John Howl-BOO!

The pitch for “Unpleasantville”. It’s “The Zone of Interest” meets “The Village” meets “The Music Man” - but reverse. To distract from the horrors of what is around them a community of supporters of r-w authoritarianism throw themselves into staging gloomy theatricals about l-w authoritarianism.

But if the right did that seriously it would just be boring. You would check if El Sayed - or Bernie or AOC - is like Stalin (same ideas? same pattern of rise to power? same political-social-economic environment structurally?) and be like ‘nope’ all down.

The pitch for “Unpleasantville”. It’s “The Zone of Interest” meets “The Village” meets “The Music Man” - but reverse. To distract from the horrors of what is around them a community of supporters of r-w authoritarianism throw themselves into staging gloomy theatricals about l-w authoritarianism.

He seems to have a picture of communism on which we have Havel’s greengrocer over here and a gulag archipelago over there. The one leads to the other. But in fact the history is a bit richer.

The pitch for “Unpleasantville”. It’s “The Zone of Interest” meets “The Village” meets “The Music Man” - but reverse. To distract from the horrors of what is around them a community of supporters of r-w authoritarianism throw themselves into staging gloomy theatricals about l-w authoritarianism.

A 3-legged stool: 1) Trump lies effortlessly and endlessly, so the media can't keep up even if they try; 2) to the extent that Trump isn't self-consciously shameless, per 1) he is genuinely self-deluded; 3) D's feel obliged to treat the R's as still a normal party, i.e. as NOT defined by 1&2.

That one man can maintain such oceanic outflow of conscious lies without draining that (can it be bottomless?) well of self-deception is astounding. Any mere mortal egotist should tip over into being basically an animatronic set of 'tells' he's a liar (Rubio) or fall into fanaticism (Vance). No.

A 3-legged stool: 1) Trump lies effortlessly and endlessly, so the media can't keep up even if they try; 2) to the extent that Trump isn't self-consciously shameless, per 1) he is genuinely self-deluded; 3) D's feel obliged to treat the R's as still a normal party, i.e. as NOT defined by 1&2.

Here’s what I wish Bash would say: You have said you see your job as AG is to work for President Trump. You are his personal attorney, as you were when he was out of office. You pursue the goals he directs you to pursue. And you direct DOJ. newrepublic.com/post/216921/...

Given we are in this new system in which we have corrected the error of thinking DOJ should be independent, what new steps have you taken, either on your own initiative or at Trump’s direction, to restore the trust of Democrats in Trump’s willingness to accept free and fair election results?

Here’s what I wish Bash would say: You have said you see your job as AG is to work for President Trump. You are his personal attorney, as you were when he was out of office. You pursue the goals he directs you to pursue. And you direct DOJ. newrepublic.com/post/216921/...

You say it has always been a mistake to regard DOJ as independent of the Executive and cite John Roberts 2024 majority opinion in support of that. But if this is right it means there is no federal agency charged with ensuring free & fair elections rather than working to help the party in power win.

Democrats are laughing at Republicans for saying it's elitist to laugh at Trump for making the White House look like Cheesecake Factory. But the fact is: if Saddam Hussein had opened a Cheesecake Factory instead of what he did do the Iraq War would never have happened and we'd be better off today.

So I went to a flea market and found a stack of - playing cards? Collectible cards? You can see some little kid’s eyes going wide when he unwraps the bubblegum. ‘’Woah, I got a Booth Tarkington Monsieur Bocaire.” And the other kid is like, “No way that’s super rare …

Not doin’ numbers. Maybe this #boothtarkington

So I went to a flea market and found a stack of - playing cards? Collectible cards? You can see some little kid’s eyes going wide when he unwraps the bubblegum. ‘’Woah, I got a Booth Tarkington Monsieur Bocaire.” And the other kid is like, “No way that’s super rare …

Of course I googled to figure out what the heck this is. You could, too. But wouldn’t it be better just to wonder?

So I went to a flea market and found a stack of - playing cards? Collectible cards? You can see some little kid’s eyes going wide when he unwraps the bubblegum. ‘’Woah, I got a Booth Tarkington Monsieur Bocaire.” And the other kid is like, “No way that’s super rare …

… I got a rookie J.M. Barrie from his ‘kailyard’ days, before he sold out.”

“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of unrecognisable emotions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them." — David Hume, A Treatise of Inhuman Nature

It’s not just charges of ‘heretic’ against Talarico - which deserves a follow-up question. He’s now convinced Mises Institute types that markets don’t work and you have to have politically wise planners fix market prices at the right level, as socially beneficial results will show them to have been.

It’s Stakhanovitism but for betting markets. We need heroic investors who will be even MORE rationally efficient at not leaving free money on the table than a merely rationally efficient market of normal investors would normally be.

The only fancy, pricey writing implement or accessory that actually provides added value equal to the price is: box of Blackwing pencils.

Attack attack attack deny everything admit nothing. Keep it old school.

Heaven is like a Turning Points rally where everyone gets along - all the right-wing factions - and God is this sort of Old Man Charlie figure. Politics is downstream from negative polarisation; tribal religious affiliation is downstream from politic;, and orthodoxy is downstream from all of it.

But all the opinions are anti-liberal, since all the liberals are anti-American. This is obviously a bigger tent that just Christianity, so there's room for Hinduism, if it's partisan.

Heaven is like a Turning Points rally where everyone gets along - all the right-wing factions - and God is this sort of Old Man Charlie figure. Politics is downstream from negative polarisation; tribal religious affiliation is downstream from politic;, and orthodoxy is downstream from all of it.

Joel Berry is constantly sparring with even further right types on ex-Twitter and it’s worth noting: his ‘we need to preserve constitutional liberty’ stance makes less sense than his interlocutor’s ’we need fascism now’ stance. Because Berry accepts the fascist premise.

If you believe anyone on the left must be a totalitarian communist who wants to oppress everyone else on principle, then, honestly, you can’t think that anything but right-wing authoritarianism, to counter that, makes sense.