Hello, and Namaste everyone, and welcome to In Politics and Culture for Odyssey and Puck,

everyone. And welcome to In Politics and culture for Odyssey and Puck, where twice a week every Wednesday

and Friday we bring you fresh.

Topical, candid conversations with the people who shift and shape our culture in entertainment, sports, tech, business

food and of course our bread and butter, our mother's milk are Cina Kwan, Nain and

Nae Plus Ultra, politics politics and what a week the past week was in that.

Slightly horrific arena. On the non-horific side you have Kamala Harris. Still,

hot as a pistol, still raising money hand over fist and turning in an arena-filling

rally in Atlanta that hearken back to the days of Barack Obama, not only for its size, its celebrity heavy

buzz, and its rafter-raddling energy, but for its meme- spawning prowess, with Harris effectively saying yo Brock I'll see your

inspiring uplifting yes we can and raise you a defiant I double-dog dare you, say it to my face.

On the other hand, we had Donald Trump, once again making headlines,

once again dominating cable news, which no doubt at least partially slaked

trumps crawling across the Sahara for days with only a thimble full of water

thirstiness but at the same time holy moly, cheaper's creepers, sakes alive.

The reason that Trump was generating so much attention was a performance at the National Association

of Black Journalists' annual convention that was, even grading on the Trump curve, historically and

epically awful.

Trump's racism, misogyny, churlishness, stupidity, periciousness, and lunacy are taken as a given around these

parts, not overlooked or uncalled out, let alone excused or forgiven, but even I, even I was everlastingly gobstopped and perfectly

poleaxed as I took in this particular Trump performance live on the TV. After nearly 10 years of paying attention

to this man more routinely and closely, not to say obsessively, but more routinely and closely

...