I'm siding with Max Boot, which is something I never would have predicted a decade ago. But Trump has overthrown a lot of things we took for granted.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-boot-trump-outlies-obama-20170131-story.html
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Thursday, January 26, 2017
The way our government is organized by the Constitution makes two, not three or more (or no) political parties inevitable. If you don't like the choice between the Dems and the GOP, your only alternative is to replace one of them, but if the Greens or the Socialists or whatever fringe party was going to replace one of them, there would be signs of real progress towards that end. There isn't. So for the foreseeable future you have two choices and one of those is fascist and one isn't. Which means you have no choice at all. You don't have to like it, but you better learn to accept it.
Which means, first of all, no Independents. Pick a fucking side: are you pro or anti fascist? Those are the choices so make a damn decision. If you are anti-fascist thn register as a Dem. We don't have the margin of error for the affectation of voting for the Dems while pretending to be above them. Before he let his ego get in the way and helped give us Trump by baselessly attacking HRC's character for months after it was clear she was going to be the nominee, Bernie actually did help move the Dems left. But he did it during the brief period he acted like an adult and registered as a Dem.
Next, vote party, not person. The quality of individual Dems is far less important than their numbers. ANY Dem is better than ANY alternative. Yes, we want better Dems as well as more Dems, but that's what primaries are for, and if your better Dem loses in the primary, swallow your pride and vote for the winner anyway. The alternative isn't a red Revolution but a brown one. Look at the KPD in Germany in the 30s and don't make the same deadly mistake.
Finally, you aren't a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of the United States. We live in a world of nation states whether you like it or not. If you don't want to be a US citizen, move elsewhere. While you are here, you can't expect pols to put the interests of the Palestinians (or the Israelis) or the people of Tibet or Central America ahead of those of the US. What you CAN expect is that they will take into account the interests of the rest of the world (our allies ahead of those who wish us harm) because pols who don't recognize the need for enlightened national self-interest abroad are not patriots, but nationalists. The two are not the same, as the Trump government will demonstrate daily for the next four years.
Oh, and if you are someone still going around saying Love Trumps Hate, it often doesn't. And Nazis would have wiped the non-violent resistance movements of the 20th Century off the face of the earth with not a moment's hesitation, leaving not a trace behind. Non-violence doesn't work against those who worship Might as the ultimate good. Which is not to say I'm advocating trading politics for violence against the American Fascist Party (formerly known as the GOP). We aren't without better alternatives and anyway, in a civil war we might well lose.
Otoh, punching Nazis is ethically justified, so you just have to decide if the opportunity arises if it is the smart thing to do.
Which means, first of all, no Independents. Pick a fucking side: are you pro or anti fascist? Those are the choices so make a damn decision. If you are anti-fascist thn register as a Dem. We don't have the margin of error for the affectation of voting for the Dems while pretending to be above them. Before he let his ego get in the way and helped give us Trump by baselessly attacking HRC's character for months after it was clear she was going to be the nominee, Bernie actually did help move the Dems left. But he did it during the brief period he acted like an adult and registered as a Dem.
Next, vote party, not person. The quality of individual Dems is far less important than their numbers. ANY Dem is better than ANY alternative. Yes, we want better Dems as well as more Dems, but that's what primaries are for, and if your better Dem loses in the primary, swallow your pride and vote for the winner anyway. The alternative isn't a red Revolution but a brown one. Look at the KPD in Germany in the 30s and don't make the same deadly mistake.
Finally, you aren't a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of the United States. We live in a world of nation states whether you like it or not. If you don't want to be a US citizen, move elsewhere. While you are here, you can't expect pols to put the interests of the Palestinians (or the Israelis) or the people of Tibet or Central America ahead of those of the US. What you CAN expect is that they will take into account the interests of the rest of the world (our allies ahead of those who wish us harm) because pols who don't recognize the need for enlightened national self-interest abroad are not patriots, but nationalists. The two are not the same, as the Trump government will demonstrate daily for the next four years.
