The Generalist

One's identity is far more than one's profession.

Civic Concerns

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Flood the Zone

Since the election, I have greatly reduced the time I spend on the media. I rationalize my indifference to political news in various ways, but the effect is to disengage. Advertising-funded media are cowering at the threat of losing subscribers or ratings. They pull their punches or give too much airtime to political theater. I have retreated to reading a few blogs that I have found to be credible: Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, and Talking Points Memo (TPM).

But I know that I am succumbing to Steve Bannon’s “Flood the Zone With Shit” strategy. If you don’t know what that is and how it affects you, read on. What follows is a ChatGPT generated briefing. Feel free to share it widely.

Briefing on “Flood the Zone with Shit”Download

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Lest We Forget

America has produced some great leaders, people who called forth the greatness of our aspirations even when circumstances were grim. So it was in 1863.

Who will rise to speak great words of resolve and hope today?

On Blood-Soaked Ground, a ‘Prayer for the Future’ of a Divided Land
Two weeks after the election, a gathering in Gettysburg commemorated Lincoln’s address, 272 words that have come to epitomize what it means to be presidential.

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Divisive Acts Shield Trump

Matt Gaetz as Attorney General? Bypass congressional checks and balances with recess appointments?

Even the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal is shocked, but Trump’s base sees their leader as striking out with bold actions against the establishment elites they despise. It’s the showmanship of his professional wrestling interest. Please the crowd, keep them inside the bubble of illusion, appeal to base instincts, and distract them from thinking critically.

This tactic may be intuitive for Trump, but it achieves some important strategic objectives for him:

  1. Keeps the base impressed because it enrages the establishment leadership.
  2. Keeps the country polarized. (Trump loses if America unifies around shared values. That can’t happen if we are too angry to listen to each other.)
  3. Distracts attention from reality, and from his mendacity and incompetence.
  4. It gobbles up time in the news cycle, providing cover for less sensational adverse acts and obscuring rational analysis.

Dominating the news, triggering primal fears and other lizard-brain-level emotions, is a manipulative tactic that his adversaries are loath to use. Encumbered by scruples and unwilling to sacrifice integrity, the resistance fights an asymmetric war.

But Trump’s base is bonded by a web of lies and misinformation. Reality eventually crushes misperception. Therein lies a major vulnerability.

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Freedom!

We love our democracy because we believe it is the best way to govern and secure for ourselves and our kids the blessings of freedom, the common good, and security.

Timothy Snyder is a scholar who has devoted much of his life to understanding both tyranny and freedom. He has lived in eastern European countries long enough to learn the languages and know the people. He has drawn on the experiences of people who were long denied freedom to better understand what exactly the word means. He also has come to recognize that most Americans don’t have a clear understanding of it. We take our freedom for granted. Like the air we breath, we don’t think about it until we are deprived of it. Here is an introduction to Snyder’s insights.

I’m reading On Freedom because I want to see what he sees. I think understanding freedom is central to defending against the tyranny threat of the Trump administration.

You probably know of Snyder’s book On Tyranny in which he identifies important lessons of 20th Century history. This little pocket-size book is a guide to how people who wish to be free should think and act. If you are wondering what you as an individual can do, take inspiration from Timothy Snyder.

Here are some links to interviews:

If you have not read On Tyranny watch this:

Twenty Lessons on Fighting Tyranny from the Twentieth Century
Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. From across the fearful twentieth century, here are twenty lessons about what it takes to oppose tyranny, adapted to the circumstances of today.

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Veterans’ Day

Trump has expressed his intent to purge the military brass of those he deems disloyal. He’s also announced his intention to appoint Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Although Hegseth is a veteran of the National Guard and was awarded a Bronze Star, he’s controversial, opinionated, and likely to be loyal to Trump first, and the US Constitution second if push comes to shove.

Military service is a matter of honoring a sacred oath, and being willing to die for it if necessary. Here’s my Opinion Piece for Veterans’ Day.

