Quotes Of The Day -- The Global Villain

 

"... Over the years the United States government and various analysts have labeled a range of designated enemies — Iraq, North Korea, Iran — as not just evil, but irrational, unpredictable, and therefore beyond the reach of diplomacy. As with Bush and Hussein, these characterizations often were as much excuse and rationalization for violence as analysis.

"But we have at last found a global villain who matches the bugbear — an ill-informed violent despot who seems to enjoy carnage for its own sake, and who has the power and the will to project terror and violence anywhere on earth for any reason or for none.

"That global villain is, of course, President Donald Trump..." -- Aaron Rupar, in his "Public Notice" Substack, leading off his essay,"The irrational strongman we've been warned about is here."  As another columnist (and many millions of us) has said, we need regime change ...  in Washington, DC.

____________________

"... The builder, it turns out, is better at demolishing what others created than he is at building. That includes our nation of laws. He is better at slapping his name in gold on once noble edifices than at creating anything worthy of the world’s memory, save for what once was. Trump would rather cart the links at his Mar-a-Lago resort and be feted by Botoxed courtiers as artificial as his ridiculous comb over. [snip]

"Has anyone checked to see if in his temple of honor, Lincoln’s seated statue sheds tears? Such a miracle might at least shock some Americans deadened by Trump’s garish spectacle into shedding their own over what he’s destroyed. Perhaps to mourn. Perhaps to repent. Perhaps to find themselves once again. It’s long been said that with Trump and the party he leads there is no bottom. No ultimate, dark night of the soul from which springs a renewed commitment to clawing back a life (and a country) worth living. Indeed, there seems none.." -- Tom Sullivan, Hullabaloo, in "R.I.P. 20th Century," elaborating on a Politico column by Alexander Burns.

Our blood pressure boileth over.

Quotes Of The Day -- The Most Dangerous World Since WWII

 

"Americans are entering the most dangerous world they have known since World War II, one that will make the Cold War look like child’s play and the post–Cold War world like paradise. In fact, this new world will look a lot like the world prior to 1945, with multiple great powers and metastasizing competition and conflict. The U.S. will have no reliable friends or allies and will have to depend entirely on its own strength to survive and prosper. This will require more military spending, not less, because the open access to overseas resources, markets, and strategic bases that Americans have enjoyed will no longer come as a benefit of the country’s alliances. Instead, they will have to be contested and defended against other great powers." -- Robert Kagan, The Atlantic (via Digby), echoing what Charlie Dent and others are saying about the peril America finds itself in, thanks to unchecked and unhinged Putin asset Malignant Fascist. The MF's assertions of primacy over the Western Hemisphere, his extra- Constitutional use of force abroad, and his bullying threats against our long-term allies and friends will leave us not as "America First," but as "America Alone" -- the price you pay when you elect a mad moron to the presidency.

____________________

"... Here on this continent (with Canada and Mexico), Americans have to sort out whether we will allow a madman to demand that the western world accede to his demands for obeisance lest he throw over the game board. That is, if there are enough of us with the right stuff to fight back against Trump and his gang of thieves.

"We too have operated under a comfortable fiction that America’s stability over the years was built on our constitution, our laws, and our democratic traditions. Trumpism ripped that veil away to reveal how much the entire edifice of Exceptionalism was built on 'norms.' It was only a gentleman’s agreement that our leaders behave like gentlemen, until the country fell for a con man and cult leader. Not once, but twice. Trumpism ripped the masks off neighbors who wave American flags, boast of their real Americanness, and loudly profess faith in Jesus, not Christianity as a system of values but as an authoritarian agenda. It was so much vapid branding.

“'America isn’t the way it is because [Trump is] president. He’s president because America is the way it is,” as Canadian journalist David Cochrane explained two weeks ago. He seems to have anticipated Carney’s Davos speech.

"The American challenge going forward is to examine our weaknesses, acknowledge them honestly, and adapt. There is no going back. Norms have failed us. We have failed ourselves. Barbarians are not at the gate. They are in the Oval Office and in the streets of Minneapolis. They are staged to invade Greenland.

"Canada has figured it out. Americans seem the last to know." -- Tom Sullivan, "What Now, America?" at Digby's Hullabaloo.  Nothing will be the same as it was before.  As David Cochrane said above, "America isn't the way it is because [Trump] is president.  He's president because America is the way it is."  De-Nazifying America will be the work of many generations.

QOTD -- The Contagious Courage Of Rosa Parks

 

"Rosa Parks sparked a movement 70 years ago today by refusing to surrender her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger. She was arrested. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted over a year and ended when a U.S. Supreme Court very different from ours ruled segregation on public buses unconstitutional.

"Parks said of her role, 'People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.'

"But it took courage. The year-long boycott shows that such courage is contagious. Oppressors fear it..." -- Tom Sullivan, Hullabaloo, on the courage of civil rights hero / pioneer Rosa Parks.  A biography of Ms. Parks is here.  We need her courage today and going forward if we're ever to restore decency, honor, freedom, and justice in our country.

