The late Russian historian Yuri Afanasyev used the phrase "aggressively obedient" to describe the Stalinist rearguard in the Soviet Union in the later years of glasnost and perestroika. Perhaps the same phrase can be applied with even greater truth to fascists and Trumpists (among others).
I don't see any hope for the US from electoral politics and the Trump state is strong enough and ruthless enough to crush any protest that threatens it (didn't happen on Jan 6, 2021 of course).
But nothing is forever. I've started thinking about writing a fictional account of state implosion set 5 to 10 years in the future. Some combination of unchecked pandemic, economic collapse, succession crisis and resistance to ICE/ProudBoy thuggery.
In the meantime, we in what's left of the democratic world have to disengage from the US, and find a way to stop the Trumpist right without sacrificing our own freedoms in the process
There's no hope of more Republican senators or whoever standing up to Trump? I know that sounds absurd/impossible. Also, I think with the threat of trade and tariffs, no 'democracy' is going to stick it's neck out for others such as applying sanctions on Israel for its appalling treatment of Palestinians.
The Democratic Party are only starting to do the sort of rolling changes to Congressional ranks that the Republicans have been doing every decade for the past five. Reagan people replaced postwar moderates. Gingrich tax-and-deficit warriors replaced the Reaganites, who in turn were replaced by Tea Party, now by Trumpkins. AOC and Mamdani do not bear the scars of Reagan and the Bushes like the older Democrats do. This isn't to say today's Democratic reformers have the answers, it is to say that a process that should have begun ages ago is underway.
Can’t but think that readiness to support #genocide & #WarCrimes by #IDF indicates
Albanese govt envisages Aust military using equally criminal “methods” to deal with #ClimateCatastrophe effects & large scale population movements it will bring #auspol
Like many people I spent a long time studying fascism/Nazism and its effects: all those histrionic speeches, bloody battles and brutal statistics. I spent too little time on the PR of those regimes, the statements since shown to be grim absurdities. Downplaying the very idea of concentration camps, "we Germans are a civilised people", etc deserves more examination, the truth-tellers treat it like litter. Even a journalist like William L Shirer didn't examine it in depth and I am interested in recent writing on this
The distorted view of MAGA describing Mexico as one of the poorest countries in the world when it ranked 15th on the IMF table of richest nations by GDP (nominal)
Ranked 15th by the IMF is not middling. Though you possibly might consider Mexico is worse off due to its middling GINI coefficient which after taxes and transfers is 0.421 (according to Wiki from OECD data). Not bad but not great.
In addition to Martin Luther King's observations about those who have the luxury of ignoring what is going on around them, may we add those who deliberately limit news from the US for the sake of their own mental health?
Articles like this are about as close as I want to get to it. It's helpful to appreciate the scale and significance of what is happening there without personally reviewing first-person accounts. So thanks for this Tim, and I hope you're also taking care of yourself in your own way.
The other idea of interest is how we respond? We can't influence US politics, but we can influence Australian politics. So how do we achieve John Quiggin's suggestion to "disengage from the US" and develop a more independent stance in our international relations?
I think I’ve mentioned before that I reread the Letter from Birmingham Jail once a year so I don’t turn into a ‘white liberal’. Sadly, it doesn’t seem that members of the Democratic Establishment do. What I am finding bizarre at the moment are the Jewish Zionists allowing themselves to be used to introduce fascism all around the world on the basis that it is necessary to ‘fight antisemitism’. Do they have no sense of history? Do they believe that they can cosy up to fascists because this time it will be different? Or are they, like Netanyahu, happy to use fascism to force Jewish Americans and Europeans to migrate to Israel? What do people like Chuck Schumer or Jonathan Greenblatt think is going to happen to them a little further down the line?
Zionists do NOT allow themselves to be used - they ARE the abUSERS of anyone who criticises Zionist Israeli and its apartheid/genocide of Palestinians.
Tim: I just happen to be reading a book by 4th generation Japanese-American citizen Brandon SHIMODA - investigating the concentration camp of TOPAZ in central UTAH to which his father and family among over eight thousand others were sent during WWII (a total of 125,000 in various camps throughout the US (from Executive Order 9066). Like a detective novel SHIMODA forensically digs up the remnants of memory - via archival records, personal letters, media stories and his own family's lives. This will be the horror of the Drumpf years being examined for the horrors he is unleashing - has already unleashed in another time several decades hence. And why did nobody with power do anything to stop him...
The late Russian historian Yuri Afanasyev used the phrase "aggressively obedient" to describe the Stalinist rearguard in the Soviet Union in the later years of glasnost and perestroika. Perhaps the same phrase can be applied with even greater truth to fascists and Trumpists (among others).
