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After blissfully escaping Los Angeles to go on a long road trip with his family this summer, Jimmy Kimmel is officially back to the grind in a city that is full of smoke from the surrounding wildfires. Everything tastes like a barbecue without the food, he jokes.

When I ask the late-night host if he had trouble disconnecting from the news while he was away, he says, I mean at first it was hard and then it was not hard. I feel like its either non-stop or stop. But it was nice to be able to get off the treadmill for a minute.

This coming Sunday, Kimmel will get back on the treadmill to host an entirely virtual Emmy Awards. While he will deliver his monologue and other bits from an empty stage at the Staples Center, all of the presenters and nominees will appear from their homes.

Kimmel explains that hes been honing the unique skill of telling jokes without any expectation of laughter starting with his early days as a radio DJ in Phoenix, Arizona. He perfected it during his monologues from home starting back in March when the coronavirus pandemic shut down production at Jimmy Kimmel Live! and every other late-night talk show.

After three months of quarantine shows, Kimmel revealed his plans to take the entire summer off, with a series of guest-hosts filling in for him until he ultimately returns to his theater the Monday after the Emmys. The announcement came amidst the George Floyd protests and a reckoning in the media that prompted Jimmy Fallon to apologize on his show for previously wearing blackface to portray Chris Rock on Saturday Night Live.

The next night, Kimmel delivered an emotional monologue about acknowledging his white privilege, but it wasnt until after he went off the air for the summer that he decided to issue a public apology for his own unfortunate appearances in blackface to impersonate NBA player Karl Malone on The Man Show.

As the increasingly outspoken comedian tells me during our interview, he wanted to tell the truth about those embarrassing sketches from early in his career. But he also questions the intentions of the Donald Trump Jr.s of the world who claim to be against cancel culture while at the same time doing everything they can to cancel comedians who make fun of them.

Weve now blurred the line between candidates and comedians, he says. They are very different and should be treated differently.

Kimmel also explains why he is one of the few comics still willing to host award shows despite the inevitable backlash, how he maintains hope that Trump will be ousted from office in the fall, and a lot more.

So youre currently preparing to host this entirely virtual Emmys, which is unlike anything weve seen before. Whats the plan, hows it going to work?

I was hoping you were going to tell me. Isnt that why were having this conversation?

Oh yeah, I forgot that was my job.

The plan is Im going to be at the Staples Center essentially by myself. And people are going to be like 40 feet away from me, those who are there. There will be no audience. There will be no one to laugh, which is bad and also good because at least it wont be a surprise if nobody laughs.

Yeah, I was wondering if you had to get used to telling jokes without getting laughs. Because that was the case when you were doing your show from home as well.

I just decided to try to think of it as a radio show with no co-host. And that seems to be what works for me.

Because youve hosted so many of these awards now, does the opportunity to do something really different appeal to you?

No, not at all. I will not lie to you. I would rather be doing this in front of an audience. You know, the fun part of it is getting laughs from people and this is like all of the work and none of the fun.

But you will get to kind of beam into all the nominees homes though, right? Is that how its going to work, where there are actually cameras in everybodys homes for their acceptance speeches?

Yes, everyone will have the cameras positioned in such a way that it doesnt seem like theyre very, very rich. I would imagine well see people in their garages, people Zooming in from their kids rooms and that sort of thing.

What did you think about the recent trend of award shows going without hosts? Because that seems to be where we were headed until this and now it seems like it would be even harder to do a virtual award show without a host.

Honestly, it was kind of funny to me that they positioned it as if it was a conscious decision when the reality is they asked a whole bunch of people and they all said no. And then they made it seem like it was some kind of brilliant programming decision, which it turns out it wasnt. The key is not to cut the host. The key is to make the show shorter. Thats how you do it if you want bigger ratings. But I like a host. I dont like getting in a driverless car and I like to watch an award show with a host.

Youre just old-fashioned that way. But why do you think so many people were saying no to these award shows? You keep saying yes.

Because theres almost no upside to it. It goes one of two ways. Either people go OK, or Oh my God, that was terrible! Lets put a stake through this guys heart. Everything has become so unpleasant. Its a tough thing for most people to navigate.

Do you think that the critics will be any more forgiving for you since youre doing it in such a different way?

