Trump

Until this month, I’m not sure I had heard of Charlie Kirk. Now the entire world has.

First of all, to any MAGA people reading this: No one on the progressive side wanted to see this man dead. That actions of the alleged murderer were his alone and don’t represent the views of practically anyone on the Left. So stop pretending otherwise. You’re not helping. The gunman’s motives are poorly understood and much more evidence must be collected in order to understand his political ideology. I’m not even sure he has a coherent philosophy. So attempts to reduce this to some vast left-wing political conspiracy is a ridiculous cognitive shortcut.

From an article recently on the BBC Russian Service:

Блокировка уходящего президента США в “Твиттере” и “Фейсбуке” привела к необычной ситуации: теоретически Трамп еще может начать ядерную войну, но не может написать твит.

“Blocking the outgoing U.S. President from Twitter and Facebook has led to an unusual situation: theoretically Trump can still start a nuclear war, but cannot write a Tweet.”

In only a week, he won’t be able to do either. But while celebrating the deplatforming of this vicious clown, I have a tinge of worry about why it means for the future of democracy. It nearly goes without saying that social networks have become nearly the de facto equals of representative government in the U.S.

EU to ban Americans over coronavirus / John McCain’s 2008 campaign manager with a brutal commentary on Trump.

Zen and believing // ‘She didn’t hang my picture.’

Trump lawyer and all-around whackadoodle Rudy Guiliani claims he’s the most ethical person ever. Of course, his association with one of the least ethical people ever suggests otherwise. Thus, it prompts me to articulate “Duncan’s Law.” Succinctly stated, if someone claims absolute superiority in some particular characteristic, his actual performance in that characteristic is actually somewhere between average and the least performant.

Yes. Yes, they’ve done a fine job for “you”. But what about the rest of us? Moreover, what about the “us” in perpetuity, those who will have to deal with the erosion of civic norms?

I’m an atheist, but I’m familiar enough with the Christian canon that this photograph of “President” Trump with “journalist” Sean Hannity reminded me of a verse from the Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 16, verse 26):

First lady says ‘I really don’t care’ jacket was meant to troll press (Source) - so says the woman who claims to be the most bullied person ever. (Source)

• Republicans reprising their classic role of sore winners.

This article by Christopher Browning published in The New York Review of Books puts the unprecedented polarization of American political life in an eery historical context. As he puts it, “Trump is no Hitler and Trumpism is not Nazism” but certain parallels are inescapable. The article surfaces an old question that I’ve harboured for almost a decade - Is the chaotic concentration of all power the intentional end-game of the Republican party or did they simply provoke the worst darkest tendencies of voters, only later finding they couldn’t control what they started? Whatever the answer to that question, the piece is worth reading if only to observe how beautiful sentences are crafted. The essay is that well-written.

This piece in The Atlantic by Adam Serwer is a reminder that for Trump’s supporters, cruelty isn’t just a side-effect of Trumpism. It’s a feature. That the current U.S. president chose to mock the victim of a sexual assault by a Supreme Court nominee is hardly surprising. But what little hope I had for Trump supporters, particularly those at the Mississippi rally who joined Trump in his mockery, is gone.