#op eds

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Josh Marshall

I want to return to this revelatory interview with coconspirator John Eastman, the last portion of which was published Thursday by Tom Klingenstein, the Chairman of the Trumpite Claremont Institute and then highlighted by our Josh Kovensky. There’s a lot of atmospherics in this interview, a lot of bookshelf-lined tweedy gentility mixed with complaints about OSHA regulations and Drag Queen story hours. But the central bit comes just over half way through the interview when Eastman gets into the core justification and purpose for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and overthrow the constitutional order itself. He invokes the Declaration of Independence and says quite clearly that yes, we were trying to overthrow the government and argues that they were justified because of the sheer existential threat America was under because of the election of Joe Biden.

Jan 6th conspirators have spent more than two years claiming either that nothing really happened at all in the weeks leading up to January 6th or that it was just a peaceful protest that got a bit out of hand or that they were just making a good faith effort to follow the legal process. Eastman cuts through all of this and makes clear they were trying to overthrow (“abolish”) the government; they were justified in doing so; and the warrant for their actions is none other than the Declaration of Independence itself.

“Our Founders lay this case out,” says Eastman. “There’s actually a provision in the Declaration of Independence that a people will suffer abuses while they remain sufferable, tolerable while they remain tolerable. At some point abuses become so intolerable that it becomes not only their right but their duty to alter or abolish the existing government.”

“So that’s the question,” he tells Klingenstein. “Have the abuses or the threat of abuses become so intolerable that we have to be willing to push back?”

The answer for Eastman is clearly yes and that’s his justification for his and his associates extraordinary actions.

Let’s dig in for a moment to what this means because it’s a framework of thought or discourse that was central to many controversies in the first decades of the American Republic. The Declaration of Independence has no legal force under American law. It’s not a legal document. It’s a public explanation of a political decision: to break the colonies’ allegiance to Great Britain and form a new country. But it contains a number of claims and principles that became and remain central to American political life.

The one Eastman invokes here is the right to overthrow governments. The claim is that governments have no legitimacy or authority beyond their ability to serve the governed. Governments shouldn’t be overthrown over minor or transitory concerns. But when they become truly oppressive people have a right to get rid of them and start over. This may seem commonsensical to us. But that’s because we live a couple centuries downstream of these events and ideas. Governments at least in theory are justified by how they serve their populations rather than countries being essentially owned by the kings or nobilities which rule them.

But this is a highly protean idea. Who gets to decide? Indeed this question came up again and again over the next century each time the young republic faced a major political crisis, whether it was in the late 1790s, toward the end of the War of 1812, in 1832-33 or finally during the American Civil War. If one side didn’t get its way and wanted out what better authority to cite than the Declaration of Independence? There is an obvious difference but American political leaders needed a language to describe it. What they came up with is straightforward. It’s the difference between a constitutional or legal right and a revolutionary one. Abraham Lincoln was doing no more than stating a commonplace when he said this on the eve of the Civil War in his first inaugural address (emphasis added): “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”

In other words, yes, you have a revolutionary right to overthrow the government if you really think its abuses have gotten that intractable and grave. But the government has an equal right to stop you, to defend itself or, as we see today, put you on trial if you fail. The American revolutionaries of 1776 knew full well that they were committing treason against the British monarchy. If they lost they would all hang. They accepted that. They didn’t claim that George III had no choice but to let them go.

From the beginning the Trump/Eastman coup plotters have tried to wrap their efforts in legal processes and procedures. It was their dissimulating shield to hide the reality of their coup plot and if needed give them legal immunity from the consequences. The leaders of the secession movement tried the same thing in 1861.

In a way I admire Eastman for coming clean. I don’t know whether he sees the writing on the wall and figures he might as well lay his argument out there or whether his grad school political theory pretensions and pride got the better of him and led him to state openly this indefensible truth. Either way he’s done it and not in any way that’s retrievable as a slip of the tongue. They knew it was a coup and they justified it to themselves in those terms. He just told us. They believed they were justified in trying to overthrow the government, whether because of OSHA chair size regulations or drag queens or, more broadly, because the common herd of us don’t understand the country’s “founding principles” the way Eastman and his weirdo clique do. But they did it. He just admitted it. And now they’re going to face the consequences.

[kuwtsussexes]

Snubbing King Charles’ coronation is Meghan Markle’s smartest move yet

“The thing that most people can’t get their heads around is that most people would do anything to be part of that elite circle. A good friend chided me about them. “Why can’t they just suck it up for all the money and parties?” And that’s what people find mind-boggling, especially about her. That she would get the golden ticket into a world of wealth, status and privilege and choose to walk away? Who does that?

