Deflating MAGA

 Contrary to his customary bragging that he won the election in an unprecedented landslide, President Donald Trump's percentage of the popular vote has fallen below 50% and it drops a little bit lower every day as the final votes are tallied up. According to the Cook Report, as of Tuesday, Trump was at 49.94 percent, and Harris was at 48.26, a difference of a mere 1.68%. He won fair and square but to call it an overwhelming mandate to dismantle the government is ridiculous.

Obviously, Trump will always maintain that his victory was the greatest in history and that nobody's ever seen anything like it. But in Washington, it's become clear that Trump's win was not the overwhelming validation of his agenda that we were told in the days after Nov. 5. Over 50% of the people voted against it, just as they did in 2020 and in 2016. Perhaps some Republicans waking up from their stupors and realizing this accounts for the fact that the fever broke yesterday for the first time since Election Day. Matt Gaetz withdrew his nomination for Attorney General proving, as my colleague Amanda Marcotte writes, resistance is not futile. 

-Heather Digby Parton in Salon.com

-Amanda Digby Marcotte in Salon.com

Hubris

 After claiming a mandate from his first-ever popular vote win — about half of Hillary Clinton’s margin in 2016, when she lost — President-elect Donald Trump immediately went out and demonstrated his hubris, the 78-year-old Republican selecting people to lead the country’s most important institutions based largely on their personal loyalty and on-air presence. It’s a display of raw power and unchecked impulses, forcing senators in his own party to either praise their leader’s genius or risk his wrath on social media.

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, is testing just how far (or low) Senate Republicans are willing to go in terms of their collective moral decline. A veteran of the Iraq war, Hegseth was plucked from the studios of Fox News to serve in the second Trump administration, which does not appear to mind that he has insulted women in the military and was flagged for possible extremist, white nationalist views while serving in the National Guard.

Hegseth has no experience that suggests he could lead a department with more than three million workers. The actual deal breaker, though, may be his sordid personal life.

-Charles R. Davis in Salon.com

 

Trump picks people who worked on Project 2025 despite distancing himself from the WaPost

 

November 18, 2022  · 

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I realize that I have been hard to spot this week, as elusive as the Higgs Particle in quantum physics. It’s just that I’ve had my semi-annual attack of back spasms, which slows me down considerably. The script I had for a muscle relaxer prescribed by my dopey doctor let me down (no pun intended) & so I emptied a bottle of Aleve, which has SOMEWHAT helped. The only problem is that I am having flashbacks to the early 70’s like I’m in the movie with Cool Hand Luke waiting for a bust as the girl washes the windshield of her car and Richard Nixon is the warden saying, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” The whole world is tinged in pink and I can’t turn off the group Chicago singing “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” I gotta get better by Thanksgiving.

 Despite death threats, I was able to make it this morning, able to stumble to the bathroom safely and get dressed without incident. I take nothing for granted anymore.

 When I sometimes have to call a place of business to get directions I shudder & am often amazed when the person I reach cannot tell me clearly how to get there. Either it's a young person who seems to be on their first job, they couldn't find their way out of a closet, they are oblivious as to which planet they are on, or their brain has been warped by a GPS. Regardless, it is very discouraging about the state of things today.

 His cabinet picks so far seem better suited for a liquor store holdup.

 I have no sense of having written anything in my life. These thoughts pass thru my head from somewhere outside and I am able to get them written down before they pass thru.

 I draw strength from what's behind me, both from what I've lost from time and mortality, but at the same time, from what I've needed to leave behind and was able to leave behind. I draw strength thinking about the future, both drawing direction from the strength still remaining, yet apprehensive about what may lay ahead. I do not dwell on what may have been; instead I draw strength and courage from could be now.

 

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I am always impressed with people who always seem to be in a hurry in a positive way. Never a wasted moment. One thing I learned from my working decades is that successful people always a have a sense of urgency, people of action. As Dylan said it in the 60's: don't stand in the doorways, don't block up the halls. Move it!

Our Dangerous Time Has Come

 The Democratic Party, the mainstream news media and the political class are conducting a political autopsy of the 2024 election and how Donald Trump and the MAGA movement were able to easily triumph when the “conventional wisdom” suggested a historically close election. This political autopsy is even more urgent given that Trump and his MAGAfied Republicans will rule the country as authoritarians with control over all three branches of government and a Supreme Courtthat has decided that Trump is a de facto king who is above the law. Based on the people he is choosing for his Cabinet and for other senior roles in his administration, Trump is following the autocrat’s playbook of surrounding himself with yes-men and -women whose loyalty is to him personally and not the Constitution, the American people, democracy, the rule of law and the common good. Almost all of Trump’s choices are manifestly under-qualified, if not incompetent, for the vast amounts of power and responsibility they will be given to impact the lives, safety and future of the American people and the country.

