Thank you so much for this JVL. I will share your video far and wide. I remember the bit about firing everybody and replacing them with loyalists. I'm going to ask around but isn't this pretty much the Stalin playbook? And as far as his book, I can draw on my deep WV roots and tell you he was an easy to spot phony. I remember seeing him on Morning Joe and wondering "what the hell is this guy doing on here?" I tried watching the movie because of Glenn Close but couldn't stomach it for 20 minutes. If anybody is looking for a genuine account of recent Appalachia life check out Beth Macey.
Now what's with the eyeliner? Oh, very Scotch-Irish Hillbilly. Ask me about my relatives first encounter with Culture Club some time.
JVL This is interesting "Dragon in the tropics : Hugo Chávez and the political economy of revolution in Venezuela." Don't read it if you want to sleep, ever.
The Blasey Ford book review was more philosophically and morally significant than I expected. It’s taken me all this time to put together the thoughts about it that JVL asked for. I suspect those thoughts are heavily influenced by re-reading, earlier that morning, “Who Goes Nazi?” by Dorothy Thompson in a 1941 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Serendipitous 😊
I don’t want to quote the passages that affected me the most in the essay on Blasey Ford’s book since JVL wants readers to comment after reading it themselves, but I will say it sums up the disillusionment that happens all too often in this country when everything we’ve been taught to believe about character, justice, virtue, the nobility of public service, the rule of law, the seriousness of the principles and ideals of the Declaration on which our Constitution is founded, the gravity and necessity of service to those principles and ideals encompassed in the oath of office, and taking responsibility for our individual actions is dismissed as naivety and malice when trying to hold people to account, especially the powerful, rich and well-connected. This is not a benign outcome.
Why teach principles and virtues to anyone at all if our response is to call those that took them to heart naive in our calls to have them join us in our cynicism, acquiescence and surrender to humanity’s worst behaviors and instincts. Maybe that is why it arouses such passions - we know it is us and not they who have failed.
That Blasey Ford’s actions and motives were based on what she was taught reflected what we say we want, and her experience and the aftermath reflected what we actually do when given the test. How sad is it that the lessons she learned were to keep your mouth shut and tell others to do the same, juxtaposed with the lessons learned by those accused and their supporters, which appear to be none other than the same ego-driven focus on outward appearances. We collectively bear responsibility for both.
I ended up seeing it as a cautionary tale of assuming that your motives and the motives of your defenders or attackers align - the necessity for radical self protection and self reflection on the fact that larger forces than yourself may sometimes be at work and that people will use you for their own ends. Being true to yourself may require a rejection of efforts by those who claim to speak on your behalf and independent self reflection and actions on how you respond to them. That goes for not just Blasey Ford but Kavanaugh, too. Alas, as with most things, the televised political stage at the moment is not one of sobered inquiry and a search for truth or justice. Perhaps it was always so but that’s not a cause for resignation and acceptance, much less celebration.
The whys of how we decide who is and is not worthy of mercy and redemption or the withholding of it is also interesting and one we must answer for ourselves. We, each of us, are ultimately to blame because we don’t demand better and we refuse to plumb the depths of our own character and motives in our desire to “win” - simply reduce people to tools to be used for our own ends and discarded when their use to us is through. We shunt that responsibility onto those individuals with throw away statements like “what else did they expect?”
The biggest reflection? Whether it’s #MeToo Jan 6, white collar crime, Whistleblowers, Ethics Committees and more. When politics and business are the subject and accountability is the topic, all of a sudden morals and virtues are given a get out of jail free card. Culture may bubble up from the bottom but it is modeled on behavior from the top.
Why is it better to be negative sooner than later? Are you suggesting that throwing in the towel early will make the next 100+ days easier to handle? If so, how so?
This particular SCOTUS would have no grounds to complain if Trump defied a ruling, since they've now ruled that he doesn't need to respect the law at all, And to make that ruling for his benefit, they had to flout the language of what they claim is their own sacred guiding law.
Similarly, Ailene Cannon knows very well that Trump willfully violated the law, but she believes he should get away with it, to serve her political agenda and personal ambition.
The Trumpite position, in the end, is not that Trump is innocent of criminality and is being persecuted by a "weaponized" justice system. It's that he should never have to pay any penalty for violating the law. This is the logical culmination of the original "Let Trump be Trump" principle and the insistence that he must be exempted from the usual standards of ethics.
At one level, it's all about Trump: When the rank-and-file formed a cult around a sociopath, "conservative" thought-leaders adjusted their principles accordingly. When he promoted some policies they like, they doubled down on moral exceptions for his sake.