Veterans Day 2024Download

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What We Are For

The Friends Committee on National Legislation reminds Quakers and everyone to recognize the threats of our nation’s new leadership while honoring our core values: justice, mercy, truth, simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship. Below, I quote one of the public statements from FCNL :

“We are not for names nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for this party nor against the other… but we are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom that these may be exalted in our nation… that these things may abound.”Quaker Minister, Edward Burrough, 1659.

This week, we were grateful that millions of people participated in our democracy and that the elections were conducted in a broadly fair, free, and peaceful manner.

With Burrough’s words in mind, we are called to raise a grave warning of the threats we see in the re-election of Donald Trump. Threats to the dignity and lives of millions of our neighbors, including many with whom we work. Threats to the values we hold dear. Threats to a wide range of issues crucial to building the world we seek. To our democracy itself.

These threats only magnify the challenges before us. The weeks, months, and years ahead will not be easy. Like so many across our communities, we are heartbroken by the election result and anxious for what lies ahead.

Yet as people of hope, we will persist in our belief that our democracy is strongest when we are all engaged with it, and with one another.

We will continue to stand in solidarity with people most impacted by government policies. We will continue to fiercely advocate and lovingly defend human dignity and the rights of all people. We will continue to seek opportunities for cooperation across political divides and peacebuilding amid conflict. We will continue to work relentlessly to advance policies that will bring about the more just, peaceful, and sustainable world we seek.

In times of fear and danger, we are called into deeper community with one another – and with those with whom we disagree. Difficult as it may be, we continue to be called to love our neighbors, no exception.

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Trump Voters Got What they Wanted

There will be weeks or months of analysis and opinion, most of it pure speculation, as liberals try to figure out why America re-elected Trump. This article by Tom Nichols has it right in my opinion.

But in the end, a majority of American voters chose Trump because they wanted what he was selling: a nonstop reality show of rage and resentment. Some Democrats, still gripped by the lure of wonkery, continue to scratch their heads over which policy proposals might have unlocked more votes, but that was always a mug’s game. Trump voters never cared about policies, and he rarely gave them any.

Trump Voters Got What They Wanted
Those who expect that Donald Trump will hurt others, and not them, are likely to be unpleasantly surprised.

Watch for the buyer’s remorse.

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We Do Better

Democrats like James Carvill have claimed for many years that Americans do better economically with Democrats in office. Yet the belief persists that Republicans know best how to lead us to prosperity. University of Virginia Professor David Shreve (no relation) confirms that Democrats do better for the economy.

David Shreve: The irony of American political economics
The Democrats’ consistent results and clear-cut policy advantages don’t seem to matter.

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Trump’s CV of Destructive Behavior

There is nothing you haven’t heard about many times before in the NYT review of the ruination and failure that characterizes Donald Trump’s life. I’m not surprised that we are inured. So many scandals, so many lies, so much of other people’s money lost. This it the man who seeks a second try at the Presidency.

For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment
No major party presidential candidate, much less president, in American history has been accused of wrongdoing so many times.

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Grim Message

Heather Cox Richardson, Timothy Snyder, and anyone else who isn’t inside of the cult of Trump sees the message that the Madison Square Garden rally blasted out. It’s tyranny’s classic playbook. Both the venue chosen and the event’s content are a loud signal, a terrible message to America and the world. Trump and his inner circle intend to seize power by any means they can. Most of the GOP is still going along to get along including our own congressman, Brian Fitzpatrick. Those folks with Trump signs on their lawn? They are endorsing fascist hate and sedition.

Trump’s MSG Rally Incited MAGA To Do Whatever It Takes To Seize Power
INSIDE: Elon Musk … Jeff Bezos … Michelle Obama
October 27, 2024
I stand corrected.

The news cycle has been flooded with Trump madness for most of the campaign. The goofy old man dancing, the McDonald’s stunt, the demented rambling rants, the zone flooded with lies . . . all of it bad publicity, but all of it seeming to prove the maxim, “There is no such thing as bad press so long as they spell your name right.”

Next month, God help us, we’ll find out if it worked.