Yes we should've learned the first time about electing morons to the highest office in the land and possibly the most powerful positjon on the planet. But Reagan was handed Pax Americana.and immediately thought to rub Russia's nose in it.
The indispensable journalist Masha Gessen wrote this (shockingly prescient) primer after Trump's election in 2016:
'Autocracy: Rules for Survival'
"Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a = rationalization. This will happen often: humans seem to have evolved to practice denial when confronted publicly with the unacceptable. Back in the 1930s, The New York Times assured
its readers that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was all posture. More recently, the same newspaper made a telling choice between two statements made by Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov following a police crackdown on protesters in Moscow:
“The police acted mildly—I would have liked them to act more harshly” rather than those protesters’ “liver should have been spread all over the pavement.” Perhaps the journalists could not believe their ears. But they should—both in the Russian case, and in the American one. For all the admiration Trump has expressed for Putin, the two men are very different; if anything, there is even more reason to listen to everything Trump has said. He has no political establishment
into which to fold himself following the campaign, and therefore no reason to shed his campaign rhetoric.
On the contrary: it is now the establishment that is rushing to accommodate him—from the president, who met with him at the White House on Thursday, to the leaders of the Republican Party, who are discarding their long-held scruples to embrace his radical positions...
To begin jailing his political opponents, or just one opponent, Trump will begin by trying to capture members of the judicial system. Observers and even activists functioning in the normal-election mode are fixated on the Supreme Court as the site of the highest-risk impending Trump appointment. There is little doubt that Trump will appoint someone who will cause the Court to veer to the right; there is also the risk that it might be someone who will wreak havoc with the very culture of the high court. And since Trump plans to use the judicial system to carry out his political vendettas, his pick for attorney general will be no less important. Imagine former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie going after Hillary Clinton on orders from President Trump; quite aside from their approach to issues such as the Geneva Conventions, the use of police powers, criminal justice reforms, and other urgent concerns."
Western liberals tilt toward narcissism: we see only ourselves when we look at the world. We look into the hungry tiger's eyes and believe they are human. Hamas, Putin, Iran, etc. We simply cannot imagine they are not nice liberals too. It is Western arrogance that is our weakness. When monsters tell us who they are we must listen. but we do not
Yes we should've learned the first time about electing morons to the highest office in the land and possibly the most powerful positjon on the planet. But Reagan was handed Pax Americana.and immediately thought to rub Russia's nose in it.
The indispensable journalist Masha Gessen wrote this (shockingly prescient) primer after Trump's election in 2016:
'Autocracy: Rules for Survival'
"Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a = rationalization. This will happen often: humans seem to have evolved to practice denial when confronted publicly with the unacceptable. Back in the 1930s, The New York Times assured
its readers that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was all posture. More recently, the same newspaper made a telling choice between two statements made by Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov following a police crackdown on protesters in Moscow:
“The police acted mildly—I would have liked them to act more harshly” rather than those protesters’ “liver should have been spread all over the pavement.” Perhaps the journalists could not believe their ears. But they should—both in the Russian case, and in the American one. For all the admiration Trump has expressed for Putin, the two men are very different; if anything, there is even more reason to listen to everything Trump has said. He has no political establishment
into which to fold himself following the campaign, and therefore no reason to shed his campaign rhetoric.
On the contrary: it is now the establishment that is rushing to accommodate him—from the president, who met with him at the White House on Thursday, to the leaders of the Republican Party, who are discarding their long-held scruples to embrace his radical positions...
To begin jailing his political opponents, or just one opponent, Trump will begin by trying to capture members of the judicial system. Observers and even activists functioning in the normal-election mode are fixated on the Supreme Court as the site of the highest-risk impending Trump appointment. There is little doubt that Trump will appoint someone who will cause the Court to veer to the right; there is also the risk that it might be someone who will wreak havoc with the very culture of the high court. And since Trump plans to use the judicial system to carry out his political vendettas, his pick for attorney general will be no less important. Imagine former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie going after Hillary Clinton on orders from President Trump; quite aside from their approach to issues such as the Geneva Conventions, the use of police powers, criminal justice reforms, and other urgent concerns."
Western liberals tilt toward narcissism: we see only ourselves when we look at the world. We look into the hungry tiger's eyes and believe they are human. Hamas, Putin, Iran, etc. We simply cannot imagine they are not nice liberals too. It is Western arrogance that is our weakness. When monsters tell us who they are we must listen. but we do not
Chilling. Infuriating. And brilliantly insightful.
It also applies to the current resident dictator in the White House.
I wish everyone would read this. Every freedom-loving person in America and elsewhere needs to take heed.
Putin is a "young global leader", installed under the distraction of a likely-false-flag terrorist bombing.
In other words he is controlled opposition, and we are likle watching a contrived movie.
All the world is a stage.
Great game by the way: Did Kasparov Play a Perfect Attacking Game?: https://youtu.be/i8JQvJVeiFI