Brian Klaas/”The Garden of Forking Paths” on Substack:
The Case for Amplifying Trump's Insanity
The "Banality of Crazy" has warped American politics, as few voters recognize just how deranged, delusional, and dangerous Donald Trump is...because the press rarely reports on his routine insanity.
I hate writing about Donald Trump. I hate the mental energy he siphons out of my brain, the depressing facts about him stubbornly lodged inside of my head, of all the vile, sociopathic things he’s said and done. I loathe living with the revelation that so many fellow citizens celebrate his authoritarian viciousness in which, as Adam Serwer put it, the “cruelty is the point.”
But most of all, I hate that he might win.
So, write about him I must, because one man—and the dangerous movement he’s unleashed—poses an existential risk to American democracy, and by extension, to the stability and prosperity of our world.
Washington Post with a good headline:
Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini
On Veterans Day, the former president vowed to “root out” his liberal opponents, drawing backlash from historians who say his rhetoric is reminiscent of authoritarians
“The language is the language that dictators use to instill fear,” said Timothy Naftali, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “When you dehumanize an opponent, you strip them of their constitutional rights to participate securely in a democracy because you’re saying they’re not human. That’s what dictators do.”
Jonathan Karl/Vanity Fair book excerpt:
“You’re Telling Me That Thing Is Forged?”: The Inside Story of How Trump’s “Body Guy” Tried and Failed to Order a Massive Military Withdrawal
McEntee’s team reached the apex of its power after Trump lost the election in 2020. Within days, they orchestrated sweeping changes to the civilian leadership at the Pentagon that resulted in Defense Secretary Mark Esper and other top officials being fired. In preparing for Esper’s ouster, McEntee and his team created a memo listing the Pentagon chief’s sins against Trump, arguing he “consistently breaks from POTUS’ direction, and has failed to see through his policies.” Among Esper’s supposed transgressions:
- Vowing to be apolitical;
- Opposing the president’s direction to utilize American forces to put down riots;
- Barring the Confederate flag on military bases;
- Focusing the department on Russia;
- Actively pushing for diversity and inclusion; and
- Contradicting the reasoning for and disagreeing with the president’s decision to withdraw troops from Germany.
Trump fired Esper and replaced him with McEntee’s preferred successor, National Counterterrorism Center director and Army Special Forces veteran Christopher Miller. To serve as Miller’s senior advisor, McEntee recruited a retired Army colonel named Douglas Macgregor, whose regular appearances on Fox News had caught the White House’s attention. Chief among his qualifications was his penchant for praising Trump’s approach to US military involvement and calling for martial law along the US-Mexico border.
Aaron Blake/Washington Post:
Key stats from the 2023 election
Abortion rights
The number of those states that were red. Ohio joined Montana, Kansas and Kentucky.
The percentage of Ohioans voting in favor of enshrining abortion in the state constitution. That’s nearly as high as the percentage who voted for the same policy in neighboring Michigan, a swing state.
E.J. Dionne Jr. /Washington Post:
Hey, Joe Manchin! There’s no ‘middle’ in a right-wing GOP.
The question for No Labels and Manchin is why they think there is a need for such a candidate against the president. “Joe Biden is No Labels’ dream candidate,” said Matt Bennett, a vice president of the moderate Democratic think tank Third Way, pointing to what you might call the Biden-Manchin legislative index. Really: It takes no more than five seconds of mental effort to see the absurdity behind the idea that Biden is extreme.
Daniel Nichanian/Bolts:
Democrats’ Strong Election Night Will Likely Shield Ballot Access in Pennsylvania
Democrats expanded their majority on the state supreme court and won a wave of county offices that determine policies on mail voting and are charged with certifying results.
“You can have boards of elections that are 15 minutes apart and yet the rules are so different,” says Kadida Kenner, executive director of New PA Project.
The resulting patchwork frustrates voting rights advocates who want the state to enforce stronger standards, but for now it compounded the importance of Tuesday’s elections for ballot access in Pennsylvania. “We’re heartened by the fact that, because of these elections, voters will have greater confidence that curing provisions and ballot drop boxes will stay in place in many places where they currently are,” Philip Hensley-Robin, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, told Bolts on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s results would also make it tougher for the Trump campaign to try to invalidate results, if the former president, who is the frontrunner for the GOP’s presidential nomination, attempts to overturn an election as he did three years ago.
Cliff Schecter with Stephanie Miller:
