I really like what you do in these posts as they help the reader to connect a lot of the sub-surface mechanisms and infrastructure that informs what is happening to us and why. However, I do wonder why you repeatedly use the phrase, “These are not serious people” as your conclusory judgement. I really don’t think it lands as powerfully as apparently you do.
Whenever you declare this I immediately think, “Are you kidding me? These people are about as serious as we’ve encountered domestically in more than a century. They are serious about crushing and, as far as possible, erasing all evidence of the existence of liberalism, including rolling back the egalitarian gains of The New Deal, the a suffragists, The Great Society, The civil Rights Movement, etc., etc., and creating and cementing in place the law and order of white Christian nationalism and related thuggish and plutocratic elements of a hemispheric criminal syndicate.” Yes, I think all of that and more in about half a second.
These people are damned — and even demonically — serious. And it is perhaps only because Trump and his consiglieri have become so obnoxiously brazen and intoxicated (as you so adeptly describe) in their hubris and mania for treasure, tribute and territory, that even some of the most Foxified Americans are beginning to wonder what has possessed these people.
All of which is to say that I think you might want to consider a way to characterize these seriously, dangerous people and their epically apocryphal agenda.
They are earnest and dedicated. against all reason, in a way the Brits call “bloody minded.” They are so in love with their dumb, simplistic model of the world that they will insist on it despite any evidence to the contrary. In this way, they remind me of young earth creationists, who expend tremendous effort on the mental gyrations needed to defend an absurd belief.
I believe there is a larger message behind all of what we are seeing. And I have said this before and for some years. Trump is acting like a Russian operative. He is intent on destroying the United States of America. He is a puppet of Vladimir Putin. He should be impeached and then tried for treason.
All of this nonsense with Comey is such bullshit, and it's amazing to me that the mainstream news media doesn't understand what the expression "86" means. It was used in places like bars, perhaps restaurants, where a customer was unruly and you wanted him thrown out of the establishment. It perfectly fits Trump because it means "throw the bum out." So what is behind all of this is that we put a bum into a position of power and he's acting perfectly the way he always has acted. He comes first, and his admiration of all of the fascist leaders of the world vie with that focus. Trump admires perpetual demagogues like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and currently Putin, as well as his love affair with North Korea's Kim.
It is a harsh reality for the American public to realize how stupid or ignorant they have been and how derelict they have been regarding paying attention to who they put into office. Although I give the lion's share, like 95% of the blame to the Republicans and the Republican Party, I also find the Democratic Party to be seriously at fault in not dealing with these issues when they were in power. They were terrible and not addressing the Epstein files when they were in charge of the Congress and the presidency. They were derelict in not doing something with intelligent immigration legislation when they had the chance. They did not do away with gerrymandering and the filibuster when they had the chance. They did nothing to ensure that the Supreme Court would always have some balance when they had the chance.
What we have right now in the US is a shitstorm. It is the decline of democracy and perhaps the death of democracy because of an ignorant electorate. This is the bottom line. A turd like Trump could never have risen to the surface if it were not for the ignorance of the citizens of this country. So shame on us.
And one last jab to the mainstream media. When Trump talks about the price of gasoline getting better, all you've got to do, media, is remind them what Trump said about COVID: "It will go away when the weather gets warmer." How can intelligent newscasters be so fucking ignorant regarding the blatancy of what Trump says and does. Why aren't more mainstream media spokespersons just calling it what it is? "Bullshit."Just say it. Trump insults the American citizenry with his nonstop bullshit. He needs to be removed from office. He should be 86'd from his position as POTUS. All of America that feels this way should be out wearing t-shirts or sweatshirts that say 86 Trump. And it doesn't freaking mean kill someone, it means just throw the bum out.
He's too much of a malignant narcissist to be truly controlled by Putin. His deference to Putin stems from wanting to be seen as on his level—feared, all-powerful within his domain. But he is not taking instruction from the Kremlin. But the Kremlin surely tries to weaponize his narcissism to their benefit, for sure.
Putin’s political influence within Maga is also hidden in the obvious. For misogynist narcissists like Trump who are so easily led around by their dicks, the obvious weak point of entry for a hostile power is through sexual control. I suspect a deep dive into Melania’s personal life history might throw up interesting national security red flags. A Manchurian candidate does not have to be either a POTUS or a man. That even this sub rosa tactic is beginning to fail with the psychologically damaged Trump can be witnessed by the increasingly hostile behaviour of his First Lady towards him in public events.
I purchased an 86 47 tank top about a year ago. It was easily available on the Internet. In Trump's 4th grade vocab, it always has meant, "get-em outta here."
These were NOT serious people should be the phrase emblazoned under the republican's group mugshot posters that will hang everywhere like that GD felon hangs his likeness. History will not be kind to them. No one should be.
May they all hang together for the treasons they perpetrate and accuse others of having engaged in!
Great focus on libertarianism, which is a scam and a smokescreen. Freeloader capitalism is what it is. Republicans have never been on the rails, at least not on the American Railroad, because they never accepted the social contract in the first place, being intent on plunder. With Trump as my witness they regard the law generally as regulation, to be subverted and used to advantage if not corrupted out of existence. Which is underway.
