There's not much light between the criminally deliberately destructive antics of Vlad Putin and those of Don Trump. Peas in a Pod, with apologies to peas. And nobody to stop them. Not any of the so-called "good people" in politics or government. So.... "the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for "good" people to do nothing." People who do nothing in the face of evil and evidence are NOT "good people." They are collaborators, appeasers, spineless and self-interested. Many in the US are called Democrats. They join 99% of Republicans. What kind of courage does it take to do the right thing??? Clearly more than politicians have!!! It is beyond disgusting. It is deadly to democratic principle.
Oh, Amanda. I love ya, but what our oligarchs have wrought is the bifurcated reality we all live in. Rupert Murdoch has long had the ability to sculpt the conservative metaverse, and it's now more insular than it's ever been. Amazon can reach inside the books you buy and "correct" parts deemed "problematic". Mark Zuckerberg and his shareholder-pleasing engagement algorithms and "news" feeds - combined with his shallow, pollyannish "free speech" ideology - turned a simple social networking site into a global hegemon destroying the fabric of every society it touches.
Oh, and speaking of naive conceptions of free speech - guess who thinks enabling a state propaganda machine from a country who murders and jails journalists and dissidents constitutes "free speech absolutism"? That's right, your boy Elon. Free speech apparently means defending the rights of tyrants to rob their people of both practicing and absorbing free speech while broadcasting whatever lies they find convenient. This is where our rote free-speech maxims fail us; bad speech can't be countered with more speech if more speech can't reach people's ears. And now he wants to own the de facto digital "town square".
I'm not sure what they mean by "level of disease", but it shouldn't include cases any more what with so many people testing at home. Hospitalizations and deaths should be the metric to determine when mitigation strategies are needed.
Airplanes have some of the best indoor air quality around, but busses and trains generally do not. To the extent that busses and trains cross state lines, the Feds are the only ones who can regulate them. I would hope municipalities with high spread would keep mask mandates in place for public transport even if the Federal mask mandate is lifted.
"I would love to be wrong about Trump and the Republican party. It would be good for America if the GOP would move on. But when you look at the numbers and listen to the voters, the idea that the party is growing to be independent of Trump seems less like analysis and more like wishcasting." - Sarah
Of course it is wish casting. Why would the GOP want to move on? The sad reality is that the GOP has been, for over a decade at least, covertly supportive of things that the TFG openly supports. He simply brought that out into the open and made it mainstream. In fact there is too much focus on the TFG when the real problem is the GOP. He is their "useful idiot", not the other way around. His loud actions have been used by the GOP to obfuscate their own conduct. Their silence is much more than acceptance. It is encouragement. At some point he will become too toxic for their brand and they will dump him (of course after he helps them set things up to have a perpetual majority). Or they will find somebody like the Florida guv who will do everything he does but minus all the crazy. This longing for a past that hasn't existed in many years now (at the least) is baffling.
Sorry I wear a mask on planes even if there is no worry over Covid. Do you not know how contaminated the recycled air on planes is? It's disgusting. And while most of the passengers are probably disease free, you can't guarantee that there isn't a passenger with the flu, a cold, TB or Covid, etc. Word to the wise; wear a mask when flying.
I agree with you on charging Trump and would you believe it, so do the Pod Save America guys. I listened to you on Monday's Bulwark with Will Saletan and then PSA's Tuesday (4/12) episode. Virtually identical points made by you all. Amazing. Hopefully the Jan. 6 committee & the DOJ are listening.
If 2015 GOP candidates had to swear fealty to [what I'll optimistically refer to as] GOP values/policy, we wouldn't have Trump, Paul, and a host of haphazard vermin who rode in under GOP colors before burning it all down.
The Russian warship is a useful metaphor as well as a reality check. Let's say it this way: the Ukrainians collectively are badasses. And I mean that in the very best of ways. Mess with them, I say with admiration, at your own risk.
Forget for a moment that holding trump and his cronies accountable is the right thing to do, especially because we are a nation of laws, not men, but today's GOP has used every means at their disposal to dismantle our democracy. It seems to me that the Democratic party should be willing to do the same to save it...
One would think so.... Frankly the Dems have been a disappointment almost forever.... and the Biden WH is much much weaker and more disconnected from reality than I had anticipated.
And yet they are doing a pretty good job with UKR, despite the deep hole they started out in... and they are doing all the standard Dem things that Dems have done or tried to do whenever they have had power.
They look weak because the current dynamic of politics and the rhetoric--and the way our government works (or, actually, fails to) means that are weak--at least in the visible public arena.