I don't see any hope for the US from electoral politics and the Trump state is strong enough and ruthless enough to crush any protest that threatens it (didn't happen on Jan 6, 2021 of course).
But nothing is forever. I've started thinking about writing a fictional account of state implosion set 5 to 10 years in the future. Some combination of unchecked pandemic, economic collapse, succession crisis and resistance to ICE/ProudBoy thuggery.
In the meantime, we in what's left of the democratic world have to disengage from the US, and find a way to stop the Trumpist right without sacrificing our own freedoms in the process
There's no hope of more Republican senators or whoever standing up to Trump? I know that sounds absurd/impossible. Also, I think with the threat of trade and tariffs, no 'democracy' is going to stick it's neck out for others such as applying sanctions on Israel for its appalling treatment of Palestinians.
The Democratic Party are only starting to do the sort of rolling changes to Congressional ranks that the Republicans have been doing every decade for the past five. Reagan people replaced postwar moderates. Gingrich tax-and-deficit warriors replaced the Reaganites, who in turn were replaced by Tea Party, now by Trumpkins. AOC and Mamdani do not bear the scars of Reagan and the Bushes like the older Democrats do. This isn't to say today's Democratic reformers have the answers, it is to say that a process that should have begun ages ago is underway.
https://x.com/lindaconno/status/1939865876154761582?s=61
Can’t but think that readiness to support #genocide & #WarCrimes by #IDF indicates
Albanese govt envisages Aust military using equally criminal “methods” to deal with #ClimateCatastrophe effects & large scale population movements it will bring #auspol
https://abc.net.au/news/2024-05-02/national-defence-strategy-ignored-climate-risks/103789018
Like many people I spent a long time studying fascism/Nazism and its effects: all those histrionic speeches, bloody battles and brutal statistics. I spent too little time on the PR of those regimes, the statements since shown to be grim absurdities. Downplaying the very idea of concentration camps, "we Germans are a civilised people", etc deserves more examination, the truth-tellers treat it like litter. Even a journalist like William L Shirer didn't examine it in depth and I am interested in recent writing on this
I've been using this phrase since Ronnie (or his campaign) uttered it in 1984 when I wasn't even middle aged but verging on it.
The distorted view of MAGA describing Mexico as one of the poorest countries in the world when it ranked 15th on the IMF table of richest nations by GDP (nominal)
Even on GDP per capita, Mexico is still somewhere in the middle.
Ranked 15th by the IMF is not middling. Though you possibly might consider Mexico is worse off due to its middling GINI coefficient which after taxes and transfers is 0.421 (according to Wiki from OECD data). Not bad but not great.
The man is pig-ignorant (though that is unkind to pigs - a creature surely more intelligent than Trump)!
In addition to Martin Luther King's observations about those who have the luxury of ignoring what is going on around them, may we add those who deliberately limit news from the US for the sake of their own mental health?
Articles like this are about as close as I want to get to it. It's helpful to appreciate the scale and significance of what is happening there without personally reviewing first-person accounts. So thanks for this Tim, and I hope you're also taking care of yourself in your own way.
The other idea of interest is how we respond? We can't influence US politics, but we can influence Australian politics. So how do we achieve John Quiggin's suggestion to "disengage from the US" and develop a more independent stance in our international relations?
I think I’ve mentioned before that I reread the Letter from Birmingham Jail once a year so I don’t turn into a ‘white liberal’. Sadly, it doesn’t seem that members of the Democratic Establishment do. What I am finding bizarre at the moment are the Jewish Zionists allowing themselves to be used to introduce fascism all around the world on the basis that it is necessary to ‘fight antisemitism’. Do they have no sense of history? Do they believe that they can cosy up to fascists because this time it will be different? Or are they, like Netanyahu, happy to use fascism to force Jewish Americans and Europeans to migrate to Israel? What do people like Chuck Schumer or Jonathan Greenblatt think is going to happen to them a little further down the line?
Zionists do NOT allow themselves to be used - they ARE the abUSERS of anyone who criticises Zionist Israeli and its apartheid/genocide of Palestinians.
Tim: I just happen to be reading a book by 4th generation Japanese-American citizen Brandon SHIMODA - investigating the concentration camp of TOPAZ in central UTAH to which his father and family among over eight thousand others were sent during WWII (a total of 125,000 in various camps throughout the US (from Executive Order 9066). Like a detective novel SHIMODA forensically digs up the remnants of memory - via archival records, personal letters, media stories and his own family's lives. This will be the horror of the Drumpf years being examined for the horrors he is unleashing - has already unleashed in another time several decades hence. And why did nobody with power do anything to stop him...