I'd say the biggest epiphantic sign is that the cultists, while they don't appear to be leaving the faith, are much less willing to flaunt it. The signs and banners and hats are far less in evidence than they a year ago, or during his first term. Might it be that they are, perhaps not entirely consciously, preparing themselves to bury their past?
P.S. I'm not sure the lack of turnover in Trump's cabinet reflects any concern about getting replacements approved. That would require a firmer grasp of reality than we see elsewhere. Instead, I think it reflects the fact that they are all shameless toadies who constantly tell him how wonderful he is, and feed him fantasies about how successfully they are doing what he wants. As opposed to last term, where there was a lot of turnover from people telling him No . . . and failing to lie about what was actually going on.
There were lots of disparaging comments, during the first term, about the so-called "adults in the room." Mostly reflecting the view that they didn't seem to be stopping him from creating one mess after another. Having now seen what happens without them, it's pretty apparent that a lot of restraint was, in fact, happening. It seems like some apoligies are in order. Not that I expect to see any.
In Northern California we got serious rain Tuesday. But Christmas Eve was merely mostly cloudy. And today is down to partly cloudy.
The notable weather feature is that we've had almost a week of daily highs of 57-58, with overnight lows of 54-56. I can't remember a time when the temperature has been so constant.
Considering what Ukraine is doing to Russia, not necessarily impossible. The most surprising part is that it hasn't been front page news around the world. Where is the MSM in this??? Looks like a cover-up.
😝
Trump's suit against the BBC looks like turning into an own goal. The BBC has filed discovery motions demanding Trump disclosure his taxes for the last decade or more (to substantiate, or not, his claims of financial harm), his medical records (to substantiate or not his claims of other kinds of harm). All that information he has been desperately trying to keep concealed.
nous is spot on with this, and it looks like a perfect description of Buttigieg. Too bad that being gay is almost certainly as big an electoral disadvantage as being female or black.
A decade or two ago, it was probably a worse handicap. But the country has changed. Not as much as one might hope, but substantially nonetheless.
Legalizing gay marriage looks (from where I sit anyway) to have brought a lot of gays out of the closet. With the result that a lot of people discovered that their friends and relatives included gay people. And the heavens did not fall. Buttigieg, himself, took things further. High profile (thanks to his Presidential run), "young-ish, charismatic, and a good communicator" -- and not particularly scary; not hitting any of the primary bigotry hot buttons.
You can argue that the country still isn't ready. But the country wasn't ready for a black President either. Obama won anyway. The bigots predictably freaked out, but he won anyway. Twice. I could see Buttigieg doing the same.
I observe that it's the Soviet/Red Army Chorus. Not a Russian Army Chorus (assuming there even is one these days).
Putin may dream of restoring the supposed glory of the Soviet Union. But his vision doesn't seem to extend beyond territory and military power. The idea that anything else might matter seems to be outside his comprehension. Economic welfare for the people? Anything resembling culture? Just no.
The challenge will be for such a person to get thru the primaries. Those tend to have a far higher concentration of, for lack of a better term, activists -- people who do care, often passionately, about policy. At least some policies.
Convincing primary voters that "someone who can win a general election" should be a necessary criteria (not sufficient, but necessary) will be a non-trivial task. Not least because they, too, tend to live in an information bubble populated by others who care about policy.
Kinda sounds like Vance has been cast for that position. He probably wouldn't have won if the cultists stayed home. (In a snit because their god-king wasn't nominated in this alternate history.) But as a post-Trump successor, especially if he succeeded a deceased Trump? I can see them believing that could work. And, with a little help from the Democrats, it might.
I harbor the optimistic hope that the Democrats will resist the temptation to nominate someone who self-brands as progressive. A candidate who holds those positions is fine. But in the current culture, brand is going to be important. So, Pritzker could work, but Newsom would not -- California's image is just too radical in too much of the country.
I have been assuming that he wrote his own posts on the assumption that even his core supporters in his top admin aren’t dumb enough to write that shit.
Seems like a bad assumption. At least based on the stuff they say in public on their own behalf.
It's been obvious for some time that many (most?, virtually all?) of the Truth Social posts are written by someone else. Too many long sentences, too many big words, too long, just flat out too many posts. Which also may explain the use of the third person, althouth Trump has taken to doing that when speaking.
