The Carpentariat

Mattis compared Trump's politics to Nazi warfare

Jim Mattis' statement of protest against Trump also included this stunning analogy:

"Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that the Nazi slogan for destroying us … was 'Divide and Conquer.'"

Notes the Post's Philip Bump:

"Comparing someone’s views, however indirectly, to those of Nazi Germany is enormously fraught, as anyone reading this understands. It’s often a rhetorical trump card, if you will, meaning it’s also overplayed — so much so that there’s an informal tenet of online conversation that any debate will inevitably terminate with a comparison to Nazism. That Mattis nonetheless drew the comparison — from his position of authority and in this context — is remarkable."

Secretaries of Offense

This is a first. Mattis' statement was to be expected, perhaps, but Esper must have thought he should jump ship while still retaining some sliver of self-respect.

"Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."

— Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis

"I say this not only as secretary of Defense, but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard, the option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act."

— Imminently former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper

Bottoms Up?

For quite a few weeks I have been a Bottoms fan, enough of one, in fact, to make me question my opinion on the advisability of Sen. Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's
running mate. And it seems I have company. Tom Friedman:

"Every time I hear Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms speak — whether about dealing with the coronavirus, injustice or the rioting in her town — I want to ask Joe Biden: 'Are you interviewing her for vice president?'"

Bottoms as veep remains questionable in my mind, because of her largely public anonymity and limited national activities. But my God is she ever impressive in knowledge, poise and speech: "clean and articulate," as her potential boss might say, which also elected our first African-American president.

The King is dead. Long live anyone else.

No matter how grim today's news may be, we can always take solace in the political demise of Iowa's Rep. Steve King:

The white supremacist congressman from Iowa was defeated in a shocking Republican primary Tuesday, bringing an end to the long legislative career of one of Washington’s most explicit bigots.

Former Iowa state Sen. Randy Feenstra defeated King to earn the GOP nomination for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.... Feenstra will now face Democrat J.D. Scholten in the general election this November….

A powerful coalition of GOP figures, fearing King was a political liability for the party, put money into boosting Feenstra’s campaign.

HuffPost further notes that King won in 2018 by only 3 points, but the lowlife congressman was carrying extraordinarily heavy baggage. Hence Iowa's 4th is probably among the DNC's most improbable target districts. 

The impressive "Flag of Treason"

Interesting how a voice-over can make an ad. Recall the cow-flesh industry's enduringly effective television campaign of "Beef, it's what's for dinner"? Those mere five words were spoken at the end of each ad by Robert Mitchum, the self-styled rugged, bad-boy voice of Hollywood — without whom the ads would have blended anonymously amidst the static of all others. Or Jello, which once employed the felonious voice of Bill Cosby, because advertising focus groups found his familiar tones to be reassuring to middle-class white women — and any others of unwanted Quaalude attention.

On occasion, the voices of some television campaigns are strikingly incongruous with the ads' intent, such as self-satisfied Susan Sarandon's cranial-splitting huckstering of Tylenol, or just plain annoying, such as quarterback Tom Brady's work for Hulu, who himself is just plain annoying. But usually, the madmen nail it in matching voice with message.

Such as this ad for the Lincoln Project, the outspoken group of NeverTrump Republicans, which strategically combines a crusty, good-old-boy, rootin'-tootin' Sam Elliot-like voice with a devastating assault on ignorant, racist, treasonous Trumpeteers. How effective it might be on that antebellum crowd, I've no idea. But it's a pleasure to watch — and listen to.  

The Trump presidency's thousand-word description in one photo

Photo from a commenter just now.

My fellow Americans, please feel free to visit today's Lincoln Memorial, a marble tribute to perhaps the greatest American ever, and Trump's unspeakable desecration of it.

ANTIFA, the ACORN of 2020

From the malarial, Borglike gutter of "Trump/Pence 2020, Make Nazi Germany Great Again" comes this hilarious screed:

PM,

Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem. They are DESTROYING our cities and rioting - it’s absolute madness.

President Trump has made it clear he will not tolerate their disgusting acts of violence against innocent citizens, which is why the United States will be formally designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.

It’s important that EVERY American comes together at a time like this to send a united message that we will not stand for their radical actions any longer…. We’re sending a list of EVERY AMERICAN who signs their name to President Trump first thing TOMORROW morning and we want him to see YOUR NAME. Don’t let him down.

They forgot one thing. Trump can't read.

Otherwise, the campaign team's hysterical rabble-rousing is like Joe Biden basing his 2020 campaign on keenly heightened American awareness of some demented, 13-man Michigan militia playing "Army" somewhere in the Wolverine state's woodlands.

Quote of the Seventh Day

He did not pray. He did not mention George Floyd, he did not mention the agony of people who have been subjected to this kind of horrific expression of racism and white supremacy for hundreds of years. We need a president who can unify and heal. He has done the opposite of that, and we are left to pick up the pieces.

