…say the word [DOT 11/4/24]

…I am most emphatically not batman…but there may not be enough coffee in the world today…or some diabolical miscreant might have snuck in while I wasn’t looking & substituted decaf or something…because frankly it feels like my mental gearbox is full of molasses this morning…so I have no real idea where I’m going with this…but I heard part of an interview with a tory minister this morning in which they once again crowed about spending more than ever on the NHS as though they were doing everything that might be expected of them only to have the presenter rather unfortunately turn out to have checked their figures…&…wouldn’t you know it…after rolling over their protestations that saying…basically…of course your funding is the biggest number ever…it’s always the biggest number ever every time for everyone…on account of the 3 Ds in particular just now…demographics…there’s more people than ever & there’s more to come…decarbonisation…& we know how that’s going…&…not to put too fine a point on it…defense…because…well

Europe must prepare for potential war, as a full-scale conflict on the continent beyond Ukraine is “no longer a fantasy”, the EU’s chief diplomat has warned.

“Russia threatens Europe,” both through its ongoing war in Ukraine and hybrid attacks on EU member states, Josep Borrell said on Tuesday in a speech in Brussels.

“War is certainly looming around us,” said Borrell. “A high-intensity, conventional war in Europe is no longer a fantasy.”

It is the first time the former Spanish foreign minister has laid out the Russian threat so explicitly, after recent warnings from military chiefs and leaders in northern Europe about the risk of more Russian attacks beyond Ukraine. The Danish defence minister in February said Russia could test Nato’s solidarity within three to five years.

“The Berlin Wall has been replaced with a ring of fires around us,” he said, referring also to the Israel-Hamas war and instability in northern Africa.

The conflict on the EU’s border has exposed the bloc’s underinvested defence industry and military capabilities. It has also spooked capitals that are worried the US could retreat from its long-term role as the continent’s ultimate security guarantee if Donald Trump returns to the White House after the US presidential elections in November.

Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine are deploying vastly more weaponry and manpower than Kyiv is able to, sparking concerns in western capitals that Moscow could make significant territorial gains this year.

European countries, which gutted defence spending in the decades following the end of the cold war, have stepped up investments in their defence industrial production capacity in an effort to increase supplies to Ukraine and re-arm their own forces.

But more investment was needed, given that Europe’s security situation was an “existential crisis”, Borrell said. “We need a new intergovernmental financing vehicle . . . comparable to the one that we created during the [eurozone] financial crisis.”

…all three are things that demand…more…really a lot more when you think about it…so claiming that tax cut of theirs isn’t “unfunded” is what they used to call “bare-faced cheek” or having some “brass neck”…because…even if you don’t find this sort of possible world a thing of existential terror

“The US umbrella, which we have relied on since the cold war, may not be open all the time,” Borrell said. “Maybe, depending on who is ruling Washington, we cannot rely on America to protect us.”

Josep Borrell says Russia threatens the continent beyond the conflict in Ukraine [FT] (or via archive.ph)

…that demographics business absolutely inverts that bit of bragging about spending on their nation’s health…in fact…by the numbers…which I haven’t checked but would wager the BBC guy didn’t lie about…the iron lady back when the iron curtain was in effect raised that spending on the order of 4% “in real terms”…& the currently proposed increase…in similarly real terms…on a per capita basis…is a fucking loss, isn’t it?

…makes you wonder…if increasing investment can still be less than the sum of its parts…why all the pressing forward on going backwards is so damn popular with these populist types?

Republicans in Arizona halted an effort by Democrats on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, which the state supreme court this week ruled could go into effect.

…uh huh…like the comstock thing…they like their fig-leaves fossilized…&…you know…they must be dizzy because if they don’t keep spinning on the spot like an old school top the whiplash could snap their chickenhawk necks

The move came after Republican lawmakers in the state had denounced the court’s decision, including some who previously expressed support for the law. Donald Trump and other high-profile Republicans, such as Senate candidate Kari Lake, had also declared their opposition to the ruling with Lake urging lawmakers to “come up with an immediate common-sense solution that Arizonans can support”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/10/arizona-republicans-block-repeal-state-abortion-ban

I mean

Arizona Republicans denounce revived 1864 abortion ban in sudden reversal [Guardian]

…that was…the same damn day?

…maybe it isn’t the coffee…maybe we’ve hit some sort of pervasive-bullshit tipping point & this is the new normal

Arizona’s abortion ban is a political nightmare for Republicans in the 2024 election [Guardian]

…but…never mind the beatings…the bread & circuses (circae? circii?) continue on…regardless…except…sadly…in the sense of nobody watching

How much have you really engaged with David Cameron, since he became foreign secretary in November? I always get a discombobulating strobe effect, all the alternative futures that could have been: the not-Brexit, the not-Boris Johnson, the not-austerity and social fracturing, if it hadn’t been for this rosy-face Duff Cooper in 21st-century fancy dress, and the incomprehensible number of people who didn’t take one look at that face and run a mile. So I find him quite hard to look at.

As he does the American media rounds, talking Ukraine and Gaza to wingnuts (Fox News) and sensible centrists (CNN), the look he’s going for is somewhat changed. You know what they say about America, that it went from barbarism to decadence without the intervening period of civilisation (no offence, Fox News!)

Cameron went from floppy young man in a hurry to elder statesman without the intervening period of regular, middle-aged statesman; did he ever really govern? Was he ever really real? Well, he must have been. Because all that stuff happened.

…you can argue whether or not the lady from the guardian had her tongue in cheek when she said the thing about sensible centrists…or whether for british purposes that’s just calling balls & strikes the way the…courts…ah, well…never mind…pots & kettles & who’s-sooty-now…daily mail & telegraph readers think they’re sensible centrists…the FT lot, too…more than likely…& those three only really overlap in a venn diagram sort of a way…so it’s sort of a pointlessly vague term when nobody ever says where the center’s gotten to while we weren’t looking…or how close to one edge or the other of that center line a particular bunch might like to be considered…but then…that’s the thing about your terms of art & artifice, ain’t it?

He was fresh from meeting Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, which he couldn’t say much about because it was a private meeting – the US anchors of every channel nodded delightedly when he said that. I think it sounds saucy yet quaint when a posh person says it, but he said this much to This Morning on CNN: “The point I’m making is …” (ah, memories … Cameron saying, “Let me be clear on this point that I am making,” piping busy words, the catchphrase of a man who’s never once wondered whether he’s interesting) “is that I think profoundly in Britain’s interest, but also to America’s interests, that Trump doesn’t get to win in Ukraine.”

We can come to why not if you really think it’s necessary, but what a profoundly weird thing to say. Get to win what? The US election? Because, if he doesn’t win that, it’s hard to see how he wins anything in Ukraine. But if he does win the US election, then he, rather than the British foreign secretary, does sadly “get to” decide what their interests are.

Trump, you’ll remember, wants the Ukrainians to cede Crimea and the Donbas border regions to Vladimir Putin in return for no longer getting shot at. Cameron is probably right, it “wouldn’t just be bad for our European security, our adversaries around the world, whether it’s Iran or China or whoever, would draw lessons that we don’t stand by our allies”. And, OK, this next bit is a little flabby, but odds on, there will be “risk of further aggression and further danger in our world”.

Yet I worry that Cameron really thinks this is what geopolitics are – a nice, rule-based game where you might get the odd leader who huffs and puffs, but all the other players, nice chaps, will step in and say, as one: “No, you don’t get to do that.”

…come on now, chaps…shoulders back…chest out…play up, play up…& for god’s sake play the bally game

His language is pure Boy’s Own adventure – “the bravery of the Ukrainians”, “Europe and America sticking together and standing up against bullies”. Sure, he’s not swimming in very complicated waters (Trump, for comparison, said that Russia should do “whatever the hell they want to Nato countries who do not spend enough on defence”), but you don’t, from Cameron, get the deep sense of security that settles upon one while listening to a sensible adult, with a full complement of faculties, rooted in reality.

…go hug a hoodie, trotters

He was introduced as “Britain’s top diplomat”, which made him sound kind of cute, like he’d won his title in a Britain’s Got Diplomats quizshow. I’m not sure they take us tremendously seriously, as a nation. Conceivably, because of all that stuff that happened.