At minimum, Trump rants about something, a minion writes it down, cleans up the wording, and enters it -- which I would guess is what happened, at least in part, with the Rob Reiner post. More often, someone else drafts a post, reads it to Trump to get his approval, and then posts it. And sometimes (for example the middle of the night posts) someone just echoes his style. Albeit with better syntax and a far bigger vocabulary than Trump ever uses.
marching band is seen as a ‘girly’ thing in Japan.
When I was in college (late '60s), the Cal Band was still men only. I knew several women who had been in their (California) high school marching band, and were seriously miffed that they were excluded.
So, she failed to bring prosperity, which Brexit was (in some universe, I suppose) certain to bring. And now the economic mess that Brexit predictably did bring is an existential threat to the nation, and it's all the other guys' fault.
Somehow, to an American, it all sounds so terribly familiar. Except that she isn't bringing billions into her personal account while the country goes down the tubes. Rather irritating for her, one might suspect.
the combining of roman letters and kanji is pretty fascinating and shows how integrated the writing systems are becoming
I have seen kanji and kana, of course. And romanji. But a combination of kanji and romanji is a new one. Perhaps it has emerged in the years decades since I studied the language....
If your opinion-poll numbers are tanking, start a war you can win.
In the abstract and in principle, Venezuela should be an easy win. With these morons in charge, a whole lot of people (US troops as well as Venezuelans) are going to get killed. But victory is about as likely as the Russians in Afghanistan.
"A short, victorious war" is a fantasy of incompetents everywhere. I can think of only one case where it actually happened**. (And that time the war wasn't a domestic political operation.) Mostly it proves to be neither short nor victorious.
** Gulf I, taking Kuwait back from Saddam. But generals competent enough to pull something like that off? Not likely to be put in charge by Trump or Hegseth. More likely to get sacked for insufficient toadying.
I've always known that most people can remember at least some of their dreams. But I've never done that. The closest I've come is the handful of times I've awakened full of adrenaline, apparently over something I dreamed. But with no clue what it might have been.
But in politicians, and especially those who aspire to lead the country, with all the enormous complications and problems that involves, I feel intelligence (or at least the lack of stupidity) are a necessity.
I think lack of stupidity is closer. The US Presidency has metastasized to the point that one critical skill combines knowing what you don't know, being able (and willing!) to select staff who collectively do know about those things, and then being able to take their advice. That's by no means everything the job requires. But lack of that skill is a recipe for disaster. As we are seeing.
I find it more likely that it will motivate flag officers to leave the military, to be replaced by officers who will have no problem when Trump/Vance declare martial law and order them to halt the 2028 federal elections.
I'mthinking that, to prove their bona fides loyalty, they would be told to do something sketchy outside the US -- no doubt they can find another war crime somewhere. Might start with the scenario you give, given how dumb they all are. But something more like the military equivalent of his cabinet meetings seems likely.
Whichever way it goes, they discover, when there is a big negative reaction, that Trump loyalty goes one way. Meaning they get thrown under the bus, too.
On the war crimes in the Caribbean, I note that Hegseth seems to have decided to throw the admiral, who he ordered to kill the survivors, under the bus. Perhaps this will motivate those folks in the military to not obey illegal orders. If not just because they are illegal, then to avoid being scapegoated for following those illegal orders.
Would ObWi would be better if there were many more threads, like LGM or BJ?
I realize that you weren't asking me. But IMHO anything over 1 per day is way excessive. There might be special cases. But in general there really aren't enough of us commenting here to make it necessary.
So I’m asking the UKians if the whole thing is a farce or reflects stubborn attitudes to anything on the left. Or both.
Or, just for completeness, stubborn attitudes of anyone on the left. Not saying that the left is particularly inflexible. Just that, given how far away we are, that's also a possibility.
The novel variations in winds around the pole are having consequences in lots of places. In California, we've had some unseasonably warm spells. But the serious issue is rain/snow. Lack of. Last winter we got enough to refill the reservoirs. But we're heading for no rain for at least the first half of December, and that's usually the month with the precipitation.
On “Moving towards Epiphany”
I'd say the biggest epiphantic sign is that the cultists, while they don't appear to be leaving the faith, are much less willing to flaunt it. The signs and banners and hats are far less in evidence than they a year ago, or during his first term. Might it be that they are, perhaps not entirely consciously, preparing themselves to bury their past?