Oh, and if you are someone still going around saying Love Trumps Hate, it often doesn't. And Nazis would have wiped the non-violent resistance movements of the 20th Century off the face of the earth with not a moment's hesitation, leaving not a trace behind. Non-violence doesn't work against those who worship Might as the ultimate good. Which is not to say I'm advocating trading politics for violence against the American Fascist Party (formerly known as the GOP). We aren't without better alternatives and anyway, in a civil war we might well lose.
Otoh, punching Nazis is ethically justified, so you just have to decide if the opportunity arises if it is the smart thing to do.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Al Giordano
@AlGiordano:
"To the purity "progressives" growing frustrated that millions increasingly blame you for Trump's presidency: It's not going to stop."
It certainly won't stop here. Having helped give us W, in 2000, they learned nothing from that, and helped us give us Trump (who will make W. look like Lincoln in comparison) this time, all in fantasy pursuit of the Revolution, whatever its merits in theory, the bulk of the American people reject. Proving themselves ultimately nihilists in the guise of idealists: if they can't have their fantasy, they are fine with blowing up the world.
Under Trump, perhaps literally.
Given about 45,000 votes put Trump where he is, everything mattered, but basically 98% of Trump voters are never going to vote for a Democrat. so we don't have to play nice with them. The distinction "they aren't racists or sexists but racism and sexism wasn't a deal-breaker for them" is a false distinction. If racism and sexism aren't deal-breakers for you, you are racist and sexist.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Happy as I am about the nationwide Women's Marches, I have to point out that if they been held for Hillary before the election, they would have completely changed the MSM narrative and the marches wouldn't be needed now. Apparently the threat of Trump wasn't enough.
Let's not make that mistake again, shall we?
Let's not make that mistake again, shall we?
Friday, January 20, 2017
Thursday, January 19, 2017
He is the president of sexists,racists, bigots, greed-heads and fools. But for those of us who aren't Deplorable, he will NEVER be a legitimate occupant of the WH. Sid Blumenthal captures why:
http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-ways-trump-illegitimate/
I would just add if a majority of Americans had supported this intellectual and ethical void, it still wouldn't have made him legitimate. It would just have made the US illegitimate.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-ways-trump-illegitimate/
I would just add if a majority of Americans had supported this intellectual and ethical void, it still wouldn't have made him legitimate. It would just have made the US illegitimate.
Monday, January 16, 2017
- David Frum
@davidfrum -
In interview with the Times, Trump proposes dropping sanctions on Russia w/out any end to Russian war on Ukraine. It’s actually kind of hard to do justice to how alarming the Gove/UK Times interview with Trump is. Obviously the crazy statements have to be discounted by fact that Trump has not given them even 11 seconds thought before uttering them and that he’s perfectly capable of uttering exactly opposite (but still crazy in their own way) statements tomorrow, but bottom line is that the future of the free world is in the hands of somebody you would not hire to watch your dog.Yup.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
A bit more about my political worldview, so you'll know where I'm coming from.
First, my worldview changes, as either the facts or my grasp of them changes. People who admire Bernie because his politics hasn't changed since the 60s are to my mind revealing more than they intend.
Having said that, my politics have always leaned left rather than right. (I flirted with an oposing view in my teens reading early George Will, until I noticed he tended to lie. Oddly the MSM that employs him still hasn't noticed.) But how far left, on what issues and in what way, has evolved.
Let me also note that I have never been a bleeding heart liberal, because my heart does not easily bleed. In fact by temperament I ought to be on the Right, since my tastes in culture are almost reactionary (I have never developed a fondness for that roll and rock music, and rap to me is just noise) and I generally prefer animals to people.