…when you think how much gets lost in a trans-atlantic translation…it’s tempting to think that foreign affairs is such an apocalyptic clusterfuck because the information age allows us to go hell for leather down every wrong turn in sight on account of deluding ourselves that anyone…or indeed everyone…knows what the fuck is going on everyplace you can think of…rather than acknowledging that the news from anywhere you couldn’t walk to before bedtime is out of date by the time it hits your doorstep…well…the bits that aren’t constants, anyway

Cameron’s face is famously hard to read. Caitlin Moran once said he looked like a robot made of ham. But this must surely have ruffled him on the inside: this is what half his party says, round the clock.

…nigh a decade & a half into a we’ve-been-in-charge stretch…during which they’ve managed to cycle through almost more prime ministers than labour have ever used…you’d think a law & order mob making out there was anarchy on the streets might be somewhat of an own goal…but…people buy the mail…& the sun…or subscribe to the telegraph the way a libertarian claims it would be better, actually, if everyone only gave a fuck about themselves & nobody got to tell anyone what to do…because some bugger’ll doubtless volunteer to clean their shit up after them because they happen to love shovelling industrial quantities of night soil for no reward…so much they’ll bring their own shovel…& then take out the trash when they’re done…there’s no accounting for taste but sometimes some kinds of accounting do strike me as being uncomfortably overdue…so…don’t worry about the part where it makes no fucking sense…just take my word for the fact that it plays & stick with the inaccurate-but-useful not-really-but-metaphorically parallel to your MAGA numpties…the shit plays just fine with its audience…they don’t skip a beat

This is the means by which they threaten the right to protest, and the tactic they use to deflect any serious consideration of the situation in Gaza; that it can’t be a massacre because Hamas and any right-thinking person disputing that slaughter must love Hamas, and that British Jews are terrified of their own country, because the streets are lined with Hamas-lovers. Everyone knows that’s not true but, for as long as it’s useful, that’s what a lot of Conservatives will claim to think.

Did it give the foreign secretary, who himself mourns the bloodshed, a second’s pause, to be confronted with this live on air? Did it make him think how far the Tory party had moved, how obliterated the one-nation lot, his lot, were? Did he stop and wonder about his part in all that?

Really hard to say – see robots, ham – but he deflected it quite well, stressing all the freedoms, stressing the rule of law, stressing that Benjamin Netanyahu ought to observe laws, too, particularly with regards to civilians.

…enter godwin…stage right…I mean…the right have basically turned him into what they used to call a goal hanger back when gary lineker still did that…rather than hawk crisps (chips come with fish, people…& I hate to be the one to break it to you…but american crisps are no great shakes compared to the way they do ’em in blighty…not a judgement…merely an observation of what is apparently an immutable law of the universe)…& gary has been flogging walkers for donkeys years now…when he’s not getting in trouble for having online opinions while getting paid by the BBC…or coining it in off the back of a rather successful production company…called…wouldn’t you credit it…goalhanger…they even produce one of the highest rated political podcasts the UK…err…produces…that one’s called the rest is politics…but they do films & all sorts, too…anyway…here’s the podcasts in case you’re as sick of the sound of me as I am

https://www.goalhangerpodcasts.com

…anyway…where was I…oh, yes…the inevitability of nazis entering the chat

“The Brits and the Americans didn’t provide aid to Germans, in World War Two,” the anchor replied.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/10/david-cameron-the-boys-own-robot-made-of-ham-was-nearly-out-foxed

…honestly…kinda of sick to the back teeth with that part…what with all the other leaps & bounds abounding about the joint

World Bank must take ‘quantum leap’ to tackle climate crisis, UN expert says [Guardian]

…& I know they say war is the continuation of politics by other means…but…does that mean no war ever really ends…because…it sort of feels like somehow most folks most places are always losing at least one…& given an alternative I’d probably admit that sounds a lot like it’s no way to live…so…is it any wonder the way people head for pastures that look greener the farther away you start out

EU passes asylum and migration pact after eight years of deadlock [Guardian]

…while…up close…those satanic mills & all the bows of burning gold can be…disheartening

The European court of justice ruled that the European Council had not presented enough evidence to establish that Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman were involved in efforts that “undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”.

EU’s top court annulled sanctions imposed on the pair from 2022-23.