There are turning points.
The beginning of the push to allow money to distort elections, dating to 1974 or so. The implementation of the Southern Strategy following the wake-up call of Wallace in '68. My favorite is the frat-boy rebellion when assholes took over College Republicans and then the country. That happened fast. In the Abramoff trial we learned just what they were about, revolution, and we let it slide, not wanting to believe of incapable of comprehending that they had declared war on their fellow citizens, substituting them for the Russian commies in their pantheon of enemies.
"Therefore the lesson of Spirit is that we need to free the merger and acquisition market from the regulatory state’s interference" in order to create monopoly markets that will squeeze every last dollar from consumers and every last ounce of productivity from workers and place all of it in our oligarchical fat-cat pockets.
When you're right, you're right. Some of this reminded me of the Obama "You didn't build this" speech, where he used George Lakoff's ideas to talk about the relationship between business and politics (and responsibility). A really good piece.
You accurately describe the addiction personality of our narcissist in chief. These people have such a hunger for attention that no amount of deference or praise can ever satisfy it. The only way to deal with them is to deny them what they want or walk away. I wonder how many people supporting Trump and the others enabling him are trying to rationalize their destructive behavior or are they all mentally compromised to some extent?
Agree with a lot of this but "American leadership in a region the United States has spent eighty years stabilizing." is the one of the most insane combination of words I've ever read.
It seems to me that once upon a time, the Republicans argued that the magic of the "invisible hand" of the marketplace was that poorly-run business would fail and well-run businesses would survive, and that this was fundamental to how the marketplace should operate. But now, it seems, every business is "too big to fail"...
I feel like the true failure of the libertarian (maybe the materialist) frame is attempting to treat the consumer, the voter, and the worker separately, when in fact everyone is all three at once.
I really like what you do in these posts as they help the reader to connect a lot of the sub-surface mechanisms and infrastructure that informs what is happening to us and why. However, I do wonder why you repeatedly use the phrase, “These are not serious people” as your conclusory judgement. I really don’t think it lands as powerfully as apparently you do.
Whenever you declare this I immediately think, “Are you kidding me? These people are about as serious as we’ve encountered domestically in more than a century. They are serious about crushing and, as far as possible, erasing all evidence of the existence of liberalism, including rolling back the egalitarian gains of The New Deal, the a suffragists, The Great Society, The civil Rights Movement, etc., etc., and creating and cementing in place the law and order of white Christian nationalism and related thuggish and plutocratic elements of a hemispheric criminal syndicate.” Yes, I think all of that and more in about half a second.
These people are damned — and even demonically — serious. And it is perhaps only because Trump and his consiglieri have become so obnoxiously brazen and intoxicated (as you so adeptly describe) in their hubris and mania for treasure, tribute and territory, that even some of the most Foxified Americans are beginning to wonder what has possessed these people.
All of which is to say that I think you might want to consider a way to characterize these seriously, dangerous people and their epically apocryphal agenda.
I’m trying to do philosophy in the agora, Mr. Saxton!
Right. And so I guess that means I am disagoraing with you about one aspect of your metaphysics/metapsychics? 😅
And you can call me Jon.
They are earnest and dedicated. against all reason, in a way the Brits call “bloody minded.” They are so in love with their dumb, simplistic model of the world that they will insist on it despite any evidence to the contrary. In this way, they remind me of young earth creationists, who expend tremendous effort on the mental gyrations needed to defend an absurd belief.
So true…
"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance."
~George Orwell
Just because they're deeply serious about their agenda doesn't mean it's well-thought out or mature.
Yes. Thankfully, Trump is his own worst enemy.
I believe there is a larger message behind all of what we are seeing. And I have said this before and for some years. Trump is acting like a Russian operative. He is intent on destroying the United States of America. He is a puppet of Vladimir Putin. He should be impeached and then tried for treason.
All of this nonsense with Comey is such bullshit, and it's amazing to me that the mainstream news media doesn't understand what the expression "86" means. It was used in places like bars, perhaps restaurants, where a customer was unruly and you wanted him thrown out of the establishment. It perfectly fits Trump because it means "throw the bum out." So what is behind all of this is that we put a bum into a position of power and he's acting perfectly the way he always has acted. He comes first, and his admiration of all of the fascist leaders of the world vie with that focus. Trump admires perpetual demagogues like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and currently Putin, as well as his love affair with North Korea's Kim.
It is a harsh reality for the American public to realize how stupid or ignorant they have been and how derelict they have been regarding paying attention to who they put into office. Although I give the lion's share, like 95% of the blame to the Republicans and the Republican Party, I also find the Democratic Party to be seriously at fault in not dealing with these issues when they were in power. They were terrible and not addressing the Epstein files when they were in charge of the Congress and the presidency. They were derelict in not doing something with intelligent immigration legislation when they had the chance. They did not do away with gerrymandering and the filibuster when they had the chance. They did nothing to ensure that the Supreme Court would always have some balance when they had the chance.