In what manner are they disconnected from reality, in your view?
They seem fairly connected to reality, to me, especially in comparison to that excrement extravaganza run by TFG.
(You're making me think before coffee...) I agree Biden has been pretty masterful with the minefields of Ukraine. I am thinking specifically of the badly mangled pull-out from A'stan, and now the move to change border policy (against big majority of public opinion).
(And failure at messaging which has always been a Dem failure: WHY do they not HIRE former GOP strategists!!!) By "disconnected from reality" I meant not paying attention to what the majority of Americans are trying to tell Govt. But it relates specifically to politics rather than to good governance. I guess I question their priorities and I think the WH advisors are using an old playbook when they should be paying more attention to realities on the ground for most Americans; they should be listening more, if they want to stay in charge. "Just good governance" is not winning elections over the excrement noise and lies. I have never before felt that one of the two parties was an existential danger to the country! And I think the WH does not see it. It may be fair to say they prefer to get things done than to play politics; but if they lose elections they can do neither.
Afghanistan was going to be a shitshow, period. Didn't matter who was in charge. It was pretty much a shitshow from day 1. To understand that, you simply have to look at the history of the US pulling out of losing wars (are you old enough to remain Viet Nam?) and how that went down--the TLDR version is: not well. Ask the Kurds about that, too.
Doing anything with the border or immigration is like touching the third rail of a subway system in American politics these days. Not sure there is a good thing that you could do. TBH, I don't give a rat's ass about the border or immigration and never have. It is one of the molehills that got blown up into a mountain.
I think, in the end, like many people, you overestimate how much voting behavior is determined by what government actually does. Data pretty much indicates that you can win elections without having an actual platform or specific principles these days and without telling people what you are going to do until after you get elected--at least, that's what the GoP thinks and all indicators say that they are correct.
The problem is that the Dems are usually trying to give people what they need and not what they want. They also think that policy and policy accomplishments mean something (they don't).
Much of the communication/messaging issues that the Dems have are tied up in Democratic identity (I have discussed this elsewhere). Because of that it is never going to get better--by which I mean more effective.
I think the Dems and the WH see this (and certainly enough people have told them about it)--the problem is that they are largely incapable of actually doing anything about it.
They also have a coalition problem that the GoP doesn't have.
I think the out of touched-ness comes from those factors.
I am that old. I also remember the Kurds (with pain, as with Ukraine; I weep). I agree with all you say here. (And I usually bow to what I believe is your superior intelligence on these subjects -- seriously, not snark. I appreciate your perspective.) I thought I had stopped overestimating the US voter in 2016 but hope springs eternal.... We agree on the "problem" but one would think they would come to see they need to win elections first. I'm not sure what "Democratic identity" means at this point but if they are holding on to it, it is from the past and ineffective in the face of ruthless quest for power. You are probably right about the coalition problem; I have long said Dems' strength is their weakness too. But it shouldn't have to be fatal. Perhaps this WH needs a Team of Rivals in it at this point!
We had to destroy the village in order to save it.
Such moves do not usually end well. Again, we are where we are because of a long serious of small moves that have eroded the institutional factors and that have eliminated even the pretense of character and ethics.
When you break those things, there really isn't any good way back. Which is why we are screwed, in at least the sort to medium term.
If we are screwed in the short term, we are toast as a democratic republic forever! It only takes a tiny tangent away from doing the right thing for the right reasons to become the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. And we are way beyond tiny tangents of politicos doing their actual jobs. Perhaps we should evacuate D.C. and make politicians legislate from their constituencies and without lobbyists around. Sadly it's probably too late for any of the branches of govt to function properly now.
The problem is that there is no way to fix a lot of this w/o the cooperation of the very people who really do not want it fixed--and who write the laws and budgets and "police" themselves.
Exactly. It is very hard to get people to do the right thing if it does not benefit themselves. Which I suppose is why a "loyal opposition" party is needed. A balance of powers. But I do recall a time when the Vision was doing the best for the most for the longest (or something like that) according to certain standards (big v small govt etc). One could trust that if the "opposition" party took over, it would still GOVERN rather than just gleefully destroy government. And then they put in office someone incapable of any governance at any level, who never acted like an actual president but like a spoiled toddler, and a congress likewise.
I'm not sure which is worse in terms of PR: Admitting that the warship was bombed and trashed and began to sink because of Ukrainians, or saying that through incompetence, the ship was poorly handled, and shells exploded in the hold. No promotions forthcoming.