Aven and Fridman were placed on the EU sanctions list shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. In announcing the sanctions in February 2022, the European Council called Aven “one of Vladimir Putin’s closest oligarchs” and stated that Fridman “has managed to cultivate strong ties to the administration of Vladimir Putin, and has been referred to as a top Russian financier and enabler of Putin’s inner circle”.

Along with dozens of other Russian oligarchs, Aven and Fridman challenged the sanctions in EU courts, describing them as “spurious and unfounded”.

The court of justice ruled on Wednesday that the billionaires should not have been included on the list between February 2022 and March 2023. The ruling will be seen as a major setback to the EU’s sanctions regime against Moscow. The European Council can appeal.

An EU decision in March 2023 reimposed the restrictive measures on the two men and they remain sanctioned. Wednesday’s ruling is likely to pave the way for the billionaires to have their sanctions lifted in a separate appeal against the March 2023 action.

The two businessmen, who made their money in Russia from oil, banking and retail, are the most high-profile Russians to have a top court rule against their inclusion on the EU’s sanctions list.

They remain on the sanctions list of the UK, where the two men resided before the war.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/10/russian-oligarchs-petr-aven-mikhail-fridman-court-ruling-eu-sanctions

“Hell hath no fury like a wealthy person being told no,” says Alex Pardoe, a Hermès superfan and TikTok creator, recalling the many times he has seen “grown men and women having five-star meltdowns” within the otherwise fragrant environs of the Hermès flagship store in Paris.

These tantrums, says Pardoe, are always sparked by the same conflict: a rich person walks in, asks to buy a Hermès Birkin – fashion’s most high-status handbag, which costs $10,000 or more – and is told that none are available. This happens a lot, because Birkins, according to luxury handbag lore, are not mere products to be sold over the counter like cans of baked beans. Buying a Birkin takes more than money, so the received wisdom says: deliveries are limited and sales associates will earmark them for their favourite clients.

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2024/apr/10/birkin-bag-hermes-lawsuit

…I hear you can have the same problem with this year’s rolex…but nobody ever said “wristwatches at dawn” like they have about pistols & handbags…so that’s probably just one of those things about boys & their toys…& anyway…when it comes to telling people no…there’s a lot of murderous bastards that we may need to accept at least tie with the destructively-entitled more-money-than-sense crowd for being at the head of the line

Thirty years ago the world failed to stop the Rwandan genocide. Now we fail Gaza [The Guardian]

…the band played on even as the titanic listed & gave up the unequal struggle to remain as unsinkable as advertised…but apparently that’s old fashioned or something…& it’s much more fashionable to set shit on fire around your ears these days…while claiming everyone else should get out of the kitchen & leave you in charge…& definitely not in jail or anything

“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker,” McCarthy said, at an event at Georgetown University in Washington.

“Because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old, an ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker. And that’s illegal and I’m not gonna get in the middle of it.

“Now, did he do it or not? I don’t know. But ethics was looking at it. There’s other people in jail because of it. And he wanted me to influence it.”

…both sides?

Gaetz denies wrongdoing. On Tuesday, he told Politico: “Kevin is a liar. Which, actually, is why he isn’t speaker. Just ask any of the 224 people who voted to remove him.”

…of course kev’s a lying bastard you lying bastard…you’re all lying bastards…the point is which of you is lying about what & currently the thing we’re talking about isn’t the one where the lying was in that direction…you slapheaded asshat of a bad joke of a man

Citing a review of private correspondence, the Daily Beast has reported that Gaetz “indicated to a friend that his effort to undercut, isolate and ultimately remove McCarthy was, indeed, payback” for the House ethics investigation.

The Beast said “other Republican congressional sources” also said Gaetz was motivated to move against McCarthy by the ethics investigation, not policy differences.

…well…a very particular policy promise, perhaps…a promise to pursue a policy of not letting anyone pursue charges against fore-five-six-head shit-heart the jailbait king of venmo

“I think today if you went back for the people that voted [to remove me] they think that was a smart vote? I don’t think so … I made everybody stand up, because I think historically, it’ll be viewed as a very bad thing that happened to our Congress.”

Asked if he thought the same would happen to Johnson, McCarthy said: “No. The Democrats will never let it happen.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/10/matt-gaetz-removed-kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-ethics

…are we come to this?