You know, I dont worry about the critics. I think the critics write what they believe. Listen, were now split right down the middle. So I know going in, 50 percent of the people are gonna hate me. That wasnt the case 10 years ago.

So the day after the Emmys, youre going back to your theater in L.A. to do Jimmy Kimmel Live! with no audience. I remember you saying at the beginning of the pandemic that you were starting to worry that the networks are going to realize that they dont need to pay for theaters and sets and everything else now that everybody can do this from home. Is that something that youre still worried about at all?

I wouldnt say Im actually worried about it, but I do think that the future is smaller when it comes to television and television shows. And I think that thats just going to be the way it is. Because a lot of it is show business and we dont seem to be as interested in show business anymore now that we have TikTok and Instagram. I guess in a way, if you think about the 40s and 50s, even how people spoke in movies, it became more natural as the years went on. Its kind of like that.

Yeah, its all becoming more similar to our everyday lives when theres not as much of a line between show business and everybody else.

Yeah, when you see so many people behaving naturally, anything other than that feels more artificial I think.

Were headed into these final weeks before the election. Im wondering how youre thinking about that in terms of how youre going to approach what you talk about on the show. Do you feel like thats going to change at all in this final stretch?

Well, there was a lot of Trump over the past three years and I dont see why there would be any less over the next couple of months. I mean, it seems to be all anyone is talking about besides COVID in this election. And I know that theres a lot of anxiety surrounding it. And when theres a lot of anxiety, I think thats when shows like mine have an opportunity to maybe, hopefully lessen that anxiety a little bit by pointing out the humor, pointing out the things that are funny about something that isnt funny at all. So thats a long way of saying, yeah, well be talking about the election a lot.

I know a lot of people who support Donald Trump. I dont know why they do, but I do know people who fall into that category. And I also know that theyre not all a bunch of racist lame-brains.

Were talking the day after Bob Woodwards revelations about Trump deliberately downplaying the pandemic came out. The week before you have the comments about calling the military losers and suckers. After making jokes about him for so long, do you get a sense at this point that any of it will have an impact on the election or change peoples minds?

Oh, I hope so. I have this conversation a lot. And listen, I know a lot of Republicans, I know a lot of people who support Donald Trump. I dont know why they do, but I do know people who fall into that category. And I also know that theyre not all a bunch of racist lame-brains. And I have been heartened to learn that there are a number of people in my life who voted for Trump the first time around who wont do it again. And I think that even if 5 percent of his base feels that wayand boy, I hope we can get more than 5 percent of his base to feel that waythen that is a death knell for him.

It does feel like if anything is going to tip the election towards Joe Biden, its going to be the COVID crisis. And especially now knowing how much Trump misled the American public about itwhich is something we basically knew already, but this is just confirming itand him basically admitting it.

Isnt it crazy that it took this to give Biden the edge? I mean, really, it seems like we should have figured this out the first day when he announced his crowd size was three times bigger than it actually was, when he challenged the veracity of photographs. But thats how divided we are, I guess.

Im curious if you ever find yourself hesitant to make jokes about Joe Biden given the stakes of the election.

No, I do still feel a sense of fairness and if a joke feels true and if I think its going to work, Im going to tell it. Because I am not part of the campaign team, as much as some would like to believe. I think that we have to hold our politicians accountable and find humor in what they do, no matter which side theyre on.

I think that we have to hold our politicians accountable and find humor in what they do, no matter which side theyre on.

Do you have any plans to have either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris on your show and what do you feel like they arent being asked that you would want to ask them?

Yes. I mean, we dont have a date set for any of them, but I think that they know that if it works out for their schedules that wed love to have them on the show. As far as what Id like to ask them, I dont know, I havent really given that a lot of thought. But I am interested in the idea of, how do you approach running against a maniac, running against someone who has no rules? Are you at a disadvantage if you have a sense of decency and behave that way? I always feel like if I was debating Donald Trump, it would devolve into a roast immediately. Id begin insulting him from the first minute until the end of the debate. And it seems to me that it would take a lot of self-control not to.

And hard to know if that would be the most effective approach or not.

Im sure it probably wouldnt, especially for them, but, you know, Im not particularly mature.