Well, someone who is incredibly strong, knows her self-worth in terms of her mental health and boundaries and has the self-confidence to know she can make it on her own (with her family). I think that’s why so many people hate her. Because we’ve all had moments in our life where we wanted to be that person but couldn’t afford it, or needed the job, but dreamed of it. Many probably resent her because she had the means and the balls to do it.

She also had the courage and audacity to take on the most powerful establishments on the planet and call out bullying and toxic behaviour towards her. All this as the mixed race, American, divorcee from a more modest background. A woman who should have been grateful – not the person who took them on and left on her own terms and defiant. She was meant to disappear with shame, not carry on having a voice and agency over her life. She disrupted the fairy-tale narrative about being a princess and exposed it for what it really is – a lonely, subservient, controlled human mannequin. She also shone a harsh light on how the myth of the royal family struggles with real scrutiny in a modern, multicultural, changing world.

So once again, I salute her. She’s made the right call. For her mental health and for her family. Like the rest of us, she can enjoy it from the comfort of her very expensive, cream sofa with some good snacks.”

Opinion by Ayesha Hazarika

[hauntedclvmsflac]

kessoku band - seishun complex

i'm not a guitar player but dark cramped places do sound nice

[barry-kent-mackay]

An op ed piece written by Barry regarding the glass frog pet trade.

Glass frogs are in high demand by the exotic pet trade; they are see-through mini frogs, some with weird eyes, deemed fashionable because they remind folks of Kermit. [...] The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers more than half of known glass frog species to be threatened with extinction. Habitat destruction and effects of climate change take a toll. Since the 1950s, chytrid fungus, a pathogen that kills amphibians globally, is blamed for the near or total extinction of over 200 amphibian species. It can’t be eradicated and was known to destroy an entire population of one glass frog species that had been common in Peru’s Manú National Park and surrounding area in the Cusco region, where it has not been found since 2005.

[squirrelstothenuts]

[debbiecohenswriterlymusings]

Kaiser Health News has picked up my OpEd.

[beif0ngs]

ONE PIECE ENDING 19 || Raise by Chilli Beans

[asukachii]

Jujutsu Kaisen 2 ED 1 | AKARI

[cupsofsilver]

[ruporas]

opla inspired!

[avenoirn]

miss all sunday 🥀🤍

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Chauncey Devega

As I have previously explored in a series of conversations with cult and mind control expert Steven Hassan, Donald Trump meets most if not all the characteristics of a cult leader. Trump holds extreme power over his followers, who subsume their own identities and will to him. He persuades them to reject their own perceptions of reality and to trust only him and his approved messengers. To a large degree, they have lost the ability to engage in what psychologists describe as "reality testing."

Trump's mug shot, taken at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta last Thursday, is as an image of murderous rage and a bottomless lust for revenge. Trump has already used it to raise yet more campaign cash. In all probability, Trump's upcoming criminal trials will only make him more popular and powerful among his core followers, not less.

Like other cult movements, the MAGA phenomenon is rooted in manipulation and psychological abuse. Trump effectively exploits the death anxieties and other existential fears of his followers, presenting himself as their only protector and savior. The MAGA cult is authoritarian, preying on lonely, socially isolated and otherwise vulnerable people and providing them with a sense of order, meaning, community and destiny.

A poll conducted from Aug. 16 to 18 by CBS News/YouGov demonstrates just how firm Trump's power over his followers continues to be. A large majority of Republican voters view Trump as "honest and trustworthy," which would be hilarious if it were not deeply alarming. Furthermore, "Trump's voters hold him as a source of true information, even more so than other sources, including conservative media figures, religious leaders, and even their own friends and family." When asked who they believe tells them the truth, 71% of Trump voters picked him, more than picked friends and family members (63%), right-wing media commentators (56%) and religious leaders (only 42%).

Beyond the numbers, mental health expert Dr. Justin Frank, author of the bestseller "Trump on the Couch," perceives a tragic and pathetic human dimension to the CBS News poll, as he told me by email:

“What this poll doesn't measure or explain is the cause and effect of the profound loyalty of Trump's core supporters. It's this factor that continues to baffle pundits and call into question everything we thought we knew about American politics and the future of democracy. How did these startling figures come to be?

