US Politics, June 2020 — You have to dominate.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/politics/pat-robertson-donald-trump/?iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial

I know how awful Pat Robertson is--just looking at this as possible evidence of all this as a turning point (or, to put it another way, of people running for cover).

xpost Alas, the abominations are often the chosen headlines, which happen to be printed in a type size several times larger than that used in the story itself, and also happen to be the most the average person probably sees or reads of the Times.

yes

it's easy and satisfying, though unfair, to hold hundreds of editors and reporters and photographers responsible for the fuckheaded decisions of one editor in a different office

rare case where i'd recommend reading the comments though

You mean the opinion sub-columns?

how else should one hold the fuckheaded decisions responsible

Nyt op eds have comment threads.

Xp, not to mookie.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-fascist-performance

Donald Trump thinks power looks like masked men in combat uniforms lined up in front of the marble columns of the Lincoln Memorial. He thinks it looks like Black Hawk helicopters hovering so low over protesters that they chop off the tops of trees. He thinks it looks like troops using tear gas to clear a plaza for a photo op. He thinks it looks like him hoisting a Bible in his raised right hand.

Trump thinks power sounds like this: “Our country always wins. That is why I am taking immediate Presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America . . . dominate the streets . . . establish an overwhelming law-enforcement presence. . . . If a city or state refuses . . . I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. . . . We are putting everybody on warning. . . . One law and order and that is what it is. One law—we have one beautiful law.” To Trump, power sounds like the word “dominate,” repeated over and over on a leaked call with governors. It sounds like the silence of the men in uniform when they are asked who they are.

Trump got these ideas from television and Hollywood movies, and he had the intuition to recognize them. He knew what he wanted to imitate. We know that he likes the military and its parades. (A senior Administration official, speaking with the Daily Beast, attempted to downplay the President’s interest in tanks: “I think that is just one of the military words he knows.”) Perhaps he has seen many movies that feature the Black Hawk, that monster of military-industrial production, the metal embodiment of brute force. Perhaps Trump heard that, when Russia occupied Crimea, it flooded the peninsula with men in unmarked uniforms—they dominated without ever identifying themselves. Perhaps he heard the word “dominate” in his recent telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin. Perhaps he had seen a picture of Hitler in a similar pose, or perhaps he just conflated two gestures that symbolize power in American politics: one hand raised, the other on the Bible—this may explain the slight uncertainty of his display, as if he weren’t sure how much the book was supposed to weigh.

The President is a talented performer who plays an exaggerated version of an idea of who he is. On “The Apprentice,” he played what he thought a wildly successful real-estate developer would be like. He made inane pronouncements with great aplomb, and, as my colleague Patrick Radden Keefe wrote, in a Profile of the creator of “The Apprentice,” Mark Burnett, Trump made bizarre decisions that the makers of the show then scrambled to make look credible in the editing room. When the show started, Trump was a has-been, an occasional butt of tabloid jokes; by the time it ended, he and the audience both believed that he was one of the wealthiest and most successful businessmen on the planet. That, in turn, made his Presidential campaign if not immediately plausible then at least imaginable.

A power grab is always a performance of sorts. It begins with a claim to power, and if the claim is accepted—if the performance is believed—it takes hold. Much as he played a real-estate tycoon in the most crude and reductive way, Trump is now performing his idea of power as he imagines it. In his intuition, power is autocratic; it affirms the superiority of one nation and one race; it asserts total domination; and it mercilessly suppresses all opposition. Whether or not he is capable of grasping the concept, Trump is performing fascism.

I don't even understand why newspapers have opinion sections and editorials in the first place.

(sings)
Don't know much about history.
Don't know what an op-ed is for.
Don't know much about politics.
Or why publishers manipulate.
But I do know one and one is two,
and if editors spoke the truth,
what a wonderful world this would be.

Of the three letters making news tonight, this one is the big deal. It is a big deal that he felt the need to issue it. It is a big deal that he issued it. pic.twitter.com/ONHniXXLst

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 4, 2020

What the ever loving fuck

Yeah, he’s implicitly reminding everyone in uniform that they obey lawful orders, not the other kind.

That letter is quite something

the military taking the opportunity to differentiate themselves from the police! still too many war crimes but a nice gesture idk

not that one should entirely trust the og planet subjugation force ;)

Rudy shits the bed. All of the bed. And the bedroom. And the rest of his house.

Rudy Giuliani completely loses the plot on #GMB.

Piers Morgan - you sound completely barking mad. pic.twitter.com/iS6kyJWfVi

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) June 4, 2020

Ot one point I was convinced he was going to shout "BOXCAR!"

He said “sucked up” though

Fuck Piers Morgan for years of defending Trump

Earlier in that interview, Giuliani finally explains what Trump meant when he said 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' (not a retaliatory boast, you see, but a recognition that people who loot will naturally progress to shooting police officers and what have you).

Those two walking nutsacks deserve one another.

He said “sucked up” though

Rudy def needs new dentures

Fuck Piers Morgan for years of defending Trump

at least

Rudy shits the bed. All of the bed. And the bedroom. And the rest of his house.

when he shits around the house...he really shits around the house

not that one should entirely trust the og planet subjugation force ;)

of which yours is just a particularly well-resourced sub-unit :D

lawful orders

Colonel Kurtz, he dead

If Trump controls a loyal core of CBP and BOP officers they could be his brownshirts for arresting Biden on inauguration day and possibly murdering him.

This isn't the 70s political thriller fanfic thread

Is Dwayne Johnson gonna run for President in 2024 or 2028?

IT DOESN'T MATTER

I am hoping Dwayne Johnson leads the insurrection if Trump finagles re-election

no, it must be mark sinclair. known professionally as vin diesel

Dwayne Johnson

Rock the Vote, ready-made slogan, obv

Rock/Jesse Ventura dream ticket

folks, lisa murkowski is struggling

Extraordinary comments just now from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) who tells us Mattis’ words were “true, honest, necessary and overdue.” Says she’s struggling with the question of whether to support Trump in 2020.

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) June 4, 2020

Jesse's Twitter feed is pretty righteous right now based on what he's retweeting he's on the right side of this.

Oh man, maybe Collins will be TROUBLED next

"he's a threat to the constitution, I agree. i just don't know if I can vote for him. i just don't know. we will see."

Susan Collins will be troubled right up to the brink of making a good decision, before concluding no, not today

It's Defcon 4.83

somewhere out there in the quiet woods of Maine, i believe that olympia snowe is feeling a pang of feeling troubled. she looks right, then left, then moves slightly right. it is ok now

the correct way always seems to be slightly to the right in these woods

lisa murkowski, everyone! let's give her a warm hand

Ms. Murkowski added that when she saw the statement released on Wednesday by Mr. Mattis, a former four-star Marine Corps general, “I felt like perhaps we’re getting to the point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally, and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up.”

Murkowski frustrates me more than Mindy Moderate. By all accounts she loathes McConnell after what he did to make her lose her race several years ago, and if anything her base respects her independence -- she voted against Kavanaugh!

https://www.statesman.com/news/20200603/abbott-calls-for-bexar-county-gop-chair-to-resign-for-spreading-george-floyd-conspiracy-theory

When you lose Abbott & Cornyn...

i mean she's been in the fucking senate for 17 years, but only this letter from a troop has given her the courage to speak truthfully

“I felt like perhaps we’re getting to the point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally, and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up.”

"Of course, I don't count myself as part of this 'we,' but you know what I mean..."

“I felt like perhaps we’re getting to the point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally"

can murk speak more about _why_ they haven't been able to be more honest with their concerns?

can it be anything other than keeping power at all expenses?