So you were off during the conventions, but one thing that really stood out from the Republican convention was how much cancel culture was the huge theme that they decided to focus on. Since then weve seen Trump try to cancel Fox News reporters or companies that he doesnt like. And then theres also the irony of conservatives, like Sean Hannity and others trying to cancel you repeatedly over the years. How do you think about all of that, both from a personal and a political perspective?

Well, I think its unfortunate that that has become something they can grab onto, because I know thats not something that is particular to the right side of the aisle. I think a lot of people feel like this cancel culture goes too far and that theres just no room for apology anymore, that everybody is constantly digging through your trash. And that its not particularly beneficial as far as a functioning society goes. But I do think its unfortunate, because [Trump] is able to grab onto that and to use it as a tool. But most of that has nothing to do with politics. Weve now blurred the line between candidates and comedians and they are very different and should be treated differently. And it does bother me that there are comedians who go into a club that might be fearful about saying something that runs afoul of the political-correctness police. Because you have to be able to say the wrong things to figure out what the right things are and to speak the truth. That kind of self-censorship is dangerous. And I dont think we even know that its happening when it happens. I mean, who wants to go into a comedy club where everyones being careful? Thats not the America I want to live in.

At the same time, obviously at the beginning of your hiatus, you did release a long statement apologizing for these past blackface sketches that you had done a long time ago and explaining your reluctance to address it because of some of these issues. So what went into that decision to issue that long apology?

Well, you used the word blackface, I did not. What went into that decision is just more than anything, just telling the truth, that it is embarrassing to me. And also, I questioned the intentions of most of those who were complaining about it. I know where it was coming from. It was coming from the Donald Trump Jr.s of the world, people who do a tremendous amount of damage to this country in order to elevate themselves and to make themselves famous and to make money. And it just seemed like things were taken out of context and I wanted to put them back into context and move past it.

Another thing that happened during all of the protests and mostly after you went off the air, was that late-night TV got very serious. And I know youve been known to get emotional on your show as well, over some really serious things. Do you ever worry that the humor on these shows is getting lost in any way?

No. I think, you know, were on every night and most nights are jokes. So no, I dont think the humor is getting lost. Im not interested in seeing a guy read a bunch of monologue jokes in a row. I want to know what the person thinks and I want something more. I think it goes back to what we talked about before about show business becoming less showy. I like it when I see [Stephen] Colbert or Seth [Meyers] or any of these guys really talk about something serious. I feel like there are things I learn from it.

For more, listen and subscribe toThe Last Laughpodcast.

See more here:
Jimmy Kimmel Sounds Off on Don Jr.'s Attempts to 'Cancel' Him - The Daily Beast

In her 2019 memoir, What Do We Need Men For?, E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of rape, in a Bergdorfs dressing room in the mid-1990s. After the president denied ever meeting her and dismissed her story as a Democratic plot, she sued him for defamation. Carroll was not, of course, the first woman to say that Trump had sexually harassed or assaulted her, but unlike so many other powerful men, the president has remained unscathed by the #MeToo reckoning. So in the run-up to the November 3 election, Carroll is interviewing other women who alleged that Trump suddenly and without consent moved on them, to cite his locution in the Access Hollywood tape. Im automatically attracted to beautifulI just start kissing them, its like a magnet ... And when youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab em by the pussy.

Carrolls lawsuit took a dramatic turn this week, when the Justice Department intervened in an attempt to take over the presidents defense, asserting that Trump was acting in his official capacity when he claimed not to know Carroll. Meanwhile, a White House spokesperson denied all of the womens allegations, calling them decades-old false statements that had been thoroughly litigated in the last election and rejected by the American people. Read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Midsummer twilight, and Jessica Leeds and I are letting down whats left of our hair. Jessica confesses that one time she interviews with a computer company, and afterward she hears that all everybody is talking about is whether or not she was wearing a bra. (She was.) Then I confess that one time I buy a ticket to Johannesburg and a coxcomb from the South African consulate makes me sit on his lap before he agrees to give me a visa. What else do we confess? Well, let me just say that if you have never Zoomed with a silver-haired, soign 78-year-old woman who describes what it is like being strapped in a seat on a Braniff flight with a future president of the United States trying to fasten his lips on her like a 6-foot-3 suckfish, well, in my opinion, reader, you have not lived, let alone Zoomed, at all.

But before we board that Braniff flight, we must first deal with another matter. Again and again we see Jessica, one of the first women to publicly accuse Trump of sexual assault in 2016, on the front page of The New York Times or sitting for an interview with Anderson Cooperand what do we see?

I know that if the story gets any attention, the first thing Trump will say is that Im not pretty enough, Jessica says. I know instinctively thats what hes going to say.

I snort like the empress of Blandings Castle.

Trump, in fact, yammers about Jessicas accusations at a rally, and hoots, Believe me, she would not be my first choice!

How did Jessica know? Because Jessica is an old bat. Old bats are the best. I am an old bat myself. We old bats dont kid ourselves.

I want to tell everyone, Jessica says. In my 30s, Im not bad looking. I certainly never compete in any beauty contest, but I am pretty enough. Thank you.

So for the honor of Jessica Leeds and old bats everywhere, here is a photo of Jessica taken around the time that Im going to tell you about. (Not that she isnt a handsome woman still, dont ya know.)

It is 1979, 1980. Jessica is sailing across the sky, heading back to New York from Dallas. If she has caught a Braniff flightand as Jessica remembers, it probably is Braniffher plane will be painted Perseus green or mercury blue, her seat will be full-grain leather, her flight attendant will be clad in Halston, and Jessica will find a complimentary mini-pack of cigarettes on her tray with her free drinks. This is before she becomes a stockbroker, and she is earning $17,000 a year as a salesperson for a company that supplies newsprint to publications like The Washington Post. Her firm is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, in the old Cond Nast building. Its very posh, Jessica says. And we are posh.

Do you remember what youre wearing on the flight, Jessica?

I have my best suit, Jessica says. A brown tweed. I have a blouse that is a satiny fabric, shiny, and paisley print. Oh, I love that suit! And my hair is dark, dark brown. I think I look terrific.

What color is the blouse?

Silvery, with brown and red. Its a fabulous outfit. It really is. I hang on to it for quite a while, but

She lowers her head and looks at me with her splendid dark-hazel eyes. I never wear it again.

So you get on the plane

I get on the plane and go to the back and take my seat. And I remember watching the stewardess walking down the aisle, and she says to me, Would you like to come up to first class?

In the 1970s, 1980s, it is impossible to surprise a woman: It never occurs to me not to say yesit had happened to me before, Jessica tells me.

Me too, I say. You too, reader?

I accept the fact, says Jessica, flashing a sarcastic look from under her brows, that Im entertainment for the big honchos up in first class.

Ahh, Jessica, I say. People may not understand what were talking about.

What we are talking about is how things used to be: about buying a ticket, putting on our best clothes, and boarding a cocktail party heading for New York or Chicago or Miami or any jazzy city, U.S.A. The party lacks zip unless somebody very rich or very pretty is present. Because to fly 1,500 miles without a beautiful woman next to you is like sitting in a restaurant without being served an entre.

Men in first class will size up the female passengers before boarding and hold a brief conference with the check-in crew. Or, alternatively, a helpful flight attendant on a jumbo jet to L.A. will simply stand in the aisle next to me waving people away and rearranging the seating chart so that an extremely tall chap with hair like greased felt can have the spot by me. And, after the plane takes off, following the meal, the chap can show me a photo of his private plane and then show me a photo of his Rolls-Royce, and then show me his erection.

Trump may have asked the flight attendant to go and fetch you, I say.

It could be, Jessica says.

So you come walking up to first class

I recall he introduces himself. The name means nothing to me.

It wouldnt. Not in 1979 or 1980. Jessica is from Missouri. Her father is a cattle buyer for Oscar Mayer. Her mother, who divorces her dad when Jessica is little, is the executive secretary for the Springfield city manager, and, Jessica says, she runs the town. Jessica grows very tall, very quickly, towering over everybody in school, and, until she flunks fifth grade, nobody knows she cant see the blackboard or the words in her books. Her older brother has been reading everything to her, and Jessica has been memorizing what he reads to her, going to school, and faking it. The day she puts on her new glasses and walks to school and sees the leaves on the trees: The whole world opens up. It is amazing! Amazing! She wins a partial scholarship (tuition and books) to Northwestern University, majors in speech and drama, and, finding herself out of money, finishes up at Southwest Missouri State. She gets a job with an early computer-programming company, then moves on to the paper company. She lives in Connecticut, and though she is flying in and out of New York airports, Jessica is not aware of the levels, the ranks, the spheres of New York society that Trump, a young rat out of Queens, is chewing his way through.

