Drew Poling

Jackson Pollock and George Plimpton's love child.

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@jillannolson Will be in the area next week!

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@jillannolson I remember them! Loved them (but I was a sucker for family entertainment groups).

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@zamandigital @thehoya As a Georgetown graduate (and one who is unequivocally appalled by the College Republicans’ tweet), I’m disappointed to see a Georgetown professor take this line as this is the line of a punisher, not that of an educator committed to nurturing and forming better citizens.

[Libertarian Party @LPNational]

https://t.co/x6lbzvvN1X

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

“The United States is being run by a bunch of clownish amateurs.”

https://t.co/43raYxlRI0

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@wright75077 @NoLieWithBTC Such as? Specifically?

And have you put your money where your mouth is and bought tickets to performances at the Kennedy Center? Because “classic arts” have been a core part of the center’s programming since it opened.

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@instagram Absolutely horrific redesign. Please listen to your users and revert to the square orientation. .

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@AMCTheatres please post “No Singing” signs at your NYC “Wicked” screenings. I’m not paying $20 to hear a bunch of amateur would-be theater kids scream “Defying Gravity.”

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@BetteMidler Best line of the night

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@mgrannis @TrumpAF2024 Too late. Trump’s cornered that market.

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@mgrannis Amazing, isn’t it? One brief, shining moment…

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@shaunking Even if you did do what you’re claiming you did, how pathetic that you’re so desperate to make sure you get credit.

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@NYPDTransit there need to be traffic cops at the Delancey/Christie intersection NOW. 45 minutes stuck, northbound Christie.

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@jillannolson NNEELLEEYY O’HHAARRAA!!!!

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@JetBlue when I called him on it, he dug in, telling me that I was a) wrong, that he did not make me feel like shit and b) that I was, indeed, cheap and c) that he had already apologized (he hadn’t).

Good job, JetBlue. Well done, Larry SFO gate B7

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

@SteveSchmidtSES “Mystery solved.” - Don Jr.

[Drew Poling @Drew_Poling]

Gun violence is destroying what little actually exists of the nostalgic vision of America Republicans believe they’re defending with guns.