debisimons 
There’s a great novel by Ford Maddox Ford, The Good Soldier, that begins this way:
”This is the saddest story I have ever heard.”
That line would also apply to the article below. Sure, there are greata-bigga-huge problems with Obamacare that need to be addressed, and should have been addressed before the thing was rammed through. But you can’t just jerk the rug out from under people.
Let me give you an example here of what is meant by “retroactive explanations.” We have a realtor coming Friday to take pictures of our house for a listing. (We may end up not putting it up for sale after all, but that’s not germane to this story.) The house is in pretty good shape except for the basement, which tends to become a repository of items that don’t have a home elsewhere. So some serious cleaning up needs to happen down there, and it needs to take place tomorrow.
Okay. We’ll say that this afternoon I went out to get the mail and, due to my congenital klutziness, I fell down the porch stairs and broke a bone in my foot. (I actually did this back in Virginia and ended up in a cast and on crutches, so this example is entirely within the realm of possibility.) It’s all completely accidental, but guess what? It gets me out of helping to clean up the basement.
“Retroactive Explanations for Trump’s Actions Don’t Make Sense”
Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped by Garry Kasparov, available in several formats and multiple outlets. Visit the author’s website at www.kasparov.com/.
If I could, I would require that every single US citizen sit down and read at least the introduction to this definitive book, written by former world champion chess player and now political activist Garry Kasparov. I would also require listening to this episode of Slate’s ”Trumpcast” in which Kasparov is interviewed about his opinions regarding Donald Trump. As he says, “I hate to say ‘I told you so.’” And his perspective on the nomination of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State is indeed frightening. (I know I keep using that word in my political posts, but I don’t know what other word to use. “Disturbing” is too mild.)
Of the many quotations I could give, here’s probably a definitive one from the conclusion:
“This is not the political force that has recently taken over the Republican Party — with a plurality in the presidential primaries and a narrow victory in November. That has been the result of extreme polarization, not a turn toward enduring values. The movement is authoritarian in theory, apocalyptic in mood, prone to conspiracy theories and personal abuse, and dismissive of ethical standards. The president-elect seems to offer equal chances of constitutional crisis and utter, debilitating incompetence.”
Whew! His article is well worth thoughtful, careful reading. As we head into the actual Trump administration we will be well advised to keep these ideas in mind. We’re stuck with him! There is no longer any point in talking about what might have been. There is no last-ditch effort that will now rescue us. But if Gerson is correct, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he is, then after four years of a Trump administration the conservative movement will have been well and truly sidelined, if indeed that hasn’t already happened. Here’s the article:
“The Republican Party Is at its Peak, but Conservatism Has Hit Rock Bottom”
The other f-word: fascist.
I have so far resisted saying that Trump is a fascist, and I have not used the H-word in any of my posts. But I have three such excellente articles to share,one of which dates back to well before the election, that all do use that word, that, well, here we are.
I’m just a-goin’ to keep on a-bangin’ this drum, because this cozying up to Putin is the biggest worry many people have about the new Trump administration. I’m not making this up! Watch this space later this week for a review about a book that will freeze your blood but, I hope, stiffen your spine. In the meantime, read the article below. We need to be on guard more than ever. To sink back into complacency because your candidate won is a step farther down the wrong road.
This is the exact opposite of what Ronald Reagan did, folks, so please stop saying that Trump is going to be “an even greater President than Ronald Reagan.” Of all the nauseating things I’ve heard about Trump that one is the most sickening.
Here’s the article:
T. Rex for Secretary of State, anyone?
Now, looking back to the 2012 election, I have to admit deep regret over not getting involved with that one and, specifically, not getting out and supporting Mitt Romney, an honorable, honest, decent man who got royally slammed for telling the truth about Russia. (I actually, just now, had to go back and look up to see who got Colorado’s nine electoral votes; Barack Obama did. And he got 332 electoral votes total to Romney’s 206, winning over 51% of the popular vote to Romney’s 47%. Pretty decisive, I’d say. But still! I could have gotten a little more involved as a citizen. I just thought, ‘Meh. Romney’s kind of boring and bland,and there’s no way Obama is going to lose as the incumbent and as such a charismatic figure.’ I did vote for Romney, you understand.)
Takeaway from the following article by Fareed Zakaria, who writes laudable foreign-policy articles for the Washington Post:
It’s ironic that Mitt Romney has been passed over for secretary of state just as his key foreign policy judgment is being vindicated. Romney famously said in 2012 that Russia was the United States’ “No. 1 geopolitical foe.” President Obama mocked the claim, and others — myself included — thought it was an exaggeration. We were wrong; Romney was right. (emphasis mine)
Read the entire article here:
“Vladimir Putin wants a new world order. Why would Donald Trump help him?”
I had done some deep logical reasoning, I thought, on the whole you-have-to-vote-for-Trump-because-of-the-Supreme-Court issue, and then I ran across this excellent article by Ian Tuttle which went several orders of magnitude deeper.
photo credit: Wikipedia.
The president-elect said this spring that he’s a fan of Rand and identifies with Howard Roark, the main character in “The Fountainhead.” Roark, played by Gary Cooper in the film adaptation, is an architect who dynamites a housing project he designed because the builders did not precisely follow his blueprints. “It relates to business, beauty, life and inner emotions. That book relates to … everything,” Trump told Kirsten Powers for a piece in USA Today. (from an article in the Washington Post)
Break it down!
First of all, since everyone agrees that Trump never reads books, we can be pretty sure he’s just seen the movie. (Fountainhead is about 700 pages long. I’ve read it at least twice.) I have no idea how faithful the movie is to the book.