I introduce myself, Jessica says, and he is perfectly reasonable when I first sit down. Hes blond, tallyou know, a good-size manbut I dont remember being overwhelmed by his looks. Then we take off, and they serve a wonderful meal with real linen and real food. And you know? It is delightful. Really delightful. What do we talk about? We talk about him. He doesnt ask me any personal questions. I know very few men who ever ask personal questions. They dont want to know the answers. And I have my book. And he has nothing to read, and when they come and pick up the trays and everything, within a short amount of timeall of a suddenhe is on me.

Does he try to kiss you first?

Yes. Yes Yeah. She glances away from the screen with a revolted wince.

Does he say anything?

He didnt say a word. He was too busy trying to kiss me.

Does he move the armrest between you?

I dont remember. All I remember is all of a sudden, he is on me.

Jessica is ladylike. Therefore, allow mefor I also have experience with Trumpto say in plain English what I believe Trump is about to do. I believe he will go straight for the crotch, this calumny Don who tells Anderson Cooper three times in 2016s second presidential debate that he has never kissed or groped a woman without consent.

Its like hes got four extra hands, Jessica says. Hes grabbing my breasts. Hes trying to kiss me. Im trying to get his hands off me. And this strugglethe very data on the Zoom screen seems to shiver as Jessica recalls the sceneits when he starts putting his hand up my skirt that I get a jolt of strength and manage to wiggle out of the seat. I grab my purse and storm to the back of the plane.

Lets cut to the transcript:

E. Jean: Now wait. Trump puts his hand on your leg and slides it up your skirt?

Jessica: Exactly.

E. Jean: Does he make it all the way up to your panties?

Jessica: No, no.

E. Jean: Because by this time you are starting to stand up?

Jessica: Right. I am on the aisle, so I have an out.

E. Jean: Does anyone offer to help you?

Jessica: The guy across the aisle, his eyes are as big as saucers. I keep thinking, Why dont you say something? [Chuckling.] Thats when I realize it is only me who can rescue me.

E. Jean: Some women freeze in a situation like this. They freeze, or they appease. You certainly dont freeze.

Jessica: No. But I certainly dont say anything.

E. Jean: Did you laugh? [Im picturing Jessica fighting the big orangutan in a small cage.]

Jessica: I dont recall laughing, no. I take it seriously. This is a real, physical attack. I can recall men propositioning me and laughing, but not with someone as physical as Trump.

E. Jean: Lets try to figure this out, Jessica. The question before us is: Why does Trump do this? Hes gotta know hes not going to have intercourse with you right there on the plane, right? What does Trump think hes going to gain? Do your manifold charms cause him to lose control of himself?

Jessica: I think he is bored. Nothing is happening, you know, so lets grab a little pussy.

And there you have it.

Although regretting that she had not planted my fist right into the man-on-the-planes noseI think I really couldve broken it, Jessica moves on. Something happens a year or two later that brings back the plane and parks it forever in the hangar of her brain.

The event occurs after Jessica leaves the paper company and just before she aces every question in her Bache & Co. interview by answering as if she is a man, viz: My Boy Scout leaders opinion means more to me than my mothers. She goes on to pass the Series 7: General Securities Representative Qualification Exam and becomes a stockbroker with Bache, which is later bought by Prudential and becomes Prudential-Bache. These are the days when Jessica has a great little apartment in a brownstone on East 83rd, before she runs into fellow broker Buddy Leeds in the 86th Street subway station (reader, she marries him), and is helping out at a gala for the Humane Society of New York. The event is at Saks Fifth Avenue, and she is wearing a Mary McFadden dress in taxi-cab yellow. I mean, Jessica says, I am meeting Geoffrey Beene, I am meeting Bill Blass, and Mary McFadden comes up and says, Thats my dress! It is a fabulous, fabulous evening.

Then Trump and his wife, Ivana, come in. She is very pregnant. He looks at me when I hand him his table assignment. And I look at him and I think, I remember you. And he stands there and stares at me, and he says, I remember you. Youre the cunt from the airplane.

