I was going to debrief you guys on Trump’s appearance — you can’t really call it a speech — before the Detroit Economic Club last week, but my week was back-loaded and I ran out of time. It was…well, it was fucking weird.
First, a little background: This was Trump’s second appearance before the DEC, which is a business group full of the city’s machers and machers-in-waiting. Another city equivalent might be the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco; I think New York has a similar group. They meet weekly or biweekly, and have speakers on serious subjects of interest to the business community, like tax or foreign policy, or topics of local interest, like the various sports teams, but almost always with a focus on the business impact of whatever the subject is.
One thing the club is very proud of is, they’ve been addressed by all U.S. presidents going back to…can’t remember. Decades. Usually these people come through when they’re still candidates, but they come through. They don’t pay honoraria; speakers come because it’s an honor to be invited to address the C-suiters of the auto companies and other industries based in southeast Michigan.
Trump first came through as a candidate, in 2016. It didn’t go well. A lot of people bought tickets with the intent to disrupt, and the first one — a woman who leapt to her feet and started screaming at him about something — came about 10 minutes in. I was there, and counted about 20 or so more, one of the yellers none other than not-yet-a-congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. Security guards frog-marched each one out of the hall.
But Trump gave a speech, a prepared speech with a prompter. You can read it here. It’s full of empty promises, but it’s coherent.
Eight years later, he was invited back, most likely because of the influence of John Rakolta, a top-tier macher who served as ambassador to the U.A.E. during Trump’s term. He’s nearly the same age, and built a huge construction company here, Walbridge. Rich as Croesus, as you can imagine. Pop-culture fans may recall his wife, Terry, who was nationally famous in the ’90s when she led a boycott of “Married…With Children.” Bill O’Reilly had her on his show a lot.
(I know all this because I was hired to write a book for some anniversary of its founding, a custom-publishing job. I remember seeing Terry at the launch party and wondering why she looked so familiar. She still wears her hair the same way. She also appears to have an Instagram that reveals a fuckton of plastic surgery, but she looks damn good for 80.)
Anyway, Trump showed up last week, and it was very different. He didn’t speak as Candidate Trump, but Caesar Trump, rally-style. He walked the short distance to the podium and just stood there, while his walk-on music, Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” naturally, played to its first chorus. It looked like this:
If his bronzer gets any darker he’s going to have to deport himself.pic.twitter.com/NhTtX2JqX9
— Scottacular (@Scottcrates) October 11, 2024
The Twitter account I found this on quipped: “If his bronzer gets any darker, he’s going to have to deport himself.”
There was no prepared speech, and no disruptions. (I imagine the security was about 10X tougher this time.) He just stood there and rambled, rally-style, for TWO HOURS, Fidel Castro-meets-late-life-Elvis. The headline was that he said if Kamala Harris is elected, the whole country will look like Detroit. I don’t know what the reaction was to this; I’m told it was “muted,” as we say in Journalese. Given how hard many in the room have worked to achieve the city’s recent triumphs — new buildings, the NFL Draft, etc. — I would certainly hope so. But in my opinion, the headline should have been: Mush-brain candidate for nation’s top office rambles for two goddamn hours, but no one asked me.
Incredibly, this display was followed by an onstage conversation with his buddy Rakolta, and that was even weirder. I wouldn’t expect the ex-ambassador to question him sharply, but the rapturous brown-nosing was something of a surprise. There were many serious-but-respectful questions he could have asked, like maybe about the proposal Trump floated, to make auto-loan insurance tax-deductible; what would that cost the national treasury? Or maybe the construction tycoon could ask how we can build housing after we’ve mass-deported a large chunk of the construction workforce. But he didn’t. The opener was something like, “You have so much energy. How do you do it?” followed by an even grosser one about the impressive, successful Trump children, and how did he manage this feat? I mean, Tiger Beat magazine was tougher on Justin Bieber.
