Liked this piece a lot. Got a useful framework from "Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue."
I wonder whether the shrugging/sleepwalking outcome of autocratic control is inevitable, or if the chaos and waste might influence enough people finally to come to their senses and vote to keep the country in one piece.
I think under point 3, the GOP openly torpedoed a bill that would have delivered a lot of what they want not just out of loyalty to just one, but also as an attempt to show raw power: you don't care about disguising motives if you believe it displays your might.
I dearly hope Republicans vastly over played this hand, but I think it reflects their self-perception of already having the power to be this authoritarian.
Just a note to say I just read your note re Citizens United and the other opinion. Reading your comments is always worth while. I knew about them but needed the refresher.
It helps that you’re always worth reading , on any topic.
Your election countdown lament takes me back to my 1960s Foreign Service days in Congo. I attended a National Assembly session in which all the members unanimously voted against a bill submitted by Prime Minister Adoula.
All of Adoula’s cabinet were members of the National Assembly. Huh? They voted against themselves?
There was also a question about which of two constitutions was operative. The judiciary never resolved the matter, but this was of slight concern in conducting business a la Congolais.
I could observe and report these absurdities without personal concern, since Congo was not my country.
BUT with the cockamamie gyrations of Speaker Johnson’s House, the Stench Court’s maladroit ‘originalism’ that ignores well-grounded precedents, and Special Prosecutors such as Hur who submit political polemics rather than professional assessments, I am tremendously concerned about what is occurring in my country.
Congress a la Congolais, a Stench Court that is disassembling well-grounded precedents, Special Prosecutors who I find a disgrace to the legal profession, and a former president who seems capable of delaying tactics that could postpone criminal trials until after the November elections: HAS GOVERNMENT A LA CONGOLAIS COME TO MY COUNTRY?
The Congo, 70 years later, is no better than when I left it. I fervently hope that we can do better in the United States of America, but I am far less positive than was Jon Meacham in THE SOUL OF AMERICA, published in 2010.
I sense a definite change of tone in this report, or an intensification of tone. If only the media would wake up. But apparently not. Not yet, at least.
Liked this piece a lot. Got a useful framework from "Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue."
I wonder whether the shrugging/sleepwalking outcome of autocratic control is inevitable, or if the chaos and waste might influence enough people finally to come to their senses and vote to keep the country in one piece.
I think under point 3, the GOP openly torpedoed a bill that would have delivered a lot of what they want not just out of loyalty to just one, but also as an attempt to show raw power: you don't care about disguising motives if you believe it displays your might.
I dearly hope Republicans vastly over played this hand, but I think it reflects their self-perception of already having the power to be this authoritarian.
Just a note to say I just read your note re Citizens United and the other opinion. Reading your comments is always worth while. I knew about them but needed the refresher.
It helps that you’re always worth reading , on any topic.
Thanks!
Even Homer nods…
Jim
Your election countdown lament takes me back to my 1960s Foreign Service days in Congo. I attended a National Assembly session in which all the members unanimously voted against a bill submitted by Prime Minister Adoula.
All of Adoula’s cabinet were members of the National Assembly. Huh? They voted against themselves?
There was also a question about which of two constitutions was operative. The judiciary never resolved the matter, but this was of slight concern in conducting business a la Congolais.
I could observe and report these absurdities without personal concern, since Congo was not my country.
BUT with the cockamamie gyrations of Speaker Johnson’s House, the Stench Court’s maladroit ‘originalism’ that ignores well-grounded precedents, and Special Prosecutors such as Hur who submit political polemics rather than professional assessments, I am tremendously concerned about what is occurring in my country.
Congress a la Congolais, a Stench Court that is disassembling well-grounded precedents, Special Prosecutors who I find a disgrace to the legal profession, and a former president who seems capable of delaying tactics that could postpone criminal trials until after the November elections: HAS GOVERNMENT A LA CONGOLAIS COME TO MY COUNTRY?
The Congo, 70 years later, is no better than when I left it. I fervently hope that we can do better in the United States of America, but I am far less positive than was Jon Meacham in THE SOUL OF AMERICA, published in 2010.
Looking forward to your commentary about the Sp Prosecutor's report…and perhaps news media's coverage of it? Seems like catnip for the NYT.
Looking at the American political scene now, I often think of another saying of the great Casey Stengel: “Include me out!”
"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." - P J O'Rourke, "Parliament of Whores," 1991
I sense a definite change of tone in this report, or an intensification of tone. If only the media would wake up. But apparently not. Not yet, at least.
Freaking scary isn't it? One party , elected to govern, does not want to govern.