurt Cobain 4/5/94 and Amy Winehouse 7/23/11.

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Kurt Andersen

Under today’s immunity decision, Biden could order AG Garland to immediately prosecute Thomas and Alito for corruption and insurrection. (Official act). If Garland refuses, Biden can fire him and replace him with someone who will. (Official act) I would suggest Elie Mystal.

If the ex-POTUS & de facto nominee asking SCOTUS to give him immunity from criminal prosecution had been a Democrat, with facts identical to those in Trump v. U.S., would their decision be very different, much much more restrictive & sane? I think so. And probably unanimous, 9-0.

As someone who talked up Al Franken in 2017 as the perfect Democratic nominee to run against Trump in 2020, I very much enjoyed this piece by my friend and former colleague Nell Scovell. www.thedailybeast.com/no-joke-why-...

No Joke: Why Al Franken Should Replace Joe Bidenwww.thedailybeast.com As calls for Biden to exit the race grow, who could take his place on the Democratic ticket? A Minnesota man may be the antidote to Florida Man.

Smart young guy I like a lot who fixes things in our building and fills in as a doorman said this morning he watched the first 10 minutes of the debate but had to turn it off because he found it so depressing. I.e. it ain’t just the punditocracy & bedwetting Democratic elite.

A half century later, thanks to a Republican-appointed majority, the Supreme Court rules that Republican-president-pardoned Republican president Richard Nixon was right after all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Yu...

Nixon - "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal" #uspolitics #history #potuswww.youtube.com YouTube video by This is the President

GOP co-chair & Trump daughter-in-law: "If they remove Joe Biden from the ticket and do not have Kamala Harris as their nominee, and try to plug someone else in...I can’t think of a bigger assault to our democratic process." The Trump and Biden families find common ground. x.com/thehill/stat...

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People committed to defeating Trump & his GOP: yes, debate the uncertain & imperfect means, listen, hear & weigh the arguments, accept the outcome, then work to win. DON’T waste time & energy slagging allies in the fight who you consider tactically mistaken as bad-faith enemies.

I respect anyone who believes in good faith the best chance to beat Trump is nominating Biden. But such silly false equivalence to complain about anti-Trump commentators (eg @nytopinion) not now calling for Trump to step aside. Earnest plea with possible impact vs symbolic whistling in the wind.

Dispatch from Fantasyland, a Trump rally in Virginia with his supporters who think real life works like fiction: Biden’s debate performance and resulting talk of picking a new nominee was just the playing out of the Democratic puppetmasters’ plan. Perfect. www.nytimes.com/2024/06/29/u...

People ignorant of political tactics and strategy confidently asserting authoritative opinions and predictions about political tactics and strategy is such an annoying feature of social media. All the moreso when they’re not entirely stupid people and/or have biggish followings.

Good clear persuasive call by Biden’s old friend and ally and NY Times columnist Tom Friedman for him to step aside and let one of the many strong alternative Democrats be nominated and run and win. Gift link. www.nytimes.com/2024/06/28/o...

Opinion | Joe Biden Is a Good Man and a Good President. He Must Bow Out of the Race.www.nytimes.com Donald Trump is too grave a threat to America. Democrats need a nominee who can unite the country and articulate a compelling vision for it.

Well, at least all the public candor from our side about Biden’s performance tonight proves we’re not a cult.

In this conversation published today in the New York Times, alas, Olivia Newsom nailed it. www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/o...

All the ways our media-sphere bends around the black hole of Trump. Here are serious NYTimes columnists, Bret Stephens & Michele Goldberg, explaining to columnist Frank Bruni why J.D. Vance & Tom Cotton are too homely and Elise Stefanik too fat to be his running mate. www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/o...

What an interesting majority and minority—Brown Jackson plus 4 of the 6 conservatives vs Roberts & Kavanaugh plus the 2 other liberals dissenting. www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/u...

Supreme Court Rejects Liability Shield at Center of Purdue Pharma Settlementwww.nytimes.com The liability shield would have protected members of the Sackler family from civil claims related to the opioid epidemic.

I know Saud is the family name. But if they wanted to rebrand properly, simultaneously modernizing and retro-romanticizing their image to attract tourists and global partners while also declaring themselves the regional hegemon, they’d drop the Saudi, and just call it Arabia™️.

Bowman loses Dem primary in NY district Biden won by 51% in 2020. Sure to lose her old Trump +6 district, Boebert switches to Colorado’s most right-wing district that Trump won by 16% and wins GOP primary. Big-tent national governing party vs doomed freak-dominated cult party.

This headline made me think I was going to seriously disagree with the piece. But I didn’t, because it really isn’t the case the nuanced and complex column makes. Another unfortunate case of Clickbait Syndrome. www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/o...