Biden vows US commitment to Israel ‘ironclad’ amid concerns of imminent Iranian strike [Guardian]

…I mean…no disrespect to those of faith…well…some disrespect to the respective faiths involved on at least a nominal basis in all the clusterfuckery, genocide & general purpose subjugation, I guess…but…I tend to think of those as mostly separate segments of the venn diagram…so…to me…it does kinda look considerably like if you could extract god (anyone & everyone’s) from the proverbial bigger picture…the way the asshole brigades serially take the fucking piss…it would look substantially less shitty…not perfect or anything…but…sometimes I guess it doesn’t matter if it makes no sense…it just has to trip off the tongue…like…fuck a duck…but…holy shit people…we’re getting past “fuck, fuck, fuck a duck, screw a kangaroo” & headed for an unpleasant chorus by every indication

Three sons and at least two grandchildren of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the exiled political chief of the militant group has said from his base in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Haniyeh told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that his children Hazem, Amir and Mohammed and several of their children were visiting relatives for Eid at the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza when their car was targeted in an Israeli airstrike, he told the Qatari channel. Sixty of his relatives have been killed in the six-month-old war, he said, including 14 who died after an Israeli airstrike hit the family home in Gaza City in October.

…it’s hard to keep up

Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the strike, which comes after remarks from Joe Biden that the actions in Gaza of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu were a “mistake … I don’t agree with his approach.”

“What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country,” said Biden.

The president’s remarks on a ceasefire marked a shift from his previous comments, in which he has said the burden lay with Hamas to agree to a truce and hostage release deal.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/10/gaza-hamas-israel-ismail-haniyeh-sons-killed

…I don’t actually think poor ol’ joe is a terrible guy…or that he’s not essentially on the level when he says both of the seemingly-contradictory things…but…it’s a high-wire act & he’s not as young as he used to be…no wonder even the straightforward shit seems so god-awful complicated

There’s a funny passage in the 2,800-word NYT piece contrasting how Trump has managed Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg.

Initially sympathetic, Mr. Trump called Mr. Cohen a “good man” and the search “a disgraceful situation.” He also called Mr. Cohen with a message — stay strong — and the Trump Organization paid for Mr. Cohen’s main lawyer.

But Mr. Trump’s advisers were concerned about witness tampering accusations and he stopped reaching out. Their relationship soon soured.

[The] NYT claims — apparently intending this to be a serious explanation — that Trump stopped trying to buy Cohen’s silence with a pardon and payments for a lawyer because of concerns about witness tampering.

I mean, I’m sure some of NYT’s sources claimed that. But given the amount of witness tampering Trump continued to engage in — publicly and privately — after leaving Cohen to fend for himself, the explanation is not remotely credible.

…same shit…different day

A far, far more likely explanation — one that is also more consistent with other aspects of NYT’s story — is that Trump and his attorneys intervened in the privilege review of phone content seized from Michael Cohen to conduct a risk assessment. (NYT says it relied on court records to tell this story, but they don’t mention that Trump abandoned Cohen only after getting access to what had been seized and why.) What Trump’s team saw before them in both the seized materials and the warrants used to seize Cohen’s devices may have led Trump to conclude, first, that Cohen had already showed signs of betrayal, by secretly recording the phone call over which they planned the hush payments to Karen McDougal.

Mr. Cohen’s lawyers discovered the recording as part of their review of the seized materials and shared it with Mr. Trump’s lawyers, according to the three people briefed on the matter.

“Obviously, there is an ongoing investigation, and we are sensitive to that,” Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, said in a statement. “But suffice it to say that when the recording is heard, it will not hurt Mr. Cohen. Any attempt at spin cannot change what is on the tape.”

NYT (including Maggie Haberman, who was also part of this story) was the first to break that story, and did so in the days after Cohen hired Lanny Davis, but it is not mentioned here.

NYT’s Limited Understanding of Trump’s “Tactics for Avoiding a Crisis Like the One He Now Faces” [emptywheel.net]

…anyway…it’s…about to be that time again when I’m late again & I’m not done…not least since I still need to remember where it was someone made it into the papers trying to make out pence is a modern day de gaulle…which feels like it would take more gall than your average gaul…or possibly a magic potion of two…by the cauldron…but…while I stick this up with another asterix of a reference

Shares of Trump Media have erased all their gains since they began trading under the ticker DJT last month.

As of Monday afternoon, the stock was priced at about $36 — down from a high of $66 seen March 27.

But experts say it’s hard to draw any firm conclusions about what the stock price’s movement means. That’s because so many available shares — about 12%, one of the highest ratios of any active stock listing — reflect traders’ bets that the stock will fall, said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director at S3 Partners, a data and predictive analytics company.

This is called short-selling.

Trump Media stock erases all gains since it began trading as DJT as shares fall another 11% Monday [NBC]

…& I wouldn’t sell you lot short…so…I’ll get back to you…possibly after I get back to the coffee?

…remembered where I’d left the thing in the end…but…I kind of ran across a bunch of other stuff along the way…& that’s without going to town on how full of shit a certain named-for-a-stench bullshit-fountain was once again when he ramped up his predictions on AI getting cleverer than people by next year…speak for yourself asshole…but…if I go down that rabbit hole I’ll be here all day & even if I didn’t have bills to pay I have a duty of care when it comes to taking time out of my day to walk another man’s dog…& that’s not a euphemism…so…latter-day some-mothers do ‘ave ’em plays big-nosed hero of the resistance would be the world according to

Jonathan Rauch (@jon_rauch) is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of “The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth.” Peter Wehner (@Peter_Wehner) is a contributing Opinion writer and a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum who served in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. He is the author of “The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump.”

…from…where else…the pages of the NYT…really feels like I ought to have looked there first…but hey, ho…on we go

A few weeks ago, Mike Pence did what no other vice president in the modern era has done: He refused to endorse the re-election of the president under whom he served. When it comes to alumni of Donald Trump’s administration, Mr. Pence is hardly alone; the list of high-ranking officials who worked for Mr. Trump and have implied or outright stated that they can’t support their former boss under any circumstances has grown to an astonishing length.

The list of prominent Republican figures who did not serve under Mr. Trump and who regard him as unacceptable is equally impressive. It includes the 2012 Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, and his running mate, the former speaker of the House Paul Ryan, as well as Liz Cheney, who served in the House Republican leadership, and her father, the former vice president Dick Cheney, who summarized the situation bluntly: “There has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”

…on which basis…well…even the ford lot are vichy-soirée-d

David Hume Kennerly resigns from Gerald Ford foundation board over refusal to honor Liz Cheney with top award […if the sensible centrists of CNN say that shit, I guess it must be true]

Despite Mr. Trump’s almost effortless sweep of the Republican nomination contest, there remain deep pockets of resistance to him in the ranks. More than a fifth of voters in the Republican primaries supported Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina; among many of them, there is intense opposition to Mr. Trump’s presidential run. And as The Washington Post points out, nearly one in five Republican primary voters across four contests on April 2 voted for an option other than Mr. Trump — even though he was the only Republican still campaigning at that point.

So two things are happening at once: The Republican Party is thoroughly MAGA and will be for the foreseeable future, and there is a small but influential number of Republicans who are deeply opposed to what their party has become but not prepared to shed their political identity and join the Democrats.

For this group, one viable course remains: create a Republican Party in exile, a counterestablishment dedicated to recapturing the party from the outside.

…or…just spit-ballin’ here…they could find out if an ounce of self-awareness would merely lead to them ruing the day they ever had the effrontery to believe they were up to snuff in the first place & getting the fuck out of the way…or go the whole airborne-hog & put themselves out of our misery in a bonfire of remorse their vanities

There are, of course, profound differences between the task faced by de Gaulle in 1940 and the problem of reconquering the Republican Party today. But they share this position: Psychologically, an exile movement must recognize that it does not have a place in the system and must work from outside it.

That is a conceptual bridge that many anti-MAGA Republicans have been unready to cross. Yes, they have acknowledged the dominance of MAGA in the party. Yet they have hoped to act effectively as a faction within it.

Until now, Republicans who opposed Mr. Trump could point to state and local politics, where non-MAGA Republicans — and, much more rarely, anti-MAGA Republicans — have won elections, sustaining a Republican rump faction that holds MAGA at arm’s length. Non-MAGA Republicans believed that the party would feel stung by MAGA’s record of regularly losing elections that Republicans ought to have won, including the loss of the presidency by an incumbent, control of the Senate in the 2020 election cycle and the fizzle in the 2022 midterms, when voters in race after race surgically excised extreme MAGA candidates.

