We now have another expedition up the river into the heart of the Trumplandia and, before we take a look at the report these plucky adventurers have sent back, let us note for the record that, at a church in Cleveland on Wednesday morning, the Republican presidential candidate was endorsed by a convicted killer who felt free to drop n-bombs on the audience to the apparent delight of El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago. The killer, it should be noted, was introduced in the church by Mike Pence, whose Christian faith is unshakable, according to those people who believe the gospels are sales manuals.

From The New York Times:

In the middle of making the case for why America, and "especially black people," need to elect Mr. Trump, Mr. King recalled something he once told Michael Jackson about assimilation. "I told Michael Jackson, I said, if you are poor, you are a poor Negro — I would use the N-word — if you are rich, you are a rich Negro," he said at a campaign event at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights. "If you are a talented intellectual, you are an intellectual Negro. If you are a dancing and sliding and gliding nigger, I mean Negro," he said, as he chuckled briefly and those in the crowd laughed nervously around him. Mr. Trump, who was sitting directly behind Mr. King and smiling broadly for much of his introduction, did not flinch or break his gaze. He kept his smile and turned to those sitting next to him, as Mr. King corrected himself.

Half the country is buying this carny act. If you want to see why, check out Mother Jones' dispatch about that particular half of the country. And, can I suggest to cable TV bookers that, if you want an informed opinion on the "alt-right" or whatever it is that we're calling extremists these days, you might want to ditch, say, Matthew Dowd in favor of Dave Neiwert, who's been working the beat for over 20 years.

"The ingredient in Trump's historic rise that makes it so delicious is that it's nuclear powered," he wrote after a Trump rally. "It is unstoppable. It is impervious to foot-shuffling, complaints, whining, hysterical cries of 'racism' and so-called 'white supremacism.' Trump supporters don't care and there is something undeniably infectious about Trump's masculine attitude." Edwards has also called Trump's campaign "implicitly white."

Yeah, but it's Hillary Rodham Clinton's association with Sid Blumenthal that's the real scandal in this election. If that isn't enough, check out the survey that The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper did in which folks attending a Trump rally were asked to describe their favorite conspiracy theories.

Via SplitSider:

After interviewing a bunch of Trump fans, Klepper learns that Clinton might have AIDS and uses a body double, President Obama is a Muslim terrorist responsible for 9/11, and the media doesn't portray Trump's many black supporters. So what sources do these Trump fans use to find these facts, Klepper asks? "Um, just Facebook or Twitter. Everything." "So you'll look at facts and bullshit and you'll put it all together?" "Exactly."

I'm sure that believing that the president is a Muslim and was somehow involved in the 9/11 attacks are merely the public expression of economic insecurity, although I'm damned if I can figure out why.

Now, there are other ways you can go. You can be Adam Walinsky, a former speechwriter for Robert Kennedy, who writes in Politico magazine that Trump is The Peace Candidate in this election. If you can believe this argument, you'll believe anything.

Moreover Donald Trump marks himself as a man of singular political courage, willing to defy the hysteria of the Washington war hawks, the establishment and the mainstream media who daily describe him as virtually anti-American for daring to voice ideas and opinions at variance with their one-note devotion to war.

Please do not go to the store without a minder. Someone is going to sell you many magic beans.

Or, you can follow the logic of this piece in The Nation which, I confess, is of an intellectual level I cannot attain.

Make no mistake: I want Trump to lose this election. But progressives should not support Clinton.

No kidding. I will never stop hating this election for the incredible deluge of Stupid it has loosed upon the country. It is the pure product of the forces driving the Trump campaign in concert with the attempt to make sense of it without accounting for the pure hate without which that campaign would not exist at all. There is nothing worthwhile about it. It does not raise serious questions with which the country must grapple. It is merely a giant loogie hocked at people whom most Trump supporters have been trained over 40 years to hate.

Or, as Ross Cardinal Douthat suggests, you can blame Samantha Bee. God, he wants to be one of those people in the red ballcaps so very badly, it fairly drips from every sentence. Moron envy is not attractive in a fellow of his education.

Me? I'm with Magary.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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