Trump taps into specific needs certain people have to love and to feel loved in return. People who feel they have been lied to — whether as children or adults — yearn for a person or group to trust, in which to place unwavering faith. While I think this type of blind loyalty to Trump is a delusion, it's also a common human experience. In some people it overwhelms an otherwise healthy emotional state in which most of us simultaneously understand that authority figures can be both admirable and disappointing. Televangelists are able to captivate and exploit their vulnerable audiences for this reason. It's also why cash (from many who can ill afford it) pours into Trump's coffers each time he's indicted for a new crime.

As I wrote in 'Trump on the Couch,' Donald Trump himself felt lied to by his parents, which binds him and his fan base even closer. Trump provides the kind of love they crave because he instinctively meets those unconscious needs, in part because he shares them unconsciously himself.”

Frank further suggests that Trump "invites maternal love" from many of his followers, who "are touched at a deep level by their awareness of his neediness, which endears them to him":

“In his rallies he repeats 'believe me' the way a child does when telling a lie or feeling unloved. He is quick to ... paint himself as a maligned victim. He becomes someone they want to protect from assault ... [by] sharing his sense of betrayal with his audience and psychologically merging with their own histories of having been disappointed. What evolves is an inability to differentiate oneself from the idolized other that results in an emotional bond that is deep and thrilling to share. To those outside the mystical Trump romance, this unconditional love makes no sense. We call that kind of love a cult. How can such an overt liar and accused criminal can be so admired?”

What we don't remember when we see such a cult in operation, Frank says, is that all children seek to protect "the image of their loved parents from the inevitable disbeliefs and hurts that even the best parents create":

“They do this by splitting their early experiences into good and bad, black and white. What evolves is a yearning for comfort, aided by binary thinking, from a figure who is only good, despite any evidence to the contrary.

So, here we are as a nation, confused and divided in the darkness of our deepest fears and needs. Trump offers his devoted flock a shared sense of purpose and meaning. They've been groomed to look outside for someone to safeguard their best interests and provide shared faith and support. I think it may not be possible for those diehard Trump adherents to discover that this a dangerous illusion.”

I also asked Jen Senko, director of the documentary "The Brainwashing of My Dad," about what insights she could share on the findings of the CBS News poll regarding Trump's hold over his followers. She said she found it "stupid, and maddening, that many on television 'news' seem shocked" by the poll's findings:

“Have they been living under a rock? More likely they've been living in denial because it's a lot easier than accepting the truth. ... Though many of us understand this now, too little emphasis has been put on how millions of Americans lost their minds and became right-wing zombies. It's the media, stupid! ... As someone who saw the writing on the wall decades ago and made a documentary about it in 2016, it's particularly frustrating. Too many people laughed at Rush Limbaugh. Too many people thought Fox News was a legitimate 'conservative' alternative to the 'liberal media.' Too many people didn't question the barrage of email propaganda (often put out by think tanks and disguised as homespun bits of wisdom) emphasizing over and over: Democrats bad, Democrats evil. Democrats not real Americans. Republicans are all that is good and holy.

Limbaugh was allowed to get on the Armed Forces Network. Fox News is still on it, and became the go-to news station for bus stations, airports, restaurants, bars, doctors' offices. When humans immerse themselves in false information that gets repeated, it stands to reason that millions of them become "cultified" right-wing zombies. What can be done about it, I leave to the experts. When will America acknowledge that we are in an information war? That's what worries me every day.”

Former right-wing pundit Rich Logis was immersed in TrumpWorld and the MAGA movement for years, but managed to escape. He said it was an "irrefutable fact" that MAGA had a cultlike ethos:

“I know this because I was once quite deep in the MAGA rabbit hole. Had Trump won in 2020, I probably would have gone deeper into it, with the odds of escaping close to zero.

There are two prevailing ties that bind the MAGA cult. The first is that Trump is an omniscient, omnipotent, martyred savior of America; some believe him to be sent by God. (Note that Ron DeSantis poached this heresy last year, in his re-election campaign.) Martyrdom is the final stage of cult leadership, and to those in a cult, it is the outside world who are deceived. Those in this first category are willing to see through the cult to its fiery end. The second is among those who are ... politically traumatized by their hyper-partisan, paralytic, paranoid worldview that Democrats, socialists, communists and Marxists have long conspired to tyrannically infringe upon their rights and freedoms. I knew some who fell into one, or both, categories.”

Logis suggests that Trump's voters should not be dehumanized "and had some valid motivations for supporting Trump, even though he exploited those concerns and fears":

“We must, as a nation, build a broad consensus that electing Trump was one of the most egregious mistakes in our history. Admitting when we're wrong is an unnatural act, but it is possible — and liberating. When I look back at my MAGA time, I remain stunned at the level of political trauma I put upon myself; my hope is that others will begin to recognize their own trauma, which has been, to some extent, self-inflicted.”

