The Books of Bokonon

I believe that The Economist is typically paywalled, but The Moderate Voice offers enough of the outlet's Kamala Harris endorsement to be read by us. The Economist has not changed its editorial slant as far as I know. It's a magazine devoted to capitalist economic policies and its reporting and editorializing are consistent with that mission. Former NYC Mayor and founder of Bloomberg , Michael Bloomberg, also endorsed Kamala Harris for President . It's safe to say that Michael Bloomberg is no commie. Rather, he's someone who wants to make sure that the US is a good place to continue to do business. I'll give The Economist and Bloomberg credit: they are standing and being counted. Plenty of news outlets are doing the opposite of Washington Post , Los Angeles Times , and USA Today and making an explicit endorsement of Harris. Those who are standing up are following the cardinal rule of preventing our nation from descending into dictatorship: they are refusing to...

I watched Kamala Harris speak on Tuesday night from the Ellipse, the site of a much different rally speech on January 6, 2021. Unlike the dreadful January 6th rally that preceded an attempted coup stoked by hatred and lies, this rally and speech were hopeful. It was a welcome contrast to Trump's clusterfuck of a rally at Madison Square Garden only a few days prior. Harris offered a vision, a plan for the well-being of all of us who call the US our home, and for good measure offered a stark contrast to Trump's darkest ravings. There were no threats to ban independent media outlets, arrest political opponents for simply disagreeing, mass deportations of whole families, or voodoo economics that would plunge us into an economic depression the likes of which we haven't seen in nearly a century. The crowd was very large - I've heard estimates of 50,000 to 70,000 in attendance - and enthusiastic. And Harris did not waste a word. She was able to make her case in about a half ho...

Whatever the hell that was in Madison Square Garden on Sunday was a dumpster fire. But before anyone gets too much time to sanewash the stank off of that Trump rally, our late night comedians are here to break things down. Let's start with Jon Stewart: . And now it's time for A Closer Look: Let's include Jimmy Kimmel's take: And finally, Stephen Colbert weighs in:

Generally, I don't get very excited about polls, but when some of the data counter a prevailing media narrative, I become interested. That might not necessarily mean that the polling data are correct, but the data can require us to question the narrative. For example, the prevailing media "wisdom" is that Harris is losing Black men and Hispanic men to Trump this election cycle when compared to Biden's performance with these two demographic groups in 2020. So, is that a narrative to fatalistically accept? Let's take a look: It appears that at minimum, Harris is holding her own with Black and Hispanic men this cycle, contrary to the prevailing narrative. The narrative that Trump has made inroads with young adult men seems to be real, and the gender gap is especially noticeable with this particular age demographic. Harris is also faring a bit more poorly with self-identified independents compared to Biden in 2020. There are some real unknowns with that group - includ...

It's been ages since I've visited driftglass. That's an oversight I need to correct. I recommend "As We Dance on the Razor's Edge of this Election..." I think that post gives a good rundown of the stakes of this election's outcome. What happens to the small circulation bloggers like us is anyone's guess in the eventuality of a Trump dictatorship. Higher profile opposition leaders probably have a lot more to worry about. Regardless, we will see a chilling effect on free expression pretty quickly. That's what happens when a democratic society descends into dictatorship.  I was watching a two-part documentary series that the History Channel did a little while back: T he Third Reich . The first episode is devoted to the rise of the Third Reich. The second episode is devoted to the rapid fall of the Third Reich. If you have a Hulu subscription, it's easy to access. I can't really say that I learned anything I didn't already know from readin...

Here is a video of some footage of the Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939. A few months after this rally, Germany started WWII. The US would awaken from its neo-isolationist slumber within a few short years thereafter: Hat tip to Mano Singham of Freethought Blogs.

Except it ain't a movie. It's real life. That Madison Square Garden Nazi rally in 1939 actually happened. A little over 85 years later, the names and the faces might have changed, but the song remains eerily similar. You see, there was this pro-fascist movement in the US called the America First Movement (look it up - and note the similarities to the current bunch of jackals using America First as their brand) that had some Deutschmarks to fund it (our current fascists prefer Rubles, but I won't split hairs). They were all in on Hitler's program and sure as heck did not hide it. Today's MAGA crowd also don't hide it, and their Dear Leader is very explicit about doing fascist stuff: shut down media outlets that are critical of Trump, pardon the terrorists who tried to overthrow our government on January 6th 2021, round up immigrants and others deemed "undesirables" by Trump, and so on. You get the idea. As Samuel Clemens put it, history may not repeat b...

Timothy Snyder does not mince words when he chastises those of wealth and privilege who are obeying in advance in the eventuality of a Trump regime (and I am using the term regime with great care here, as it is not a term that should be thrown about lightly). When faced with the potential reign of a tyrant, obeying in advance is actually the last thing anyone should be doing, especially those with enough privilege to make a difference. Heather Cox Richardson reminds us that the US War Department (the predecessor to today's Department of Defense) published a series of pamphlets for soldiers starting in 1943, and one of those pamphlets was called Fascism. It's a stark reminder of what fascism is and that we've had our own home-grown fascist threats in the past. In other words, it can happen here.  Right now, we still have some easy choices to make. The easiest is to vote Democratic in overwhelming enough numbers to vanquish the current fascist threat in the person of Donald...

 Here is some footage of Kraftwerk prior to their breakthrough hit LP Autobahn :

  This ABC news story is so obvious it almost doesn't bear much in the way of comment other than I could see this coming a mile away. Of course, a subset of voters understand that Trump is a fascist and will vote for him anyway. If you read through many of the justifications for casting a vote for Trump, their statements look like they could have been taken from a right-wing authoritarianism questionnaire (whether one developed by Altemeyer, Duckitt and colleagues, or Funke). And there is a reason for that: the folks who are knowingly voting for a fascist are in all likelihood psychologically authoritarian in their worldview. I'll give you a snippet from a book chapter I had published earlier this year ( here is a non-paywalled version of the chapter ) that describes the three facets of authoritarianism as initially defined by Altemeyer and subsequent authoritarianism theorists and researchers: Conventionalism is defined as a tendency to go along with the prevailing societal ...

I'll let Dr. Timothy Snyder explain:

It just feels wrong that we have a candidate representing one of the two major US parties (in this case the GOP) regularly uses fascist rhetoric at public events and has eyewitnesses who can attest that Trump has praised Adolf Hitler. Yes, that Adolf Hitler. You know, the one that many of our ancestors went to war roughly eight decades ago to defeat (along with other fascist powers aligned with the Nazis). It not only feels wrong but it is wrong.  So where is the media coverage? It's there, kinda sorta. But the reaction among the media pundits seems to be along the lines of "meh." So we're left with late night talk show hosts to fill the void. Thankfully they do the hard work of reporting the facts and showing how tremendously fucked up the situation really is. It's no game. This is real life and folks need to wake up pronto.  Here's Seth Meyers working tirelessly again to wake up a nation sleepwalking its way to fascism: Are you tired of the dumpster fire tha...

It is safe to say that if we are going to look for a fitting description of Donald Trump, fascist is it. I've been saying as much for a while now, including my last post. Trump wants to rule like a dictator and he admires fascist dictators past and present. I am old enough to remember when openly advocating for fascism would be disqualifying for any public office or even invitations to neighbors' cookouts. Those days were not perfect, but they sure seem so much better than the current era. Yet here we are.   A lot of my peers in the blogging world and beyond are stupefied by how close this Presidential election is. I'm not. If we are going to believe the polls (and I think a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted), about half of the voters are going to choose a fascist over a true American patriot who takes her allegiance to the Constitution seriously. If we want to know who these people are, research on authoritarianism can give us a good start. I forget where I read this...

On the blogosphere, on social media, and among the relatively more responsible media outlets, the message is loud and clear: Donald Trump tried to rule like a fascist the last time he was in the White House, led a self-coup in January 6th 2021, and has used the rhetoric of dictators throughout his current campaign. Unlike Republican presidential candidates of the past, Trump has embraced right-wing extremism, full stop. It's not even up for debate if one can grasp it. One of the tragedies that repeatedly occurs when a nation devolves from a democracy to a dictatorship is that so many live with this delusion that the dictator and his thugs will never come after them. And then they find out they aren't so safe either. That is a possible future for us in the United States. That this is even a realistic possible future is one that keeps me up at night.   With that in mind, here is a quick roundup of articles and blog posts to consider. Trump: "I need the kind of generals Hitle...

Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them Note: I get my Oblique Strategies from this shiny app a friend developed.

I have had a very eventful last few days, making blogging more or less the lowest priority item on list of things to do. Tonight I am going to take a bit of a breather. Any Monday Jon Stewart hosts The Daily Show, I am going to watch it, one way or another. Most of the time I simply stream it later. Tonight I wanted to catch it when it aired, and it worked out. We are a couple weeks out from a very consequential election in the US and Jon Stewart has plenty of sharp words for the campaigns. Jon Stewart has plenty of things to say about media coverage of the campaigns, and as he sees it (correctly I might add) the media is largely failing. So too are Trump's political allies at calling him out for his very deranged attempt at campaigning. Jon Stewart sees this and he roasts the spineless SOBs who dissemble whenever Trump's darker, more dictatorial words are presented to them to comment and critique. The absurdity of Trump "working" at a McDonald's is what it is. Tr...

I just can't make this stuff up, y'all.  Elon Musk has been setting up fake Kamala Harris websites and has been sending texts to people directing them to those fake sites . The latter may well put Musk in some legal hot water.   This is an actual Associated Press headline, and one I never expected to read: Trump kicks off a Pennsylvania rally by talking about Arnold Palmer’s genitalia . Otherwise it was the usual boilerplate Trump appearance featuring profanity and deranged grievances. That's all he has to offer. Montana GOP Senate Hopeful Accused Firefighters Of 'Milking' Infernos For Extra Pay and Montana park ranger says Senate candidate Tim Sheehy lied about combat wound . This Tim Sheehy fellow is a piece of work. Montanans would be better off sticking with their incumbent Senator, Jon Tester, who seems like a decent guy who has worked to deliver for his state since he first became a Senator in the mid aughts.  I'm sure there is something I have missed.

Zelenskyy is clear about Ukraine's need for security, and has point-blank stated that having some nuclear weapons available would be the next best thing to joining NATO . That has certainly created some consternation among Ukraine's allies and enemies alike. I'll turn things over to a blogger who goes by the name The Analyst to break this recent development down for us. ‘HE SHOULD NOT HAVE SAID IT’ That was the reaction that came thick and fast from even some of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters. They argue that it upset allies and Ukraine is a member of the 1968 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, which it joined on December 5 1994. However you have to give just 90 days notice to leave the agreement. One of the biggest concerns is that Zelensky handed Putin a propaganda victory - I don’t think the Kremlin ever reacted so fast to something Zelensky has said.  It clearly rattled Putin’s cage and a torrent of escalation talk spewed forth. First off he said Russia must redouble it...

I wanted to follow up on a previous post about the authoritarian turn that the GOP has taken this century. Both of the following graphics I obtained from a working paper (no longer online, regrettably) by V-Dem in 2020. I seriously doubt the trends have changed. The Guardian had a good summary of the findings. For our purposes I am using the term authoritarianism and illiberalism as synonyms.  This first figure shows two dimensions: economic left/right and illiberalism (authoritarianism). Both dimensions start at 0 and end at 1. A party espousing economic conservatism would appear closer to 1 on the economic dimension. A party espousing authoritarian approach to governing will be closer to 1 on the Illiberalism dimension. Notice that Venezuela's ruling party actually scores a perfect 1 on illiberalism. The GOP appears in orange print and the Democratic Party appears in blue print. Other governing political parties appear in gray, and we get a baseline idea of where autocracies te...

Hilarity ensued. The scene where a gentleman who asked Trump about the January 6th insurrection was priceless. Like Desi Lydic, I know that look. I got that same look from my dad when I tried something stupid. My now adult kids say that is the look I give them whenever I am just not buying what they tell me. Turns out nonverbal behavior can tell us a lot. We also are reminded of a valuable life lesson: in politics, we use the term "lion's den" figuratively and not literally. That might be important.

Note: This post comes from my academic blog and was published a little over three years ago. I am making some minor edits to account for the year we live in, but am otherwise leaving it unchanged in terms of content, given that I would still arrive at the same conclusions based on V-Dem's data analyses described in the following paragraphs.  The data tell the tale. The mass media and still too many of the US intelligentsia refer to the Republican Party (GOP) as conservative, and its politicians and followers as conservatives. I would argue that the party leadership, its politicians, and its activist base abandoned conservatism a long time ago, and took a much more authoritarian turn. And before anyone tries to get too far into the weeds here, I published some research roughly nine years ago (and I am far from alone I suspect) distinguishing at least some very substantial facets of conservatism from authoritarianism. That there are actual conservatives in the US who want n...

Never mind that Russia's Putin regime invaded Ukraine in 2014 and illegally annexed Crimea as it fought a low-scale war in the Donbas that had been on-going prior to 2022. Never mind that the same Russian regime ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and have been engaging in human rights abuses ever since. In Trump's deranged and demented mind, somehow it was the president of the invaded country who allegedly started the war with Russia . Yeah, it makes no sense and is completely divorced from reality. But that's Trump for you. It's also a harbinger of what to expect if Trump is reinstalled in the White House. Trump will cede Ukrainian territory to Putin against the will of the duly elected Ukrainian government and the will of the Ukrainian people. Bet on it. Then again, it would be in character for Trump to blame the abused spouse for being beaten (or worse) or the rape survivor for allowing the rape to happen. That's what you get from a former ...

One of The Daily Show's recurring guests, Lewis Black, has a few words for the undecideds:

Normally, a town hall event is one in which a candidate addresses questions asked by audience members. Most candidates know how to handle these sorts of events. They answer questions as directly as possible and sometimes they may try to dodge the questions, but they typically look and act like they are firing on all cylinders. Not old Trump. He loses it a few questions in and becomes an impromptu DJ. Someone needs to ask if this guy is okay. He doesn't act like it. And he really needs to mix up his dance moves. That "milking the cow" routine does not really work so well. Maybe mix it up and add jazz hands to the act. Or maybe the guy is just too far gone to understand what jazz hands are.  

The Florida governor dictator has been working like madness to kill a ballot initiative that has already been given the go-ahead and which is already on actual ballots, weeks before election day. He is desperate to keep that 6-week abortion ban in place. It's the same ban Trump supports. The tactics Desantis uses are disturbing and anti-democratic: sending secret police to ballot initiative signatories, threatening media outlets that run ads in favor of the initiative, and even cooking up an excuse to invalidate any votes for the initiative. Read more here . What we are witnessing in Florida as is the case in other GOP dominated parts of the US is best understood as follows: GOP politicians don't care about the give and take that comes with governing. They want raw power to rule, period.

It looks like even Geraldo Rivera is endorsing Kamala Harris instead of his buddy Donald Trump. I'll just go head and share the full text simply because it lays out a reasoning for unenthusiastic potential Trump voters to step off from that ledge and bring some sanity back to our nation. Sore Loser With three weeks to go until Election Day, Donald J. Trump stands a reasonable chance of becoming the 47th President of the United States. Despite assassination attempts, impeachments, special counsels, felony convictions and hundreds of millions in civil penalties, most polls show his race against V.P. Kamala Harris is too close to call. The first time he ran for president in 2016, he was coming off the last season of Celebrity Apprentice. I had a front row seat as a finalist on that final season and marveled at his audacity with his checkered past to seek the highest office in the land. Then, in the blink of an eye, he went from novice to formidable challenger to victorious over Secre...

There is a channel I follow on Telegram called Military & Strategic, and is typically signed by a blogger who refers to himself or herself as The Analyst. The primary topic is the on-going Russo-Ukraine war, but US politics gets mentioned from time to time, which is very pertinent to the Ukrainian cause. Here is one of The Analyst's most recent posts , which deals with the prospects for the Harris/Walz campaign's success in November: GROWING CONFIDENCE IN A DEMOCRATIC VICTORY We all know how important the coming election is in the US. We are quite literally faced with a fork in the road - one side takes us down a dark and dangerous path towards a semi-fascist autocracy and the other is the real America that despite its many flaws is a decent and honest democrat at its core. It’s a truly shocking difference in possible futures. However I am ever more certain that Kamala Harris will win the presidency. I am growing more certain that the Democrats will regain the House, and ju...