On the up side, my misanthropy has prevented me from being racist or avoidably sexist (some unavoidable sexism comes from being a straight male, as in a fondness for nude women on film) because I have too low a regard for our species to find distinctions based on color, gender, or cultural background worth making. No doubt my being a half-Jewish/half-Baptist non-believer also helped keep me from the temptations of religious bigotry: they are all fictions to me, and my concerns about Islamic extremism have everything to do with their actions, and not the particular fictions they believe.
At one time, like Bernie, I called myself a socialist, but I grew out of it when I realized that "democratic socialism" in the west was no longer meaningfully socialist, and that actual socialism had failed everywhere it was tried. Bernie isn't a socialist either, nor are Revolutions voted into power: he is just an extreme liberal with an unfortunate affectation based on a need to feel ethically superior to most Democrats.
I am not anti-Capitalism, as it has proven a remarkable tool for making stuff. But that is all it is, an economic tool, and those who turn it into a religion demented. It is in fact both a tool we can't do without out, and one that has to be kept within strict bounds. Just as a hammer is a good thing until you give it to a four-year old, capitalism is a good thing until you hand it over to capitalists. It needs to be kept under strict observation and control so that it builds rather than smashes everything in site.
"Creative destruction" tends to leave too much destruction, and besides regulation, I support a strong social safety net, so that capitalism's losers can still leave decent lives. And the rich need to be heavily progressively taxed not just to fund that safety net, but because too much inequality is itself bad for democratic societies.
On foreign policy, I'm unwilling to support the dismantling of the American Empire until I'm sure it won't be replaced by something worse. And post-Vietnam (a war I opposed as a teen) the argument can be made the US caused as many deaths by not intervening in Rwanda or earlier in Yugoslavia or effectively in Syria as has been caused as our interventions in places we should have kept out of such as 2003 in Iraq. I opposed that war not because a monster like Saddam had any legitimacy but because it was obviously a stupid idea that could only cause us to fail in Afghanistan against the people who had harbored those who attacked us on 9/11. I'm not a pacifist, but military action is another dangerous tool that is justified only in extraordinary circumstances.
I also note the Isolationist Right and Left have long been connected: Gore Vidal, after all, was an America Firster, and never renounced that teenage romance.
On Presidents, my first vote was in Nov. 1976 for Carter, though in retrospect I think we would have been better off with Ford, who might have prevented RWR's takeover of the GOP in 1980, or at least his election. I do give RWR some credit for breaking from the Right in his late embrace of Gorbachev, but that's it. But the last Republican who deserved to win over a Democrat without indulging in such counterfactuals was Ike.
Bill Clinton was a mediocre President, but he was also constantly on the defensive, attacked not just by the GOP but by the MSM, and without much support from Dems in Congress. W. was a disaster, though Trump is going to make him look better in retrospect.
Obama was another mediocre President, who unlike Bill Clinton squandered a historic opportunity for liberal change. He promised not to give us a new New Deal and it was a promise he kept. And in Syria his unwillingess to either go in seriously or stay out, instead doing just enough to keep the war going, was a disaster not only for the Syrians but for the West, where the refugees have destablized European politics and provided an opening for Russia's fascist leader.
I believe Hillary would have been a better President than either her husband or Obama, but that, alas, is now a counterfactual as well. There is no question that Trump will be the worst one we've ever had.
As for Bernie: he would have lost without the FBI and FSB interventions that gave us Trump. The proof of that is that he couldn't come anywhere close to winning among the most liberal voting group in the country: voters in the Democratic primary.
Well that's enough for now on where I stand. Any specific questions, feel free to ask.
First, my worldview changes, as either the facts or my grasp of them changes. People who admire Bernie because his politics hasn't changed since the 60s are to my mind revealing more than they intend.
Having said that, my politics have always leaned left rather than right. (I flirted with an oposing view in my teens reading early George Will, until I noticed he tended to lie. Oddly the MSM that employs him still hasn't noticed.) But how far left, on what issues and in what way, has evolved.