 

QOTD -- Living In The Past

 

"Democrats’ aging leadership is 'living in the past, it’s a new generation,' as Joan Jett sang 45 years ago. They haven’t kept up and they 'ain’t gonna change.' Their risk-aversion not only makes their efforts feel inauthentic, but they come off as trend-followers not trend-setters. And it does not smell like leadership to voters, especially younger ones now registering as independents in droves. 

"Democrats’ attempts to adapt to the new media environment and to master the attention economy fail miserably, in part, because the leadership’s politics dates from the age of 5-1/4″ floppy disks. Caucus leaders like Jeffries mistakenly resent younger caucus members like AOC and Max Frost to whom social media engagement comes naturally. And 'potty mouth' Jasmine Crockett of Texas who don’t give a damn ’bout her reputation. She brings it, the newsies report it, and social media spreads it.

"This party is not going to recover lost ground until it retires officials who are past their best-by dates. That’s not about age but about skill sets." -- Tom Sullivan, at Hullabaloo. to Democrats "You’re Living In The Past, It’s A New Generation."  Look, we're not into circular firing squads when the only thing standing between us and a total fascist state is the Democratic Party.  But we want that party and its ideals to survive and overcome the fascism of the Republican/MAGA party/ cult, and to do so we need leadership that meets the moment - that's 2025, not 2005.  As "gentlemen of a certain age" we, too, assert this is "not about age but about skill sets," as Sullivan rightly notes.  From our own generation, we pass on the maxim, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."  Schumer?  Jeffries?

 

QOTD -- Declaring War

 

"... Bottom line: Trump declared war on anyone not kneeling before him.

"The White House issued an official list of Trump’s recissions of Biden executive orders, plus a multi-page list of his own Christmas morning gifts to himself, to his oligarch allies, and finally to his political ones. The Associated Press reports that with the executive orders Trump signed, he 'began his immigration crackdown, withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accords and sought to keep TikTok open in the U.S.' He also 'pardoned hundreds of people for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.'

"If you thought 'stand back and stand by' was a winking signal to Trump’s would-be Sturmabteilung in 2020, with those pardons on Monday he all but began peddling armbands and Sam Browne belts online. Locking and loading will come later..." -- Tom Sullivan, Hullabaloo, on the Malignant Fascist's opening shots in a war against the rest of us.  Sadly, for now anyway, some of "us" aren't fully comprehending what's going on, or are choosing to whistle past their graveyard (looking at you, Schumer, Klobuchar, and Fetterman).  Where are your norms now?  Do you seriously think the Malignant Fascist, with Republican SCOTUS- provided immunity, is going to adhere to the laws and the Constitution (especially when his many judicial appointments won't).  

If our "leaders" don't sack up and quick, it looks like this is going to have to be a bottom-up resistance (again).

BONUS:  Good read on the foolishness of trying to work with the fascists.

QOTD -- Dominate The Battle Space

 

"If this election is a fight to save the country, start acting like it and don’t depend on the campaign to throw all the punches. That’s what “Repost” is for on FKA Twitter, Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky. Dominate the battle space. Knock some doors, make some calls. Make sure everyone you know knows that Project 2025 means to END AMERICA. Yes, they mean it. " -- Tom Sullivan, Hullabaloo, on the fact that this election is on all of us.  They also serve who...

QOTD -- The Party Of Trump

 

"Lost in the 'Catch Me If You (Oh, you already did!)' tale of George Santos is what it says about how infected the Republican Party is with Trumpism. Santos may be a pathological liar in his own right, but Trump developed the party faithful’s taste for liars and for shameless lying. That craving will outlast Trump. He’s modified the party’s DNA to match his, and Santos, Kari Lake, Team Kraken, and the rest of MAGA world suggest he’s replicating himself.

"Is it any coincidence that Santos named his firm the Devolder Organization just as Donald Trump did with his?" --  Tom Sullivan, Hullabaloo, asking "Is Trump Replicating Himself?"  Sullivan answers himself:  it's already happened, and it's called the Republican/ Seditionist Party.

 

QOTD -- Republicans Declare War

 

"I explained to a local candidate on the sidewalk yesterday the Republican effort to 'defund the left' at the state level. They mean to strip blue cities of revenue-generating public assets, provoke a financial crisis, force municipalities to cut services and/or raise taxes, then claim (after voters have forgotten why their cities are in financial straits) that it’s what you get when you let Democrats run things.

"Don’t forget Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s attack on his own state’s economy. It’s war. Do they have to spell it out?" -- Tom Sullivan at Hullabaloo, on the Republican war on Blue America.  Sullivan also notes the ongoing Republican political culture wars (citing Gov. Ron "DeSanty" DeSantis's attacks on education, Disney, free and fair elections, etc., and Sen. Rick Scott's proposed tax increases on low- and- middle income earners and retirees -- two of Floriduh's gifts to the nation).  

