The fundamental division between the two parties isn't right and left, it's between a party that is fundamentally evil and will use any means to win, even if it's immoral or illegal, and a party that is thoroughly inept, thinks voters will reward good intentions and doesn't seem to understand Politics 101. As I have said many times over the years, Democrats are the class nerds while Republicans are the schoolyard bullies. Once upon a time there were tough Democrats. Where did they go?

I'm not worried about Harris winning an honest election, but I am worried about Republicans stealing it. Unfortunately, I fear Democrats are just not tough enough to stand up to them--especially our utterly worthless Attorney General. I hope I am wrong. So I am forced to think about life under fascism. I think it will be a soft form of fascism, like Nazi Germany in the early days before Hitler fully consolidated his power. Ironically, I think those who will suffer most are those on the right that Trump can't trust.

Some people wonder how I went from being a libertarian to being a social democrat. A lot of it has to do with luck. Not my luck, but the concept of luck in society.
Everyone knows what luck is--it hits randomly, both the good and the bad.... However, those blessed with good luck will invariably ascribe it to their own intelligence, hard work etc. because it flatters their ego and justifies their good fortune. From this logic it automatically follows that those suffering bad fortune somehow brought it on themselves,

Serious question: Is it possible to have any respect whatsoever for a Trump supporter or a member of the party of Trump? The answer for me is no, I can't respect anyone who supports Trump or his party. The harder problem is whether I can still engage them, civilly, or do I need to cut off all contact? Luckily no close family members are Trumpsters, but a few old friends are that I am dismayed by.

Brief history of Republican disdain for the Black vote. (1) In 1876, the GOP cut a deal with southern Democrats to withdraw federal troops from the South, where they had protected Black voting rights. Afterwards, Republicans did virtually nothing to protect Black voting rights--although filibusters by southern Democrats were an important obstacle, such as to the force bill in 1890.

I don't think many people realize that the right-wing Heritage Foundation has been doing a version of Project 2025 intermittently since 1980, when it was called Mandate for Leadership. One reason Project 2025 is dangerous is that Heritage has learned a lot since 1980.

https://twitter.com/newrepublic/status/1838914208282427704

I worked on the 1980 report. At that time there weren't many movement conservatives with government experience--the Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford administrations were not very hospitable for them. Now there are many conservatives with experience in government.

Trump's obvious mental impairment is the biggest unreported story in America. Every time he speaks, nothing but gibberish comes out. But in stories about his speeches, the quotes are always cleaned up to make them sound half-sane. This is one way the media puts its collective thumb on the scale in Trump's favor. Personally, I think he has dementia; I say this having seen it close-up. But I am willing to be persuaded that he is just incredibly stupid. What other option is there?

The extreme bias of the New York Times in 2016 toward Hillary Clinton clearly cost her the election and many Democrats are wary that it will do the same to Kamala Harris. But they need to understand why the Times has such outsized influence on American politics. It's not because ordinary people read the Times; they don't. But every person in the country who belongs to the elite, by any definition of the term, does read it. This is especially so for the media. All reporters and editors everywhere read it and take their cues from it.

I think a key reason why Democrats have a hard time reaching out to Trump supporters is because they simply can't conceive of why anyone would support an obviously corrupt, incompetent moron. I freely admit that I don't understand it either. I wish I did. I honestly try to put myself in their shoes. After all, I was a Republican for 30+ years. There are many people I used to be friends with who are still Republicans. Aside from those who make their livings as professional Republicans, I don't understand any of them. But I do try.

The idea that the New York Times is now a conservative paper isn't quite right. I think there was a time, not so long ago, when it clearly tilted left. But at some point it moved rightward to the center, which is where it is. But the Overton Window has also moved to the right. The rightward movement of the Overton Window has affected all media. It was brought about by a huge investment by right-wing billionaires in explicitly right-wing media. The "reporters" for such media are right-wing activists first, journalists second.

I think one of Biden's problems is that he has never had a story to tell that links his policies together. Every GOP initiative is tied to all the others in that big government is always the enemy, especially of the little guy, and Republicans want to lift it off his back. It would be easy enough to turn this story around, show that big business and corrupt rich people are the real enemies of the little guy, and only government has the power to help. But Democrats haven't made this argument since LBJ.