Let me also note that I have never been a bleeding heart liberal, because my heart does not easily bleed. In fact by temperament I ought to be on the Right, since my tastes in culture are almost reactionary (I have never developed a fondness for that roll and rock music, and rap to me is just noise) and I generally prefer animals to people.
On the up side, my misanthropy has prevented me from being racist or avoidably sexist (some unavoidable sexism comes from being a straight male, as in a fondness for nude women on film) because I have too low a regard for our species to find distinctions based on color, gender, or cultural background worth making. No doubt my being a half-Jewish/half-Baptist non-believer also helped keep me from the temptations of religious bigotry: they are all fictions to me, and my concerns about Islamic extremism have everything to do with their actions, and not the particular fictions they believe.
At one time, like Bernie, I called myself a socialist, but I grew out of it when I realized that "democratic socialism" in the west was no longer meaningfully socialist, and that actual socialism had failed everywhere it was tried. Bernie isn't a socialist either, nor are Revolutions voted into power: he is just an extreme liberal with an unfortunate affectation based on a need to feel ethically superior to most Democrats.
I am not anti-Capitalism, as it has proven a remarkable tool for making stuff. But that is all it is, an economic tool, and those who turn it into a religion demented. It is in fact both a tool we can't do without out, and one that has to be kept within strict bounds. Just as a hammer is a good thing until you give it to a four-year old, capitalism is a good thing until you hand it over to capitalists. It needs to be kept under strict observation and control so that it builds rather than smashes everything in site.
"Creative destruction" tends to leave too much destruction, and besides regulation, I support a strong social safety net, so that capitalism's losers can still leave decent lives. And the rich need to be heavily progressively taxed not just to fund that safety net, but because too much inequality is itself bad for democratic societies.
On foreign policy, I'm unwilling to support the dismantling of the American Empire until I'm sure it won't be replaced by something worse. And post-Vietnam (a war I opposed as a teen) the argument can be made the US caused as many deaths by not intervening in Rwanda or earlier in Yugoslavia or effectively in Syria as has been caused as our interventions in places we should have kept out of such as 2003 in Iraq. I opposed that war not because a monster like Saddam had any legitimacy but because it was obviously a stupid idea that could only cause us to fail in Afghanistan against the people who had harbored those who attacked us on 9/11. I'm not a pacifist, but military action is another dangerous tool that is justified only in extraordinary circumstances.
I also note the Isolationist Right and Left have long been connected: Gore Vidal, after all, was an America Firster, and never renounced that teenage romance.
On Presidents, my first vote was in Nov. 1976 for Carter, though in retrospect I think we would have been better off with Ford, who might have prevented RWR's takeover of the GOP in 1980, or at least his election. I do give RWR some credit for breaking from the Right in his late embrace of Gorbachev, but that's it. But the last Republican who deserved to win over a Democrat without indulging in such counterfactuals was Ike.
Bill Clinton was a mediocre President, but he was also constantly on the defensive, attacked not just by the GOP but by the MSM, and without much support from Dems in Congress. W. was a disaster, though Trump is going to make him look better in retrospect.
Obama was another mediocre President, who unlike Bill Clinton squandered a historic opportunity for liberal change. He promised not to give us a new New Deal and it was a promise he kept. And in Syria his unwillingess to either go in seriously or stay out, instead doing just enough to keep the war going, was a disaster not only for the Syrians but for the West, where the refugees have destablized European politics and provided an opening for Russia's fascist leader.
I believe Hillary would have been a better President than either her husband or Obama, but that, alas, is now a counterfactual as well. There is no question that Trump will be the worst one we've ever had.
As for Bernie: he would have lost without the FBI and FSB interventions that gave us Trump. The proof of that is that he couldn't come anywhere close to winning among the most liberal voting group in the country: voters in the Democratic primary.
Well that's enough for now on where I stand. Any specific questions, feel free to ask.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Reading Arkady Ostrovsky's excellent book The Invention of Russia: From Gorbachev;s Freedom to Putin's War.