The only real hope for awakening or deprogramming MAGA cult members, Logis said, will come from "resounding losses of MAGA candidates next year, up and down the ballot. Though such losses will probably not 'save' most MAGA voters, it will, likely, save some — and 'some' equals millions of Americans."

Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, now a leading never-Trumper conservative and democracy advocate, described the CBS News polls findings as "the least surprising thing ever." I conclude here with his words of warning:

“Three and a half years ago, while campaigning in Des Moines against Trump, I asked 40 people in line to enter a Trump rally if Donald Trump had ever told a lie. All 40 Trump supporters said no, Donald Trump had never told a lie. I knew then and there that my primary challenge against Trump was hopeless, but I also knew then and there that my soon-to-be-former political party was hopelessly gone too. I knew then and there what I'd sensed for the past six years: The Republican Party is a cult, an authoritarian-embracing, truth-denying cult. So what do we do about it? Well, we all come together in 2024 to defeat this anti-democracy cult. Again. That's job No. 1. But my other job is to continue to try to rescue members of the Trump cult. That's not a job for everyone, but as someone who helped create the cult and then escaped from the cult, it's my job. It's my penance.”

[bitchybuthot]

After receiving another rejection email today I naturally find myself wondering where I went wrong. Again. I'm well versed on the positions I apply for. I research the company. I'm prepared with questions. I always feel that the phone screenings go well. I have been applying almost exclusively for recruiting positions, along with two other positions that stand out to me in which I had to go through recruiters. I can't understand why some of the desired traits for recruiters include things like "people-person," communication skills, the ability to network and build relationships, etc. I have felt used by every single recruiter I have dealt with. People discuss "ghosting" in regards to romantic relationships or dating. I'm wondering why it's not discussed in regards to finding employment. I wonder if it's something exclusive to recruiters. I'm constantly told that an appointment with the hiring manager will be set up the following week, or whenever, and it isn't. I never hear back. When I follow up, if I receive a response, I'm usually just strung along again. When I interview and do not reach next steps or do not get hired, I often don't even get notified. I get "ghosted." When I reach out and request feedback, I'm ignored. Where are the communication skills? I know metrics are a part of recruiting. Am I to assume I'm just a number? Don't these companies care about their reputation? Don't these recruiters care about their reputation? I feel lucky when I receive a canned rejection email. I think I would be a great recruiter bc I have all the qualities that make a recruiter great with the added bonus of providing applicants with basic respect and dignity. I can start immediately.

[loosescrewslefty]

Local Floriography Bitch Emerges from Hibernation Because Cute Spy Found Family Romcom Has Cheeky Flower Shot!

Alright, let's get the Basic Bitch of Floriography addressed first, which means looking at Bond and his Yellow Rose

Roses are the flower that even people who know next to nothing about Floriography usually know on sight, but it's still cute that they gave the flower representing Friendship to Man's Best Friend.

Moving Counterclockwise through the picture, our next subject is Yor, sporting a fetching Orchid on her hairband.

Orchids symbolize Beautiful Woman, Refinement, Grace, and Uniqueness, and while it's 100% accurate for Yor, a part of me started to strongly suspect here that Loid is responsible for everyone's blooms, and used to opportunity to give discreet messages to his family without them knowing what he's telling them. (sneaky sneaky~)

Speaking of Loid, the man himself is up next, standing slyly with a Blue Aster.

Asters are also known as Starflowers, a sneaky nod to Loid's codename Twilight. And like roses, asters have different meanings depending on the colors you choose. Blue asters just so happen to symbolize Trustworthiness and Faithfulness. The perfect flower to represent a hardworking family man devoted to his wife and daughter! And certainly not the sort of thing one would associate with an undercover spy!

And finally, there is the last Forger Family Flower, and a brutal suckered punch to my soul;

Anya, and her Cosmos.

Just like with Loid's Aster, Cosmos are also flowers associated with the stars, and have even been called "Mexican Asters." Which doesn't feel like an accident when Anya here is mimicking Loid's pose and holding the flower to her lips. And Cosmos have a very, VERY special meaning.

"Hold My Hand and Walk With Me"

[squirrelstothenuts]

[getrauzi]

The 'hidden in plain sight' op-ed

Sometimes we're all guilty of knowing something that is surprising to most people... but we're so 'in the know' that we fail to see it as newsworthy. This article -- thanks to Shawn Bushway for pointing it out -- is a good example of how to write about a long-term trend that, in this case, isn't well known for complex reasons.

The unheard-of decline in Black incarceration (chicagotribune.com)