July 27, 2020

Shockey, you certainly do know your history.

That's how it will go down at the very end. His supporters are already receiving bullying, threatening texts lambasting them for not giving enough money and effort.

When Trumpism is in its death throes, the cult members will be told they are largely to blame for not appreciating Trump enough, for not being tough enough, for not fighting hard enough. And he'll probably say something like, "My supporters deserve to be defeated because they failed me." (Of course, it will also be the Deep State/Dem conspiracy too that is to blame).

Trump's world is a fake Survival of the Fittest, where every loss is rationalized by factors having nothing to do with his own failings as a leader and a human being.

Just remember what unfolded during the last six months of the Third Reich.

July 26, 2020

Kubrick's screenplay "Napoleon"

Sensational screenplay that features an ironic and detached narrator that echoes Dr. Strangelove and prefigures its more elegant and sophisticated use in Barry Lyndon.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9DS_zk2FintNmFkZjM3ODUtMzY0ZS00Mzg0LWFhMzUtYWRjZjU1YjUwMTEx/edit?hl=en

Ahh, what could have been...

July 26, 2020

Yes. And U.S. Marshals sexually assaulting one of the moms is not a good look:

Portland Mom Says She Was Groped & Assaulted by Feds During Protest Arrest
https://heavy.com/news/2020/07/jennifer-kristiansen-portland-mom-arrested/

Portland Mom Arrested, Claims She Was Sexually Assaulted
https://hillreporter.com/portland-mom-arrested-claims-she-was-sexually-assaulted-74095

Great PR for the prestigious US Marshals

July 26, 2020

How wonderful to hear some Elvis Costello

Hearing "Get Happy" and "Imperial Bedroom" for the first time when I went away to college was like an epiphany of my musical awakening. I had no clue what was out there. Before Elvis Costello, I thought there was only Kiss, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and The Police.

The musical universe opened up after that.

July 25, 2020

Kicking. From a book review by Timothy Snyder:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/books/review/benjamin-carter-hett-death-of-democracy.html

When a society consists of somewhere between 30% and 35% of its population who believe not just small lies but Total Lies, what is that society to do?

July 25, 2020

90% agree.

I also think the people around him, like Barr, Miller and (now) John Yoo are beginning to push the boundaries of the Constitution to see what the legal reaction is, and how far they might be able to go between now and November.

I hope I'm overreacting, but I see this as an incredibly dangerous moment, not just the secret police but the executive orders and treaty violations coming down the pike.

July 25, 2020

Maybe Rudy is no friend of the New York mob, but he seems to have buttered his bread

with money from the pro-Russian Ukrainian mob and maybe the Russian mafia/KGB.

I'm trying to recall if Rudy is mentioned in Craig Ungar's book House of Trump, House of Putin. Ungar does write in some detail about the Russian mafia moving into New York too, during the exact times you're talking about. They started small and grew and grew, at one point gaining extraordinary power in NYC.

I'd like to see that series you're talking about. Sounds fascinating.

July 25, 2020

Damned right.

Or the next time someone on Twitter tries to get you to distrust The Lincoln Project because they might not be our friends four or eight years from today. Why? So that their funding dries up and they become less effective?


Book review by Timothy Snyder:
How Did the Nazis Gain Power in Germany?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/books/review/benjamin-carter-hett-death-of-democracy.html

July 25, 2020

I've seen these attacks on Twitter as a recurring theme

And I don't trust the motives of these attackers. I think it's yet another effort to cause us to lose confidence in and distrust an important part of our team and divide us on a sideshow issue. I wish there was some way to track down the origin of social media accounts attacking the Lincoln Project, because I'm half-convinced we'd discover some of them are of foreign origin.

Finally, you have to ask yourself the obvious question of who would be trying to get us to distrust the Lincoln Project? Someone who fears the Lincoln Project. Someone who finds them effective and wishes they would go away.

Always think about motive.

July 25, 2020

This post overlooks something very obvious.

Trump is surrounded by people who are none of these things, who have found someone highly susceptible to influence and easily manipulated at a time when both the interests of Trump and the interests of far right powers within the Republican party have come into perfect alignment. Authoritarianistic aims is the only hope of survival for these people, so expect them to execute authoritarian policies.

When two such entities find their goals in alignment, it is a moot point how "bored" or stupid Trump is. John Yoo isn't stupid. William Barr isn't stupid. Stephen Miller has totalitarian aims, and so do many of Trump's most prolific donors. It is a movement with tremendous money and evil ingenuity behind it.

In my opinion, people downplay the significance of what is unfolding at tremendous risk.

Listen to people like Timothy Snyder.

Check out this NYT piece:

American Catastrophe Through German Eyes

Trump says he wants to protect law-abiding citizens. In 1933, Hitler issued his ‘Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State.’

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/opinion/trump-germany.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage