Good writeup. About the best I've seen yet in response to a man whose every 15-word sentence begs for a 200-word explanation of the ways in which it is a lie that reveals a dangerously broken psychology. And whose moronic policies and appointments will have endless bad effect.
Did you know he said of Adam Schiff today that the man looks like someone took a baseball bat to his face? Seems to me that one purpose of saying that is to greenlight some lunatic with a baseball bat. This is some real two-bit movie gangster shit.
But for every worrisome development in front of a camera, there's more going on that is not getting attention. A friend of mine in the sciences has reported that since the inauguration, her world has been buzzing with stories of grant panel meetings abruptly ended mid-meeting without explanation, indications that grants will be pulled. Nothing concrete yet -- but then, uncertainty is a key ingredient of dictatorship. I'm hoping *someone* in the CinC's orbit can persuade him that science is crucial to our GDP and global power. The mood, though, among research university professors, is currently one of fear for livelihoods and fear that studies with practical benefits for the country are going to be halted.
"Dictatorship takes shape" should be hyperbole, but you look at the chaos and incompetence taking root, and -- it's just the facts on the ground.
I missed the Schiff story, but yes, that's what it sounds like to me. I am following the academic stuff that's going on to some extent, and it seems very bad. It looks like the anti-DEI crusade that's in the forefront in universities, but at NIH it's medical science, and truly horrific, with a (temporary) freeze on research grants, travel, and training, which could bring a halt to research on cancer, Alzheimers, maternal mortality, everything. Presumably this is to punish the institution for the sins of Anthony Fauci, whatever those are. There's obviously an element of terrorism: you comply with the emperor or you *and all your staff* are out of a job. Thus Rutgers University canceled a conference on HBCUs on advice that the organizing institution was suspected of DEI.
Dictatorship is a little ambitious. The true believer minions, Miller and Heritage henchmen, want to rule with an iron fist through Trump.
Trump however wants revenge, money, and to wave his dick around like Arnold Palmer in the locker room. He does not want to rule, and that's what the idealogues are counting on. They will deal with boring implementation details, ICE sweeps, train schedules, lawsuits and investigations of DEI heresy and immigrant sheltering. Its a bunch of little feifdoms chasing their monomania cash cows. There is no grand plan. Crippling government funding is easy until the lawsuits start. Right now is their first 100 days fantasy.. If people fight back it won't be as easy as they think. It may be the courts and the military go along with all of this, in which case we are in a much darker timeline, but that fat lafy hasn't sung yet.
My big message is it's not one person, even when there's a Führer or Duce as overwhelming as Hitler or Mussolini. It's structural.
Trump's lack of any genuine interest is a plus for Miller and Vought, as well as for some more conventional Republicans who see their way to getting some more corporate tax cuts and bank deregulation or what have you.
What I've been saying for some time is that conservatism is to be understood as a ruling-class strategy for coping with the insults forced on them by democracy. Dictatorship (in historical terms Napoleon rather than Burke, or theorized by Curtis Yarvin rather than Ed Meese) is when the ruling class aims beyond mere coping for an absolute victory, Totaler Sieg im totalen Krieg.
I agree with most of this, but Trump's rule is based on a cult of personality, and is as stable as Trump. The ruling class is piggybacking on that cult to hammer their square pegs into the round holes of democracy. Their window is as wide as Trump's lifespan and no wider. An absolute victory requres an end to representative democracy, with or without Trump. They may get it, but it would be the end of the Union. Trump threw out the Republican plan of the death of democracy by a thousand cuts, which had a much better chance of working than the brute force Hetitage wet dream we are in. In this model they have to crush democracy, which will crush the country when the illegal orders to supress dissent start flying. I see this as inherently unstable politically and economically. Without a charismatic leader the chaos that follows will make our current state look normal, and other than Trump they have nothing.
I disagree with the idea that it doesn’t count as dictatorship if it doesn’t outlive the dictator. But I also disagree that it won’t outlive him. Consider instability not as the doom of their project but its chief asset. Dictatorship not as one man of iron will making every decision, but rather one man destroying the system’s ability to hold him or anyone accountable for their actions. The White House then does not direct every crime, but it frees criminals to do as they please. Widespread fear of authorities ensues, and fear of mobs. You can already see this forming. Once it is entrenched, whoever follows Trump inherits this “freedom.” Is Vance charismatic? Not by Hollywood standards. But in a volatile atmosphere, a third of voters will turn not to the Democrats but to the idea that we must Republican harder. As for another 20%, or more their media will encourage this, voter suppression will be rampant—and Stop the Steal zealots will be administering the election. This could go on a long time.
Well, if there is something like a plan, its that as the country descends into chaos it will turn to them to manage it and allow an ever-greater hand in how they do it. A self-sustaining ratchet of censorship, opression, and punishment. But the more the ratchet cranks the more unstable the whole enterprise becomes, radicalizing the people who believe the dictatorship is already here. Add natural disasters, economic shocks and recession, and who knows what if they follow through on the rhetoric to pick some countries up,and throw them against the wall to show who's boss. Trump holds this together with the total support of the Republican party, because Trump alone owns the Republican party voter base. Without that glue, no one is in control of the machine other than brute force ultimately backed by the military. Elections must be eliminated or stage-managed to preserve power in this sccenario, which is where we're headed in 2028 if Trump is still alive, and probably if he is not.
Agree on the elections. Quaint that some people still simply assume there will be elections in '28 for anything above state level. Nothing about the function of gov't and civil society in the US is certain anymore. Fetter-free are we...
We're all waiting for the rubber to meet the road, for soldiers at the border being given the order to fire, for the show trial indictments, the SCOTUS ruling on the 14th Amendment. For blatantly illegal orders and decisions that force others outside this administration to make a decision. There is no mystery what the Trump administration will do, the mystery is how the country will react.
My line is always that real fence-sitters are extremely rare in our society, and elections are decided by the unlikely voters whose choice is between voting for one party or staying home. Campaigning should be aimed at getting the ones who would vote for you off their asses. These abuses could certainly have an effect on some specific subset of voters, though there's no reason to feel confident that it will.
I think it is impossible to overstate how disconnected from politics that clan of fence-sitters are. It's a show that has no interest or meaning to them. But surely, you say, they must be aware of the implications of... Let me stop you there. No they're not aware or interested in implications. At most, when pressed they'll regurgitate talking points from friends or whatever media they consume, but they don't know what they might mean. In the end, only personal physical or emotional discomfort will get their attention, and its a coin toss who they will blame.
It's all they've got (other than the lawyer who fudged the third renewal application on Carter Page's surveillance order) for their central contention--that America has been improperly mean to Donald Trump and must be punished no matter what the law says.
Good writeup. About the best I've seen yet in response to a man whose every 15-word sentence begs for a 200-word explanation of the ways in which it is a lie that reveals a dangerously broken psychology. And whose moronic policies and appointments will have endless bad effect.
Did you know he said of Adam Schiff today that the man looks like someone took a baseball bat to his face? Seems to me that one purpose of saying that is to greenlight some lunatic with a baseball bat. This is some real two-bit movie gangster shit.
But for every worrisome development in front of a camera, there's more going on that is not getting attention. A friend of mine in the sciences has reported that since the inauguration, her world has been buzzing with stories of grant panel meetings abruptly ended mid-meeting without explanation, indications that grants will be pulled. Nothing concrete yet -- but then, uncertainty is a key ingredient of dictatorship. I'm hoping *someone* in the CinC's orbit can persuade him that science is crucial to our GDP and global power. The mood, though, among research university professors, is currently one of fear for livelihoods and fear that studies with practical benefits for the country are going to be halted.
"Dictatorship takes shape" should be hyperbole, but you look at the chaos and incompetence taking root, and -- it's just the facts on the ground.
I missed the Schiff story, but yes, that's what it sounds like to me. I am following the academic stuff that's going on to some extent, and it seems very bad. It looks like the anti-DEI crusade that's in the forefront in universities, but at NIH it's medical science, and truly horrific, with a (temporary) freeze on research grants, travel, and training, which could bring a halt to research on cancer, Alzheimers, maternal mortality, everything. Presumably this is to punish the institution for the sins of Anthony Fauci, whatever those are. There's obviously an element of terrorism: you comply with the emperor or you *and all your staff* are out of a job. Thus Rutgers University canceled a conference on HBCUs on advice that the organizing institution was suspected of DEI.
Dictatorship is a little ambitious. The true believer minions, Miller and Heritage henchmen, want to rule with an iron fist through Trump.
Trump however wants revenge, money, and to wave his dick around like Arnold Palmer in the locker room. He does not want to rule, and that's what the idealogues are counting on. They will deal with boring implementation details, ICE sweeps, train schedules, lawsuits and investigations of DEI heresy and immigrant sheltering. Its a bunch of little feifdoms chasing their monomania cash cows. There is no grand plan. Crippling government funding is easy until the lawsuits start. Right now is their first 100 days fantasy.. If people fight back it won't be as easy as they think. It may be the courts and the military go along with all of this, in which case we are in a much darker timeline, but that fat lafy hasn't sung yet.
My big message is it's not one person, even when there's a Führer or Duce as overwhelming as Hitler or Mussolini. It's structural.
Trump's lack of any genuine interest is a plus for Miller and Vought, as well as for some more conventional Republicans who see their way to getting some more corporate tax cuts and bank deregulation or what have you.
What I've been saying for some time is that conservatism is to be understood as a ruling-class strategy for coping with the insults forced on them by democracy. Dictatorship (in historical terms Napoleon rather than Burke, or theorized by Curtis Yarvin rather than Ed Meese) is when the ruling class aims beyond mere coping for an absolute victory, Totaler Sieg im totalen Krieg.
I agree with most of this, but Trump's rule is based on a cult of personality, and is as stable as Trump. The ruling class is piggybacking on that cult to hammer their square pegs into the round holes of democracy. Their window is as wide as Trump's lifespan and no wider. An absolute victory requres an end to representative democracy, with or without Trump. They may get it, but it would be the end of the Union. Trump threw out the Republican plan of the death of democracy by a thousand cuts, which had a much better chance of working than the brute force Hetitage wet dream we are in. In this model they have to crush democracy, which will crush the country when the illegal orders to supress dissent start flying. I see this as inherently unstable politically and economically. Without a charismatic leader the chaos that follows will make our current state look normal, and other than Trump they have nothing.
I disagree with the idea that it doesn’t count as dictatorship if it doesn’t outlive the dictator. But I also disagree that it won’t outlive him. Consider instability not as the doom of their project but its chief asset. Dictatorship not as one man of iron will making every decision, but rather one man destroying the system’s ability to hold him or anyone accountable for their actions. The White House then does not direct every crime, but it frees criminals to do as they please. Widespread fear of authorities ensues, and fear of mobs. You can already see this forming. Once it is entrenched, whoever follows Trump inherits this “freedom.” Is Vance charismatic? Not by Hollywood standards. But in a volatile atmosphere, a third of voters will turn not to the Democrats but to the idea that we must Republican harder. As for another 20%, or more their media will encourage this, voter suppression will be rampant—and Stop the Steal zealots will be administering the election. This could go on a long time.
Well, if there is something like a plan, its that as the country descends into chaos it will turn to them to manage it and allow an ever-greater hand in how they do it. A self-sustaining ratchet of censorship, opression, and punishment. But the more the ratchet cranks the more unstable the whole enterprise becomes, radicalizing the people who believe the dictatorship is already here. Add natural disasters, economic shocks and recession, and who knows what if they follow through on the rhetoric to pick some countries up,and throw them against the wall to show who's boss. Trump holds this together with the total support of the Republican party, because Trump alone owns the Republican party voter base. Without that glue, no one is in control of the machine other than brute force ultimately backed by the military. Elections must be eliminated or stage-managed to preserve power in this sccenario, which is where we're headed in 2028 if Trump is still alive, and probably if he is not.
Agree on the elections. Quaint that some people still simply assume there will be elections in '28 for anything above state level. Nothing about the function of gov't and civil society in the US is certain anymore. Fetter-free are we...
We're all waiting for the rubber to meet the road, for soldiers at the border being given the order to fire, for the show trial indictments, the SCOTUS ruling on the 14th Amendment. For blatantly illegal orders and decisions that force others outside this administration to make a decision. There is no mystery what the Trump administration will do, the mystery is how the country will react.
Hearted but bemused by yer premise that there might yet be a clan of fence-sitters who could go either way.
My line is always that real fence-sitters are extremely rare in our society, and elections are decided by the unlikely voters whose choice is between voting for one party or staying home. Campaigning should be aimed at getting the ones who would vote for you off their asses. These abuses could certainly have an effect on some specific subset of voters, though there's no reason to feel confident that it will.
You had me at "there's no reason to feel confident"
I think it is impossible to overstate how disconnected from politics that clan of fence-sitters are. It's a show that has no interest or meaning to them. But surely, you say, they must be aware of the implications of... Let me stop you there. No they're not aware or interested in implications. At most, when pressed they'll regurgitate talking points from friends or whatever media they consume, but they don't know what they might mean. In the end, only personal physical or emotional discomfort will get their attention, and its a coin toss who they will blame.
I concede the concept; I do not concede the fence sitters will ever climb down offa them fences – they can't be bothered.
On further reflection, we might be saying different versions of the same thing...
Hunter Biden's laptop is specifically called out three times in the Project 2025 document. These bastards were OBSESSED with it.
It's all they've got (other than the lawyer who fudged the third renewal application on Carter Page's surveillance order) for their central contention--that America has been improperly mean to Donald Trump and must be punished no matter what the law says.
Somewhere beyond the rim, Harold Macmillan is making a big bag of popcorn.