The rest is here:
'I Moved on Her Very Heavily': Part 3 - The Atlantic

Donald Trump has claimed Joe Biden is against God in an attack on the presumptive Democratic presidential candidates faith.

In provocative remarks during a trip to Ohio, a key election battleground, the US president said Biden was following the radical left agenda.

Trump added: Take away your guns, destroy your second amendment. No religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God.

Hes against God, hes against guns, hes against energy, our kind of energy.

Biden, who is leading in the polls, has frequently spoken about how his Catholic faith helped him cope with the deaths of his first wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident.

In a statement, he said Trumps comments were shameful.

He added: Like so many people, my faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life: its provided me comfort in moments of loss and tragedy, its kept me grounded and humbled in times of triumph and joy.

And in this moment of darkness for our country of pain, of division, and of sickness for so many Americans my faith has been a guiding light for me and a constant reminder of the fundamental dignity and humanity that God has bestowed upon all of us.

For President Trump to attack my faith is shameful. Its beneath the office he holds and its beneath the dignity the American people so rightly expect and deserve from their leaders.

Bidens stance on abortion has antagonised many of his fellow Catholics. In 1973, he said the Roe v Wade supreme court decision went too far, but now believes Roe v Wade is the law of the land, a woman has a right to choose.

Biden is dealing with a controversy of his own, after suggesting the African American community was homogenous a comment Trump described as very insulting.

Biden said: What you all know but most people dont know, unlike the African American community with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.

He later tweeted: Earlier today, I made some comments about diversity in the African American and Latino communities that I want to clarify. In no way did I mean to suggest the African American community is a monolith not by identity, not on issues, not at all.

My commitment to you is this: I will always listen, I will never stop fighting for the African American community and I will never stop fighting for a more equitable future.

The rest is here:
Joe Biden attacks Donald Trump for 'shameful' claim he is 'against God' - The Guardian

This week is the 75th anniversary of the explosions on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9), ending World War II with the only two nuclear bombs ever deployed as instruments of war. This naturally invites a measure of historical reflection. But a more productive way to mark the occasion is with contemporary agitation: Are you comfortable with the fact that Donald Trump has the unilateral authority to launch the third nuclear bomb? Or the 30th? Or the 300th?

With a power that is like that of all presidents since Truman -- but with a temper and temperament more volatile than any predecessor has put on public display -- Trump could decide late this evening that missiles are a better way to make a point than Twitter and they would be flying without delay.

No evidentiary thresholds would need to be met. No congressional consultation required. The system is designed to be immediately responsive to presidential judgmentor misjudgment. Only a coordinated, widespread mutiny could stop this process from reaching its grim end, write William J. Perry and Tom Z. Collina, in a newly released book, The Button. The whole process, from presidential order to launch and an irrevocable step over the brink into a new chapter of history, would take just minutes.

Trumps erratic personal style sharpens the point his blustery rhetoric about the U.S. nuclear arsenal is more truculent than his generally dovish instincts about military intervention but that point is the same even if one accepts his self-appraisal as a very stable genius. There are proposals in Congress to alter the chain of command and require congressional authorization before any use of nuclear weapons. For now, however, the reality that any president can order nuclear annihilation on his or her sole authority is madness. Yet it is the kind of madness that is illustrative of the still-distorted psychology of the still-very-much-with-us Nuclear Age.

Most people who follow the news or watch television dramas know that the president is followed at all times by a military aide with the football, carrying communications equipment and codes needed to order bombs. They probably understand vaguely that there are still a lot of bombs in the world (around 13,000 worldwide, down from over 70,000 in the Cold War, with the United States and Russia each still possessing over 6,000.)

But for nearly all people this knowledge is an abstraction. It is in approximately the same mental category as an asteroid. We know they have struck in the past (A drag what happened to the dinosaurs) and perhaps we ponder in some theoretical way that one could strike again (Could we maybe, you know, figure out some way with technology to divert the course or blow it up before impact?). Yet most of us devote scant mental or emotional energy to worrying about something that is basically beyond the comprehension or control of any average citizen.

The great crusade of the past couple decades of Bill Perrys life is to try to make nuclear catastrophe seem less abstractnot beyond comprehension or control. His is one of the most arresting stories of the original Cold War and what he believes is now an indefensible second Cold War unfolding in our midst.