Incredible — here’s the full footage of Trump getting a question about his parenting style at the Detroit Economic Club, then going on a nearly 8 minute rant that culminates in him calling for drug dealers to be put to death. His brain just flits around. pic.twitter.com/Ry3WjAtEfU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 10, 2024
Bah. Enough. The whole event sounded terrible. But Harris got an ad out of it:
Detroit is a city of resilience and hard work.
Donald Trump knows nothing about that.
Watch our new ad: pic.twitter.com/OGILiahTDe
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 11, 2024
The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating a friend’s birthday. The day was in August, but the gift was Friday. For a couple years now, we’ve been experimenting with the premise that the best yacht rock is found on any streaming channel’s Little River Band Radio setting. (For non-streamers, the “radio” allows the algorithm to put together a playlist that features that artist, plus similar ones.) So when I saw the LRB was coming through town, I bought her two tickets, and she graciously selected me as her plus-one. I booked a room downtown and we made a girls’ outing of it.
The show was everything I expected, which is to say, a reconstituted LRB that contains not even one original member, plus none of the replacements are even Australian, as the originals were. But we got a fairly tight set that didn’t go on too long (about an hour and 20), and because the crowd were boomers, hardly any standing. And boy, does the LRB have a dedicated fan base; when I bought the tickets last summer, there were few good ones left. But we did OK:
The guy in front of me was a superfan, and threw up those hook-em-horns hands the whole time:
On Saturday we ate at a spectacular little patisserie, and then wandered the neighborhood. This is in the parking lot of one of those new-style restaurants made for Instagram:
We did not eat there. Our friend who lives in the neighborhood said the dinner-hour valet line is “all Cybertrucks with young women contorting themselves on the hood to take selfies.” Sounds like a place I’d be allergic to, but just as an aside to Donald Trump, not so many years ago this was a grocery with a drug marketplace in the parking lot. So hey — if that’s the way the country is headed, what’s so terrible about that?
Have a great week, all.
Jeff Gill said on October 13, 2024 at 3:18 pm
Heard “Little River Band” in person at Purdue in 1979 (January? Maybe Feb.?) and it was a really good live performance. Sheesh, 45 years ago? I need to stop doing math.
“That’s the way it began, we were hand in hand,
Glenn Miller’s Band was better than before;
We yelled and screamed for more —
And the Porter tunes (Night and Day)
Made us dance across the room
It ended all too soon…”
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brian stouder said on October 13, 2024 at 4:01 pm
Well, that blue sky in the background underscores the ‘MAD NICE day’ theme beautifully!
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alex said on October 13, 2024 at 5:05 pm
Today just outside of Bucyrus, Ohio, I saw my first-ever F*CK TRUMP sign, professionally made and gracefully written with that asterisk. It appeared alongside Harris/Walz and Sherrod Brown and Yes on Issue 1 (an independent redistricting panel to replace the current partisan system).
I thought the political ads here in Indiana were bad, but Ohio’s got some of the meanest and bluntly dishonest Republican ads I’ve ever seen in any political campaign. At least that state allows referenda so the GOP supermajority in the state legislature can be overridden. Not so here in Indiana where a Dem vote counts for nothing outside of municipal elections.
Jeff Gill, my first memory of “Reminiscing” was an autumn evening with an enchantingly golden sky over my neighborhood in 1978 and that’s what comes to mind every time I hear that song. I think that’s now longer ago than Glenn Miller and Cole Porter were then. The Little River Band was waxing nostalgic for the ’40s in the ’70s and here we are reminiscing about the 1970s in the 2020s. God we’re fucking old.
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Mark P said on October 13, 2024 at 6:22 pm
When I give my birth date at the pharmacy, I always say ”5, 18, 1950” rather than “5, 18, so 50” to avoid confusion with 1850.
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Dorothy said on October 13, 2024 at 6:31 pm
Jeff two weeks from today is my 45th wedding anniversary so yes, 1979 WAS 45 years ago!