That flagship will at the least need major repairs, and they won't get done in Mariupol for sure. Where else in the sea of Azul is a boy going to get his bathtub toy fixed? I hope the Ukrainians sink the thing in the harbor. Apparently, they could. I'd cheer.
I can choose whether to eat at a restaurant, go to a bar, or attend a sporting event. If I choose to go, I can choose how long to stay. I may have little-to-no choice on whether I take a flight (or ride public transit). That's the difference.
Not mention you're in a completely enclosed, locked space for 12 hours (on flights to Australia), or more realistically 5 hours cross country with the air constantly recirculated. Think smoking on a plane. Doesn't matter if you don't smoke, it will affect you.
As a side note, I have to strongly disagree with Charlie's guest, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, on yesterday's Bulwark podcast who suggested Trump is brilliant strategist when it comes to his fascist approach to politics. I know that's consistent with the "reptilian cunning" Charlie always suggests Trump has, but I never bought into that either.
The fact is, time after time, Trump had a chance to make decisions that would have increased his base and given himself more power. Instead, at almost every turn, Trump made decisions that undercut his authority. One of the things I'm most grateful for is that Trump wasn't smarter when it comes to seizing authoritarian power. This country would have been so screwed if he was. Fortunately, Trump also doesn't appear capable of learning from his mistakes. That's another thing I'm grateful for.
Unfortunately, far too much of the GOP is still committed to the notion that Trump is always right, and that any effort to hold him accountable for misdeeds is a product of Deep State corruption. They've thoroughly absorbed his own solipsistic understanding of right and wrong.
The chances of Trump being reelected are far too high, and in a second term he would be more unrestrained, and more determined to get vengeance. We know how much he admires and envies despots. An alarmingly large part of the electorate is either oblivious, or quite comfortable with the prospect of a despot who will hurt the people they dislike.
Trump dislikes everyone. Reelected, his vengeance will be against the American People who failed to keep him in office. But we are so near the bottom of a democracy already that it hardly matters, except to those of us who will die under GOP repressions.
There's not much light between the criminally deliberately destructive antics of Vlad Putin and those of Don Trump. Peas in a Pod, with apologies to peas. And nobody to stop them. Not any of the so-called "good people" in politics or government. So.... "the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for "good" people to do nothing." People who do nothing in the face of evil and evidence are NOT "good people." They are collaborators, appeasers, spineless and self-interested. Many in the US are called Democrats. They join 99% of Republicans. What kind of courage does it take to do the right thing??? Clearly more than politicians have!!! It is beyond disgusting. It is deadly to democratic principle.
Illinois has a long, bipartisan history of sending elected executives to prison. It's time we kicked it up a notch and went federal.
Oh, Amanda. I love ya, but what our oligarchs have wrought is the bifurcated reality we all live in. Rupert Murdoch has long had the ability to sculpt the conservative metaverse, and it's now more insular than it's ever been. Amazon can reach inside the books you buy and "correct" parts deemed "problematic". Mark Zuckerberg and his shareholder-pleasing engagement algorithms and "news" feeds - combined with his shallow, pollyannish "free speech" ideology - turned a simple social networking site into a global hegemon destroying the fabric of every society it touches.
Oh, and speaking of naive conceptions of free speech - guess who thinks enabling a state propaganda machine from a country who murders and jails journalists and dissidents constitutes "free speech absolutism"? That's right, your boy Elon. Free speech apparently means defending the rights of tyrants to rob their people of both practicing and absorbing free speech while broadcasting whatever lies they find convenient. This is where our rote free-speech maxims fail us; bad speech can't be countered with more speech if more speech can't reach people's ears. And now he wants to own the de facto digital "town square".
I'm not sure what they mean by "level of disease", but it shouldn't include cases any more what with so many people testing at home. Hospitalizations and deaths should be the metric to determine when mitigation strategies are needed.
"Voters, he said, “are seeing images of Seattle and crime and disorder … They’re hearing that nobody’s being prosecuted anymore.”
So they want to elect the most corrupt, thumbs-his-nose-at-the-law person to be president.....again??
Airplanes have some of the best indoor air quality around, but busses and trains generally do not. To the extent that busses and trains cross state lines, the Feds are the only ones who can regulate them. I would hope municipalities with high spread would keep mask mandates in place for public transport even if the Federal mask mandate is lifted.
