Indict the System, With an Expert in Indictments

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has been the Managing Editor of Ordinary Times since 2018, is a widely published opinion writer, and appears in media, radio, and occasionally as a talking head on TV. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter@four4thefire. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew'sHeard Tell Substack for free here:

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11 Responses

  1. North says:

    It is a rich soothing balm to me to know that this clown isn’t even trying to run for the Democratic nomination and that he would get utterly nowhere if he tried to.Report

  2. Jaybird says:

    You can get a Michael Avenatti Votive Candle for a mere $15 (+$10 shipping).

    Makes a great gift!Report

  3. Brandon Berg says:

    If you grind up “team,” you get meat.

    For some reason none of my coaches ever mentioned this.Report

  4. atomickristin says:

    Ahhh…I enjoyed the hell out of this. Well done.Report

  5. Reggie Wagstaff says:

    Forgive and forget? Andrew, this article must be high satire. I am a member of the California Bar and can tell you that MA’s credibly charged crimes (that are likely to be proved by paper trails) put him in a position where, if found guilty, would have him serve very lengthy prison time. MA has offered no shred of defense, merely saying that he will be “fully exonerated” then continuing to offer political advice to the nation and spite for the Trump family. You, meanwhile, are seduced by that noise and appear to be willing to forgive and forget that MA left several victims of economic crimes? Let’s all leave MA alone.Report

    • George Turner in reply to Reggie Wagstaff says:

      It’s not just high satire, it’s brilliant satire. 🙂

      America has one chance to choose Michael Avenaiti as our leader, and we’d better do it or North Korea is going to snap him right up for themselves. His ability to cloak himself in a glowing aura of alternate reality is breathtaking to behold.Report

      • I take that as a compliment GeorgeReport

        • George Turner in reply to Andrew Donaldson says:

          You should! That was brilliant.

          I think there’s a zone where you buy into the premise, take on the perspective, and then just bring the delivery. Sometimes a piece requires assuming a full-on character, probably a bit like writing a skit for Dan Akroyd or Bill Murray, while other pieces might be approached more like Twain or Swift.

          I’ve always been fond of the fake campaign ad, endorsement, or political speech. Those probably aren’t as currently common as the fake news story format from the Onion and now the Babylon Bee. Those platforms, however, are kind of limited because all the satire is in that fake-news genre.

          But I think it takes a good political analyst to do political humor really well, and an astute one to make it funny without resorting to cheap shots or delivering the basic equivalent of an old blonde joke or ethnic joke.

          It takes skill to come up with hilarious, yet somehow apolitical joke, about a politician, but Carson, Leno, and long ago most anyone at a White House correspondents dinner, used to pull it off routinely. To do that you have to encapsulate some of their essence, like Dana Carvey becoming HW Bush and saying “wouldn’t be prudent”.

          Political humor as certainly taken some hits over the last twenty years.

          I recently saw an inversion of an old Soviet joke:

          An American TV writer and his Chinese counterpart are talking politics and the American says “In America, I am free to say something horrible about the President!” The Chinese writer replies “In China, I am free to say something good about the President.”Report

    • You, meanwhile, are seduced by that noise and appear to be willing to forgive and forget that MA left several victims of economic crimes?
      yeah…that’s totally what happened here…I thought reading comprehension was part of the Bar Exam but perhaps they do things differently now.Report