Today my partner and I finished setting up my chic new curved widescreen monitor (a Christmas present), replacing the two standard-sized monitors I was using before. This new monitor (technically a “gaming” monitor) shows roughly the equivalent of three of the standard-sized monitors. It took several tries to hook up, using various cables ending in various kinds of ports; one of the two cables that came with the monitor simply didn’t work, and the other used plugs I didn’t have ports for on my relatively new laptop. Finally we found a suitable HDMI cable that works. Everything is working I think I still need to raise the monitor a bit, so top of screen is eye-level. It’s *heavy*.
Back to assorted posts on current events and politics.
- Trump dreams of economic disaster since he doesn’t actually care about Americans, only his chances to win the next election, and this aligns with modern conservatives’ notions about Jesus and the Bible;
- Short items about weather control and assassinations, false history and cults;
- And R.E.M.’s song “I Remember California”.
Whose side are Republicans on? Not that of ordinary Americans; apparently only themselves.
NY Times, Paul Krugman, 11 Jan 2024: Trump Dreams of Economic Disaster
Opening:
Did Donald Trump just say that he’s hoping for an economic crash? Not exactly. But what he did say was arguably even worse, especially once you put it in context.
And Trump’s evident panic over recent good economic news deepens what is, for me, the biggest conundrum of American politics: Why have so many people joined — and stayed in — a personality cult built around a man who poses an existential threat to our nation’s democracy and is also personally a complete blowhard?
So what did Trump actually say on Monday? Strictly speaking, he didn’t call for a crash, he predicted one, positing that the economy is running on “fumes” — and that he hopes the inevitable crash will happen this year, “because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover.”
If you think about it, this isn’t at all what a man who believes himself to be a brilliant economic manager and supposedly cares about the nation’s welfare should say. What he should have said instead is something like this: My opponent’s policies have set us on the path to disaster, but I hope the disaster doesn’t come until I’m in office — because I don’t want the American people to suffer unnecessarily, and, because I’m a very stable genius, I alone can fix it.
And
Trump […] has been predicting disaster under Biden for more than three years, without ever admitting that his predictions haven’t come true. What we’ve gotten from Trump instead is a series of desperate false claims about the state of the economy. No, the price of bacon isn’t “up five times” under Biden.
This gets interesting near the end:
I hate saying this, but I do understand why millions of people are drawn to Trump’s dictatorial ambitions, his encouragement of violence, his declarations that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” The sad truth is that there have always been many Americans who fundamentally don’t believe in America’s democratic ideals.
“The sad truth is that there have always been many Americans who fundamentally don’t believe in America’s democratic ideals.”
When you think about this, it makes sense. And it aligns with recent comments from some Christians, who when shown what Jesus actually said, react that his words are too “woke” for the modern day. (OnlySky citation) The Constitution was written by a group of idealists trying to overcome the shackles of religion (among many other things), and many people (conservatives) mindlessly venerate the Constitution, just as they do the Bible, without actually understanding what either document says. For many people, the ideals of Jesus, and the Constitution, don’t overcome their base, intuitive, morality, the one that evolved on the Savannah over millions of years. As I’ve discussed before.
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Shorter items.
Crackpot thinks her enemies are controlling the weather:
Laura Loomer: The Deep State Is Using Its Weather Machine To Rig Iowa Caucus In Favor Of Nikki Haley
And
(Weather manipulation does not exist.)
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Texas governor says he would have immigrants shot, if it weren’t illegal.
This aligns with the piece about what Jesus actually said.
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Even assassination is in the Republican playbook. They’re behaving like the mafia.
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“Predictably…”
Oklahoma State Sen. Nathan Dahm Spreads False Christian Nationalist History
“The Ten Commandments is not controversial,” Dahm declared. “Our entire structure of our government, our U.S. Constitution was founded by Christians on biblical principles. They’ll say that the First Amendment says that you can’t have an establishment of religion, but that’s specifically applied to the federal government. If you go back and you read the state constitutions—read the Virginia Constitution of 1776, they specifically say that people need to have moral Christian behaviors. They specifically mentioned Christianity in their state constitution.”
And then,
Predictably, actually reading the Virginia Constitution of 1776 reading that it makes no mention of Christianity and says nothing about the people needing to have “moral Christian behaviors.”
We’re in David Barton territory here.
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Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, 12 Jan 2024: Opinion | The media’s worst lapse: Refusing to identify Trump as a cult leader
Sample:
A message from a mentally sound, serious leader (President Biden) cannot be equated with the message of an authoritarian who seeks absolute power through a web of disinformation and, if need be, violence. (When the media doesn’t grasp this, we get laughable headlines such as: “Clashing Over Jan. 6, Trump and Biden Show Reality Is at Stake in 2024.”)
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Today’s R.E.M. album: Green, one of its middle-period pop albums. The one song that still strikes me is this one:
“At the edge of the continent”
I remember this defense
Progress fails pacific sense
All those sweet conspiracies
I remember all these things
I remember traffic jams
Motor boys and girls with tans
Nearly was and almost rans
I remember this, this
Of course there was also that final untitled song on the album, not listed, that I posted about here. “Keep him strong.”