As it turns out, it not only does an excellent job of explaining the threat posed to the West by Putin, but also tells a lot about how the US is following the same path towards corrupt autocracy (and not just the obvious link of Putin's intervention in our election).
For example, consider this on the Yeltsin-era media oligrchs:
"They lacked the most important attribute of an elite-a sense of responsibility for, and historic consciousness of, their own country."
This is an apt description not only of our own media elites, but of elected Republicans, who almost without exception have surrendered to Trumpism. Or for that matter the generally well-off promoters of the Bernie Cult with its fantasy of Revolution.
We are in deep trouble, beyond one man's obvious unfitness for office.
As it turns out, it not only does an excellent job of explaining the threat posed to the West by Putin, but also tells a lot about how the US is following the same path towards corrupt autocracy (and not just the obvious link of Putin's intervention in our election).
For example, consider this on the Yeltsin-era media oligrchs:
"They lacked the most important attribute of an elite-a sense of responsibility for, and historic consciousness of, their own country."
This is an apt description not only of our own media elites, but of elected Republicans, who almost without exception have surrendered to Trumpism. Or for that matter the generally well-off promoters of the Bernie Cult with its fantasy of Revolution.
We are in deep trouble, beyond one man's obvious unfitness for office.
TinaDupuy:
OMG, what if the pee story *isn't* true and we're all defiling the good name of a pussy grabbing neo-Nazi Putin puppet conman!?!
Thursday, January 12, 2017
On those who gave us this catastrophe:
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/01/comey-and-the-media-threw-the-election-to-the-worst-president-ever
Btw, if anyone knows how I can make these links linky, so you don't have to cut and paste to use them, I'd appreciate letting me know. My computer skills range from slim to none.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/01/comey-and-the-media-threw-the-election-to-the-worst-president-ever
Btw, if anyone knows how I can make these links linky, so you don't have to cut and paste to use them, I'd appreciate letting me know. My computer skills range from slim to none.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
There are people I respect who disagree, nevertheless, I still think "fascism" is the right word to describe the Trump-pest GOP. Populist, racist, sexist, nationalist, corrupt, authoritarian, consistently dishonest.
The biggest difference between Classic Coke Fascism and New Coke Fascism is the willingness to own the name, but that's a result of history not a real difference in their worldview.
About the best we can hope for from them is that they are more the Duce's fascists than the Fuhrer's.
Otoh, Hitler never had nukes.
The biggest difference between Classic Coke Fascism and New Coke Fascism is the willingness to own the name, but that's a result of history not a real difference in their worldview.
About the best we can hope for from them is that they are more the Duce's fascists than the Fuhrer's.
Otoh, Hitler never had nukes.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
After my last post, I should note that Bernie has finally spoken out about Russia owning Trump. Better late than never.
And a reminder:
Roy Edroso
And a reminder:
Roy Edroso
"It's important to remember that, in addition to his corruption and buffoonery, he is also a vicious psychopath."
I've said is a strange blend of the Third Reich and Being There, but we mustn't let the latter make us underestimate the former.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
A list of people worth following on Twitter (a sentence I once could never imagine writing, but then I couldn't imagine the Orange Fascist Buffoon in the WH either):
Armando at DKos
Strobe Talbott
Roy Edroso
Rebecca Traister
Eric Boehlert
Neeri Tanden
Simon Schama
Al Giordano
Peter Daou
Charles M. Blow
David Frum
Anne Applebaum
Sarah Kendzior
Paul Waldman
Norman Orstein
Joan Walsh
EJ Dionne
Brian Beutler
Bruce Bartlett
Paul Krugman
and in a lighter vein
Jen Kirkman
Joss Whedon
Andy Richter
Morgan Murphy
Mike Birbiglia
Quinn Cummings
Seth MacFarlane
Armando at DKos
Strobe Talbott
Roy Edroso
Rebecca Traister
Eric Boehlert
Neeri Tanden
Simon Schama
Al Giordano
Peter Daou
Charles M. Blow
David Frum
Anne Applebaum
Sarah Kendzior
Paul Waldman
Norman Orstein
Joan Walsh
EJ Dionne
Brian Beutler
Bruce Bartlett
Paul Krugman
and in a lighter vein
Jen Kirkman
Joss Whedon
Andy Richter
Morgan Murphy
Mike Birbiglia
Quinn Cummings
Seth MacFarlane
Saturday, January 7, 2017
The Deplorables
Trump voters are in fact Deplorable. Ignorance is one thing, willful ignorance something else. Decades of stewing inside a far-Right bubble has curdled sour milk into toxic cheese. Bernie may keep talking about winning over the white working class, but that can only be done at the expense of women and minorities. (And yes, 53% of white women voted for Trump, deciding that they were White more than they were Women.)
