{"id":28296,"date":"2026-07-17T17:54:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=28296"},"modified":"2026-07-30T16:09:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T23:09:37","slug":"losing-casting-hormones-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/07\/17\/losing-casting-hormones-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Losing. Casting. Hormones. Freedom."},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Trump&#8217;s latest speech, about voter fraud;<\/li>\n<li>Responses from Brian Tyler Cohen and Robert Reich;<\/li>\n<li>MAGA&#8217;s outrage over the casting in <i>The Odyssey<\/i>;<\/li>\n<li>Briefly noted: More about Hegseth and testosterone; Trump blames Canada for wildfire smoke; Lindsey Graham&#8217;s (unqualified) sister to take over his seat; confusing medical advice with authoritarian orders.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>Trump made some kind of speech last night. In prime time. The networks didn&#8217;t broadcast it. The messages of these three items are in the titles or subtitles; I don&#8217;t need to quote from the pieces themselves.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/df001151-04c0-4b64-85a2-d214e2c9fbaf.jpeg?crop=1516%2C1011%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=840\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Slate, Ian Prasad Philbrick, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2026\/07\/trumps-election-fraud-speech-2020-biden.html\">The Most Important Thing About Trump\u2019s Big Election Speech Was What He Didn\u2019t Say<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The president has claimed more than 100 times that the 2020 election was stolen. So why did he shy away from that lie in his big &#8216;election fraud&#8217; speech?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\\<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bulwark, Brian Tyler Cohen, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/p\/the-silver-lining-of-trumps-reheated\">The Silver Lining of Trump\u2019s Reheated Election Denialism<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Take Trump seriously. Take him literally. But also see his speech for what it is: He knows he\u2019s losing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Reich, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/paulkrugman.substack.com\/p\/trump-cant-get-no-respect\">Trump Can\u2019t Get No Respect<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;His biggest lie wasn\u2019t about elections&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>And in recent discussion about the CHIPS Act, he confused &#8216;transistor&#8217; with &#8216;transgender.&#8217; Examples <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/search\/top\/?q=trump%20transgender\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>This movie opens today. Not sure when I&#8217;ll see it. I will eventually. Anyway, of course any work of art that doesn&#8217;t pander to white supremacy evokes the wrath of MAGA.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/resizer\/v2\/Z6OXQLYQYVGZLHDOW2AUZXX3VU.jpg?smart=true&amp;auth=4ef19e923e131ebd86a2be2596ac461e23f9404d3cdd7119ecbf9b01f77becbd&amp;width=1600&amp;height=900\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Daily Beast, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/obsessed\/the-odyssey-lays-bare-the-stupidity-of-magas-uproar\/\">Why \u2018The Odyssey\u2019 Is Exposing the Stupidity of MAGA\u2019s Uproar<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Believe it or not, right-wingers have gotten &#8216;The Odyssey&#8217; all wrong.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Casting. (It&#8217;s supposed to be about white people!) And about Elliot Page as Achilles. It turns out Page is playing a different character.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Briefly noted.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Pete-Hegseth-2285679465-1536x1037.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Salon, Amanda Marcotte, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2026\/07\/17\/pete-hegseth-wants-to-measure-your-manhood\/\">Pete Hegseth wants to measure your manhood<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Subtitled: &#8220;The defense secretary&#8217;s obsession with high testosterone levels can&#8217;t hide MAGA insecurity&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Slate, Christina Cauterucci, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/life\/2026\/07\/men-military-testosterone-pete-hegseth-hormone.html\">Pete Hegseth\u2019s Testosterone Fantasy Is Part of a Much Larger Right-Wing Phenomenon<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Subtitled: &#8220;It\u2019s not just the military they want to turn into rage-addled hulks.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>They&#8217;re obsessed with primal drives. Not with intelligence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This is rich.<\/li>\n<li><strong>JMG, from The Hill, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/07\/gop-senator-seeks-to-sanction-canada-over-smoke\/\">GOP Senator Seeks To Sanction Canada Over Smoke<\/a><\/li>\n<li>and<\/li>\n<li><strong>JMG, from Donald J. Trump, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/07\/gop-senator-seeks-to-sanction-canada-over-smoke\/\">Trump: Canada Has Failed To Maintain Their Forests Therefore I\u2019m Raising Their Tariffs Over Wildfire Smoke<\/a><\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s not about maintaining forests. (Trump thinks it&#8217;s about sweeping up debris on the forest floors? Which has ever happened in human history?) It&#8217;s about climate change, which makes huge wildfires more common. And now this administration, that doesn&#8217;t &#8220;believe&#8221; in climate change let alone take any responsibility for its effects, wants to blame other countries for its effects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Once again, tribalists value loyalty above all else, in particular above experience or expertise.<\/li>\n<li><strong>JMG, from Donald J. Trump, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/07\/trump-endorses-grahams-sister-for-full-senate-term\/\">Trump Endorses Graham\u2019s Sister For Full Senate Term<\/a><\/li>\n<li>She has no experience in government whatsoever. She&#8217;s a placeholder, but who presumably can be counted on to vote the way her brother would have.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>JMG, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/07\/maga-cultist-melts-down-over-air-quality-warning-how-dare-they-this-is-big-brother-im-a-free-american\/\">MAGA Cultist Melts Down Over Air Quality Warning: How Dare They, This Is Big Brother, I\u2019m A Free Man!<\/a><\/li>\n<li>He confuses advice with orders. He&#8217;s freedom-addled. To the point where any advice that might promote public health must actively be resisted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump&#8217;s latest speech, about voter fraud; Responses from Brian Tyler Cohen and Robert Reich; MAGA&#8217;s outrage over the casting in The Odyssey; Briefly noted: More about Hegseth and testosterone; Trump blames Canada for wildfire smoke; Lindsey Graham&#8217;s (unqualified) sister to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/07\/17\/losing-casting-hormones-freedom\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,90,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-conservatives","category-tribalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28360,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28296\/revisions\/28360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}