— Mariann Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington, speaking of Trump's militaristic diatribe last night

                                                      Erin Schaff/The New York Times

A truly presidential speech, for a change

This morning — the morning after Trump's tear-gassed, flash-bombed photo-op in the name of a religion he knows nothing of — Joe Biden delivered a speech in Philadelphia — a speech of lament but also inspiration.

Metaphorically he translated George Floyd's voice of "I can't breathe" as collective "voices of protest" — of "I can't breathe — in America" voices, African-American as well as Hispanic and Native American voices, as heard and seen daily across the nation since largely peaceful protests emerged and incidental violence erupted.

In his speech, Biden entreats us to hear not the Trumpian voice of "selfishness and fear" — but of FDR, Rosa Parks and Neil Armstrong's. This is the strength of Biden's speech, and I would encourage you to set aside 22 quiet minutes to watch it.

"Conservatives for Natural Selection"

The content of Stein's tweet is too disheartening — and in general familiar — to bother plunging into the rest of the poll's pseudoconservative ghoulishness:

ABC/wapo: "45 percent of strong conservatives, four in 10 Republicans and nearly as many evangelical Christians say they’d be unlikely to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, even for free"

— Sam Stein (@samstein) June 2, 2020

I'm a bit fuzzy on the difference betwixt "strong conservatives" and "Republicans," nevertheless what's clear is that nearly half of both — the same for evangelical Christians (who are strong, "conservative" Republicans) — are willing to die for a sociopathic confidence man and presidential impostor.

They've had "hoax" and "no worse than the flu" drilled so many times into their already leaking heads by a tireless scoundrel, philanderer and golf-cheater, they would roll the dice on a lethal pandemic.

Even more bizarre is that, in their siphoned minds, it is "far-leftist" citizens protesting the systemic murder of young black Americans who are the tribal fanatics.

Finally, a man Will Rogers would have despised

​​​​​The kitschiest, hokiest, funkiest, all-time most awesome, most quintessential, most epic, most Tartuffian photo of religious hypocrisy ever taken.

Trump should be embattled like Nicholas II

We can always count on Trump to make precisely the wrong decision. So it is, with no surprises, that he has ordered a militaristic crackdown on masses of peaceful protesters.

No doubt he made this decision with full knowledge that the violence would increase. He is deploying federal police and the US military knowing that this is a provocative, inflammatory act on his part. Hence the violence will become bloodier. And in Trump's mind, his reelection prospects will improve.

Divide. Divide America. Divide blacks and whites and surely the whites will retaliate at the ballot box. Trump is no better than the vilest, most racist Southern demagogue of the Jim Crow era — and I suspect that most whites and every conscientious white in America now know that.

So even the wrong decision which he believes is the right political decision is typically Trumpian: ignorant, stupid, and conspicuously self-centered.

In the long run, he'll be kicked from the White House like the rabid dog he is. In the short, run, however, I'd love to see the masses invade his summer palace and trap him in the basement like a Romanov swine. 

He is the most despicable, unAmerican president we have ever suffered. And he deserves the worst in return.  

Relief could be on the way

Reveals a National Research poll ("A/B"):

• 54% of Americans support Twitter's decision to add fact-checking labels to Trump's tweets.
• Of the remainder, 26% thought Twitter was wrong, while 20% neither support nor oppose Twitter's move.
• Only one-third of Americans support President Trump's decision to sign an executive order that aims to limit the power of social media companies to moderate content. Nearly half (48%) opposed it.

We could slash the unemployment rate overnight. Fact-checking every one of Trump's prodigiously mendacious tweets would require the labor of roughly half of America's jobless, currently around 40 million.

The downside? They'd all lose their job in about five months, and then Joe Biden would be blamed for having created Trump's unemployment crisis. 

Please don't think outside the box

About every day I read it or hear it somewhere in the news: "Think outside the box." Thus did some NYT editor apply it to Maureen Dowd's latest column: "Think Outside the Box, Jack," referring to Jack Dorsey, CEO and co-founder of Twitter.

The four-word abomination is kin to another awful cliché (which advocates thinking inside the box) — "Get with the program" — though this one seems to have faded. What's so nauseatingly ironic about Think outside the box, though, is that the tedious minds that encourage its use are also the minds least capable of thinking outside the box.

Live-tweeting a do-nothing White House

The president spent the day "cloistered inside [the White House], periodically sending out Twitter messages like 'LAW & ORDER!'"; saying he "will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization," even though no other domestic group — e.g., a far-right militia — is designated as such; and being told by aides, "repeatedly," that "the protests were not only about him."

They are, however, the sole responsibility of governors and mayors, as Trump once again rejects even the notion of presidential leadership in times of national crisis:

Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors. These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

What out-of-office Joe Biden has to do with it I'm not sure — but if this is not what America wants, shouldn't the American president be in charge of resolving it?