US Politics, June 2020 — You have to dominate.

for the love of god, montresor!!!!!!!!!!!!

tear down the wall!
tear down the wall!

Weenie in Chief

halfway through this: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/

curious of what others think. there are some cringeworthy moments, but also some great writing and a general scene setting that feels useful. it's very hard to take a step back and see trump for what he is, and applebaum does a good job of doing it

I must remain close to power. Another sort of benefit, harder to measure, has kept many people who object to Trump’s policies or behavior from speaking out: the intoxicating experience of power, and the belief that proximity to a powerful person bestows higher status. This, too, is nothing new. In a 1968 article for The Atlantic, James Thomson, an American East Asia specialist, brilliantly explained how power functioned inside the U.S. bureaucracy in the Vietnam era. When the war in Vietnam was going badly, many people did not resign or speak out in public, because preserving their “effectiveness”—“a mysterious combination of training, style, and connections,” as Thomson defined it—was an all-consuming concern. He called this “the effectiveness trap”:

• The inclination to remain silent or to acquiesce in the presence of the great men—to live to fight another day, to give on this issue so that you can be “effective” on later issues—is overwhelming. Nor is it the tendency of youth alone; some of our most senior officials, men of wealth and fame, whose place in history is secure, have remained silent lest their connection with power be terminated.

In any organization, private or public, the boss will of course sometimes make decisions that his underlings dislike. But when basic principles are constantly violated, and people constantly defer resignation—“I can always fall on my sword next time”—then misguided policies go fatally unchallenged.

...The Republican senators who are willing to express their disgust with Trump off the record but voted in February for him to remain in office all indulge a variation of this sentiment. (Trump enables them to get the judges they want, and those judges will help create the America they want.) So do the evangelical pastors who ought to be disgusted by Trump’s personal behavior but argue, instead, that the current situation has scriptural precedents. Like King David in the Bible, the president is a sinner, a flawed vessel, but he nevertheless offers a path to salvation for a fallen nation.

The three most important members of Trump’s Cabinet—Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Attorney General William Barr—are all profoundly shaped by Vichyite apocalyptic thinking. All three are clever enough to understand what Trumpism really means, that it has nothing to do with God or faith, that it is self-serving, greedy, and unpatriotic. Nevertheless, a former member of the administration (one of the few who did decide to resign) told me that both Pence and Pompeo “have convinced themselves that they are in a biblical moment.” All of the things they care about—outlawing abortion and same-sex marriage, and (though this is never said out loud) maintaining a white majority in America—are under threat. Time is growing short. They believe that “we are approaching the Rapture, and this is a moment of deep religious significance.” Barr, in a speech at Notre Dame, has also described his belief that “militant secularists” are destroying America, that “irreligion and secular values are being forced on people of faith.” Whatever evil Trump does, whatever he damages or destroys, at least he enables Barr, Pence, and Pompeo to save America from a far worse fate. If you are convinced we are living in the End Times, then anything the president does can be forgiven.

last excerpt, sorry:

In february, many members of the Republican Party leadership, Republican senators, and people inside the administration used various versions of these rationales to justify their opposition to impeachment. All of them had seen the evidence that Trump had stepped over the line in his dealings with the president of Ukraine. All of them knew that he had tried to use American foreign-policy tools, including military funding, to force a foreign leader into investigating a domestic political opponent. Yet Republican senators, led by Mitch McConnell, never took the charges seriously. They mocked the Democratic House leaders who had presented the charges. They decided against hearing evidence. With the single exception of Romney, they voted in favor of ending the investigation. They did not use the opportunity to rid the country of a president whose operative value system—built around corruption, nascent authoritarianism, self-regard, and his family’s business interests—runs counter to everything that most of them claim to believe in.

Just a month later, in March, the consequences of that decision became suddenly clear. After the U.S. and the world were plunged into crisis by a coronavirus that had no cure, the damage done by the president’s self-focused, self-dealing narcissism—his one true “ideology”—was finally visible. He led a federal response to the virus that was historically chaotic. The disappearance of the federal government was not a carefully planned transfer of power to the states, as some tried to claim, or a thoughtful decision to use the talents of private companies. This was the inevitable result of a three-year assault on professionalism, loyalty, competence, and patriotism. Tens of thousands of people have died, and the economy has been ruined.

