State of the Discussion

Not just pain of whatever they have suffered either, GftNC. They also have to give up the narrative justification that gave that suffering purpose, and they have to take on the additional sting of shame for having embraced that hate. That's a lot to swallow.

People will do a lot of shameful things in order to avoid feeling shame.

"Anything that black guy can do, I can do better! Just watch!!"

Anything that black guy WHO LAUGHED AT ME can do, I can do better! Just watch!!

Fixed that for you, including what was really the most infuriating for him.

I'd say if it makes him happy and gets him to STFU about the whole thing, let him have the win. He may even deserve some credit, fair's fair.

My fear is that this is just gonna send his whole "I deserve a Nobel Peace Prize" thing into overdrive. Obama got one, so he has to have one. Sometimes I think his entire life for the last 15 years has been consumed by trying to out-do Obama.

Anything that black guy can do, I can do better! Just watch!!

And who knows, Kissinger got one, so anything's possible.

I hope this actually turns into some kind of path forward for Israel, and for the Palestinians. I don't trust Netanyahu or the jerks he surrounds himself with further than I can throw him, or them. And it would be good for somebody other than Hamas to be running things.

Actually, it would be good for Hamas to just go the hell away.

If there's a part of the world with a more unsettled history than the eastern Med, I'm not aware of it. Fingers crossed for something like peace for the folks there.

The moment the hostages go free the yahoo from Netanja will de facto renege on the deal. And of course the operations in the West Bank will proceed and likely accelerate aiming for a violent reaction giving the pretense to go full Gaza on the areas where Palestinians live. Or maybe not full Gaza since the settlers would likely prefer to get all of it intact. Otherwise the current cabinet would break up because the two Nazis will resign and leave the yahoo without a majority which in turn is likely to finally make the corruption trial against him proceed and get him into jail. He would not like that.

I don’t think it really matters that much if Trump is around to be the Dear Leader of MAGA or not. When he is gone, there will still be a whole Republican party that enabled him to the max and the hate/fear propaganda bubble will still be poisoning our political discourse.

I think it will matter. Here's why.

My distinct impression is that the vast majority of MAGAs are made, not born. For those that are born, they can get their dopamine hit from lots of places. They did pre-Trump and they will again when he's gone.

As for those who are made, Trump matters because he is, par excellence, a con man; a salesman for the radical right. Nobody else that they've got can hold a candle to him. When he's gone, there isn't anyone with a real chance of picking up the baton. (Lots who are convinced they can. But none who anybody else thinks can pull it off.)

The thing about the enablers is that they are, at heart, followers. No doubt they would like to keep the whole fear/hate coalition going. But I don't think they can pull it off. The folks around Trump are actually four or five groups with very different agendas, united only by their recognition that they can use Trump to move those agendas forward. And their increasing desperation as MAGAland fragments will only make it fragment faster.

The thing to remember about those groups is that their various agendas are seriously unpopular. Even with the other groups. Without Trump as a useful umbrella to (sort of) unite them, they will crumble.

The problem for those who want to roll on after Trump is the same one that has historically faced autocrats: how to guarantee the succession. The traditional approach, from monarchs throughout history to Kim Il Sung, is to go with the founder's children -- genetics as legitimacy. But Trump's children are jokes. And Trump's ego won't tolerate anybody else stealing his limelight to build a post-Trump coalition ahead of time. And there's really nobody else who can effectively unite them.

As for the question of how to jar the "made" ones back to reality, a few may jump ship as reality (economy tanking, etc.) starts to hit home. But for the rest, I think that, unfortunately, the best that can be done is to prepare the ground for the day when he passes from the scene. Then, but probably only then, can they be brought to see their objections to those who would follow after.

All of which is not to csay that the Democrats couldn't use a charismatic leader (or several) of their own. But so far, nobody has risen significantly above the throng.

Thank you, JP. As for messaging, the people of Portland are doing it right; the image of ICE teargassing a silly inflatable dinosaur is not what Cruelty Barbie and King Pussygrabber want. The NYT noticed and had an article to the effect that "Portland responds to ICE with whimsy" and this morning's Wall Street Journal, under the headline "What's really going on in Portland" details out from police logs that answer is "Not much at all." Maybe Walz has the smartest approach of all: "These people are nuts."

I put this as a comment so as not to distract. The post is wonkie's, but the image of a spade is what I found at Amazon.

I'm grateful for her guestpost and want to encourage others if they have something they want to say. I think I have demonstrated that posts don't need to be airtight. Just send them over the transom to libjpn@gmail.com.

Some might wonder what would happen if a submission came in that I and the powers behind the screen (Russell, janiem and wj) were vehemently opposed to. Well, we can burn that bridge when we come to it. So give it a try, what do you have to lose?

Less power if you've got an OLED (or other emissive) display. If you've got older/cheaper tech, black pixels and white pixels all consume the same amount of power.

Jim Gaffigan? Rats. Though I do have to say I don't find him nearly as funny as I used to. In fact, I can't remember the last time I watched him on YT, or anywhere else.

Are we recommending comedians? If so: Josh Johnson! He has a mighty YouTube presence. Some of his posts are for channel members only (which I am not) but most are free. He is my newest Favorite Comedian.

LJ,
Frankly, it gives me the willies. Too funereal, too haunted-house-ish. Readable, but ... meh.
First time commenting from my phone, BTW. Let's see how it works.
--TP

Another tweak, wpDiscuz only allows the comment box at the top, so I've set the order for Newest to appear first, so anything you are replying to should appear immediately below the comment form box.

That one uses threads — you can reply to a comment — but only 3 levels deep, I think.

Wouldn't happen here, but I've seen websites' comment quality go downhill fast after threaded comments were introduced.

I doubt I could read a book or a newspaper using white text on a black background. I have seen web pages like that, and found them just barely tolerable, FWIW.

And yes, this darker font on white background is grrreat.
--TP

Testing. Testing. Testing. How about a link.

The link is to Charlie Pierce's blog on the Esquire web site. It uses a pretty similar commenting format, but I think you need a subscription (~$20/yr) to get at the comments. That one uses threads -- you can reply to a comment -- but only 3 levels deep, I think. It has thumbs up/down tracked separately, and a notification function so you (a subscriber) can see who liked, disliked, or replied to your own comments. So, quite more elaborate than what I'm seeing here, but I've grown to like it.

--TP