February 17, 2021

What some of us have been seeking might already be happening by osmosis

It might not be necessary to change our tactics if the GOP continues to disintegrate.

A month ago I was saying we should at least consider more drastic tactics, but we might be moving in the right direction of becoming a party that is coalesced around the idea of opposing the GOP as the party that opposes Democracy and has contempt for our founding principles and the Constitution.

The Republicans have become an identitarian party that is not seriously about issues (other than figleaves like abortion, "religious freedoms" and immigration) but simply opposing us. They are now clarifying who they are for all to see, and maybe we can coalesce around the idea of opposing them as fiercely as they oppose us. I thought for a long time this couldn't happen unless we actually made it happen, but it seems to be happening by itself. Voters motivated by anger at the other side, Ezra Klein argues (and IMO proves) in his book Why We're Polarized are consistently more reliable and turn out in greater numbers even in midterm elections. Voters like that do not "split the ticket." They vote straight ticket; they get out there no matter what.

At that point politics moves beyond policy and becomes about who we are as people.

February 14, 2021

He and his father were disciples of Norman Vincent Peale

No admission of defeat is allowed. No negative thinking is allowed. His lifelong pattern has been to spin devastating and embarrassing defeats into "victories." It's a kind of self-brainwashing, so he probably does believe it. On the other hand, his compulsion to exclude from his inner circle anyone who criticizes him or sees things a different way makes me wonder if deep down he can tell the difference between a failure and a success.

February 12, 2021

Yes, yes and yes.

I'm puzzled by some of the posts I'm seeing on other threads, where people seem to be getting sidetracked on what I think are irrelevancies. The main point, the bottom line:

I can't understand why anyone in the Democratic Party would ever, for an instant, think of interfering with that dynamic, discouraging that possibility, or have a problem with that.

February 12, 2021

I get that Nikki Haley is a phony doing this for political expediency. But what I like about

it is that it will enrage Trump and he will waste at least a week ruminating and planning his revenge.

The more sidetracked by rage and vengeance Trump is, the worse it is for his health. He is losing his grip on power, realizes it, and will become even more self-destructive as a consequence.

So two things can be true: Haley is a fraud. Haley throwing shade at Trump is a good thing.

February 11, 2021

I would think it's more that "Trump is here because" conservative elites realized he could

be useful to their multi-various agendas (from the Christian Nationalists to the Mercers, the Kochs, fossil fuel, anti-government, anti-tax, anti-choice, climate change deniers, real estate moguls, proponents of deregulation, conservative think tanks, etc.) and pushed his opponents out of the way, and then outlets like Fox, Breitbart, InfoWars jumped on board. But I'm hesitant to leave it at that, since there were undeniably other factors. No doubt he made money for media interests, but so many powerful organizations and corporations had been waiting in desperation for an impressionable, easily manipulated, racist, apolitical charismatic leader who could be told what to do for decades and decades. He was a dream come true for a lot of scumbags.

Last but not least, Putin really liked the idea of an imbecile running the most powerful country on earth.

February 11, 2021

Readers of Abramson need to keep in mind he attended The Iowa Writer's Workshop

traditionally a training ground for creative fiction writers. Some of our great novelists taught and studied there (Cheever, John Irving, T.C. Boyle).

I really enjoy his writing and have posted some of it here at DU. But I think of it more like performance art than actual journalism. It's very pyrotechnical and filled with connections that may or may not exist. Critical theorists will probably come up with a term to define what he does. It's very novel and inventive. Post-truth semi-truthiness?

To me his value is that he challenges readers to contemplate many theoretical possibilities to explain the corruption that surrounds us. Part of his appeal is that he writes with such obsessive and fierce conviction, but how much of what he theorizes does he actually believe?

February 11, 2021

Stone, Flynn and Bannon seem like more likely candidates IMO.

Longtime Trump advisers connected to groups behind rally that led to Capitol attack

Roger Stone, Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn all promoted the Jan. 6 rally.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/longtime-trump-advisers-connected-groups-rally-led-capitol/story?id=75261028

Personally, I can't imagine Trump putting Don Jr. in charge of anything large or small. Rudy? Maybe.

Alex Jones, Ali Alexander, Gosar, Biggs, Moe Brooks and some other shady figures are also floating around in this mix.

February 11, 2021

Totally agree

Richard J. Evans
Ian Kershaw
Adam Tooze
Richard Overy
Antony Beevor
Max Hastings

Although I do think with Ian Tolle, Christopher Browning and Timothy Snyder (and Anne Applebaum and Stephen Kotkin--at least on Stalin) we are catching up.

February 11, 2021

Thank you, Malaise!

You deserve another heart for that.



For what it's worth, Shirer's book is sixty years old.

Richard J. Evans' Third Reich Trilogy is a recent, comprehensive history that contains tons of information that was unavailable in in the 1950s. It is unlikely to be surpassed in terms of sheer scholarship, depth, and explaining and documenting the ascent, reign and collapse of the Reich. (It's just very, very long)

In terms of how Hitler acquired power, a more current history has been written by Benjamin Carter Hett in his minor masterpiece The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic. He highlights all the modern parallels.

February 10, 2021

That sure as hell caught my ear too.

Load up on guns and bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend - Nirvana