From Pine View Farm

November, 2016 archive

“Ur-Fascism” 1

Der Spiegel points out 20th Century fascism manifested itself in many different ways. Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy was different from fascism in Hitler’s Germany was different from fascism in Franco’s Spain and so on. They point to the work of Umberto Eco, who grew up in Mussolini’s Italy, who sought to find commonalities among various fascist regimes and posited a theory of “Ur-Fascism,” the common threads that allowed all of them to be referred to as “fascist.”

They then apply Eco’s theory to Donald Trump’s beliefs and actions. The result is fascinating. Here’s a bit:

In point five, he writes that Ur-Fascism “seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.” Here, it sounds as though Eco could have been writing directly about Trump, AfD or Marine Le Pen.

Point six states: “Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That was why one of the most typical features of historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.” It would be impossible to more aptly describe Trump’s appeal to his voters.

This is a must-read.

Share

Watch What They Do, Not What They Say 0

‘Nuff said.

Share

The Voter Fraud Fraud 0

Republican elephant at flip chart headed

Via Job’s Anger.

Share

Twits on Twitter 0

Fear-of-failing twits.

Also, too.

Share

Facebook Frolics 0

Shorter Jim Wright: “Community standards” my anatomy.

Share

How Stuff Works, Banking Today Dept. 0

Rat:  We can't make this stuff up.  The Stuff:  Banker says, Well, sir, no load for you.  We have to be very careful under all these banking regulations.  Man:  But aren't you the same bank whose employees opened two million fake accounts to charge customers fake fees?  Banker:  Yes, but we fired those bad apples.  Man:  But was there someone above those bad apples?  Banker:  Yes, sir.  She's retiring.  Man  Retiring.  Banker:  With a $124, 000,000 payout.  Man:  So you collect fake fees from customers, fire the employees you pressured, and keep all the millions for yourself?  Bankeer:  Yes, but if you feel strongly about it, you should talk to your congressman.  Man:  Where is he?  Banker:  With our CEO.  (Image:  CEO and Congressman in hot tub together throwing money about.)  Goat:  Where does it all end?  Rat:  I'm hoping for mobs and pitchforks.  Pig (dressed for battle and carrying a pitchfork):  Just tell me who to poke.


Click to see the original image.

By the by, I used to deal with the bank alluded to in the comic. As of last week, I no longer do.

Share

QOTD 0

Stephen King:

The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.

Share

PM 0

Share

Stopping by Woods 0

Late afternoon sun over Davis Creek

Click for a larger image.

Read more »

Share

Those Who Forget History . . . . 0

Dick Polman has had it with the lionizing of Fidel Castro. Even granting, as I do, that the government he overthrew was rampant with corruption and Havana was a playground run by the American mafia, Castro has many faults and, especially in the early years, was quite the despot.

A snippet:

The amnesiacs and ahistorical romanticizers should study the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. That’s when Fidel urged Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to consider launching a first nuclear strike on the eastern seaboard of the United States. In a letter to Krushchev on Oct. 26, he said that if the Americans try to invade the island, “that would be the moment to eliminate this danger forever, in an act of the most legitimate self-defense. However harsh and terrible the solution, there would be no other.” (My italics).

That advice was too much even for Khrushchev, who subsequently told Fidel in writing that government leaders can’t allow themselves to be “swept away by the popular feelings of hot-headed elements…If we had refused a reasonable arrangement with the U.S., a war would have left millions of dead and survivors would have blamed their leaders.”

Afterthought:

I remember the Cuban missile crisis, the press conferences on television, the pictures of missile carriers with their missiles at rest, the contemplation of death.

Yes, even kids understand death.

Share

Manufacturing Dreams 2

The Las Vegas Sun takes a look at Donald Trump’s promise to bring back manufacturing jobs and concludes that’s it more flim-flam. A nugget:

Wait until Trump tries to come through on one of his central promises: to bring back millions of high-paying manufacturing jobs to the U.S.

There is no shortage of economic experts who say it’s a fantasy.

Why?

Because U.S. manufacturers already are producing a lot of goods. They’re just doing it with fewer people due to automation and other technological advancements in manufacturing processes.

Follow the link for much, much more.

Share

War and Mongers of War 0

I hope Farron is overstating things. I fear not.

Welcome to pariah patriotism.

Share

Star-Struck 0

Via C&L.

Share

Facebook Frolics 0

What means this term, “responsible”?

Part of the problem is something I’ve remarked on for years. For some fool reason, people will believe stuff they read on a computer monitor when they would not believe the same thing if they read it in the Encyclopedia Britannica or heard it from the mouth of god herself.

Facebook and Twitter do not generate the seeds of stupid, but they sure as hell allow them to spread and flourish in fertile, febrile fields.

Share

QOTD 0

Thurgood Marshall:

Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.

Share

Student Athletes 0

Yeah, right.

Sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro highlights the hypocrisy of big time college sports.

In the first 20 days of the season, Tom Izzo’s Michigan State basketball team will have traveled 13,000 miles for games, including trips to Honolulu, New York City, the Bahamas and Durham, N.C. What about this itinerary, most of it programmed by TV for the benefit of TV, suggests that Michigan State’s players are supposed to be students, too, not members of a money-making barnstorming troupe? Looking at Michigan State’s far-flung schedule – and those of other programs – how can anybody buy into the pretense that the college’s No. 1 goal is to provide the athletes with a proper education?

Share

In a Nutshell 0

In a long and thoughtful article, Elizabeth Kolsky convincingly argues that the key to Donald Trump’s appeal was not the “Make America Great” portion of his slogan, but rather the “Again.” She posits that he offered what many of his supporters saw as continuity with America’s racist past, rather than change, which means acceptance of its pluralist present. Almost in an aside, she wonders

How could he say all these things about all these people and still win the election? I wondered out loud. My child responded with the most pithy and pointed postelection analysis I have heard to date: “But Mom, he never said he hated white people.”

As it turns out, this is also the key to explaining why 53 percent of white women voted for Trump.

Do please read the rest.

Share

Playbook 0

Yesha Callahan looks back at the tactics of President Obama’s opponents over the last eight years to find ideas as to how to deal with Donald Trump. The result is a six-point strategy.

Here’s the first; follow the link for the rest (emphasis in the original).

1. Start a lie.

Don’t worry about whether it’s true or not. As Obama’s haters have shown us, the key to perpetuating a lie is just to repeat it so many times, people will begin to believe it, whether it’s true or not. Every time you tell an untruth, you must end with, “Look it up!” That alone legitimizes your falsehood. The same way conservatives believe that Mexicans are streaming over the border and taking jobs (even though net immigration from Mexico is negative, meaning that more Mexicans are leaving America than sneaking in), or how Muslims are coming to kill you (although white men have committed more terrorist acts in the U.S. since 9/11), you can create your own falsehood.

Share

Twits on Twitter, Ryan’s Derp Dept. 0

Share

The Court Is Still in Sessions 0

An attorney who once worked for the Department of Justice recounts his experiences with Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, who is Donald Trump’s selection for Attorney-General of the United States, responsible for ensuring that the Department of Justice concerns itself with, well, justice. A nugget:

I was a young lawyer in the civil rights division at the Justice Department in 1981 when I first encountered Jeff Sessions, then the new U.S. attorney for Alabama. I met him while I was handling a major voting rights case in Mobile, and I relayed a rumor I’d heard: A federal judge there had allegedly referred to a civil rights lawyer as “a traitor to his race” for taking on black clients. Sessions responded, “Well, maybe he is.”

Follow the link.

It gets worse.

Share