Jean Kazez

Philosopher, etc.

[Jean Kazez @JeanKazez]

@Docstockk I was with you every step of the way but then you shared Vance’s stupid speech? They’re not saying the left is prone to violence, they’re saying it’s more prone to violence than the right, and that’s falsified by Jan 6, various assassinations, and lots of right wing rhetoric.

[George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway3d]

"The signature and font used in the 2003 Epstein letter resemble …

"… a thank-you letter Trump sent in April 2006 to attorney George Conway …

"… and a letter sent in November 2000 to Hillary Clinton congratulating her on her election to the U.S. Senate."

https://t.co/LuNLhS1sjN

[Jean Kazez @JeanKazez]

@jessesingal Say “I don’t mind” when you’re asked whether you want something.

[James Surowiecki @JamesSurowiecki]

This is truly amazing. The Deputy White House Press Secretary is claiming that I'm wrong, and that the "tariff rates" on Trump's chart were calculated by "literally" measuring every country's tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers.

To prove it, he screenshots the formula the USTR says was used to calculate the reciprocal tariffs we imposed on other countries. And when you back out the Greek symbols, what is that formula? Trade deficit/imports - exactly what I said it was.

I don't know if the Deputy Press Secretary was misinformed, or is just being misleading. Either way, the Trump administration did not "literally calculate tariff and non tariff barriers" to determine the tariff rates it's imposing on other countries. As I said, it divided our trade deficit with a country by our imports with that country, and then multiplied by 0.5 (because Trump was being "lenient").

Oh, and if our trade deficit/imports with a country is less than 10%, or we have a trade surplus with a country, Trump slapped a flat 10% tariff on that country.

[Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins]

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, showing the world how to be presidential:

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people.
Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.

[Senator Adam Schiff @SenAdamSchiff]

Four years ago, officers of the law stood their ground to protect Members of Congress and staff as violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol. These brave officers were beaten, crushed, bear sprayed, maced, and left to defend democracy with their bare hands.

The halls they protected were desecrated by hate and chaos. Offices ransacked. The electoral count delayed.

Today, in a grim irony, Donald Trump took the oath of office under the protection of those same officers, standing in those same hallowed halls he incited violence against just four years earlier.

And in one of his first acts, he pardoned the perpetrators and planners of that violence and sedition.

Trump’s action today is a sick betrayal of the rule of law and adds grievous insult to injury to law enforcement officers. These men and women fought to uphold the rule of law, only to see it mocked by a man who swore just a few hours ago, to God and country, to defend it.

It’s a desecration of memory and the idea of a peaceful transfer of power, and a brazen attempt to rewrite history.

But history will not be rewritten. Not by a thousand lies or a thousand pardons.

Instead, we may be witnessing something worse: the newest milestone along the road to autocracy, in which a president pardons those who do violence on his behalf and encourages others to do the more of the same.

[AuditTheRhetoric 📚 @bookkeepPLUS]

Did they blame DEI for the dismal response to the ice storms in Texas?

Did they demand that Abbott resign?

Or do we only blame DEI and Liberals for natural disasters that happen in blue states?

[Nancy Pelosi @SpeakerPelosi]

Elon Musk ordered his puppet President-elect and House Republicans to break the bipartisan agreement reached to keep government open.

House Republicans are abdicating their responsibility to the American people and siding with billionaires and special interests.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is threatening to unseat elected officials if they do not follow his orders to shut down the government during the holidays.

Are we still a democracy or have we already moved to oligarchy and authoritarianism?

[Art Candee 🍿🥤 @ArtCandee]

Marc Elias’ take on Donald Trump:

“Donald Trump is not Hitler. He is not Stalin. His vision of America is neither pre-war Germany nor the post-war Soviet Union. The United States is not at risk of falling into totalitarianism.

