Elon's conduct only strengthens my belief that we need a whole new income tax structure to deal with billionaires. No more tinkering around the edges; we need a complete rethink on how income is taxed in America.
I don't see how a disciplined, ruthless, prevaricating, amoral DeSantis would not be, if anything, worse than an undisciplined, slave to impulse, cruel, lying, unreasoning narcissist Trump.
Both in office will have at the top of their agenda:
0. Build and leverage existing databases of the US population and assign people and organizations loyalty and enemy scores. Both parties already have lists of all eligible voters and of course contributors. This is being combined with all the other information now available through private and public sources -- they already know where you live, what car you drive, what your Facebook posts look like, how your neighbors vote, where you eat, what you eat, how much you spend, where you go, what music you stream, what TV you watch, and how all your relatives and friends and coworkers score on all these and other attributes.
If you buy craft beer, this will factor in. Whether you drive a pickup truck or a Prius, this will be counted. If your neighbors voted for Dems in the last election, your address will testify against you.
As the rot spreads, indifference and neutrality will no longer be sufficient; inoffensiveness itself will become evidence of opposition. Literally there will be no way to hide your loyalty or antipathy to the regime, even by trying to stay out of sight and hearing and never speak a political word.
1. Purge the whole US Justice department of honest men and women and replace as many as possible as soon as possible with truckling lickspittles whose only concern as to duty will be do whatever is asked of them, and do it to whomever they are directed. This will be a bit difficult at first since it will be so highly visible, given the services required will entail letting fellow criminals off the hook, and persecuting enemies in courts of law on the public record. It won't take long however for everyone to sense where the breeze blows. Those who object will be squeezed out. Those who can't stomach it will leave. Those who can't or won't risk leaving will acquiesce. And the ambitious will pause, triangulate, and enthusiastically cooperate.
2. Ensure that promotion and retention in the military is filtered through a sieve of loyalty to the regime or at least MAGA cultural fit. Officers and noncoms who intend careers will be required to give ongoing evidence of fealty. This will be very easy to do since it can be done sub rosa by informal blacklist and "MAGA boy" networks. An unofficial system of political officers can be even more effective than an official one. What does not exist de jure cannot readily be opposed de jure.
3. Tie federal contracts and research spending to loyalty scores.
4. Teachers, police, public employees will find they need to have the right recommendations to be hired and promoted.
Gradually this will diffuse into private industry. As firms find they cannot compete without being on the right lists, they will have to cooperate to survive.
5. The IRS is ripe for conversion into a corrupt tool of oppression. One reason the right was so sure the "scandalous" attempt to enforce tax exempt status rules was a targeted attack was that they can't imagine having that power themselves and not using it.
6. They will sooner or later need a real political police apparatus. Most authoritarian regimes have more than one; the competition between them helps ensure the leader(s) are not themselves supplanted. I have always looked at ICE is the most obvious candidate to be the new regime's pre-eminent Stasi.
7. Obviously, top of the list, will be the federal and state judiciaries. If things play out as badly as I expect, as soon as a sufficient majority in the Senate is available, we can expect the regime to start cleaning out holdovers through forced retirements (pressure and even physical intimidation) and impeachments. A couple of impeachments will work wonders to concentrate the minds of jurists who know they are going to be on target lists.
They will have the power to do all this and more, because they will have no one to stop them. To expect that having this power they will refrain from exerting it, is to suppose what never in history was the case for long can be different in future. Only the character and preference of the powerful in any given regime really stand in the way. We have the measure of Trump. The full measure of the DeSantises and Cottens and Cruzes has yet to be confirmed, but the early results do not look good.
Matt Levine, please do not confuse crony capitalism with capitalism. The ability to manipulate the strike price for nickel futures because you’re too big to fail is by definition not true capitalism.
I read Linkers newsletter when it came out earlier this week.
A few points he missed:
DeSantis set up his own election police force that ONLY reports to him. Directly.
Yeah...What could go wrong with that? Let's see....
Gov. DeSantis claims that there are election "irregularities" in Miami-Dade and Orlando (or Tampa, Jacksonville, Tallahassee - any two (or three) will do) the day of the 2024 presidential election, for which he is the GOP nominee.
Proof? We've learned that we don't need that. He just has to claim it. Then send his "police" into to impound - for safe keeping, ya know - the ballots in Miami-Dade/Orlando. And that his police force will need to conduct an "investigation" and "audit" the ballots.
Well, wouldn't you know it...it's going to take a few weeks. Like 4 months. Well past the certification dates. Just have to use the counted votes, I guess.
Looky there!! DeSantis is going to carry FL.
Now, repeat in GA, PA, AZ, WI.
The idea that DeSantis wouldn't pulled that is belied by every action he has taken in the last 2 years with respect to the election laws in FL.
I completely agree with Linker and his rankings. DeSantis WILL be better than Trump. I suspect that Trump tried to usurp power not only because he did not believe he lost (lots of people around him told that yes he lost) but also because he did not want to let go of his followers. Like O'Brien from "1984" said, "power is not ruling over things; power is ruling over people". Trump's greatest power is over his followers. We simply do not know at this time whether DeSantis is similarly addicted to power, but all of his background (Harvard/Yale education, military service, even his first actions in the beginning of COVID) argue against this. When I look at his culture war fights, I can't help but think that he is forced to fight them - how else is he going to displace Trump? This is so like Reagan in 1970s ("welfare queens", "Panama canal - we built it, we paid for it, it's ours", etc...)
Is it Musk (or the nickel guy) who is ignoring the rules, or is it the rest of us, if we can reasonably expect those things you described to happen for anyone with enough capital?
