As the dust settles over election day, it’s worth reflecting that it’s not only the election results that have been at stake, but the future of the presidency and its powers. Over the course of the first quarter of this century, the American presidency has accumulated ever more power, rendering the office increasingly less constrained by either Congress or the courts. With Donald Trump’s reelection, the slide toward a dangerously empowered president has reached a moment of reckoning, particularly when it comes to foreign affairs and warfare. Presidential Powers Throughout American history, presidents have repeatedly sought to increase their powers, nowhere more so than in the context of war. As historian James Patterson has pointed out, “War and the threat... Read more
Reading
On “It’s not who we are” Americans believe their own bullshit. A large faction, for example, believes the United States was founded under divine guidance as a nation of, by, and for Christians. Never mind that Christians built the country by ethnically cleansing indigenous populations and built its economy on the backs of enslaved Africans. We carry around pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution, wave our flags, brand ourselves Team Freedom, think reality TV is unscripted, and pretend professional wrestling is real. We’re simplistic and jingoistic like “great again.” It’s not just a right-wing behavior. “We are the United States of America,” President Biden ends many speeches, so many that you know the rest. After particularly ugly episodes, politicians reflexively declare, this is “not who we are.” Biden’s closing always struck me as quaint, a little hoary, but sincere and well-meaning. “It’s not who we are” grates, another lie we tell ourselves while whistling past the graveyard the way Biden ceremoniously crosses himself with a grin. On Tuesday, America proved the lie.
Once again, Donald Trump has won the American presidency. In the autopsy, pundits will cite broad factors of the electoral environment like inflation, immigration, distrust of liberal institutions, the right-wing echo chamber of alternative media, and backlash to the Biden foreign policy doctrine to explain the victory.
However, this discounts a simpler explanation: Donald Trump is a generationally savvy electoral juggernaut who made every possible correct decision in his campaign, earning his win by perfectly calibrating his strategy and demonstrating exemplary policy acumen.
An all-seeing strategist and leader on the order of Sun Tzu or Caesar, Trump has left his opponents only to cower at his towering intellect—and, perhaps, if they are lucky, attempt to divine a lesson or two from his glorious example. They include:
Bring up Hannibal Lecter as much as possible.
Dude, that movie is awesome.
Make shit up.
Did you see that they’re eating dogs and assassinating squirrels?
The post Doctor Who Magazine 610 appeared first on Doctor Who Magazine.
Disinhibition will be the order of the day in Donald Trump’s America.
The post The Second Coming appeared first on The New York Review of Books.
The rise of online sleuthing is leading to the 'gamification' of our lives at the expense of often deeply vulnerable people
21st of October 2024 I am so happy to have been asked to contribute to this round table in honour of David. We were close friends for over fifty years. All who knew him well could sense the extraordinary unity between his life and work. His life bore testimony to his ideals. There were no … Continue reading In Memory of David P. Calleo – Bologna Conference
What we’ve already uncovered about the next Trump administration.
- by Aeon Video
- by Alex Hochuli
- by Ana Todorović
Rachael Reeves' budget was disappointing. Not for its content, but the way it was communicated
To stay up to date on my writings, head over (and subscribe!) to my Substack.
So from January 20, 2025, Donald Trump will inherit the on-going genocide that the US government has been party to in the Middle East. He will then have no cover and will be judged accordingly. What follows are a few thoughts that I had when I watched the unfolding disaster for the Democrats and the…
British nonprofits set to flee the platform after Elon Musk’s campaign for Donald Trump pays off
Over ninety-nine percent of economists did not predict the 2008 financial crisis.
The vast majority of economists were pro-globalization, by which I mean pro offshoring and outsourcing. They said it would be good for America, they were wrong.
China is predicted to wind up with over 50% of the world’s industry by 2030. Forget all the bullshit about great power competition. It’s over. There may be a war, but if there is one the West will either lose or the world will be destroyed in a nuclear exchange.
Back in the 90s an economist called Brockway liked to say “Economists are bad for your health.”
Just for giggles I went through my January 2017 post archives today, and found one that (sadly) bears repeating. So as a public service, I am re-posting it. Feel free to bookmark it. (Originally posted on Den of Cinema on January 18, 2017) In anticipation of what may be in store for us, here are links to the resources likely to be more crucial than ever. Bookmark this post! ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom American Civil Liberties Union Amnesty International Center for Democracy and Technology Committee to Protect Journalists Electronic Privacy Information Center Electronic Frontier Foundation Human Rights Watch Indivisible League of Women Voters Planned Parenthood Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Southern Poverty Law Center You’re welcome. — Dennis Hartley
There won’t be any introspection.
Empires, like fortunes, are lost slowly and then all at once.
I’m afraid what is coming is going to fall on every American fairly equally like the snow on the graveyard at the end of James Joyce’s “The Dead”
Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, further westwards, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling too upon every part of the lonely churchyard where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential elections will boost the right around the world.
The post Trump’s return a warning as Labor fails on genocide and cost of living first appeared on Solidarity Online.