P.S. I'm not sure the lack of turnover in Trump's cabinet reflects any concern about getting replacements approved. That would require a firmer grasp of reality than we see elsewhere. Instead, I think it reflects the fact that they are all shameless toadies who constantly tell him how wonderful he is, and feed him fantasies about how successfully they are doing what he wants. As opposed to last term, where there was a lot of turnover from people telling him No . . . and failing to lie about what was actually going on.
There were lots of disparaging comments, during the first term, about the so-called "adults in the room." Mostly reflecting the view that they didn't seem to be stopping him from creating one mess after another. Having now seen what happens without them, it's pretty apparent that a lot of restraint was, in fact, happening. It seems like some apoligies are in order. Not that I expect to see any.
On “An inscrutable Merry Christmas”
In Northern California we got serious rain Tuesday. But Christmas Eve was merely mostly cloudy. And today is down to partly cloudy.
The notable weather feature is that we've had almost a week of daily highs of 57-58, with overnight lows of 54-56. I can't remember a time when the temperature has been so constant.
On “Weekend music thread #08 How do you get to Carnagie Hall?”
GREENLAND DESTROYS RUSSIA
Considering what Ukraine is doing to Russia, not necessarily impossible. The most surprising part is that it hasn't been front page news around the world. Where is the MSM in this??? Looks like a cover-up.
😝
On “The Wiles Interview”
That's my perception of Buttigeig.
On “Author, author?”
Trump's suit against the BBC looks like turning into an own goal. The BBC has filed discovery motions demanding Trump disclosure his taxes for the last decade or more (to substantiate, or not, his claims of financial harm), his medical records (to substantiate or not his claims of other kinds of harm). All that information he has been desperately trying to keep concealed.
Oops.
On “The Wiles Interview”
nous is spot on with this, and it looks like a perfect description of Buttigieg. Too bad that being gay is almost certainly as big an electoral disadvantage as being female or black.
A decade or two ago, it was probably a worse handicap. But the country has changed. Not as much as one might hope, but substantially nonetheless.
Legalizing gay marriage looks (from where I sit anyway) to have brought a lot of gays out of the closet. With the result that a lot of people discovered that their friends and relatives included gay people. And the heavens did not fall. Buttigieg, himself, took things further. High profile (thanks to his Presidential run), "young-ish, charismatic, and a good communicator" -- and not particularly scary; not hitting any of the primary bigotry hot buttons.
You can argue that the country still isn't ready. But the country wasn't ready for a black President either. Obama won anyway. The bigots predictably freaked out, but he won anyway. Twice. I could see Buttigieg doing the same.
On “Weekend Music Thread music thread #09 In Russia, Christmas music sings you!”
I observe that it's the Soviet/Red Army Chorus. Not a Russian Army Chorus (assuming there even is one these days).
Putin may dream of restoring the supposed glory of the Soviet Union. But his vision doesn't seem to extend beyond territory and military power. The idea that anything else might matter seems to be outside his comprehension. Economic welfare for the people? Anything resembling culture? Just no.
On “The Wiles Interview”
The challenge will be for such a person to get thru the primaries. Those tend to have a far higher concentration of, for lack of a better term, activists -- people who do care, often passionately, about policy. At least some policies.
Convincing primary voters that "someone who can win a general election" should be a necessary criteria (not sufficient, but necessary) will be a non-trivial task. Not least because they, too, tend to live in an information bubble populated by others who care about policy.
"
Kinda sounds like Vance has been cast for that position. He probably wouldn't have won if the cultists stayed home. (In a snit because their god-king wasn't nominated in this alternate history.) But as a post-Trump successor, especially if he succeeded a deceased Trump? I can see them believing that could work. And, with a little help from the Democrats, it might.
I harbor the optimistic hope that the Democrats will resist the temptation to nominate someone who self-brands as progressive. A candidate who holds those positions is fine. But in the current culture, brand is going to be important. So, Pritzker could work, but Newsom would not -- California's image is just too radical in too much of the country.
On “Author, author?”
I have been assuming that he wrote his own posts on the assumption that even his core supporters in his top admin aren’t dumb enough to write that shit.
Seems like a bad assumption. At least based on the stuff they say in public on their own behalf.
"
It's been obvious for some time that many (most?, virtually all?) of the Truth Social posts are written by someone else. Too many long sentences, too many big words, too long, just flat out too many posts. Which also may explain the use of the third person, althouth Trump has taken to doing that when speaking.