Yesterday I asserted that the New York Times has moved to the right over the last 25 years. Some people took issue with this claim, others attribute it simply to corporate greed. The true reason is more complex and I will try to explain part of the reason. Back in the 1970s, I was a conservative and the bulk of the media was liberal, both editorially and in its news coverage. It was very hard to get a reporter to cover conservative initiatives, but in those days it was essential if you wanted your proposals to get publicity.

Once you accept one crazy conspiracy theory, it is much easier to accept the next one and the next after that. And the more conspiracies you accept, the more alienated you become from those who don't share your beliefs. Eventually, everything is a conspiracy. I think some people react to the widespread acceptance of ridiculous conspiracy theories by Trump supporters and a few on the left (RFK Jr) by denying that there are ever any true conspiracies. But there are! Sometimes in plain sight. I will post a few below. Post others.

I think that there is a lot less difference in the quality of education among most universities at the undergraduate level than people imagine. For the typical student majoring in English, history, mathematics and most other fields they will learn the same thing everywhere. Of course in some specialized fields such as fine arts it may make a difference and certainly at the graduate level it makes a huge difference. The main difference between graduates of elite schools and other good schools is the student body and the piece of paper.

On this day in 1863, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart rode 5,000 cavalry and assorted vehicles down the street in front of my house. He was headed for Rowser's Ford, the only place he could cross the Potomac River on his way north to join Lee at Gettysburg. hmdb.org/m.asp?m=201496 The river was high and the crossing was quite harrowing. All that the soldiers had to guide them was a rope that had been strung across the river and a bonfire on the Maryland side. Yet by early morning on the 28th, the crossing had been completed without loss of life.

The most important truth in American politics that no one ever talks about--half the population has an IQ below the median and the GOP represents them. Over the past generation, the parties have sorted themselves according to intelligence as well as other ways. People need to understand that when Republicans leaders talk like idiots, it's not necessarily because they have a low IQ. It's because they must talk down to their followers, who are barely able to grasp 3rd grade concepts.

Practically everyone on both the right and left err in their view of the national debt; they all view it as a burden. In an ideal world, both sides believe, we'd pay it off and be done with it. While this may be true for other countries, it is not true of the US. As Alexander Hamilton understood, there is a huge demand for an asset with no risk of default. It mobilizes saving and gives the issuer a huge privilege of borrowing internationally at the lowest possible rate. It's a privilege other nations resent, but cannot compete with.

Rewatching A Fistful of Dollars for the umpteenth time and reminded again how good the Eastwood-Leoni partnership was. Although both made other westerns, none were as good as those they made together. The Eastwood-Leoni trilogy is as good as it gets, especially the first, which was based on Kurosowa's Yojimbo. But whereas The Magnificent Seven was also based on his work (Seven Samurai), it didn't have as much impact on moviemaking.

Occasionally people ask why I am not a Democrat since I hate Republicans so much. The debt limit is a good example. Democrats allowed Republicans to control the narrative since Day One. Democrats never fought for their agenda, acted powerless throughout the debate, and then settled on Republican terms. I cannot belong to a party that is so passive, unwilling to fight for what it believes, and has such thoroughly inept leaders. I'll vote for them because there is no alternative, but I doubt I will ever call myself a Democrat.

Joe Biden may be making the same mistake George H.W. Bush made and suffer the same fate. Bush thought he could raise taxes because Reagan had done so 11 times without suffering for it. But Reagan was deeply loved by Republicans because... he had been loyal to the party in its dark days in the 60s and gave great speeches. Bush did not give great speeches and people still remembered his crack about voodoo economics. He didn't have a reservoir of love to fall back on when times got tough.

The party of extortion is leaning heavily on the idea that Treasury can prioritize spending to avoid a default. But this is just another form of line-item veto that SCOTUS ruled illegal during the Clinton administration. Or it's impoundment made illegal by the 1974 Budget Act. The fact is that on June 1 the Treasury MUST break the law. The question is which law. Standard legal practice says that laws which are unconstitutional yield to those that are. The debt limit is unconstitutional on its face.