What we have right now in the US is a shitstorm. It is the decline of democracy and perhaps the death of democracy because of an ignorant electorate. This is the bottom line. A turd like Trump could never have risen to the surface if it were not for the ignorance of the citizens of this country. So shame on us.
And one last jab to the mainstream media. When Trump talks about the price of gasoline getting better, all you've got to do, media, is remind them what Trump said about COVID: "It will go away when the weather gets warmer." How can intelligent newscasters be so fucking ignorant regarding the blatancy of what Trump says and does. Why aren't more mainstream media spokespersons just calling it what it is? "Bullshit."Just say it. Trump insults the American citizenry with his nonstop bullshit. He needs to be removed from office. He should be 86'd from his position as POTUS. All of America that feels this way should be out wearing t-shirts or sweatshirts that say 86 Trump. And it doesn't freaking mean kill someone, it means just throw the bum out.
He's too much of a malignant narcissist to be truly controlled by Putin. His deference to Putin stems from wanting to be seen as on his level—feared, all-powerful within his domain. But he is not taking instruction from the Kremlin. But the Kremlin surely tries to weaponize his narcissism to their benefit, for sure.
Putin’s political influence within Maga is also hidden in the obvious. For misogynist narcissists like Trump who are so easily led around by their dicks, the obvious weak point of entry for a hostile power is through sexual control. I suspect a deep dive into Melania’s personal life history might throw up interesting national security red flags. A Manchurian candidate does not have to be either a POTUS or a man. That even this sub rosa tactic is beginning to fail with the psychologically damaged Trump can be witnessed by the increasingly hostile behaviour of his First Lady towards him in public events.
Trump looks at the picture of Putin at his bedside and goes "When I gwow up, I wanna be JUST WIKE YEW!"
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
— Thomas Jefferson
I forgot to add this relevant quote.
Little old lady here wants one of those t-shirts. 86 Trump on the front and “Throw the bum out” on the back.
I purchased an 86 47 tank top about a year ago. It was easily available on the Internet. In Trump's 4th grade vocab, it always has meant, "get-em outta here."
These were NOT serious people should be the phrase emblazoned under the republican's group mugshot posters that will hang everywhere like that GD felon hangs his likeness. History will not be kind to them. No one should be.
May they all hang together for the treasons they perpetrate and accuse others of having engaged in!
Great focus on libertarianism, which is a scam and a smokescreen. Freeloader capitalism is what it is. Republicans have never been on the rails, at least not on the American Railroad, because they never accepted the social contract in the first place, being intent on plunder. With Trump as my witness they regard the law generally as regulation, to be subverted and used to advantage if not corrupted out of existence. Which is underway.
There are turning points.
The beginning of the push to allow money to distort elections, dating to 1974 or so. The implementation of the Southern Strategy following the wake-up call of Wallace in '68. My favorite is the frat-boy rebellion when assholes took over College Republicans and then the country. That happened fast. In the Abramoff trial we learned just what they were about, revolution, and we let it slide, not wanting to believe of incapable of comprehending that they had declared war on their fellow citizens, substituting them for the Russian commies in their pantheon of enemies.
https://billmoyers.com/content/moyers-on-america-capitol-crimes/
https://harpers.org/archive/2008/08/the-wrecking-crew/
"Therefore the lesson of Spirit is that we need to free the merger and acquisition market from the regulatory state’s interference" in order to create monopoly markets that will squeeze every last dollar from consumers and every last ounce of productivity from workers and place all of it in our oligarchical fat-cat pockets.
I would suggest that the framework is flimsy because the foundation is rotten.
Based upon exponential profit, End Capitalism is clearly the process and planet eater.
The MAGA basket of deplorables and their venal Trumpist SWAMP are your ISIS of clear and present danger.
When you're right, you're right. Some of this reminded me of the Obama "You didn't build this" speech, where he used George Lakoff's ideas to talk about the relationship between business and politics (and responsibility). A really good piece.
You accurately describe the addiction personality of our narcissist in chief. These people have such a hunger for attention that no amount of deference or praise can ever satisfy it. The only way to deal with them is to deny them what they want or walk away. I wonder how many people supporting Trump and the others enabling him are trying to rationalize their destructive behavior or are they all mentally compromised to some extent?
Maybe the price of gas and food, and cost of everything gas touches, will improve some mental capacity.
Damn right.
Agree with a lot of this but "American leadership in a region the United States has spent eighty years stabilizing." is the one of the most insane combination of words I've ever read.
Republicans are good for the economy! A small group of financialized capitalists, the rest of us get to fend for ourselves.
This is excellent !!!
As each domino falls, I can only imagine all the attempts by Trump to deny and distract.
Do I hear a canary ?
If you are going to have AI write your posts (the content is great!), can you get the AI to write them shorter?
I find the backdrop of a Las Vegas resort to be telling.
It seems to me that once upon a time, the Republicans argued that the magic of the "invisible hand" of the marketplace was that poorly-run business would fail and well-run businesses would survive, and that this was fundamental to how the marketplace should operate. But now, it seems, every business is "too big to fail"...
I feel like the true failure of the libertarian (maybe the materialist) frame is attempting to treat the consumer, the voter, and the worker separately, when in fact everyone is all three at once.