In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

Ever since my colleague Phil began piping up with the question, "What problem are we trying to solve?" in staff meetings at a very stodgy company 30 years ago, this has been one of my favorite analytical tools. I'm sorry to say this never helped Phil's career, though. Indeed, if I were still attending staff meetings, I'd probably have the good sense not to ask it myself. But it's still a useful question. Let's apply it to Dylan Mulvaney, whose latest endorsement is with Nike: Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney has secured another major partnership deal, days after Bud Light was criticized for partnering with her. Mulvaney, an actor and comedian who has been documenting her transition across social media, is now a sports bra model for Nike. It comes after Bud Light partnered with Mulvaney for her Day 365 Of Girlhood video series. The beer brand was met with scorn and calls for a boycott from furious social media users. Actually, there might be some...

I noted yesterday that Alissa Heinerscheid comes from a wealthy family, but it's worth pointing out that, at least back in the day, wealthy people used to hire public relations firms to keep them out of the news, not in it. If Elon Musk is any indication, that's no longer the case, and it's certainly not the case with Ms Heinerscheid. I linked yesterday to a story about her in her pre-Bud Light days that ran in the New Yorker in 2021 , which was likely placed by either a publicist or by Ms Heiderscheid herself. At the top of her LinkedIn profile is a plug for that piece, with this comment: Childhood dream of being featured in the New Yorker achieved. Thank you Lizzie Widdicombe! I've got to say that there must be something wrong with me, as my own childhood dreams were more like being a cowboy or a firefighter. If I'd had childhood dreams of being featured in the New Yorker, maybe things would have turned out differently for me. But whether she placed hersel...

One of the few news stories to hold its own against the Trump indictment over the last several days has been Bud Light's advertising endorsement of TikTok trans entertainer Dylan Mulvaney : The trans activist revealed Saturday that the beer company sent packs of Bud Light featuring the influencer’s face as a way to celebrate a full year of "girlhood" that Mulvaney recently reached. Mulvaney said the cans were her "most prized possession" on Instagram with a post featuring "#budlightpartner." A video then featured Mulvaney in a bathtub drinking a Bud Light beer as part of the campaign. This story supports two of the points I've been making lately, first, that the traditional Ivy League upper class has allied itself with the special-pleading sexual fringe (as well as the urban petty criminal class, but that's a separate subject), and second, that transsexualism is so outside natural law that almost nobody actually wants to have sex with a t...

In 2021, I thought Bill Clinton was a pretty good Br'er Rabbit . How wrong I could be. Among yesterday's headlines was, Trump’s Legal “Super Tuesday”: The Trump Arrest Will Start One Of The Most Bizarre Presidential Elections In History. Prof Turley's implication in that piece is that Trump has got the 2024 primary process wrapped up a full year ahead of time, and of course, this is courtesy of his enemies, or more accurately, an unreliable and out-of-control faction of his enemies, the Lumpenproletariat represented by leniency-for-criminals District Attorney Bragg. The New York political establishment is belatedly waking up to what it's done. Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan rejected pleas for extended coverage by multiple media outlets — including the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post — ahead of Trump’s first court appearance after they declared “this indictment involves a matter of monumental signific...

Yesterday, Mr Barr continued to speak on interview shows on Trump's legal issues. On Fox News, he said, In a Sunday interview with Fox News' Shannon Bream, Barr was asked whether Trump would personally defend himself in court if his indictment went to trial. "I'm not his lawyer, generally I think it's a bad idea to go on the stand," Barr replied. "And I think it's a particularly bad idea for Trump because he lacks all self-control, and it would be very difficult to prepare him and keep him testifying in a prudent fashion." Here I think Barr is seriously missing the point. Trump has a public persona to be sure, and part of it is his irrepressible naughty-boy image. But it's a persona, and it's part of his appeal to a broad swath of the public. Take the famous example of the Access Hollywood tape , which culminated in remarks he made about Arianne Zucker, whom he and Billy Bush were waiting to meet in a 2005 studio visit: I better us...

Willaim Barr, a never-Trumper who was Trump's second attorney general, has become the most visible proponent of the eight-dimensional chess interpretation of the Alvin Bragg Trump indictment : “Politically, it’s gonna be damaging, I think, to the Republican Party simply because I think it’s a no-lose situation for the Democrats,” Barr continued. “I think the impetus is really to help Trump get the nomination, focus the attention on him for two years, have this thing swirling around, plus whatever else comes, which I think will be damaging to whoever gets the nomination.” In other words, whatever prospers Trump hurts the Republicans, and this is prospering Trump (darn it!). My overall view continues to be that at this stage in 2015, Jeb Bush was the consensus favorite for the Republican nomination, while Hillary was likely to win the general. But the whole story of 2015 was that the elite consensus never factored Donald Trump into the equation, and as best I can tell from c...

I mentioned briefly in yesterday's post the contradiction that emerged in the US Left after the first phase of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. The general abolitionist argument dating from the 18th century was that Africans are fully human and can't, unlike animals, be treated as property. Lincoln's very similar arguments against slavery were always natural-law arguments concerning human rights : That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn ...