Who would forget the NY Post’s “most controversial cartoon that appeared to depict president Barack Obama as a chimpanzee in 2009. The publication…featured two police officers standing over a chimpanzee they had just shot.”

In creating this likely loss-maker, Rupert & Lachlan Murdoch have one-upped a conga line of billionaire businessmen in the procession to curry favour with Donald Trump.

Here we go…

Ok - got it.
The point I was trying to make was that Brooks is rightly horrified by Trump & his cronies - but he was more focused on what he saw as the Democrats failures to counter them than he was with virtually the entire Republican machine that put its weight behind Trump & legitimised MAGA.

I’m not “STILL saying the left is just as bad as the right” & never have done.
This accusation is not dissimilar to the old chestnut “have you stopped beating your wife? Answer Yes or no!”

“…But after one cultural moment, voters tend to hunger for its opposite, which in this case means leaders who project integrity, unity, honesty and hope.”

And Epstein was a very poor choice to illustrate the catastrophizing of conspiracy theories- because what Epstein clearly did was shocking - & catastrophic for many.
But I think the point we was attempting to make had some basis.
“Right now, the dark passions are ascendant.”

If Brooks has had any association with Epstein, he should most definitely have declared that in the article. And he overlooks the fact that Epstein was initially raised as a wildly wielded weapon by MAGA supporters who had no qualms at all about introducing deranged conspiracy theories.

“Right at the heart of the Coalition’s current problems lies the very regrettable partisan approach the Liberal Party’s leaders took following the Bondi terror attacks on December 14. They were joined by several retired politicians and much of the media.”
Malcolm Turnbull is not wrong

I'm not aware that Brooks was ever personally charging towards perdition - I think not.
But there has been a remarkable - indeed alarming - lack of conservative writers & politicians who have been prepared to speak clearly about Trump & MAGA. They have allowed the US to slip rapidly into "perdition"

“When applied to real-world nickel–cobalt–manganese (NCM) battery leachates, the method achieved 99.1 percent purity for nickel and 98.8 percent for cobalt, while maintaining recovery rates above 95 percent.” Wow!

…“Well, that’s rubbish. And it’s not in any way connected with the way in which our society should operate and has until now operated … it’s foolhardy to see #capital as being the determinator of all human destiny.” - Kim Williams