"I would love to be wrong about Trump and the Republican party. It would be good for America if the GOP would move on. But when you look at the numbers and listen to the voters, the idea that the party is growing to be independent of Trump seems less like analysis and more like wishcasting." - Sarah
Of course it is wish casting. Why would the GOP want to move on? The sad reality is that the GOP has been, for over a decade at least, covertly supportive of things that the TFG openly supports. He simply brought that out into the open and made it mainstream. In fact there is too much focus on the TFG when the real problem is the GOP. He is their "useful idiot", not the other way around. His loud actions have been used by the GOP to obfuscate their own conduct. Their silence is much more than acceptance. It is encouragement. At some point he will become too toxic for their brand and they will dump him (of course after he helps them set things up to have a perpetual majority). Or they will find somebody like the Florida guv who will do everything he does but minus all the crazy. This longing for a past that hasn't existed in many years now (at the least) is baffling.
And it sank.. Doing a little dance here.
Sorry I wear a mask on planes even if there is no worry over Covid. Do you not know how contaminated the recycled air on planes is? It's disgusting. And while most of the passengers are probably disease free, you can't guarantee that there isn't a passenger with the flu, a cold, TB or Covid, etc. Word to the wise; wear a mask when flying.
I agree with you on charging Trump and would you believe it, so do the Pod Save America guys. I listened to you on Monday's Bulwark with Will Saletan and then PSA's Tuesday (4/12) episode. Virtually identical points made by you all. Amazing. Hopefully the Jan. 6 committee & the DOJ are listening.
If 2015 GOP candidates had to swear fealty to [what I'll optimistically refer to as] GOP values/policy, we wouldn't have Trump, Paul, and a host of haphazard vermin who rode in under GOP colors before burning it all down.
The Russian warship is a useful metaphor as well as a reality check. Let's say it this way: the Ukrainians collectively are badasses. And I mean that in the very best of ways. Mess with them, I say with admiration, at your own risk.
Forget for a moment that holding trump and his cronies accountable is the right thing to do, especially because we are a nation of laws, not men, but today's GOP has used every means at their disposal to dismantle our democracy. It seems to me that the Democratic party should be willing to do the same to save it...
One would think so.... Frankly the Dems have been a disappointment almost forever.... and the Biden WH is much much weaker and more disconnected from reality than I had anticipated.
And yet they are doing a pretty good job with UKR, despite the deep hole they started out in... and they are doing all the standard Dem things that Dems have done or tried to do whenever they have had power.
They look weak because the current dynamic of politics and the rhetoric--and the way our government works (or, actually, fails to) means that are weak--at least in the visible public arena.
In what manner are they disconnected from reality, in your view?
They seem fairly connected to reality, to me, especially in comparison to that excrement extravaganza run by TFG.
(You're making me think before coffee...) I agree Biden has been pretty masterful with the minefields of Ukraine. I am thinking specifically of the badly mangled pull-out from A'stan, and now the move to change border policy (against big majority of public opinion).
(And failure at messaging which has always been a Dem failure: WHY do they not HIRE former GOP strategists!!!) By "disconnected from reality" I meant not paying attention to what the majority of Americans are trying to tell Govt. But it relates specifically to politics rather than to good governance. I guess I question their priorities and I think the WH advisors are using an old playbook when they should be paying more attention to realities on the ground for most Americans; they should be listening more, if they want to stay in charge. "Just good governance" is not winning elections over the excrement noise and lies. I have never before felt that one of the two parties was an existential danger to the country! And I think the WH does not see it. It may be fair to say they prefer to get things done than to play politics; but if they lose elections they can do neither.
Afghanistan was going to be a shitshow, period. Didn't matter who was in charge. It was pretty much a shitshow from day 1. To understand that, you simply have to look at the history of the US pulling out of losing wars (are you old enough to remain Viet Nam?) and how that went down--the TLDR version is: not well. Ask the Kurds about that, too.
Doing anything with the border or immigration is like touching the third rail of a subway system in American politics these days. Not sure there is a good thing that you could do. TBH, I don't give a rat's ass about the border or immigration and never have. It is one of the molehills that got blown up into a mountain.
I think, in the end, like many people, you overestimate how much voting behavior is determined by what government actually does. Data pretty much indicates that you can win elections without having an actual platform or specific principles these days and without telling people what you are going to do until after you get elected--at least, that's what the GoP thinks and all indicators say that they are correct.
The problem is that the Dems are usually trying to give people what they need and not what they want. They also think that policy and policy accomplishments mean something (they don't).
Much of the communication/messaging issues that the Dems have are tied up in Democratic identity (I have discussed this elsewhere). Because of that it is never going to get better--by which I mean more effective.