This utter disaster was avoidable. If the Senate had removed the president by impeachment a month earlier; if the Cabinet had invoked the Twenty-Fifth Amendment as soon as Trump’s unfitness became clear; if the anonymous and off-the-record officials who knew of Trump’s incompetence had jointly warned the public; if they had not, instead, been so concerned about maintaining their proximity to power; if senators had not been scared of their donors; if Pence, Pompeo, and Barr had not believed that God had chosen them to play special roles in this “biblical moment”—if any of these things had gone differently, then thousands of deaths and a historic economic collapse might have been avoided.

Well yeah.

"The Aristocrats!" would also have been an acceptable answer.

Episcopal bishop in DC doing many TV hits today about the Clown's blasphemy last night

.@secPompeo meets with Tiananmen Square survivors at 2:30 pm today, per @StateDept. pic.twitter.com/XlLdyxlfPg

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) June 2, 2020

timing

just wanted to say sorry in retrospect for pushing "You Have to Dominate" for thread title...i made the same mistake of jumping the gun that I'd called out the OP for...if we'd just waited another few hours, we could have had "It's A Bible" instead. everyone can enjoy that.

I'll read KM's Atlantic piece. I think sometimes I find Pence more disgusting than Trump, in the same way that, as a teacher, I'd be more upset with a bright grade 6 student who'd create some needless drama in the class than I would with a kid who had real behaviour issues--who couldn't help himself. I'd better add the usual disclaimer: do no, in any way, take that as justification for anything Trump does, I'm just talking about the two of them solely in relation to each other.

"do not"

"Um, deploying the U.S. military inside the U.S. is still kind of a no-no, last time I checked."

I believe this was done at Standing Rock, not to mention Wounded Knee in the 70's.

My only cavil, clem, with your otherwise spot-on remark: your sixth grade student is the bright one, not Pence.

As representative and governor, Pence's career has been marked by a cruelty under the carapace of the slimiest kind of evangelism.

Also he’s a massive closet case. “Happy Pride month, Mother!”

the Clown

Okay now I am picturing a lushly filmed Netflix drama.

Credit sequence is of a hideous orange hair-weave monstrosity slowly assembling (like the credit sequences of The Crown, Game of Thrones, Westworld, and Vinyl).

Season one: Armie Hammer (heavily CGI'd) plays young Trump, learning the ropes of redlining and shafting contractors from Dad (played, I guess, by Alan Arkin?).

Season two: Jason Segel plays young-adult Trump, with Miley Cyrus as Marla and Milana Vayntrub as Ivana.

Season three: Okay, let's just push the easy button and fuckin go with Alec Baldwin. Melissa Villasenor IS Melania.

Season four (aka "Lion in Winter") is, like, I dunno, Alan Arkin again as an aging, raging, incontinent Trump, yelling at the TV in a bathrobe.

(xposts) Actually thought about adding a second disclaimer pointing out exactly that--that I don't consider Pence the equivalent of a bright sixth grader...He's definitely far more religious than I would like, but basically the comparison for me boils down to he's more or less a bland, generic Republican in relation to Trump, and that he oughta know better. Maybe I'm wrong, but if he were president, I don't think things would be completely off the rails like they are now.

xp to Suzy: As the person who coined the word "gaydar," I guess you'd know.

LOL - the Pence Closet has been DC gossip for as long as 45 has been in office.

I'm well aware. It's kind of hackneyed at this point.

As far as potential symbolic victories go, is there any chance Steve King loses his seat tonight?

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/farce-tragedy-and-photo-op

...What became clear was that the presidential remarks and driving off the crowd were timed to coincide to create a presidential photo op or what is probably best seen as a cartoonish but choreographed reality TV event. The plan was for the President to give his short speech with explosive concussions in the background and tear gas in the air followed by the President walking over to the ground just cleared of protestors to make a symbolic visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church where he would hold ostentatiously hold up a bible. The slight shifts in schedule were to make sure the timing was just right.

