tingilinde

admiral mcraven's piece

Admiral McRaven (ret) is, by all accounts, one of the most respected military people in the country.  His piece in the NY Times is worth reading.

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President Trump seems to believe that these qualities are unimportant or show weakness. He is wrong. These are the virtues that have sustained this nation for the past 243 years. If we hope to continue to lead the world and inspire a new generation of young men and women to our cause, then we must embrace these values now more than ever.

And if this president doesn’t understand their importance, if this president doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, both domestically and abroad, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office — Republican, Democrat or independent — the sooner, the better. The fate of our Republic depends upon it.

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social media and russian investment

This is from a few years ago, but it still may be relevant. 

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Two Russian state institutions with close ties to Vladimir Putin funded substantial stakes in Twitter and Facebook through an investor who later acquired an interest in a Jared Kushner venture, leaked documents reveal.

The investments were made through a Russian technology magnate, Yuri Milner, who also holds a stake in a company co-owned by Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser.

The discovery is likely to stir concerns over Russian influence in US politics and the role played by social media in last year’s presidential election. It may also raise new questions for the social media companies and for Kushner.

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strength or weakness

Is China's recent corporate pressure a sign of strategic strength, a weakness or possibly a combination?

Zeynep Tufecki has a good piece in The Atlantic.

 

 

barr doesn't believe in the constitution

On secularists and religion

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In a speech at University of Notre Dame’s law school Friday, Barr blamed “secularists” and “so-called progressives” for wreaking havoc on American society. Barr’s depiction of a war between the non-religious and people of faith shocked legal experts, who saw Barr’s defense of religious freedom as an assault on the First Amendment’s protection against the government’s establishment of any religion.

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But you knew he was nuts.  And, of course, he's only there because he argued the 9-0 court decision against Nixon was wrong.

 

 

right-wing populism in the us

Plutocrats and Pitchforks by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson

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The coalition between establishment forces in Congress and right-wing populists in the White House is neither stable nor peaceful. Power has clearly shifted to the Executive Branch. It is Trump, rather than congressional leaders, who attracts the loyalty of Republican voters. Establishment figures who insist on independence have exited the White House and Congress. Fear of their own voters and fear that the GOP cannot survive Trump’s collapse bind the party’s political elites to him, even as his dangers to the party—and the nation’s fragile social cohesion—become ever more apparent.

Back in the quaint old days of 2010, President Obama observed that perhaps we just had to wait for “the fever to break.” Indeed, it is clear this cannot go on. But whether the resolution of the GOP’s three-decade march away from normal democratic politics will take the form of a salutary electoral backlash or a devastating crisis of the American political regime is difficult to say. What can be said is that roots of Trumpism go back much farther than the short presidential career of Donald J. Trump. It will take much more than a lost reelection bid to purge the GOP of the plutocratic populism that increasingly defines American politics.

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Interesting piece, but I suspect the roots of this go back further.

 

 

on greta

A piece on Greta and what she has to put up with

a tip of the hat to Anders

 

a grim year

Now we have the American government giving up on democracy and giving into the dictates of Russia and it's friends as the party in control is tied to that direction.  And at the same time dozens of 'woke' American companies are giving into Chinese demands rather than supporting democracy. 

 

 

living in a movie

Trump, when you think about it, is the ultimate Joker

 

can romney become a nucleation point for republicans in the senate?

If so things could get interesting.

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In the Senate, Ben Sasse and Susan Collins have made their usual equivocal noises—but not surprisingly, its Mitt Romney, longtime Trump antagonist and sometime suck-up, who’s become the standard-bearer, leading to questions as to what his game is. According to sources, donors have in recent days called the Utah senator and encouraged him to run against Trump in the primary. “There is a half-billion dollars on the sidelines from guys who are fed up with Trump,” a GOP donor told me. Their hopes were raised when Romney attacked Trump on Friday, tweeting: “By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.” Former White House communications director turned Trump antagonist Anthony Scaramucci tweeted a poll showing Romney beating Trump 55% to 37% in a hypothetical primary. Trump fired back on Saturday. “Mitt Romney never knew how to win,” Trump tweeted. “He is a pompous ‘ass’ who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s!”

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dark times

Military officers and Trump (via The Atlantic)

a tip of the hat to Jim