We drove to a deli in Clintonville (Columbus) yesterday after dropping something off at a fellow quilter’s house. One block we drove down had 15 houses that had yard signs for Harris/Walz and we were delighted! I’m trying to remain positive about this election but I’m getting jittery, a little over three weeks out. My eczema is acting up – it’s been non existent since I retired almost three years ago. But I’m pretty sure this red itchy skin is due to stress and worry. I had to get out of bed around 2:00 am to apply some prescription steroid ointment. Never had to do that before. Hope it settles down soon. (I thought it was the naproxen I was on causing this itch. But I haven’t had any of that medicine since 8 days ago)
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Julie Robinson said on October 13, 2024 at 8:05 pm
“It ended all too soon.” I have a vivid memory of waking up to that song playing on my clock radio in the fall of 1978. I was renting a room in a house off-campus, a room I had to leave because my landlady was practically deaf and blared the TV all night long. I can picture the room, the flowing curtains, and most especially my sheets. I had found them in the bargain basement of the downtown Field’s. They were printed with the Picasso peace dove, were soft, and sturdy enough that I had them until a couple years ago. How ’bout that for Reminiscing?
We packed up the hurricane kit* and have a huge Costco list for tomorrow. Talking with folks at church this morning, apparently the generator people bought out all the gas in town. Two different people have friends in North Carolina who still don’t have water and don’t even have an estimate of when they will.
*Packed up, but did not put away.
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Jim said on October 14, 2024 at 4:14 am
EVERYTHING about Orange Sludge is fucking weird .
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Suzanne said on October 14, 2024 at 6:53 am
And then there is this. Armed militias “hunting” FEMA workers in N Carolina. We truly live in a country of sick people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/10/13/federal-officials-nc-temporarily-relocated-amid-report-armed-militia-email-shows/
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Jeff Gill said on October 14, 2024 at 6:57 am
Old we are, Alex, but it’s better than the alternative.
I’m working these days with almost all women, one guy, and of the seven there’s one not voting for Trump. We speak in hushed tones when we talk about the election, but it’s two out of the eight in our office. This county went 73% Trump last time, and I suspect it will exceed that Nov. 5; my village & township make up the six precincts that didn’t go for him out of our 150 some countywide, and is legendarily liberal (small college town, etc.) but even at that the margin is more 60% Hillary or Biden against a solid 38-40% Trump, so it’s still a point of tension in this community.
Police and police spouses around me are solidly Trump. “He’s better for the country” is the standard refrain, and neither reason nor anecdote will sway them.
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Dave said on October 14, 2024 at 9:28 am
Jeff Gill, I cannot understand how anyone would think he is better for the country, Russia, maybe. Doesn’t January 6 upset them? Doesn’t all his vile insults upset them. Don’t any of them have any family members who are disabled who would get upset by his remarks regarding same? Trump supporters tend to ignore all of that and think he is some sort of tough guy when he’s all mouth and bluster. I don’t get it, I’ll never get it. Nuts, and I fear for the future.
Mark P, I was surprised to learn that you’re only one month and nine days younger than I am, somehow I thought you were younger.
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Jeff Borden said on October 14, 2024 at 12:56 pm
Did you see what tRump did to his sheep after his hatefest in Coachella? It was held at a remote ranch owned by one of his cultists. Attendees had to park in three designated lots and take shuttle busses about fives miles. No walkups or ride shares were allowed. After bloviating for a couple of hours, tRump left. Well, the shuttle busses never showed up, stranding thousands in the cold desert night including many seniors. Now, this campaign is famous for stiffing municipalities and vendors, so it’s likely Lumpy didn’t pay for the return trip, but the MAGAts knew who was at fault. The mayor of Coachella ! These people…
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Jakash said on October 14, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Julie,
Sorry about your power going out, and the plague of neighbors’ generators, but glad you made it through relatively unscathed.
Just a brief note about Costco. We went there a week ago Friday and then again on Wednesday. Both times they were completely out of TP. In Chicago, where the weather has been beautiful. The hoarding was supposedly due to the dockworkers’ strike, which had been suspended the day before our first visit. I asked a worker and he said they needed to get some shipped in from Canada. USA! USA!