Non-MAGA Republicans expected that the multiple indictments of Mr. Trump would discredit him in the eyes of G.O.P. primary voters or at least lead them to abandon him as a likely loser. They imagined that Mr. Trump’s increasingly unhinged and self-absorbed behavior would alienate his supporters. They supposed that Mr. Trump might lose the nomination if forced into a one-on-one race with a single strong contender. And they thought, if all else failed, that the Republican base might simply grow bored with the stale, repetitive and witless Trump show.

…&…you know…that’s all going gangbusters

What would this mean in practice? A G.O.P. in exile — the Free Republicans, as it were — can be a loose network of organizations, think tanks, politicians, consultants, donors and activists; it can have a more formal structure, with its own national committee, state chairs and staff. It might hold conventions, develop chapters and auxiliaries and approve a platform, or it might rely on a more decentralized strategy that supports and coordinates assorted efforts to build a bench of anti-MAGA talent and ideas. Regardless of how those tactical choices are made, four strategic principles should define the project.

First, the Free G.O.P. should fully accept its exile status. No daydreaming about being welcomed back into the MAGA party any time soon. The project must look beyond the next month, the next year and the next election. It cannot be impatient or easily discouraged.

Second, even as the Free G.O.P. accepts its outsider status — even as it acknowledges MAGA’s control of the Republican Party — it should identify unwaveringly as the true Republican Party and reject the moral legitimacy of the Trump regime. The Free G.O.P. would insist that it, not MAGA, lays claim to the heritage of the party of Lincoln.

Third, the Free G.O.P. should develop an agenda — or, more realistically, a set of agendas — for a post-MAGA future. According to The Hill, Mr. Pence’s political advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, “plans to invest $20 million this year to shape the conservative agenda, an effort to directly counter what Pence had previously described as populism ‘unmoored to conservative principles.’”

…well…unmoored from any principles…wedded to some principals…& generally busy fucking itself, its voting base & every other god-damn thing somewhere around where the good lord split’cha…if we’re going there

Fourth and most essential, Free Republicans must set their sights on overthrowing MAGA, not influencing it, partnering with it, bargaining with it, coexisting with it or waiting it out. They must name and explain what Trumpism represents: lawlessness, moral anarchy, conspiratorial thinking and an assault on the Constitution. They must challenge MAGA Republicans in primaries, focusing in particular on state races for governor, attorneys general, state legislators and others. They must be prepared to withstand the hostile machinations of the MAGA Republican Party and the attacks of the Trump movement, which will be relentless. If they do not consistently oppose MAGA, they will be dragged under it.

A party in exile would establish a gathering point for emerging leaders and fresh thinkers. It would be a clearinghouse for resources and strategies with which to assail the MAGA establishment. It would train candidates, build political networks, gather donors and supporters and show the public a brighter future.

And the Free Republican Party would keep the fires of conservatism burning. In its travels from Lincoln to Reagan and the Bushes, the Republican Party has metamorphosed many times, as adaptable parties must. But it has stayed true to certain conservative fundamentals: the rule of law, the value of institutions, the necessity of virtue and (as George Will has said) the belief that the vision of the founders is what American conservatism conserves. Free Republicans can rightly claim title to the party’s ideological crown jewels, which MAGA’s nihilistic flimflam has tossed in the dumpster.

…almost makes you tempted to root for ’em, don’t it? …nah, me neither…but…in a least-worst-scenario sort of a way…it’s not totally incomprehensible

Even if MAGA’s grip on the party were irresistible, organizing in opposition would still be worth it, because some things are worth fighting for. But it is also true that the MAGA movement, built on lies and antagonistic to America’s founding principles, is unsustainable. Its unpopularity and indecency will generate openings for challenge and change. The job of the Republican Party in exile is to identify, create and exploit such openings — and above all, to be ready when they appear.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/08/opinion/maga-republican-party-exile.html

…kinda like the exile part, though? …anyway…to mention a few things that were bobbing along as I hunted that particular apple for teacher…another NYT effort actually was “a close examination of every public word from the former president“…for a partiicular week, anyway…so…that might be the sort of thing that floats the odd boat…if probably not in the kind of numbers launched by helen’s face or anything