But at bottom, it isn't all about Trump, because those accommodations wouldn't have been made without a prior willingness to make them -- a disposition to say that rules, both moral and legal, can and should be bent or mowed down in service to a political agenda, framed as an existential imperative or the will of God. There had to be a prior willingness to elevate someone with deep and conspicuous character defects as the best instrument and public face of one's purposes.
It's the law of "by any means necessary" that conservatives used to decry as a leftist pathology. Then, some people on the right became anti-institutional and counterrevolutionary, and they embraced that law. Often it's under the guise of fighting back against "corruption," but that pose cannot be wholly sincere.
Thank you, as always, JVL for your take on our current political climate. The Bulwark (and your writing, specifically) has helped me stay somewhat sane during what is now Defcon One in our wonderful country. I am counting on you to help keep me sane when/if Trump comes back into power. Please start thinking about what The Resistance looks like. My parents moved heaven and earth to come to the US and I am the first in my family to be born here. I'm not leaving, nor can I watch it all crumble. HELP!
I have an idea. I think the bipartisan team of Bush, Obama, and Clinton should go on tv (perhaps from Carter’s house in GA so he can participate if he is at all able) and lay out the grave dangers of a second Trump term. This would be unprecedented but these are unprecedented times. It would certainly get a lot of coverage and might sway swing voters
"But Donald Trump? He attempted a coup in January of 2021 and then spent more than a year hiding stolen classified documents from the federal government."
That, plus the outrageous obstruction, are crimes for which he'll probably never pay. But are there likely worse crimes that have yet to be uncovered. Why steal those documents in the first place, then resist returning them? To wallpaper his bathroom? Something boring to read when he has insomnia? I think not. This is the 2020s, not the 1920s, and technology exists to make and send electronic copies very easily. Unfortunately there's also technology to cover it up. Also, this is not a case of one old man lugging around boxes. He had, and still has, more help than you can imagine, to do the grunt work as well as the high-tech stuff. There's no evidence yet, but I'd bet the national debt that has Putin has copies some of those documents. It would be insane if people have not been working overtime to look for that evidence.
Given the reports that Trump had limited interest in security briefings and an even more limited capacity to absorb information -- and little inclination to study anything at all -- it is rather odd that he was so adamant about keeping all those documents as "mementos."
I think part of it is ego: "Look how important I am, to have access to this stuff!" And the refusal to give it back is partly oppositional defiance: "You can't make me!" But there has to be more to it.
He was reported to be especially interested in documents related to the Mueller investigation -- purportedly because he wanted to prove that it was a conspiracy against him. The audio related to the Iran war documents also suggest that he thought the documents could be used against his critics.
Then there's the curious recent case of the Trump plane being parked right next to a Russian embassy plane in a far corner of Dulles.
And the best "conservative" intellectuals somehow don't think there's any reason to wonder WHY he was so intent on keeping those documents that he resisted a subpoena and had underlings playing games of shuffle-the-boxes to hide them.
Agree, especially that the ego thing is only part of it. But even though he is ultimately responsible - morally at least - as the approving "boss," I'm convinced that this was all the work, including the idea in the first place, of many of his protectors, who do have intense interest and knowledge of details. And are even more rabidly anti-American than their "useful idiot." Oh, and I like how you put scare quotes on "conservative." Trump's pathetic defenders are all rabid AUTHORITRIANS, and old style conservatives are among their (and his) fiercest critics.
We have to admit that the GOP cheats and lies - it's time for Biden to stack the court. First he should plead on TV that the Congress do their job and impeach Thomas and Alito - there is no question if there has been a crime here.
It wouldn't hurt to plead that Congress clean house and expel the 120+ Insurrectionists that broke their oath of office - contrary to Fox and the thoughts of the 120, election denial only works until the recounts are done and the court cases are decided- its over, the loser continue to cheat.
Law and order? Jordan won't testify; Bannon and Navarro in jail; Chesebro, Powell, Eastman and Rudy found or pleaded guilty to crimes.
Pleading will do nothing but i agree that Dems have been very weak on the subject of the court. One may add the Bulwarkers to that list. Term limits will not solve the problem. Expansion would have.
You're my favorite to hear because of how dark you go. I know some of it in a deadpan style but with calls for Biden to step aside and those calls going unheeded, this just fkn sucks. I'm 38, lifelong Democrat but more in the vein of an old school 90s Democrat, and in worried that this stubborn, selfish, self serving version of old man winter is in the process of turning off the younger now voting age population from democrats/ democracy. Because it appears much cooler to side with UFC laden, gun toting, "Alpha males" rescumlickin party. SAD!
