0/20 This election will determine the future of our republic. Here are some principles for the preservation of freedom that I wrote nearly four years ago, when all of this was beginning. I share them again now in admiration of Americans who protest for justice and work for truth.
The Mump Oligarchy – A Glossary
1/10. Mump regime. Musk plus Trump. Mu...mp. The real centibillionaire and the fake rich person in the proper order.
2/10. Mump oligarchy. The regime is an oligarchy, rule by the wealthy few. Trump is the oligarchs' spokesman. He might stay or go. The oligarchs will remain.
3/10. Mump as illness. Physical illness: we are made sick and scammed blind (think of RFK Jr and Ramaswamy). Mumps is one of the diseases that will return without vaccines. Mental illness: Musk's idea of prosperity is that he hurts you and you thank him. See my work on sadopopulism.
1/5 If Trump wanted Russia to negotiate, he would make the war harder for the Kremlin, not create the conditions for Russian victory. I wish reporters would point this out. cnn.com/2024/12/12/pol…
2/5 Putin has made clear over and over that his goal is to destroy Ukraine as a nation and a state and that he has no interest in peace talks.
3/5 Trump’s proposed policy is to force Ukraine to negotiate by denying it weapons otherwise. But the Ukrainians are not the problem! The problem is Russia, the aggressor.
1/6 Dr. Helen Ouyang in @nytimes: “The country is not heading toward a single-payer system, but that doesn’t mean we have to continue leaving patients and their doctors in the dark.”
Yes, it does in fact mean that, absent some other drastic reform.
2/6 It doesn’t help to write and publish essays like this, which present doctors and patients as good people facing tragic choices in an unchangeable system. How the system works to kill Americans for profit has to be front and center.
3/6 Only the US among comparable countries enables useless middlemen to profit hugely by placing themselves between doctor and patient. We have to be reminded that we are uniquely choosing a senseless system that takes both our wealth and our lives.
1/4. Important work here: Trump is violent rather than strong, and using US troops on protesters would break America. nytimes.com/2024/08/17/us/…
2/4. Crucial point in the reporting: the most radical plans, such as the use of US troops against Americans, actually go beyond Project 2025. nytimes.com/2024/08/17/us/…
3/4. A point not raised here is the effect that orders to suppress American protesters would have on the military itself. Either it resists or it becomes a tool of fascist power.