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/08/us/politics/trump-speech-mistruths.html

…&…although I haven’t got a transcript handy so it’s tough to block-quote…the BBC’s “media show” actually had the guy who “created” truth social come talk to them

How I set up Truth Social [BBC sounds]

…funny thing, though…dude seems happy to say it’s “a twitter clone”…but…I must have tuned out for the part where he admits it’s not a clone but an unliscenced fork…& not of twitter

Firstly, Truth.Social is a fork of Mastodon. Mastodon is an open-source Twitter-like replacement, running on the #Fediverse. The Fediverse is a collection of federated apps that work together. The Fediverse lets you get away from a closed for-profit world run by sociopaths. So, you may be using a for profit app that bombards your eyeballs with ads to pay venture capitalists… or you could try an amazing Fediverse alternative

….not the other kind of fediverse…different feds…these are “built by nerds in their spare time” & “run the gamut of usefulness from amazing to ‘kinda janky’.”

They are free to use, but all of them are open source licenses. So anyone can build their own. Which has benefits and detriments.

…still…be nice if the one guy saying he made it acknowledged his sources…or…ya know…complied with the part where part of the deal is posting the source

TFG’s team took the Mastodon code (legal) and built their own social media (legal) with blackjack and hookers. (Also legal.) However, if you copy it and release it, you *must* also release your source code. (Uh-oh.)

The blessing and the curse to Truth Social is: Mastodon is under an open license. Anyone can copy it! However, if you copy it, you must post your own code. Well, Trump’s group didn’t want to share, and denied that they even copied it, despite the being obvious. But the “truth” came out.

…&…while it’s true that

It’s probably worth noting that Truth Social does not federate with any other apps. You can’t get to Truth Social from Mastodon, nor follow anyone, or vice versa. So, all the federation above does not work to or from Truth Social. That’s probably a good thing!

…it’s also true that a client with the mastodon API can serve truth social just fine & dandy…if for some reason you happen to want to stare into that abyss without using their app…just sayin’

I know you’ll be shocked to learn that “the best people” running a toxic right-wing social media site are not the best people. They took the code, and stripped out the federation. That was the easy part. However, anyone that’s taken the most basic of computer security class would would tell you: Over time, vulnerabilities show up. They need to be patched, ASAP.

In July 2023, Mastodon discovered and rapidly patched a severe vulnerability which would allow any media to be overwritten, and remote code to be run.

It would seem that, despite Mastodon doing the heavy lifting and writing the bugfixes 8 months ago, that nobody at Truth Social has bothered to implement those patches and others. I know you’re probably as shocked as I am to hear that the engineers at Truth Social are incompetent at their jobs. If their source code is to be believed, they have not patched anything since June 2022. Or… maybe they are indeed patching them, but not in compliance with their open-source license AGAIN.

Either way, that’s not great for a social media platform. One way, you’re incompetent at computer security and your whole site is a ticking time bomb. The other, you’re incompetent at software licensing, and could get sued for that. Another ticking time bomb.

Other problems at Truth Social, and the Mastodon in the room [Daily Kos]

…but when lobbing grenades & downing molotov cocktails is kind of your whole bag…watcha gonna do?

…oh…that wasn’t rhetorical?

…uh…ok…ummm…not to duck the heavily-implied question…or even the out & out one with the appropriate punctuation & everything…but another radio 4 effort goes by “when it hits the fan”…& they had a guy called mick lynch on the other day…if you don’t happen to know he’s the top dog in a particular union that has been a thorn in tory sides for a while now…the railways, basically…& it’s well worth a listen…not least for the parts where he talks about having to tell correspondents how to do their job because they turn up without the proverbial clue…& how that compares to chairing meetings of his members…who literally live & breathe those details…& don’t suffer fools

…sadly we as yet don’t get a rep for the union of people-who’d-just-as-soon-go-a-different-way…or tax breaks for being the best church all week long & twice on sundays…but…love him or hate him…mick don’t take the mick when it comes to not taking any shit…& more than a few media darlings could learn a thing or two there…so…it’s an interesting interview, that one…more interesting than me…which is not exactly a shocker…but let’s see if we can’t come by something a little easier on the ear…I need to let the keyboard stop smoking for a start?