And this is why we are going to lose it all in the fall. If Biden stays in, Gigachad Luke will vote for the way cooler (?) Trump, and if Biden is forced out, Diane (who readily admits that Biden "CAME OUT OF RETIREMENT" to save our collective asses), pouts her way to November.
The calls are going unheeded? Give it time. Jeffries and Schumer are the party leaders. Their caucuses have heard from their constutents. This is what's known as a tipping point.
Interesting characterization of a man who came out of a well deserved retirement to help us beat back the criminal authoritarian. I couldn’t disagree with you more. Also, if younger voters think it’s “cooler to side with UFC laden, gun toting, “Alpha males” , then that’s on them, not Biden.
You gotta give people someone to vote for. In the absence of a cogent narrative about why Trumpism is bad articulated by Biden, it doesn’t seem crazy (especially if for your entire political awareness Trump is normal (I.e any one who was in the 14 to 20 year old in 2015)
So I have some confusion about the rally on Saturday. Was this the replacement for a rally in Erie PA, or did he have a rally in Erie? I don't keep track of CFG campaign activities. I did see a story that Erie refused to give the permits unless they received the past due and total cost of the current rally.
How about having Dwayne "Rock" Johnson as the Democrat nominee for POTUS, with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as VP?
It's very much like the formula that worked in 2016.
Walz might do it because Minnesota apparently has a thing for former wrestlers (think Jesse Ventura).
Can you imagine The Rock giving Prima Donnald the "People's Eyebrow" every time DJT lies during a debate? I would pay to see it happen.
Even better, maybe The Rock should body-slam Prima Donnald during a debate! He could give DJT the "People's Elbow". He could bounce DJT's fat head off the podium.
For a closing statement, The Rock could yell out "Can you smell-l-l-l-l what The Rock is cooking?" (I hope some of you recognize that reference).
Off topic - but a suggestion for another article - trump the extortionist. He sees the US military as a protection racket, and wants NATO members and others like Taiwan to pay for protection. Is this something to highlight? MAGA crowd will actually like it - a feature not a bug in their view.
Thank you so much for this JVL. I will share your video far and wide. I remember the bit about firing everybody and replacing them with loyalists. I'm going to ask around but isn't this pretty much the Stalin playbook? And as far as his book, I can draw on my deep WV roots and tell you he was an easy to spot phony. I remember seeing him on Morning Joe and wondering "what the hell is this guy doing on here?" I tried watching the movie because of Glenn Close but couldn't stomach it for 20 minutes. If anybody is looking for a genuine account of recent Appalachia life check out Beth Macey.
Now what's with the eyeliner? Oh, very Scotch-Irish Hillbilly. Ask me about my relatives first encounter with Culture Club some time.
Mountaineers Are Always Free.
JVL This is interesting "Dragon in the tropics : Hugo Chávez and the political economy of revolution in Venezuela." Don't read it if you want to sleep, ever.
The Blasey Ford book review was more philosophically and morally significant than I expected. It’s taken me all this time to put together the thoughts about it that JVL asked for. I suspect those thoughts are heavily influenced by re-reading, earlier that morning, “Who Goes Nazi?” by Dorothy Thompson in a 1941 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Serendipitous 😊
I don’t want to quote the passages that affected me the most in the essay on Blasey Ford’s book since JVL wants readers to comment after reading it themselves, but I will say it sums up the disillusionment that happens all too often in this country when everything we’ve been taught to believe about character, justice, virtue, the nobility of public service, the rule of law, the seriousness of the principles and ideals of the Declaration on which our Constitution is founded, the gravity and necessity of service to those principles and ideals encompassed in the oath of office, and taking responsibility for our individual actions is dismissed as naivety and malice when trying to hold people to account, especially the powerful, rich and well-connected. This is not a benign outcome.
Why teach principles and virtues to anyone at all if our response is to call those that took them to heart naive in our calls to have them join us in our cynicism, acquiescence and surrender to humanity’s worst behaviors and instincts. Maybe that is why it arouses such passions - we know it is us and not they who have failed.
That Blasey Ford’s actions and motives were based on what she was taught reflected what we say we want, and her experience and the aftermath reflected what we actually do when given the test. How sad is it that the lessons she learned were to keep your mouth shut and tell others to do the same, juxtaposed with the lessons learned by those accused and their supporters, which appear to be none other than the same ego-driven focus on outward appearances. We collectively bear responsibility for both.