I think the Dems and the WH see this (and certainly enough people have told them about it)--the problem is that they are largely incapable of actually doing anything about it.
They also have a coalition problem that the GoP doesn't have.
I think the out of touched-ness comes from those factors.
I am that old. I also remember the Kurds (with pain, as with Ukraine; I weep). I agree with all you say here. (And I usually bow to what I believe is your superior intelligence on these subjects -- seriously, not snark. I appreciate your perspective.) I thought I had stopped overestimating the US voter in 2016 but hope springs eternal.... We agree on the "problem" but one would think they would come to see they need to win elections first. I'm not sure what "Democratic identity" means at this point but if they are holding on to it, it is from the past and ineffective in the face of ruthless quest for power. You are probably right about the coalition problem; I have long said Dems' strength is their weakness too. But it shouldn't have to be fatal. Perhaps this WH needs a Team of Rivals in it at this point!
We had to destroy the village in order to save it.
Such moves do not usually end well. Again, we are where we are because of a long serious of small moves that have eroded the institutional factors and that have eliminated even the pretense of character and ethics.
When you break those things, there really isn't any good way back. Which is why we are screwed, in at least the sort to medium term.
If we are screwed in the short term, we are toast as a democratic republic forever! It only takes a tiny tangent away from doing the right thing for the right reasons to become the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. And we are way beyond tiny tangents of politicos doing their actual jobs. Perhaps we should evacuate D.C. and make politicians legislate from their constituencies and without lobbyists around. Sadly it's probably too late for any of the branches of govt to function properly now.
The problem is that there is no way to fix a lot of this w/o the cooperation of the very people who really do not want it fixed--and who write the laws and budgets and "police" themselves.
So, ya.
Exactly. It is very hard to get people to do the right thing if it does not benefit themselves. Which I suppose is why a "loyal opposition" party is needed. A balance of powers. But I do recall a time when the Vision was doing the best for the most for the longest (or something like that) according to certain standards (big v small govt etc). One could trust that if the "opposition" party took over, it would still GOVERN rather than just gleefully destroy government. And then they put in office someone incapable of any governance at any level, who never acted like an actual president but like a spoiled toddler, and a congress likewise.
I'm not sure which is worse in terms of PR: Admitting that the warship was bombed and trashed and began to sink because of Ukrainians, or saying that through incompetence, the ship was poorly handled, and shells exploded in the hold. No promotions forthcoming.
That flagship will at the least need major repairs, and they won't get done in Mariupol for sure. Where else in the sea of Azul is a boy going to get his bathtub toy fixed? I hope the Ukrainians sink the thing in the harbor. Apparently, they could. I'd cheer.
I can choose whether to eat at a restaurant, go to a bar, or attend a sporting event. If I choose to go, I can choose how long to stay. I may have little-to-no choice on whether I take a flight (or ride public transit). That's the difference.
Not mention you're in a completely enclosed, locked space for 12 hours (on flights to Australia), or more realistically 5 hours cross country with the air constantly recirculated. Think smoking on a plane. Doesn't matter if you don't smoke, it will affect you.
As a side note, I have to strongly disagree with Charlie's guest, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, on yesterday's Bulwark podcast who suggested Trump is brilliant strategist when it comes to his fascist approach to politics. I know that's consistent with the "reptilian cunning" Charlie always suggests Trump has, but I never bought into that either.
The fact is, time after time, Trump had a chance to make decisions that would have increased his base and given himself more power. Instead, at almost every turn, Trump made decisions that undercut his authority. One of the things I'm most grateful for is that Trump wasn't smarter when it comes to seizing authoritarian power. This country would have been so screwed if he was. Fortunately, Trump also doesn't appear capable of learning from his mistakes. That's another thing I'm grateful for.
He's not very smart and he is lazy. It comes from having everything handed to him since birth.
Unfortunately, far too much of the GOP is still committed to the notion that Trump is always right, and that any effort to hold him accountable for misdeeds is a product of Deep State corruption. They've thoroughly absorbed his own solipsistic understanding of right and wrong.
The chances of Trump being reelected are far too high, and in a second term he would be more unrestrained, and more determined to get vengeance. We know how much he admires and envies despots. An alarmingly large part of the electorate is either oblivious, or quite comfortable with the prospect of a despot who will hurt the people they dislike.
Trump dislikes everyone. Reelected, his vengeance will be against the American People who failed to keep him in office. But we are so near the bottom of a democracy already that it hardly matters, except to those of us who will die under GOP repressions.