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Jeet Heer Profile picture
@HeerJeet
Sep 24, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
1. Having watched this a few times, I have to say it doesn't get any less alarming. It's worth stepping back and think about where this is heading.
2. The pro-Trump -- or at least anti-anti-Trump -- position on this is Trump isn't serious. It's bluster. He doesn't have the brains, will-power, or support needed to pull off a coup.
3. Trump's intent seems uninteresting and irrelevant. As per other authoritarian regimes, the method is "working towards the Donald." He issues broad goals and people try to please him by carrying them out. Doesn't matter what he intends as long as followers are there.
4. An earlier example of Trump coup talk (from last year) gives the outlines of how he sees it working: military, police & Bikers for Trump would support him.
5. Let's take the possible coup forces one by one. He has the bikers, he has some of the police. But neither would be able to aid in a take over of the government. He doesn't -- and this is crucial -- have the military.
6. The military -- especially the officer corps. -- isn't on board for a coup. Their refusal to join in the crackdown against BLM protest shows that, I'd argue. In the future, I think historians will see that as the peak moment of crisis.
7. The more immediate threat than a coup -- or rather the road to a coup which needs to be more immediately dealt with -- is court shenanigans. About which, more here: thenation.com/article/politi…

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More from @HeerJeet

Jeet Heer Profile picture
Jun 27
1. Worth revisiting the debate between @ezraklein and Ta-Nehisi Coates about Israel/Palestine because there's a specific factual point that Klein got very wrong which he should apologize for. Klein insisted that unlike Hamas, Netanyahu was not "specifically targeting killing civilians."Image
2. TNC responded to Klein with a very eloquent "hm" which I think was a polite way of saying "what are you talking about?" Klein's statement was absurd on the face of it since both in current Gaza onslaught in last seven decades, Israeli government's have killed many many civilians, at a rate that is truly startling.
3. But of course apologists like Klein have always had a way out dealing with the very high civilian death count that he Israeli government has inflected on Palestinians: intentionality. Those deaths were all regrettable collateral damage from fog of war. Lots of civilians died but Netanyahu wasn't "specifically targeting killing civilians."
Read 10 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Jun 18
1. Stan Lee -- father of the Marvel universe or one of the biggest cultural frauds of recent history? A terrific piece that helps advance a longstanding question about Stan Lee's alleged authorship (or non-authorship) of 1960s Marvel comics. This deeply researched article -- which also serves as a profile of a fascinating writer -- has found some evidence that is major addition to this debate. Let me unfold a tale.Image
2. Stan Lee presented himself as the creator of the Marvel universe, the visionary who came up with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Black Panther etc. And that's the way he was usually presented in the press & by Marvel/Disney hype machine. It was always nonsense.
3. In truth, Lee was the junior collaborator of the artists he worked for, notably Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko. Kirby & Ditko came up with most of the characters & plots as well as the preliminary dialogue, which Lee then polished. But there's reason to think he didn't even always do the polishing.
Read 8 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Jun 2
1. So I have a few thoughts on Elon Musk, ketamine, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, opium, Hitler's meth habit, William F. Buckley and the most pathetic acid trip in history, W. H. Auden, cocaine, Aldous Huxley, the CIA, and Silicon Valley, as well as other related matters.
2. Thanks to some excellent reporting from the Wall Street Journal & The New York Times -- as well as the evidence of our own eyes -- we know Musk is an epic consumer of Ketamine (enough to damage his bladder) and also partakes of LSD, ecstasy, cocaine, mushrooms & who knows what else.
3. It's important to contextualize Musk's drug use not as a personal quirk (good or bad) but as part of the larger drug culture on the right. The first Trump administration was awash in speed and Xanax & there's a two century history of mind-altering substances fuelling activities of the right.
Read 11 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Apr 7
1. Wall Street keeps hoping Trump will change his mind, realize Tariff Wars are stupid, and pull back. That's why so many fell for that stupid Walter Bloomberg tweet this morning & market had a brief rebound. But change-of-heart not happening. Trump is in YOLO mode. Only path forward is congress.
2. 2. Thinking Trump will change his mind isn't unreasonable: in 1st term he was reined in by moderate GOP. But reality is Trump is in 2nd term, most likely can't run again, this is his last shot to achieve goals: YOLO. And he's had stupid trade deficit fixation since 1980s.
3. Only path forward is congress, which in fact has constitutional power to set tariffs. That was foolishly delegated to president but can be taken back. To do this you'd need 20 GOP senators: so far 7 are on board: so 13 more.
Read 6 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Apr 7
1. Politically, the key thing to understand is tariff crisis is above all else a constitutional crisis. Under USA constitution, power of tariffs belongs to congress, not president.
2. Now, congress has a right to delegate its tariff power to president, which it has done over last few decades. This parallels the shifting of war making power from congress to president and was also done on so-called national security grounds.
3. The argument for delegating tariff power to president -- like broader argument for imperial presidency -- was idea that POTUS was more responsible & security minded (concerned for whole nation's interest) than congress, which represented narrow regional interests.
Read 6 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Feb 5
1. Trump's goal of taking over Gaza (after Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed) is evil and deranged. It's also not going to happen, along with many other similarly crackpot, criminal goals: annexing Canada, Greenland, Panama Canal etc. These absurd goals are evidence of imperial decline
2. Feature of all of Trump's recent trade wars is that he uses hyperbolic threats (annexing Canada, 25% tariffs etc), then reaches an agreement whereby other country concedes little or nothing. Pattern has been seen in Canada, Mexico, Panama, Colombia. Declare war, do nothing, declare victory,Image
3. Trump's a product of the world of professional wrestling where kayfabe (fake feuds, fake fights) are the norm. He's brought that narrative technique to politics and foreign affairs. Important to both condemn his goals as evil but also at the same time debunk them as kayfabe. Image
Read 4 tweets

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