At minimum, Trump rants about something, a minion writes it down, cleans up the wording, and enters it -- which I would guess is what happened, at least in part, with the Rob Reiner post. More often, someone else drafts a post, reads it to Trump to get his approval, and then posts it. And sometimes (for example the middle of the night posts) someone just echoes his style. Albeit with better syntax and a far bigger vocabulary than Trump ever uses.
On “Weekend music thread #08 How do you get to Carnagie Hall?”
When I was in college (late '60s), the Cal Band was still men only. I knew several women who had been in their (California) high school marching band, and were seriously miffed that they were excluded.
On ““We’re now poorer than Mississippi. It’s like Huckleberry Finn without the steamboats.””
So, she failed to bring prosperity, which Brexit was (in some universe, I suppose) certain to bring. And now the economic mess that Brexit predictably did bring is an existential threat to the nation, and it's all the other guys' fault.
Somehow, to an American, it all sounds so terribly familiar. Except that she isn't bringing billions into her personal account while the country goes down the tubes. Rather irritating for her, one might suspect.
On “Weekend music thread #08 How do you get to Carnagie Hall?”
the combining of roman letters and kanji is pretty fascinating and shows how integrated the writing systems are becoming
I have seen kanji and kana, of course. And romanji. But a combination of kanji and romanji is a new one. Perhaps it has emerged in the
yearsdecades since I studied the language....On “How are you sleeping?”
If your opinion-poll numbers are tanking, start a war you can win.
In the abstract and in principle, Venezuela should be an easy win. With these morons in charge, a whole lot of people (US troops as well as Venezuelans) are going to get killed. But victory is about as likely as the Russians in Afghanistan.
"A short, victorious war" is a fantasy of incompetents everywhere. I can think of only one case where it actually happened**. (And that time the war wasn't a domestic political operation.) Mostly it proves to be neither short nor victorious.
** Gulf I, taking Kuwait back from Saddam. But generals competent enough to pull something like that off? Not likely to be put in charge by Trump or Hegseth. More likely to get sacked for insufficient toadying.
"
I've always known that most people can remember at least some of their dreams. But I've never done that. The closest I've come is the handful of times I've awakened full of adrenaline, apparently over something I dreamed. But with no clue what it might have been.
On “It’s Your Party, you can cry if…”
I think Dubya might have managed it. Certainly he would have been far happier trying to run a whelk stand than he was being President.
Of course, the job he actually wanted was Commissioner of Baseball. Pity he didn't manage to get it instead.
"
I think lack of stupidity is closer. The US Presidency has metastasized to the point that one critical skill combines knowing what you don't know, being able (and willing!) to select staff who collectively do know about those things, and then being able to take their advice. That's by no means everything the job requires. But lack of that skill is a recipe for disaster. As we are seeing.
"
I'mthinking that, to prove their
bona fidesloyalty, they would be told to do something sketchy outside the US -- no doubt they can find another war crime somewhere. Might start with the scenario you give, given how dumb they all are. But something more like the military equivalent of his cabinet meetings seems likely.Whichever way it goes, they discover, when there is a big negative reaction, that Trump loyalty goes one way. Meaning they get thrown under the bus, too.
"
On the war crimes in the Caribbean, I note that Hegseth seems to have decided to throw the admiral, who he ordered to kill the survivors, under the bus. Perhaps this will motivate those folks in the military to not obey illegal orders. If not just because they are illegal, then to avoid being scapegoated for following those illegal orders.
On “Open Thread”
Would ObWi would be better if there were many more threads, like LGM or BJ?
I realize that you weren't asking me. But IMHO anything over 1 per day is way excessive. There might be special cases. But in general there really aren't enough of us commenting here to make it necessary.
On “It’s Your Party, you can cry if…”
So I’m asking the UKians if the whole thing is a farce or reflects stubborn attitudes to anything on the left. Or both.
Or, just for completeness, stubborn attitudes of anyone on the left. Not saying that the left is particularly inflexible. Just that, given how far away we are, that's also a possibility.
On “Open Thread”
The novel variations in winds around the pole are having consequences in lots of places. In California, we've had some unseasonably warm spells. But the serious issue is rain/snow. Lack of. Last winter we got enough to refill the reservoirs. But we're heading for no rain for at least the first half of December, and that's usually the month with the precipitation.
On “Am I missing something?”
To the degree that the Jewish community was self-governing during Roman occupation, the religious institutions *were* the government.
The Christian nationalists would be ecstatic to implement that model. Even if they reject the bits about caring for the poor.
"
Simply loving the image of Imperial Rome as an anarchist collective!
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.