dagblog - Comments for "How This White House Lies"

Doc, I missed this last week.

Ramona — Tue, 30 May 2017 11:40:22 +0000

Doc, I missed this last week. Just wanted to add that this is some fine writing. You nailed it. Thank you.

Yale historian Timothy Snyder

NCD — Fri, 26 May 2017 16:15:00 +0000

In reply to Agree completely. A survey of

Yale historian Timothy Snyder, who wrote a definitive book on WW2, Bloodlands, has a new one, On Tyranny.

The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.

Agree completely. A survey of

NCD — Fri, 26 May 2017 16:02:06 +0000

In reply to What a great couple of

Agree completely. A survey of Trump supporters found nearly half thought FBI directors (and the military?) should swear an oath to Trump and the Constitution. They are ready for the runes of the SS on their collars. And the free press?

GOPer supports assault on reporter:

After Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault, Screnar said she was only "more ready to support Greg." "We've watched how the press is one-sided. Excuse me, that's how I feel. (They're) making him their whipping boy so to speak through this campaign," Screaner said. "There comes a point where, stop it."

Fragmenting the public education system with tax supported vouchers for 'identity' right wing religious schools. Providing the cultural intolerance/bigotry that will aid in the plutocrats/GOP objective to fracture our democracy, so they can strip it of every scrap of wealth.

What a great couple of

artappraiser — Fri, 26 May 2017 14:54:40 +0000

In reply to Jordan Orlando at Booman

What a great couple of paragraphs, NCD. Spot on about Trump's idiot savant skills. And on something else that has always bothered me: the emphasis on "horse race" in this country. For me, the latter is to the detriment of understanding not just the law, but policy and government in general. The emphasis on horse race and faux ideological warfare, is stoked and reinforced by our for-profit media, a vicious circle of feeding a beast.

I think the only thing that can start to change this situation is campaign finance law change that would most notably include a radical shortening of the time from campaigns to vote.

(The latter is what disturbed me about TPM, and what made me a very cranky member in its last year. I joined the Cafe there sometime in late 2005 or 2006 when it was a site focused on policy and analysis. It was a very clear switch from that to feeding the horse race beast in 2008 with a huge influx of Obamaniancs. The switch to horse race from a policy-based site was blatant, it was so clear to me that Marshall had become enthralled with the numbers of page views and clicks and got caught up in feeding the beast. I saw it as a sellout on his part, from his days as a PHD historian writing long form journalism at Washington Monthly, The Atlantic, The New Yorker et. al. He knew what he was doing, the choice he was making, admitted as such to more than one journalism website interviews. He even argued in one post to convince himself that all the flimflammery and infotainment of horse race was a great American tradition, leaving out the downside of that tradition, that of distracting the people with bread and circuses while Boss Tweed and his ilk run things their way. To his credit, one thing he never got into is the faux ideological culture wars, but horse race does enough damage on its own given the length of our political campaigns.)

Yep, that theory complements

Michael Wolraich — Fri, 26 May 2017 14:53:41 +0000

In reply to Thanks, G. The "most honest"

Yep, that theory complements yours

Yeah. There's a tribal and a

Doctor Cleveland — Fri, 26 May 2017 13:20:43 +0000

In reply to Jordan Orlando at Booman

Yeah. There's a tribal and a class element involved, too.

Thanks, HSG.

Doctor Cleveland — Fri, 26 May 2017 13:19:48 +0000

In reply to Thanks Doc. I found this

Thanks, HSG.

Thanks, G. The "most honest"

Doctor Cleveland — Fri, 26 May 2017 13:19:18 +0000

In reply to Interesting and insightful,

Thanks, G. The "most honest" point is also true: Trump's personality disorder prevents him from lying when he should. But even that self-destructive "honesty" is in service to the overriding lot of Trump's greatness.

The Science of Blue Lies

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 26 May 2017 09:59:00 +0000

In reply to How This White House Lies

The Science of Blue Lies

Thanks Doc. I found this

HSG — Thu, 25 May 2017 17:05:56 +0000

In reply to How This White House Lies

Thanks Doc. I found this article both enlightening and entertaining.