The Democratic Party’s postmortem analysis of its defeat in the 2024 election is important, but they need to quickly move forward if they and the country’s democracy and civil society are to have any chance of surviving the Trump MAGA autocracy and authoritarian regime.   

-Chauncey Devega in Salon.com

 Well, President-elect Donald Trump certainly is off to a roaring start, isn't he? Ensconced at his Mar-a-Lago beach club with the richest man in the world glued to his side every moment, he's busy getting a whole new band together for his second term. Aside from his choice of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, this time there's nary an establishment figure anywhere to be seen as he chooses his new Cabinet and White House staff. Trump is going directly to the lifeblood of MAGA and picking the most controversial, lib-triggering extremists he can find.

I mentioned his first group of nominees earlier this week, none of whom have anything to particularly qualify them for these jobs but who at least have some government experience behind them. The choice of Fox News celebrity Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense was the first inkling that this was about to go seriously off the rails.

Trump is going directly to the lifeblood of MAGA and picking the most controversial, lib-triggering extremists he can find.

-Heather Digby Parton in Salon.com

 The truth is still what it used to be. The truth is still objectively there if you look for it. It's just more disguised than it used to be by people who aim to confuse you into thinking all truth is subjective, both left and right. Facts are still facts, and true on Tuesday is still true on Friday.

 Donald Trump tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday, effectively handing the reins of the nation’s health policies to a renowned conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic who has admitted to having brain-eating worms in his head.

From The New Republic

 We are deep in darkness, before a four-year storm that, according to those Trump has already appointed to his staff, will be replete with violence against immigrants, overwhelming tariffs, profuse and criminal lies, the further fracturing of our country, a desecration of the Constitution and many other forms of villainy — all of which will be conveniently blamed on Joe Biden and the Democrats in an unending stream of calumnious statements backed up by Elon Musk on his de facto state media operation.

-Brian Karem in Salon.com

 

Trump taps Robert F. Kennedy Jr., vaccine skeptic, to lead health department

The decision, which public health experts characterized as alarming and unprecedented, means that Kennedy could soon oversee an agency responsible for the safety of vaccines.

By Dan Diamond and Lauren Weber1 hour ago

WaPost

On Trump's Victory

 Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris and the Democrats will likely not be the last one for the MAGA movement and the American (and global) fascists and other enemies of democracy. America’s political culture and society may be irrevocably broken — at least in the near to mid-term. Cortellessa warns us that “Come Jan. 20, we will all be living in Trump’s America.” The American people did this to themselves. Trump and his agents are experts at political sadism, trauma, and cruelty. On Election Day 2024, the American people said “Yes! Please! Give us more!” They are soon going to regret giving that permission and invitation, but then it will be much too late.

Chauncey Devega in Salon.com

Joel Achenbach in the WaPost

The field of cosmology is constantly changing.

Stephen Hawking’s best-selling 1988 book, “A Brief History of Time,” posed big questions that remain unanswered 36 years later: “Where did the universe come from, and where is it going? Did the universe have a beginning, and if so, what happened before then? What is the nature of time? Will it ever come to an end?”

Here’s another stumper: No one knows what the universe — including “empty space” — is made of at the most fundamental level. The physicist Brian Greene, in an email, framed that question like this: “What threads stitch the fabric of space?”

 

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George Orwell’s “1984,” about a society under authoritarian control and surveillance, and Ray Bradbury’s book-burning novel “Fahrenheit 451” have also seen a parallel rise in sales. "1984" hit No. 13, while "Fahrenheit 451" reached No .18 on Amazon's list.

"The Handmaid's Tale," "1984" and more: See which books got a boost in sales post-election

Dystopian fare isn't the only politically inspired reading material that's flying off the shelves

The novel saw a 6,866% rise in sales based on Amazon figures early Thursday, reports CNN. Before Election Day the books ranked at 209, but shot up to No. 3 after the election. It places 9th on Barnes & Noble's list of bestsellers. Written in 1985, "The Handmaid's Tale" presents a totalitarian society known as Gilead in which fertile women are enslaved and sexually assaulted in order to bear children for the ruling class. The book inspired Hulu's Emmy -winning TV series adaptation of the same name starring Elisabeth Moss.