I ended up seeing it as a cautionary tale of assuming that your motives and the motives of your defenders or attackers align - the necessity for radical self protection and self reflection on the fact that larger forces than yourself may sometimes be at work and that people will use you for their own ends. Being true to yourself may require a rejection of efforts by those who claim to speak on your behalf and independent self reflection and actions on how you respond to them. That goes for not just Blasey Ford but Kavanaugh, too. Alas, as with most things, the televised political stage at the moment is not one of sobered inquiry and a search for truth or justice. Perhaps it was always so but that’s not a cause for resignation and acceptance, much less celebration.
The whys of how we decide who is and is not worthy of mercy and redemption or the withholding of it is also interesting and one we must answer for ourselves. We, each of us, are ultimately to blame because we don’t demand better and we refuse to plumb the depths of our own character and motives in our desire to “win” - simply reduce people to tools to be used for our own ends and discarded when their use to us is through. We shunt that responsibility onto those individuals with throw away statements like “what else did they expect?”
The biggest reflection? Whether it’s #MeToo Jan 6, white collar crime, Whistleblowers, Ethics Committees and more. When politics and business are the subject and accountability is the topic, all of a sudden morals and virtues are given a get out of jail free card. Culture may bubble up from the bottom but it is modeled on behavior from the top.
Why is it better to be negative sooner than later? Are you suggesting that throwing in the towel early will make the next 100+ days easier to handle? If so, how so?
This particular SCOTUS would have no grounds to complain if Trump defied a ruling, since they've now ruled that he doesn't need to respect the law at all, And to make that ruling for his benefit, they had to flout the language of what they claim is their own sacred guiding law.
Similarly, Ailene Cannon knows very well that Trump willfully violated the law, but she believes he should get away with it, to serve her political agenda and personal ambition.
The Trumpite position, in the end, is not that Trump is innocent of criminality and is being persecuted by a "weaponized" justice system. It's that he should never have to pay any penalty for violating the law. This is the logical culmination of the original "Let Trump be Trump" principle and the insistence that he must be exempted from the usual standards of ethics.
At one level, it's all about Trump: When the rank-and-file formed a cult around a sociopath, "conservative" thought-leaders adjusted their principles accordingly. When he promoted some policies they like, they doubled down on moral exceptions for his sake.
But at bottom, it isn't all about Trump, because those accommodations wouldn't have been made without a prior willingness to make them -- a disposition to say that rules, both moral and legal, can and should be bent or mowed down in service to a political agenda, framed as an existential imperative or the will of God. There had to be a prior willingness to elevate someone with deep and conspicuous character defects as the best instrument and public face of one's purposes.
It's the law of "by any means necessary" that conservatives used to decry as a leftist pathology. Then, some people on the right became anti-institutional and counterrevolutionary, and they embraced that law. Often it's under the guise of fighting back against "corruption," but that pose cannot be wholly sincere.
Thank you, as always, JVL for your take on our current political climate. The Bulwark (and your writing, specifically) has helped me stay somewhat sane during what is now Defcon One in our wonderful country. I am counting on you to help keep me sane when/if Trump comes back into power. Please start thinking about what The Resistance looks like. My parents moved heaven and earth to come to the US and I am the first in my family to be born here. I'm not leaving, nor can I watch it all crumble. HELP!
I have an idea. I think the bipartisan team of Bush, Obama, and Clinton should go on tv (perhaps from Carter’s house in GA so he can participate if he is at all able) and lay out the grave dangers of a second Trump term. This would be unprecedented but these are unprecedented times. It would certainly get a lot of coverage and might sway swing voters
"But Donald Trump? He attempted a coup in January of 2021 and then spent more than a year hiding stolen classified documents from the federal government."
That, plus the outrageous obstruction, are crimes for which he'll probably never pay. But are there likely worse crimes that have yet to be uncovered. Why steal those documents in the first place, then resist returning them? To wallpaper his bathroom? Something boring to read when he has insomnia? I think not. This is the 2020s, not the 1920s, and technology exists to make and send electronic copies very easily. Unfortunately there's also technology to cover it up. Also, this is not a case of one old man lugging around boxes. He had, and still has, more help than you can imagine, to do the grunt work as well as the high-tech stuff. There's no evidence yet, but I'd bet the national debt that has Putin has copies some of those documents. It would be insane if people have not been working overtime to look for that evidence.
Given the reports that Trump had limited interest in security briefings and an even more limited capacity to absorb information -- and little inclination to study anything at all -- it is rather odd that he was so adamant about keeping all those documents as "mementos."
I think part of it is ego: "Look how important I am, to have access to this stuff!" And the refusal to give it back is partly oppositional defiance: "You can't make me!" But there has to be more to it.
He was reported to be especially interested in documents related to the Mueller investigation -- purportedly because he wanted to prove that it was a conspiracy against him. The audio related to the Iran war documents also suggest that he thought the documents could be used against his critics.