The former Defense secretary under Bill Clinton is now a couple months shy of 93, and has spent his entire life immersed in different dimensions of the nuclear dilemma. The war was just ended and he was still in his late teens when Army service took him to occupied Japan. He found the mathematics of destruction astounding: The firebombing that left Tokyo ravaged had been caused by thousands of bombs dropped in many hundreds of missions. Hiroshima was reduced to radioactive rubble by a single bomb.

In the 1950s, Perry developed an expertise in defense electronics, and it was in this capacity, in 1962, that he played an in-the-shadows role during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was a pro bono consultant on a team that each night analyzed the latest imagery of a Soviet missile site under construction in Cuba. The teams analysis would be on JFKs desk the next morning. In a memoir three years ago, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, Perry recounted that for two weeks he went to work believing nuclear conflict was imminent and each day was possibly his last on earth.

During the Carter administration, he was a committed Cold Warrior, overseeing the Pentagons research division that produced breakthroughs like stealth aircraft and smart bombs and such now familiar technology as GPS.

The theme of his memoir, and also The Button (co-author Collina is a longtime nuclear policy analyst now at the Ploughshares Fund), is how often the past 75 years has been shadowed by accident and improvisation. Military and civilian leaders maneuvered with generally sound intentions but usually with fragmentary information and frail judgment.

JFK never knew during the Cuban crisis that operating tactical nuclear weapons were already on the island and commanders had authority to use thema fact learned only decades later. His assessment that there had been a one-in-three chance the crisis ended in nuclear war was likely far too optimistic. Richard Nixon was a heavy drinker at critical moments in his presidency. Ronald Reagan by the end of his tenure was showing signs of mental decline. On at least three occasions during the Cold War, there were reports on radar of incoming nuclear missiles from the Soviet Unionthe result of technical failures that, under different circumstances, might have provoked a retaliatory response. As Perry often says, nuclear catastrophe was averted more through good luck than good management.

Rising tensions with Vladimir Putins Russia, the threat of terrorists succeeding in long-time efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, and other scenarios have caused Perry and others to warn that the odds of some kind of civilization-altering nuclear incident, if not necessarily an all-out war, are just as high now as they were during the Cold War. He has become a prophet of doom, Perry told me a few years ago, with a rueful smile.

The Button has a roster of tangible ideas to reduce the chances the prophecy comes true. In addition to ending unilateral presidential control of the arsenal (and retiring the around-the-clock nuclear football) the United States should officially foreswear first-use of nuclear weapons. Other key parts of traditional nuclear doctrine are more likely to lead to war by accident or miscalculation than to actually deter aggression. They include the policy of launch on warning, which could lead to a retaliatory strike to a perceived incoming missiles strike that might be a figment of a technical glitch or a malicious computer hack. The land-based leg of the so-called nuclear triad is unnecessary and even dangerous; a much smaller number of submarine-based and aircraft-based missiles is enough to deter a foe from launching a suicidal first attack.

Beyond specific policies, what Perry and Collina wish for most of all is a blossoming of public engagement to move the issues outside the narrow realm of military officials and national security experts, who are too often prisoners of outdated habits and dogma. The way to prevent the unthinkable is for more people to think about it.

In this campaign they are joined by former California Gov. Jerry Brown, who has become a close ally of Perry on the nuclear issue. In an interview Thursday, he said the pandemic, climate change, and the nuclear issue all highlight the same imperative: the need to end hyper-nationalist policies and to recognize that on the most existential issues U.S. interests are in alignment with other world powers, not in competition. He also said the political and media classes need to focus attention on the limits of improvisation and hoping for the bestor the next 75 years will be less attractive than the 75 since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Can luck last forever? The answer is no, Brown told me. Luck is playing a role that is unacceptable.

After coronavirus emerged, millions of people watched a Ted Talk by Bill Gates from 2015 clearly laying out the imminent threat five years before it arrived. The world will be in bad shape if Perrys and Collinas book finds a similar audience only after the threat it warns against has already arrived.

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Donald Trump Has the Sole Authority to Blow Up the World. It is Madness to Let Him Keep It. - POLITICO

America has changed, said Frank Luntz, the veteran Republican consultant and pollster. Every person who cares about the NRA is already voting for Trump. Suburban swing voters care about the right to own a gun, but they don't care about the NRA.