Margaret Atwood's Unburnable Book, a fireproof edition of her prescient and often banned book The Handmaids Tale is on display at Sothebys in New York City on June 3, 2022 . - The book is on offer with an estimate of $50/100,000 in an online auction open for bidding now through June 7, 2022 (Angela Weiss / AFP)

Margaret Atwood's Unburnable Book, a fireproof edition of her prescient and often banned book The Handmaids Tale is on display at Sothebys in New York City on June 3, 2022 . - The book is on offer with an estimate of $50/100,000 in an online auction open for bidding now through June 7, 2022 (Angela Weiss / AFP)

The themes of the novel and series have resonated as reproductive rights like abortion and other health care concerns have been rolled back. The novel was also popular during Trump's first term as president.

In a departure from speculative narratives, Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century" made the top 10, reports CBS News.

By HANH NGUYEN

Senior Editor in Salon.com

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November 10, 2013  · 

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I'm making a list of things a man in his 60's has the RIGHT to lie about. Here is what I have so far. 1) His age. But how boring. 2) All of the girlfriends he had when he was single. So many broken hearts he left scattered throughout the country. 3) He works so hard. 16 hours a day. Nose to the grindstone. Never gets a day off. 4) The company can't do anything right. If I were running this company. . . 5) What a great athlete he was in high school! 6) To a young person: "When I was your age. . . " 7)" I forgot." May or may not be true but the man in his 60's always has the right to this excuse.

 We all know that growing old is ultimately fatal, but in the meantime all we can do is make the best of a bad situation.

 Relax when I'm around. I will NOT make you look at something on my phone in which you are not in the slightest interested in. It would be nice if you would return the favor, though these days that's probably asking too much. I do not give unwanted advice. I will politely listen to your unwanted advice, then promptly brush it off. And lastly, if our politics clash, I will not try to publicly humiliate you unless I really don't like you in which case you shouldn't be talking to me in the first place.

 Even if I knew where Anne Frank were hiding, I wouldn't trust anyone today to tell them where

 Outside of Pelham Starbucks there is a man walking his dog. There is a woman inside with a 3-ring binder and a stack of books. The morning clouds seem to be breaking up. I chat with the Pelham COP. Far from the madding crowd, there ARE occasional signs of normalcy.

 

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Does it seem to you, like it does me, that the unlikely is more likely to occur these days, than the likely?

 

The Bible says that God created the world in six days. I have often wondered if maybe He had taken a little more time He could gotten it right, like allowing money to grow on trees, and providing automatic accomodations for mothers-in-law. But what do I know? And maybe a few extra days of rest instead of just the one might have been sufficient motivation

 

On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye. Oh, who will come and follow me? I am bound for the Promised Land. But on the way I plan to stop at Dairy Queen and listen to a Salvation Army Band. Communion will be a brown-bag lunch on the side of the road. I leave in 15 minutes. It will be grand.

 

There’s No Denying It Anymore: Trump Is Not a Fluke—He’s America

The United States chose Donald Trump in all his ugliness and cruelty, and the country will get what it deserves.

ELIE MYSTAL in The Nation

 

The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: and the Path to a Shared American Future Paperback – September 10, 2024 

by  Robert P. Jones  (Author)

4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars       252 ratings

 

4.5 on Goodreads 

 

502 ratings 

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A New York Times Bestseller

Taking the story of white supremacy in America back to 1493, and examining contemporary communities in Mississippi, Minnesota, and Oklahoma for models of racial repair, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy is “full of urgency and insight” (The New York Times) as it helps chart a new course toward a genuinely pluralistic democracy.

Beginning with contemporary effects to reckon with the legacy of white supremacy in America, Jones returns to the fateful year when a little-known church doctrine emerged that shaped the way five centuries of European Christians would understand the “discovered” world and the people who populated it. Along the way, he shows us the connections between Emmett Till and the Spanish conquistador Hernando De Soto in the Mississippi Delta, between the lynching of three Black circus workers in Duluth and the mass execution of thirty-eight Dakota men in Makato, and between the murder of 300 African Americans during the burning of Black Wall Street in Tulsa and the Trail of Tears.

From this vantage point, Jones offers a “revelatory…searing, stirring outline” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) of how the enslavement of Africans was not America’s original sin but, rather, the continuation of acts of genocide and dispossession flowing from the first European contact with Native Americans. These deeds were justified by people who embraced the 15th-century Doctrine of Discovery: the belief that God had designated all territory not inhabited or controlled by Christians as their new promised land.

This “blistering, bracing, and brave” (Michael Eric Dyson) reframing of American origins explains how the founders of the United States could build the philosophical framework for a democratic society on a foundation of mass racial violence—and why this paradox survives today in the form of white Christian nationalism. Through stories of people navigating these contradictions in three communities, Jones illuminates the possibility of a new American future in which we finally fulfill the promise of a pluralistic democracy.

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