And he’s no Abraham Lincoln either News came last week of the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny last week. He had survived an attempted assassination by poison in 2020 but eventually returned to Russia, where he was immediately detained and sentenced first to two and a half years, then nine years and ultimately 19 years in prison on charges of “extremism.” In December he was sent to a distant prison in the Russian Arctic. And now he is gone. Navalny was the most famous political dissident in the world, probably since Nelson Mandela. Those who care about such things held out hope that he would survive incarceration, as Mandela did, and prevail one day in a new Russia. In this era of rising authoritarianism, the death of this man — and his bravery in embodying a dream of freedom and liberty, now for the moment crushed — adds more fuel to fears of the creeping fascism now gaining traction around the world.
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It ain’t the 60’s, folks JV Last at the Bulwark takes a look today at the way the Republicans now see institutions since they realized that they have lost the educated, financially successful American cohorts. Their first order of business was to create alternative institutions which they’ve done successfully with the media which has made it very easy to control politicians by propagandizing their constituents. A case in point: As a result of losing the popular culture, they now believe that they can only control it by using the power of the state, thus authoritarianism. -Republicans can no longer create popular majorities, but they can take control of the apparatus of government. -The institutions of civil society have historically been a mediating layer between citizens and government. But Republicans have also lost the argument with educated and financially successful voters, leading to their loss of support within many American institutions. -In response, Republicans have decided that the existing institutions of civil society are illegitimate and that all power should be centrally located with the state.
It’s right in front of them and they don’t want to acknowledge it Last night it was reported that the House GOP’s confidential informant, who has been charged with lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and Burisma (I wrote about that here), was actually working as a Russian agent. It should be the final nail in the Biden impeachment coffin but they seem determined to keep humiliating themselves with this thing (anything for their Dear Leader) so it doesn’t appear they’re ready to roll it up. This piece by Josh Marshall says it all. (It’s from his newsletter which you should subscribe to, it’s really great.) A Bigger Story Than You Can Possibly Imagine I know that’s a big headline that promises a lot. But I think it’s true. David has a good rundown of the events in the Morning Memo. But I want to do my best to set them out on a larger canvas that goes back to the “Hunter Biden laptop” and really all the way back to 2015, a continuing Russian information operation that has been ongoing for almost a decade. Let’s review recent events.
What it means to be an American has always had many definitions and not all of them good. But selling out to an autocratic foreign power in order to keep power at home is a new one. We haven’t actually done that one before. But it’s the natural consequence of the radicalization of the GOP over many years which has culminated in the elevation of a psychopathic conman to lead the party. And here we are.
He’ll come for “the good ones” next At last night’s S. Carolina town hall, Trump was asked what the actual plan was for the rounding up of immigrants: Here’s one of his lackeys today: The Washington Post reports today: Faced with a surge of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018 and 2019, Donald Trump’s White House discussed ways to more aggressively deploy the resources and the might of the U.S. military. Aides and officials spoke privately about detaining migrants on military bases and flying them out of the country on military planes — ideas that the Pentagon headed off. Throughout his presidency, Trump himself would frequently demand to send troops to the border and catch people crossing. “He was obsessed with having the military involved,” said a former senior administration official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. That approach and unfinished business have taken on renewed significance and urgency as the country confronts another migrant crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, and as Trump closes in on the Republican presidential nomination.
I agree with Josh Marshall on this. The brouhaha over Ezra Klein’s article agitating for Biden to drop out at this late date has been overwhelming and it’s not helpful. The idea of choosing a new candidate at the conventions is downright fanciful. Not gonna happen. I like Ezra. We are friendly acquaintances and he’s done a ton of good work so I’m not inclined to slag him. But he’s wrong about this and Josh Marshall has the best essay explaining why: A number of you have written in to ask about Ezra Klein’s audio essay “Democrats Have a Better Option Than Biden: It’s requires them to embrace an old-fashioned approach to winning a campaign.” Is it a good argument? Does it change the equation? What do I make of it? Just for the purposes of cutting to the chase: my answers are “not really,” “no” and “not much.” But Klein is a smart, articulate guy and sitting at the top of the Times op-ed page he has vast influence. So I wanted to break the argument down into its moving parts.
Biden is fine there and it’s nice to see him mingling with an average family and chatting about their lives. But what’s most interesting is the family itself — a dad raising two boys on his own, living a middle class life trying to build a future for his kids. He’s a school principal and the boys are average all-American teenagers. It just seems so … normal. I guess I need to be reminded of that sometimes. Anyway, here’s today’s Hopium from Scott Rosenberg. (There’s a lot more and you can subscribe here.) Trump is not winning the election, or favored, and analysts simply must stop claiming he is – They way our post-Dobbs electoral success and increasingly powerful grassroots is being overly discounted and Trump’s strength as a candidate is being exaggerated has begun to feel a lot like the false red wave media narrative of 2022. Take a look at these four independent polls of registered voters (not adults) released in the past week.
Will she succumb? I think we all suspect that Haley will end up endorsing Trump. But this doesn’t seem like a very smart way to make that happen. If it’s a close election, Haley’s endorsement might just be helpful. I guess they don’t think they need it.
I was hard on Stewart for his “both sides” opening show. I don’t think we need any more of that. But this? Oh yeah: Update: Here’s Mary Trump responding to Stewart’s thin skinned response to the criticism he received for last week. I think she’s got a point: I’ve been to some wonderful places in my life, but this weekend I found myself somewhere I never expected to be — living rent-free in comedian Jon Stewart’s head. Stewart was back for his second show on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, and apparently felt the need to respond to my very real concerns over his dangerous both-sides-ism last week, when he equated President Biden and Donald. I criticized him for erroneously elevating my uncle by claiming, “We’re not suggesting neither man is vibrant, productive, or even capable.” Any honest, objective person knows this is completely false — Donald is neither productive nor capable, while, President Biden is both of those to an impressive degree.
Greed and its fallout “Where once We the People held capitalism’s leash, now we wear the collar.” It’s something I’ve repeated since taking the Hullabaloo morning shift ten years ago. “Working people know in their guts they work for the economy, not the other way around.” Joe Biden gets it. In July 2021, he spoke of ensuring “that our economy isn’t about people working for capitalism; it’s about capitalism working for people.” Unfair competition and monopolies the Roosevelts once worked to rein in have landed us in a second Gilded Age. “Forty years ago, we chose the wrong path, in my view,” Biden said, “following the misguided philosophy of people like Robert Bork, and pulled back on enforcing laws to promote competition.” People still know in their guts they are getting screwed, write Katherine J. Cramer and Jonathan D.