You don't win this war by assuming a defensive crouch, looking for common ground.  You win it by going on offense and staying on offense.  They are an existential threat to us all;  we need to act like it.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

The bombshell reporting on corrupt, dangerous dimwit Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump's call to Georgia officials to pressure them to fraudulently change the results of the election continues to develop. There are some recent updates and reactions here and here.

Meanwhile, all 10 living former Secretaries of Defense -- Democrats and Republicans, including Trump's two SecDefs -- penned an unprecedented op/ed in the Washington Post that was clearly meant as a warning to Mango Mussolini and his sycophants in the Pentagon to stop obstructing the transition to the Biden Administration, saying in part:

Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.

As senior Defense Department leaders have noted, “there’s no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of a U.S. election.” Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.  [snip]

Given these factors, particularly at a time when U.S. forces are engaged in active operations around the world, it is all the more imperative that the transition at the Defense Department be carried out fully, cooperatively and transparently. Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates — political appointees, officers and civil servants — are each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly. They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.

We call upon them, in the strongest terms, to do as so many generations of Americans have done before them. This final action is in keeping with the highest traditions and professionalism of the U.S. armed forces, and the history of democratic transition in our great country.  (our emphasis)

David Atkins writes about the sedition caucus putsch cosplay planned for January 6:

The GOP senators carrying Trump’s water here are using as justification the fact that millions of Americans falsely believe there was election fraud. But the GOP base believes it precisely because the President and his allies in conservative infotainment media have been promoting the lies.

It’s a perfect self-referential paradox of propaganda. Lie to millions of Americans in order to justify destroying democracy, then use the fact that millions of Americans believed your lies as the reason to try to do so, regardless of the validity of the underlying claims.

Technically, the Senators supporting this effort are claiming they are not trying to overturn the election. They say they only want a “10-day audit” of the election results. The problem, of course, is that the results have been checked and double-checked repeatedly. An “audit” (which would not rise even to the level of a full recount) would accomplish nothing that has not already been done. The voting machines have been double- and triple-checked. Mail ballot envelope signatures have been checked and double-checked–and in any case, there is no longer any way to match envelopes to ballots. The Senators involved do know all of this. They just don’t care.

The immediate goal, of course, is to placate Trump and Trump’s base. Some of the Senators supporting this move are presidential hopefuls for 2024. The secondary goal is to blow enough smoke over the issue to justify new voter suppression schemes in future elections, in order to resolve the “doubts about our elections” that they themselves cynically promulgated.  (our emphasis)

In a similar vein, Tom Sullivan writes about Republicans' authoritarian urge to rule:

As others observed before me, Republicans do not want to govern, they want to rule. The first rule once was, heads they win, tails you lose. Now it is heads they win, tails “Nice constitutional republic ya got there….”

“So what’s a plutocrat to do?” asked Paul Krugman at a time before openly rejecting democracy was de rigueur for Republicans. Since they could not come straight out and say only the wealthy should have the franchise, they resort to propaganda about voter fraud, etc. More democracy, better democracy is the last thing they want.

The latest wrinkle in our Trumpist saga is the effort among elected Republicans to raise objections to the decision of voters on January 6 when the U.S House and Senate meet to accept electoral vote certifications from the states. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas proposes a special commission charged with yet another examination of electoral college votes from “disputed states.” [snip]

Anti-democrats do not want a more perfect democratic republic. They want the answer they want. They want to rule or else. Like a former client, like Donald Trump, he of the bottomless cup of lawsuits, they will keep raising objections to the will of the people, they will wear down opponents until they get the answer they want. If they lose, they try to will get even, Donald Trump-style. No presidential commission will remediate that.  (our emphasis)

 

Put succinctly --

"A cult is attempting a coup in America."

Is that the most accurate way to frame what's going on right now? Well, here's how I opened RS today... https://t.co/YpBXIw5tEn

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 3, 2021

 

Former Republican strategist turned Democrat Steve Schmidt has a tweet thread on the sedition caucus, which reads in part:

They are fighting to maintain the power of a defeated President against the sovereign will of the American people as lawfully exercised under the Constitution of the United States. They are fighting to establish a tyranny. They are deliberately poisoning 7/

Faith and Belief in American democracy. Democratic Republic’s cannot survive such a collapse. The system is rooted in the willingness of one side to cede power to another at the will of the people. There are no other systems of government except for this type that are free. 8/

The legitimacy of that system is being strangled by Trumps lies and the lies of his movement. That movement is an autocratic one with fascistic markers. It is hostile to the American Constitution, the rule of law and the highest ideas and ideals of American liberty. 9/

It's a coup that will fail, and those who enabled it will have forever marked themselves as the unAmerican betrayers of our democracy that they are.  We must dedicate ourselves to seeing that they all pay a serious price for their seditious actions.

Finally, a reminder to please go check out Infidel753's link round- up for links to interesting posts from the past week from around the Internet. You can thank us later (or not)!