It took a great many things to give us Trump. This is a partial list:
A corrupt incompetent cowardly and sexist Mainstream Media (hereafter MSM).
The unjustified attacks on HRC's character by the Bernie campaign, which continued long after it was clear the choice was her or Trump. Yes Bernie campaigned for her in the end, in a classic case of too little, too late.
The intervention of the Russians, through the demented clown Assange.
The virtual coup by the FBI.
Remove any one of those and Trump would be back in private life trying to avoid another bankruptcy. But none of that removes the responsibility of those who voted for Trump. And it was sexism and racism that motivated those voters.
Which is why I will feel no empathy when their support of Trump bites them on the ass. (They will blame it on the Dems anyway.)
Hence the name of this Blog.
Trump voters are in fact Deplorable. Ignorance is one thing, willful ignorance something else. Decades of stewing inside a far-Right bubble has curdled sour milk into toxic cheese. Bernie may keep talking about winning over the white working class, but that can only be done at the expense of women and minorities. (And yes, 53% of white women voted for Trump, deciding that they were White more than they were Women.)
It took a great many things to give us Trump. This is a partial list:
A corrupt incompetent cowardly and sexist Mainstream Media (hereafter MSM).
The unjustified attacks on HRC's character by the Bernie campaign, which continued long after it was clear the choice was her or Trump. Yes Bernie campaigned for her in the end, in a classic case of too little, too late.
The intervention of the Russians, through the demented clown Assange.
The virtual coup by the FBI.
Remove any one of those and Trump would be back in private life trying to avoid another bankruptcy. But none of that removes the responsibility of those who voted for Trump. And it was sexism and racism that motivated those voters.
Which is why I will feel no empathy when their support of Trump bites them on the ass. (They will blame it on the Dems anyway.)
Hence the name of this Blog.
Two links that sum up my worldview just now:
https://thinkprogress.org/the-center-has-fallen-and-white-nationalism-is-filling-the-vacuum-beb0611dfe94#.ovbod1h1d
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_good_fight/2017/01/if_not_america_who_will_protect_the_liberal_world_order_in_the_trump_era.html
https://thinkprogress.org/the-center-has-fallen-and-white-nationalism-is-filling-the-vacuum-beb0611dfe94#.ovbod1h1d
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_good_fight/2017/01/if_not_america_who_will_protect_the_liberal_world_order_in_the_trump_era.html
A little about me: 58 year-old writer and game designer (author of Crowns in the Gutter, a history of WWI) , New Deal Democrat, fan of Hillary Clinton (more than Bill, or for that matter, Obama), and enemy (with all decent people) of the American Fascist Party (formerly known as the GOP).
This will be a record of the horrors of the next four years, with celebrations of whatever victories over the bad guys we manage, and lots of links to others fighting the good fight.
More later-for now, I wish us all luck. We are going to need it.
This will be a record of the horrors of the next four years, with celebrations of whatever victories over the bad guys we manage, and lots of links to others fighting the good fight.
More later-for now, I wish us all luck. We are going to need it.
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