Meanwhile, we left Costco, went to the Jewel less than a mile away and their TP section was completely stocked like it was a regular day. Which it was.
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Jeff Borden said on October 14, 2024 at 4:10 pm
There’s new reporting today that the tRump rally bus service didn’t return to ferry his worshippers back to their cars because Lumpy hadn’t paid them. This should surprise no one. The campaign owes more than $750,000 to the municipalities where Lumpy has previously touched down. Like Leona Helmsley, tRump isn’t one of “the little people” who must pay their bills.
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alex said on October 14, 2024 at 4:30 pm
My hubby and I have already voted (straight D) and we’ve donated more money this year to Dem candidates than we ever have before, yet I still wake up every night in a sweat with feelings of foreboding.
I’m out of insulin at the moment and thanks to a bureaucratic SNAFU I’m waiting for a prior auth from my ACA health plan that could take up to 48 hours to process. As I may have mentioned here before, my former employer inadvertently re-enrolled me in its group plan without my knowledge and the pharmacy had been getting reimbursement from that plan and not from the new ACA plan which became effective on March 1. So now I’ll get to experience what it’s like to live with untreated diabetes for a few days. And I’m still waiting to see if there’s going to be any other fallout from that fuck-up.
First World problems, I know…
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David C said on October 14, 2024 at 4:42 pm
Goddamn I’m sick of insurance. Well, not insurance as such, just our fucked-up insurance. Alex can’t get insulin, my wife can’t get an appointment to see a neurologist for five months. I’m trying to figure out if it would be better to get her on Medicare instead of my company insurance, but I have no idea how much it costs to treat Parkinson’s. We have a high deductible plan at work, so it may be better to go with Medicare and a supplement but who knows. I have three weeks to figure it out and I have no clue where to start.
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Mark P said on October 14, 2024 at 4:48 pm
Dave — 1950 seems like the Middle Ages to me.
My wife’s doctor told us she has 4000 patients. Is that normal?
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Sherri said on October 14, 2024 at 5:52 pm
For a primary care doctor, no 4000 isn’t normal, 2000 is closer to normal, and is still too high for good care without burning out the doctor. The average primary care doctor is working 50 hours a week, from the studies I’ve read (I’ve been wondering about this topic for a while, ever since I had so much trouble getting in to see a doctor last fall when I had pneumonia.)
Most of the studies I’ve found were pre-pandemic, though, so what the pandemic did to our health care system hasn’t been published yet.
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Julie Robinson said on October 14, 2024 at 5:58 pm
Alex, going without insulin is very much not a first world problem, it’s a BIG problem. I’d advise suing your former employer, except I know they’re lawyers. Can you get a message through to your doctor’s office? They should have some better solution than just going without. I hate insurance companies!
David C, your state should have a SHIP program, which offers unbiased evaluation of Medicare supplements and drug plans. If you can’t do an in-person appointment they can probably help over the phone.
My mom was supposed to have an doctor’s appointment last Wednesday, which the office cancelled because of the hurricane. The next available time was February, so she’s seeing a different doc tomorrow. I guess if you actually get sick they just send you to the ER?
We also were supposed to have blood draws that same day; rescheduled because the lab sent a text they would be closed the original day, without explanation. I’ve just rescheduled the reschedule, this time to Nov. 12. We were supposed to get it done in August.
So all this screwing up in the medical system, and you think they can get toilet paper distribution right?
