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Seth Cotlar

15 Jan, 5 tweets, 2 min read

Just finished this book. Anyone who now would take seriously the idea of tfg being President again, is like someone who sees footage of cooks pissing in the soup and rubbing utensils in their armpits, but still goes back to that restaurant because the Caesar Salad was delicious.

The mental gymnastics it must take to even remain a registered Republican right now are truly something to behold. Raffensberger did the right thing in January 2021, but he seems so incredibly naive about the future in this interview. fivethirtyeight.com/features/brad-…

The people with the most agency right now are people like Bill Barr, Jeffrey Rosen, Pat Cipollone, Mark Meadows, John Kelly, Chad Wolf, Jared Kushner, and other Trump appointees who did not go along with "the crazies" like Rudy, Sidney Powell, Pat Byrne, Flynn, Jenna Ellis, etc.

Those "non-crazies" know what an existential threat Trump is to the future of America's constitutional democracy. Some like Barr probably think their phantasmagorical vision of "the left" makes the danger of Trump worth the tradeoff, but they're wrong.

It might only convince a small fraction of Trump's 2020 voters not to vote for him in 2024 if people like Barr, Rosen, Kelly, etc. forcefully and publicly tell the truth about what they saw, but given how small the margins are, it could make a significant difference.

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More from @SethCotlar

Seth Cotlar

@SethCotlar

17 Jan

Today I learned that my grandmother was Miss Altoona in 1931. I take special pleasure in knowing that she, a young Jewish woman, represented the motor company owned by one of the nation's nastiest antisemites.

I also learned that my great-grandmother arranged for an anti-fascist speaker to visit Altoona's synagogue in 1943. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_Fra…

The other speaker she brought that year was pretty freaking interesting as well. Trying to imagine how such speakers would be greeted in modern day Altoona. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erika_Mann

Read 5 tweets

Seth Cotlar

@SethCotlar

17 Jan

I just saw the Applebees commercial using the Cheers theme "Sometimes you want to go/Where everybody knows your name/And they're always glad you came" and, well, where to start?

I used to teach a History of American Consumer Culture class until it got too apocalyptically depressing around 2009 or so. I remember in 2005 when my students told me about this scathing film "Office Space" that I totally needed to see.

Adorno, Gramsci, and Tonnines all wept, simultaneously.

Read 4 tweets

Seth Cotlar

@SethCotlar

16 Jan

This is how Trump responded to Obama's victory in Nov 2012. Who could have ever predicted that in 2021 he would have instigated a violent storming of the US Capitol after an election didn't go his way? Really, there were no signs he was prone to such extreme statements.

Also, note the formulation here of “we are divided, so let’s storm the capital.” As if Mr. Birther Conspiracy Theorist with his “storm the Capitol message” wasn’t a major stoker of those divisions, ultimately to his own benefit.

More ironic context for that 2012 storm the Capitol tweet. Trump thought Romney had won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.

Read 4 tweets

Seth Cotlar

@SethCotlar

15 Jan

https://twitter.com/thetattooedprof/status/1482381786936233987

It was 7 years ago today
Sergeant Prepper taught the band to play
They've fired up the rank and file
And they're guaranteed to raise some bile
So may I introduce to you
The act you've know for all these years
Sergeant Prepper’s Fashy Fart Sound Stans

https://twitter.com/thetattooedprof/status/1482381786936233987

What would you do if I sang out of tune?
Would you stand up and walk out on me?

I used to get mad at my school
The teachers who taught me were cool
Now we're holding you down
Turning you 'round
Filling you up with our rules

Read 4 tweets

Seth Cotlar

@SethCotlar

14 Jan

In 1866, Oregon ratified the 14th Amend. This provoked a backlash against an increasingly "tyrannical" fed gov't that was too friendly to black Americans. The backlash led to Oregon rescinding ratification in 1868. OR re-ratified the 14th Amendment in May of 1973. [Not a typo.]

Orange Jacobs, an OR Republican, lambasted those who "affrighted at the idea of a negro voting. Negro equality is their dread. If he is enfranchised they're perfectly certain that they will be compelled to sleep w/ him. You may as well bay at the moon as to reason with such men."

The question of ratification was entirely symbolic in that it still applied in the state from 1868 to 1973 despite ratification being rescinded. But still...symbolism matters.

Read 4 tweets