Then there's the curious recent case of the Trump plane being parked right next to a Russian embassy plane in a far corner of Dulles.
And the best "conservative" intellectuals somehow don't think there's any reason to wonder WHY he was so intent on keeping those documents that he resisted a subpoena and had underlings playing games of shuffle-the-boxes to hide them.
Agree, especially that the ego thing is only part of it. But even though he is ultimately responsible - morally at least - as the approving "boss," I'm convinced that this was all the work, including the idea in the first place, of many of his protectors, who do have intense interest and knowledge of details. And are even more rabidly anti-American than their "useful idiot." Oh, and I like how you put scare quotes on "conservative." Trump's pathetic defenders are all rabid AUTHORITRIANS, and old style conservatives are among their (and his) fiercest critics.
We have to admit that the GOP cheats and lies - it's time for Biden to stack the court. First he should plead on TV that the Congress do their job and impeach Thomas and Alito - there is no question if there has been a crime here.
It wouldn't hurt to plead that Congress clean house and expel the 120+ Insurrectionists that broke their oath of office - contrary to Fox and the thoughts of the 120, election denial only works until the recounts are done and the court cases are decided- its over, the loser continue to cheat.
Law and order? Jordan won't testify; Bannon and Navarro in jail; Chesebro, Powell, Eastman and Rudy found or pleaded guilty to crimes.
Pleading will do nothing but i agree that Dems have been very weak on the subject of the court. One may add the Bulwarkers to that list. Term limits will not solve the problem. Expansion would have.
Donalid Jr. hatches his plan: "Daddy, if you pick JD for vice president, he promised to pick me for VP in 2028!"
You're my favorite to hear because of how dark you go. I know some of it in a deadpan style but with calls for Biden to step aside and those calls going unheeded, this just fkn sucks. I'm 38, lifelong Democrat but more in the vein of an old school 90s Democrat, and in worried that this stubborn, selfish, self serving version of old man winter is in the process of turning off the younger now voting age population from democrats/ democracy. Because it appears much cooler to side with UFC laden, gun toting, "Alpha males" rescumlickin party. SAD!
And this is why we are going to lose it all in the fall. If Biden stays in, Gigachad Luke will vote for the way cooler (?) Trump, and if Biden is forced out, Diane (who readily admits that Biden "CAME OUT OF RETIREMENT" to save our collective asses), pouts her way to November.
You assume an awful lot, little man
The calls are going unheeded? Give it time. Jeffries and Schumer are the party leaders. Their caucuses have heard from their constutents. This is what's known as a tipping point.
Interesting characterization of a man who came out of a well deserved retirement to help us beat back the criminal authoritarian. I couldn’t disagree with you more. Also, if younger voters think it’s “cooler to side with UFC laden, gun toting, “Alpha males” , then that’s on them, not Biden.
I don't think that's what younger voters are saying. They're saying give us another candidate.
I don’t think so, either, but I was responding to his claim
Oh. I didn't see that. Sorry.
You gotta give people someone to vote for. In the absence of a cogent narrative about why Trumpism is bad articulated by Biden, it doesn’t seem crazy (especially if for your entire political awareness Trump is normal (I.e any one who was in the 14 to 20 year old in 2015)
Great read. JVL, how do I subscribe to your newsletter?
Go to your account , there is a place to pick which newsletters you want to get in your email...
So I have some confusion about the rally on Saturday. Was this the replacement for a rally in Erie PA, or did he have a rally in Erie? I don't keep track of CFG campaign activities. I did see a story that Erie refused to give the permits unless they received the past due and total cost of the current rally.
The Trea Crowder video is priceless and hysterical in a totally informative way. Loved it!
I have a great idea! /s
How about having Dwayne "Rock" Johnson as the Democrat nominee for POTUS, with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as VP?
It's very much like the formula that worked in 2016.
Walz might do it because Minnesota apparently has a thing for former wrestlers (think Jesse Ventura).
Can you imagine The Rock giving Prima Donnald the "People's Eyebrow" every time DJT lies during a debate? I would pay to see it happen.
Even better, maybe The Rock should body-slam Prima Donnald during a debate! He could give DJT the "People's Elbow". He could bounce DJT's fat head off the podium.
For a closing statement, The Rock could yell out "Can you smell-l-l-l-l what The Rock is cooking?" (I hope some of you recognize that reference).
Off topic - but a suggestion for another article - trump the extortionist. He sees the US military as a protection racket, and wants NATO members and others like Taiwan to pay for protection. Is this something to highlight? MAGA crowd will actually like it - a feature not a bug in their view.