Today's political thought

Here's the dynamic. Trump does outrageous stuff. Left leaning people amplify the horror that he is, but he's still in front of you, saturating you, overwhelming America. Just one example. He still owes Albuqueue $200K (source).

The far right enjoys his antics. Moderate conservatives are not as offended by him, but they are offended some by him. Conservatives are OK with distracting the left with culture wars, some. Only Liz Cheney and Romney feel it's gone too far, those are the only two prominent right wing politicians who have denounced Trump. Others have denounced him, but they're not really prominent, and it's arguable that Cheney, who lost her seat, and Romney are prominent. Most right wing politicians lick Trump's butt, and that's another source of angst for the left, they don't understand who people can pretend to be so blind.

He's constantly in everyone's face and not everyone enjoys it. I want to ignore him, and then I see something that parses something heinous he did, and the way they discuss it, that is gratifying to me, to out him, to expose his venial horribleness. Does anyone still believe he's not a monster, it's just piled on after piled on, but the people who love him think it's all fake news.

I was ranting to an apolitical friend the other day, and when I think about it, I must have looked unhinged with the fervor I was denouncing him with. It's almost a manipulation, but he's never going to get me to vote for him, I amplify his horrors, but his supporters will ignore it, and everyone who knows he's a monster doesn't need any more information. It would be better to just shut up and vote November 3rd.

It's exhausting and it's history. I've never really paid much attention to politics, and I can't wait for it to be boring policy again and not these amped up cucamonga culture wars that don't have a right or wrong, they're just personality. Some people don't like half a billion people dying of Covid, and some people don't like to give people the right to choose, what they would consider a murder, and ruin gynecology for the doctors and patients in red states.

People obviously can't trusted to make the right choice, but democracy is all about trusting people to make the right choices. You don't need an assault weapon, as a hunter or for home protection, but people like them, and anyway, defense is all about technology inflation. Just like we all want to live forever and look young when we're old. Vain illusions are what capitalism and democracy are all about.

There are limits, but in a crowded world you stand out by going to extremes. JD Vance would just be an obscure memoirist, but instead he hitched his wagon to Trump to put his name out there. His personal axes he grinds is traditionalism where grandma and grandpa babysit, instead of jet off all over the world on vacation in their retirement. He has to earn the money so his high power well educated wife can stay home and raise the children. They're preaching white Christian nationalism, but he has an Indian wife, and like all good misogynists he likes her (source).

I think this fever dream is about to break, and we're going to return to ordinary boring health in America.

Manet and Degas

Brilliant video explaining the exhibit. Go to the Met and see the exhibit! It's really quite special. In the last gallery the painting this sketch is based off of, of the execution of a Mexican president. The painting has been cut into sections, and the surviving Degas has reassembled them. NY Times review

AOC

Dark Brandon meet Dark Alex. I see her advising the republicans to stick to their guns and never compromise. They don’t want to do anything, only obstruct. So they don’t actually need to be unified. Chaos isn’t organized. This is fine. Read all about it from Heather Cox Richardson , a historian who covers current events. "As their policies threatened to lose voters by concentrating wealth upward and hollowing out the middle class, Republicans increasingly warned that minority voters wanted socialism and were destroying the nation to get it. Trump rode that narrative to power, and now tearing down the current government is the idea that drives the Republican base." While we're at it, here's another funny photo from the Onion: And then: I listened to the Times podcast about George Santos . He basically lied about, I don't know, 80% of his resume, and has a mysterious $700k in his "corporation" which has no clients. So he's a Russian or Chinese plant, o...

6 month old podcast

Al Franken has a podcast , and he has my favorite Heather Cox Richardson , and they have an interesting discussion. He talks about the knife edge. She really explains the Republican strategy. Flood the zone with shit. Alternate facts, and fake news opens up the idea that there is no reality. It's basically reality versus false reality. The goal is to both get people to back away from politics, and to tell them how to specifically think. Developed in Russia, a system of overturning democracy. Running fake candidates, who switch parties, and running candidates with the same name. Blackmail is a technique. Create a fake reality that people come to believe. They're willing to vote for a narrative is not true, and they're willing to vote away their rights. You can flip it and use the same tools.You can weaponize social media by ignoring the shit, and fight back against all these techniques. People defend democracy. They're talking about community and caring for people and ...

Motley Kamuka

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