Within hours, his campaign released staged photos of the proceedings.

A short time later it emerged that the owners of the Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington hadn’t been informed or asked whether their Church would be used as a prop in what amounted to an ersatz white Christian nationalist photo op. But federal officers – police or military isn’t clear – actually forcibly expelled a priest from the Church grounds with tear gas.

It was a set-piece tableau of Trumpism, a visual demonstration of the dominance Trump demands but usually shrinks from personally. You protestors were on this literal ground. I commanded force against you and now I am on the same ground holding a bible aloft in victory.

Thankfully, it doesn’t appear there was any loss of life in this staged incident or I think any major injuries. But like so much of Trumpism it manages to bring together with a unique crudity the mix of rightist nationalism and TV production which is the heart of Trumpism – a loud red hat with gleaming white lettering of state violence. Nothing more captures the man than holding a Christian bible in the air as a sort of dominance talisman after driving priests out of a church where they were tending to the needs of peaceful protestors. Much as he bogarted tax payer money for use as campaign funds in extortion plot against the government of Ukraine here he turned the US military and federal police on peaceful protestors for what was in the final analysis a planned campaign event.

https://i.imgur.com/qEXqqPP.png
https://i.imgur.com/LqfUVrn.png
https://i.imgur.com/aeTDaSH.jpg

I can't quite figure this out, does the US actually have a functioning government right now? That passes laws and stuff? Or is it just a scorched earth retreat?

One half of the government was trying to block Congress from remote voting on bills. Three guesses who!

yeah we're still confirming a dozen hardline right-winger judges every day so some part of it is working

As predicted, he's claiming victory. Pretty sure many citizens don't feel victorious rn, particularly our own MN residents.

He left his rage for NYC

D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination. Likewise, Minneapolis was great (thank you President Trump!).

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2020

Fucking sick

fucking asshole, i hope he dies

Trump’s response here is going to leave lasting damage. His presidency is like 9/11 - the bad energy will reverberate for a long, long time

Getting Travis Bickle vibes from his tweet about NYC 'lowlifes and losers'.

The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard. NYC was ripped to pieces. Likewise, Fredo’s ratings are down 50%!

A Godfather reference two sentences after making an offer that was refused. WEAK!

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/500642-residents-clash-before-police-arrive-in-philadelphia-neighborhood

Oh look "Antifa" at it again and weirdly acting out Trumpian fantasies

literally, Christafuck

Pelosi asked about Trump’s Bible photo op last night. She goes and grabs her own bible and is now reading from it. pic.twitter.com/F64v4JFBH6

— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) June 2, 2020

OUR GOD IS A MIGHTY GOD

No one stepped up to convincingly claim it, so I can’t put all the blame on Pelosi, but it sure would have been nice if the political leaders who are busy confronting their own mortal demise due to being very old would have “passed the baton” to younger leadership that is in touch with the country

*cough*Jayapal*cough*

if i remember correctly, the most successful challenger to pelosi's throne was fucking tim ryan

the new litmus test for american political leadership:

without asking an intern to do it for you, can you successfully set up an automatic Out of Office message for your email

remember, decaying leadership: you are allowed to type "how to set up automatic out of office message for my email" into google.com in order to find the answer if you don't know how to do it

Idk politicians should flush the Bible down the toilet tbh

google.com is a search engine. you need to go on the internet and type it into the big spot at the top where you can type

Remember when our biggest enemies were Bobby Jindal

it's pretty obvious by now that Pelosi is good at some aspects of her job, like organizing her caucus, while being fucking terrible at the part where she's the de facto face and voice of the entire party.

nooo---- nonono don't click the picture of the home insurance trick that obama doesn't want you to know about---fuck, it's too late

would have “passed the baton” to younger leadership that is in touch with the country

likely Rahm Emanuel and his Zionist hoodlum clan didn't return their calls though

my best friend lives in Philly and works for WHYY, he sent me Jon Ehren's stuff about Fishtown as it was happening. glad it got some attention.