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susan said on October 14, 2024 at 6:16 pm
David C @15. Do you know if your state has an organization such as “SHIBA” — Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors— or whatever it might be called in your area. In Washington State, SHIBA operates through the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner. It is manned by trained volunteers, to help people pick their way through the tangle of Medicare coverage options. They were extremely helpful when I signed up for Medicare. I think most states have something like that, might be called “SHIP” — State Health Insurance Assistance Program
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Deborah said on October 14, 2024 at 6:25 pm
Saying hi to you all from Acadia, Maine. We’re staying where they call the quiet side of Acadia National Park is. It’s incredibly beautiful, the trees must be at peak. Crazy gorgeous. It was rainy all day today so we did our laundry at a laundromat and spent time driving around trying to find a fresh fish market where we could make our evening meal in the cottage we’re staying in. There are millions of lobster restaurants around but so far we haven’t found a fish market where you can buy stuff fresh off the boat. We did that back a few years ago when we stayed in Barnstable on the Cape.
Tomorrow we will hike in the park, weather permitting. It’s chilly here, “feels like” in the upper 30s in the mornings. We will be here a few days, then we spend a couple of days in Portland, ME in another cottage.
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David C said on October 14, 2024 at 7:43 pm
I forgot about SHIP. I hope I don’t throw too many monkey wrenches at them. I have three plans available from work, Wisconsin doesn’t do Medicare supplements like any other state. There’s no type G or N like the rest of the country. There are similar plans but they don’t transfer well. That’s a problem because we’ll be moving back to Michigan next year. There are Advantage plans which I’m pretty sure we’re going to avoid because the providers can and do jump out at the drop of a hat and continuity of care seems really important for someone with a chronic condition. I’ll call SHIP in the morning, thanks for the advice.
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alex said on October 15, 2024 at 10:35 am
Captain Combover is scheduled to bring his schtick to the Chicago Economic Club today. Wondering what insults he has prepared for them. Or maybe he’s too zoned out to flap his yap during this last stretch of the campaign and he’ll just do a little dance: https://wapo.st/4dK01kt
(gift article)
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Watson said on October 15, 2024 at 10:35 am
David C @21: My dad, age 82, moved from Wisconsin to Michigan last year. His longtime WPS Medigap policy is usable in Michigan, seamlessly, and he has gotten care without a hiccup. Ask Nancy for my email if you want more info, but the WPS web address is wpshealth.com.
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Jeff Borden said on October 15, 2024 at 10:54 am
Alex,
I’m guessing it will be even worse than his Detroit bashing. He hates us and with rare exceptions –like the asshole president of the FOP– we hate him right back. I’m glad the weather is cold, rainy and shitty. It’s appropriate.
It really seems to me he’s losing it. After he was interrupted twice by medical emergencies at a rally yesterday, he stayed on stage “dancing” for 39 minutes instead of speaking. Selections ranged from “Ave Maria” to “YMCA.” If Biden have ever done anything approaching that level of nuts, the NYT would’ve thrown a net over him and dragged him to the asylum.
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Dexter Friend said on October 15, 2024 at 1:57 pm
Flynn, the goon-in-coming, has PROMISED to “go after” generals and admirals to execute them under Trump’s orders. Trump’s demented actions last night expose him as a crazed idiot, but here he comes, charging up through the polls, embraced endorsed and hugged by white adult men who are so misogynistic they cannot stand a woman , especially this one, asserting she can be a good President. Women are going to decide this election; it is all about enough women to get out there and vote for Harris. If they maintain the same percentage of voters, here comes Trump. This talk of the youth changing this election is just talk…they never have influenced an election in numbers.
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alex said on October 15, 2024 at 3:08 pm
Still no word on my insulin. Meanwhile I tried to schedule an appointment with Gastroenterology on referral from my primary care doctor because of elevated liver function tests at my last visit. Best they can do for me is a video visit in the middle of March of next year.
Today making a crockpot chicken cacciatore to use up some of my surplus produce before the garden gets hit by a freeze tonight and also moving potted plants under my porch eaves for the time being until we have a chance to close up and winterize our screened porch and make it into a conservatory once again.
I’m not good at doing “set it and forget it.” I still have to prep the veggies and sear the meat before I throw it into a Crock Pot.
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Jeff Gill said on October 15, 2024 at 3:12 pm
“I was always very good at mathematics.”
More fun & games here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE_IjWHHHHg
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