The United States has its own history and culture. It has a unique way of manifesting its politics. That does not mean, however, that we cannot learn from other places and other times. As Mark Twain, the most American of American writers, wrote: “History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

So, let’s start with what we know. Trump is a deeply unserious man. In a different era, he would have been a carnival barker. If not born to privilege and wealth he would be running a low level scheme or selling supplements on a sketchy website. Instead, he is the president-elect who, in addition to hawking schlocky items on the internet, will soon command the highest, most powerful office on earth.

We know that he admires modern day dictators and strongmen. He seeks their favor and rejoices in their flattery.

He rejects liberalism — things like the rule of law, impartial government and fundamental rights. He has contempt for democratic norms and institutions. Elections are only fair when he wins and rigged when he loses.

For Trump, the presidency exists to exact the spoils of electoral victory rather than a public trust.

Like many of you, I have spent the last few days trying to make sense of things — asking how this happened and what comes next. As for the second question, I have been doing a lot of reading.
It is something that preoccupied the Founders, who were afraid of the reemergence of a king. Decades after the founding, John Adams was still concerned. In 1814 he wrote to a colleague that “democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

As part of my processing, I went back and reread several of Hannah Arendt’s works. She is best known for her account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in which she coined the phrase “banality of evil.” In her telling, the Nazi SS leader was a mediocre joiner. In her words a “clown.”

But, in my opinion, her most important book was The Origins of Totalitarianism, in which she attempts to explain the mechanics of how totalitarian movements come to power. One observation of hers strikes me as most relevant today.

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” 

It is hard to make sense of Trump’s recent cabinet nominations without coming back to this central truth: He is nominating “crackpots and fools” because that is what Trumpism requires. It is required both by Trump himself but also by his followers.

As a narcissist, Trump surrounds himself with people who, like him, reject science, expertise and the idea of objective facts. As a leader, he must continue to promote ever more extremist conspiracy theories to explain why his last conspiracy theory failed to come true.”

🍿

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

Demanding Senate Republicans back Gaetz as attorney general and Hegseth as Defense Secretary is the 2024 version of forcing Sean Spicer to say it was the largest inauguration crowd ever.

These aren't just appointments. They're loyalty tests. The absurdity is the point.

[@scottjshapiro.bsky.social @scottjshapiro]

Prediction: Choosing Donald Trump as President will prove to be a mistake.

[Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman]

Agonised post-mortems about where the Dems went wrong are inevitable. But can be overdone. Trump only got 50.4% of vote and Harris 47.9 - in a year when incumbents are getting smashed across the west. This was not a massive endorsement of Trump or a massive repudiation of the Dems.

[Jean Kazez @JeanKazez]

@briandavidearp Ridiculous, patronizing

[Jean Kazez @JeanKazez]

@jessesingal Batya is a dingbat.

[Jean Kazez @JeanKazez]

@BrandonWarmke Not at all. The idea could just be that people learn critical thinking in college, which helps them ask questions when a candidate is prone to lying, exaggeration, and fear mongering.

[Steven Beschloss @StevenBeschloss]

Whatever the final outcome, the fact that Trump—a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, pathological liar, virulent bigot and utterly reckless manager who kowtows to Putin and despises democracy— is this close to regaining the White House is deeply disturbing.

[Adam Parkhomenko @AdamParkhomenko]

I love this

[Rick Steves @RickSteves]

America could wake up on Wednesday with all three branches of our government — the — Executive, Legislative, and Judicial — Trumpist.

With this clip, take five minutes to ponder Germany’s memorials and the price that nation paid for being bamboozled by a bombastic autocrat. Listen to the heartfelt message of my German tour guides, for whom these memorials are like ghosts of mistakes made and evils allowed… ghosts that haunt their society still. These are the same guides who clink glasses in the beer halls and yodel from the hilltops with our American tour members. They admire America. They love America. And they are worried for America.

If we vote for fascism, it’ll likely be won by one or two percent (or even less)…and perhaps just a few stadiums of people will tip the balance. And history has taught my European friends that the cost of a course correction is infinitely more heartbreaking after a wannabe dictator wins an election than before. We are all participants, we are all responsible, and we will all bear the consequences of our collective choice.