A brawl between the NRA and New York state once would've been turnout gold for a Republican president. And some Republicans and Democrats alike on Thursday suggested that Republicans could use the episode to stoke turnout among Trump's base.

But the NRA is not the institution it was in American politics even four years ago, when it spent heavily to help Trump win election. Beset by financial problems and infighting, public support for the NRA has declined during the Trump era, falling below 50 percent last year for the first time since the 1990s, according to Gallup. At the same time, nearly two-thirds of Americans want stricter gun laws.

That's when voters are even thinking about gun control. Three months before Election Day, they mostly arent it's all about coronavirus and the economy, stupid. That's a problem for Republicans even the NRA has acknowledged.

Frank Miniter, editor in chief of the NRA publication America's First Freedom, raised the alarm for members in a column last week. Citing research by a firearms trade association, he lamented that only 17% of gun owners in the survey said gun-related issues were one of their three top policy areas going into this election (15% did say crime and 18% said civil rights)."

The culture wars of old, said Paul Maslin, a top Democratic pollster who worked on the presidential campaigns of Jimmy Carter and Howard Dean, seem miles away from where this election is right now.

Gun control and other cultural issues, he said, are always a backdrop and a way for Trump to maintain his base. But again, his base is 42 percent. Wheres the other 5 to 6 percent he needs going to come from?

If Republicans have an opening in the developing feud over the NRA, it will likely have less to do with gun control than with a broader effort to paint Joe Biden as beholden to the progressive left. The former vice president, a moderate Democrat, remains ill-defined in many voters minds, pollsters of both parties say. Republicans are spending heavily to depict him as an extremist, and the filing of the NRA lawsuit in New York, a heavily Democratic state, helped Republicans to advance their cause.

The Democrat strategy has seemed to be and I think it was a smart strategy go with Biden, hes a centrist, hes safe, hes nonthreatening, said Greg McNeilly, a Republican strategist in Michigan and longtime adviser to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. While that alternative seemed inviting to a lot of Trump supporters, including older voters, McNeilly said he thinks they'll reconsider when the reality of a potential Biden presidency sets in.

And the lawsuit against the NRA is incredibly tangible, specific attack on a core Republican value This is a gift to the Trump campaign, and its an unforced error on the [Democratic] side. Its a real mistake.

Trump himself pressed the case Thursday when he called the New York action a very terrible thing that just happened.

Evoking his own defection from New York to Florida and drawing a more explicit connection to a state that is unexpectedly competitive, he told reporters, I think the NRA should move to Texas and lead a very good and beautiful life, and Ive told them that for a long time.

Pro-gun control groups like Everytown for Gun Safety have spent millions of dollars on down-ballot races in recent years, winning victories in a number of swing congressional districts in 2018. And Democrats sense an opportunity to put the NRA down for good.

Whats interesting is that if the NRA truly has to dissolve, there is no far-right organization that is going to take its place, said Mathew Littman, a former Biden speechwriter who works on gun reform. The NRA is not where the American people are on the gun issue So without that, I think you could see rational gun reforms.

Within hours of the lawsuits announcement, some Democrats did raise concerns about the effect that it could have on turnout. One Democratic elected official in Pennsylvania likened it politically to a Republican attorney general suing to dissolve Planned Parenthood, saying, If this is the election of our lifetime, and I believe it is, why risk it?

But given Trump's inability to harness any other cultural issue so far in the campaign, it will likely take a Hail Mary for him to make it work. Trump has been running consistently behind Biden nationally and in most battleground states unaided by issues surrounding civil unrest and the flag. Trump's best chance, most Republicans and Democrats agree, is for the coronavirus or economy to turn around or for his law-and-order rhetoric to gain traction.

The election is about Trumps pandemic response and the answer to the Reagan question: Are you better off now than four years ago, said Doug Herman, a lead mail strategist for former President Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

Even in Texas, a relatively gun-loving state, several Democrats said they doubted the NRA issue would resonate.

I just dont really think that many people are paying that much attention to anything other than the pandemic and the economy, said Colin Strother, a veteran Democratic strategist in Texas.

Chris Lippincott, an Austin-based consultant who ran a super PAC opposing Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2016 Senate campaign, said, Its not breaking news that New York Democrats dont like the NRA.

Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump is losing the culture wars - POLITICO