So, the GOP is now the party of Russian subversion:

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/18/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-putin-215387

and defended by the idiot Left (see The Nation, or for that matter Bernie, who says we mustn't "rush to judgement" over the obvious).

Nationalists on the Right allying with Socialists on the Left against liberal democracy. Perhaps we can call them National Socialists.

Meanwhile The New Yorker runs a story on how Trump's rural voters support him because the Left (by which they mean not the Left  but supporters of liberal democracy, though they are too ignorant to know it) hates Trump for the same reason we hate them.

To which I reply, if you say so. If you share Trump's racism, sexism, bigotry, greed, corrupt authoritarianism and willful ignorance, then yes, I hate you and for the exact same reasons.

And you deserve it.

First, been busy selling our house (we have accepted an offer, but haven't closed, so there is always the chance the deal will fall through, which has kept me away from blogging. Apologies to my vast audience of readers.

Reading another book on the Holocaust (a subject one cannot study too much) and I'm struck again about the comparison between Germany then and the US now. Not so much between Trump and Hitler, or the GOP and the Nazis as (again) between how much and how little it took our respective voters to leap off a cliff. Germany, a nation with no democratic traditions, took a lost world war, multiple revolutions, hyper-inflation, depression, and international humiliation to turn to extremists (mostly on the Right but also the Left). The US, a country with hundreds of years of democratic tradition, took a severe but hardly historic economic downturn, some mediocre leadership, and the horror of a black man being succeeded by a woman to turn to extremists (again, mostly on the Right but also on the Left). American exceptionalism indeed.

Or perhaps not: the US and UK seemed locked together in mutual stupidity lately. Isolationism, inequality, a turn to the extremes.

Liberals (again, I use the term in the American sense) in both countries are fighting back, and perhaps we will prevail, but we shouldn't be here to begin with. And in both nations, the press, and especially but hardly only the Murdoch press, bears a large share of the blame. Still in the bad journalism contest the US wins pretty handily. The BBC isn't CNN or MSNBC, and the Guardian isn't the NY Times.

But again, there are intelligent voices. Here is one over there worth listening too that has obvious relevance here:

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/06/politics-needless-death/#

Go. Read.

Some random thoughts in response to the hurricane of news lately:

Roger Ailes died 50 years too late.

Dems should run the film of Trump doing a curtsy to the Saudi king in every ad for every race forever.

Mike Pence is in this up to his eyeballs, though the thought of Paul Ryan in the WH prevents that from being as amusing as it could be.

Bernie, on the day before the special prosecutor was appointed, rushed to agree it isn't time to talk of impeachment yet. He is right-January 20 was the time to start talking about impeachment. What a fraud, and his cultists are as deluded (if not as evil) as Trump's.

Speaking of which, anyone who voted for Trump has demonstrated they are incapable of taking their duty as citizens seriously, and should never be allowed to vote again. I suggest an Amendment to the Constitution to that effect. :)

The American Fascist Party (aka the GOP) will do nothing to oust the traitor in the WH. Tax cuts for the rich and preserving their own power matter more than the United States to them. The only thing that can save America at this point is a Democratic tidal wave in 2018. But among other things that requires Bernie and his cultists, since they won't lead on Trump's treason, to at least get the fuck out of the way.

All isn't lost yet, but there is no room for error. And no room for compromise: Trump MUST be removed from power. And that requires a Democratic Congress. Give money if you can. Give time if you can. But above all-VOTE DEMOCRATIC!

Rick Perlstein wakes up to the racist reactionary proto-fascist foundation of the American Right:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/11/magazine/i-thought-i-understood-the-american-right-trump-proved-me-wrong.html?_r=0

Better late than never. To be fair, while I was always aware of that foundation, Obama's two elections briefly convinced me that the Left was correct that it was economic populism and not racism/sexism/bigotry that was the new driver of national discontent, but unlike Bernie and his bots, Trump's campaign very quickly convinced me to go back to my original view of the GOP as the latest avatar of hate and ignorance going back to the Know-Nothings, the CSA, the Klan, the fans of Mac the Knife and the communist witch hunts, and the Dixiecrats.

There are some  Trump voters who are more stupid than evil, but by and large, the Right represents the dark forces of the anti-Enlightenment.

A bit more on Syria.

A lot of Obama fans are saying he "learned from Libya" not to get involved in Syria. There are some problems with that.

First, Syria isn't Libya, just as Libya isn't Iraq, just as Iraq wasn't Afghanistan. This habit of trying to generalize and draw "rules" is always a mistake, as well as lazy, ignoring that even Muslim dictatorships are different, as are the circumstances that might call for-or against-military action. Every case needs to be examined on its own merits, not by comparison with other places and situations which may be very different. (For that matter Korea and Vietnam were very different as well.)

Second, Obama didn't learn from Libya. In both Syria and Libya he acted belatedly and in split-the-difference fashion, without a long term strategy. In Libya, the results may have been bad for Libyans, but Syria has been a disaster for the West, destabilizing Europe, helping to bring Trump to power and helping Putin. That was because Obama didn't stay out of Syria, he did just enough to prolong the war.  That suggests, though it doesn't prove, that Hillary was right in wanting to do more immediately to help the rebels (not all of whom at the time were anti-Western). Or that Obama should have actually done nothing, rather than drawing red lines he then ignored.

None of which means supporting Trump now: Trump isn't Obama, much less Hillary. He is an evil ignorant clown and nothing he touches can be expected to turn out for the good, never mind the best. But I oppose Trump, without embracing Obama's policies, or adopting the view that US military intervention is always wrong. As I said, case by case, situation by situation.

A military response to Assad's latest war crime is not in itself unreasonable, if carried out by a legitimate administration with care and thought, after preparing both Congress and the public. But this administration is neither legitimate or rational, and no effort was made to consult with Congress or outline plans to the public. What this really is is an attempt to boost Trump's approval ratings with the usual "rally round the flag" effect, and in the short run, with the help of an always incompetent MSM, I expect it will do just that.

But the bounce won't last, and this is a card with limited ability to replay.