I’m going with Trump-like candidate who wins the electoral college but loses the popular vote. And BTW, what’s the deal with all these non-cowboys wearing cowboy boots - DeSantis in photo. Drugstore cowboy as we used to say. He must be shorter than average.
There are tons of righteous Pro-EC people out there (GOP, obvs) with ridiculous arguments (more power to small states!) that are transparently wrong. But when I say, 'The EC will be over 5 minutes after the first Republican candidate loses the EC but wins the popular vote' they mostly go quiet.
I don't doubt there are GOP operatives out there already with a 'break glass in case of EC loss/Popular Vote win'
I had hoped, after Romney, that they might start deciding to capture voters' attentions. But it looks more like 'game the system'.
Plotting those scenarios is useful, but recent history has taught us that something totally unexpected is just as likely as any of those things.
I’ve startled to dabble in learning more French history, motivated by the thin consolation that if they’re on their 5th republic, maybe we can fix ours if we break it?
Sadly, I’m not sure the second American Republic (third, if we count the Articles, but we never do) is still even a possible improbable if it all comes apart. We’re a pluralistic, multicultural, excessively armed society, driven mad, enraged, and divided by money-making algorithms and greedy, lying infotainment purveyors. It’s hard to knit that back together if it breaks.
With Johnson in limbo, the Israeli government heading for yet another election, Ukraine continuing to burn. and Biden suffering from terrible approval ratings heading into the must-win American midterm elections, this could end up being a tempting window of opportunity for malignant actors to make sudden geopolitical moves. Nations with a target on their back like Taiwan suffer the most during these transitional periods.
Okay, sorry for filling up JVL's thread with this, but I couldn't find the link to Cathy Young's article questioning the accounts of the 10-year-old girl who had to seek an abortion in Indiana: they just arrested the rapist. She seemed to anxious to debunk the case, so here is the link: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2022/07/13/columbus-man-charged-rape-10-year-old-led-abortion-in-indiana/10046625002/
Elon's conduct only strengthens my belief that we need a whole new income tax structure to deal with billionaires. No more tinkering around the edges; we need a complete rethink on how income is taxed in America.
I don't see how a disciplined, ruthless, prevaricating, amoral DeSantis would not be, if anything, worse than an undisciplined, slave to impulse, cruel, lying, unreasoning narcissist Trump.
Both in office will have at the top of their agenda:
0. Build and leverage existing databases of the US population and assign people and organizations loyalty and enemy scores. Both parties already have lists of all eligible voters and of course contributors. This is being combined with all the other information now available through private and public sources -- they already know where you live, what car you drive, what your Facebook posts look like, how your neighbors vote, where you eat, what you eat, how much you spend, where you go, what music you stream, what TV you watch, and how all your relatives and friends and coworkers score on all these and other attributes.
If you buy craft beer, this will factor in. Whether you drive a pickup truck or a Prius, this will be counted. If your neighbors voted for Dems in the last election, your address will testify against you.
As the rot spreads, indifference and neutrality will no longer be sufficient; inoffensiveness itself will become evidence of opposition. Literally there will be no way to hide your loyalty or antipathy to the regime, even by trying to stay out of sight and hearing and never speak a political word.
1. Purge the whole US Justice department of honest men and women and replace as many as possible as soon as possible with truckling lickspittles whose only concern as to duty will be do whatever is asked of them, and do it to whomever they are directed. This will be a bit difficult at first since it will be so highly visible, given the services required will entail letting fellow criminals off the hook, and persecuting enemies in courts of law on the public record. It won't take long however for everyone to sense where the breeze blows. Those who object will be squeezed out. Those who can't stomach it will leave. Those who can't or won't risk leaving will acquiesce. And the ambitious will pause, triangulate, and enthusiastically cooperate.
2. Ensure that promotion and retention in the military is filtered through a sieve of loyalty to the regime or at least MAGA cultural fit. Officers and noncoms who intend careers will be required to give ongoing evidence of fealty. This will be very easy to do since it can be done sub rosa by informal blacklist and "MAGA boy" networks. An unofficial system of political officers can be even more effective than an official one. What does not exist de jure cannot readily be opposed de jure.
3. Tie federal contracts and research spending to loyalty scores.
4. Teachers, police, public employees will find they need to have the right recommendations to be hired and promoted.
Gradually this will diffuse into private industry. As firms find they cannot compete without being on the right lists, they will have to cooperate to survive.
5. The IRS is ripe for conversion into a corrupt tool of oppression. One reason the right was so sure the "scandalous" attempt to enforce tax exempt status rules was a targeted attack was that they can't imagine having that power themselves and not using it.
6. They will sooner or later need a real political police apparatus. Most authoritarian regimes have more than one; the competition between them helps ensure the leader(s) are not themselves supplanted. I have always looked at ICE is the most obvious candidate to be the new regime's pre-eminent Stasi.
7. Obviously, top of the list, will be the federal and state judiciaries. If things play out as badly as I expect, as soon as a sufficient majority in the Senate is available, we can expect the regime to start cleaning out holdovers through forced retirements (pressure and even physical intimidation) and impeachments. A couple of impeachments will work wonders to concentrate the minds of jurists who know they are going to be on target lists.
They will have the power to do all this and more, because they will have no one to stop them. To expect that having this power they will refrain from exerting it, is to suppose what never in history was the case for long can be different in future. Only the character and preference of the powerful in any given regime really stand in the way. We have the measure of Trump. The full measure of the DeSantises and Cottens and Cruzes has yet to be confirmed, but the early results do not look good.
You need a better nickname for Giuliani than just Rudy.
Not like there's a paucity from which to choose: SHIRT-TUCKING GUY. Bad Hair Dye Guy, Mr Fartypants, or just THE MAN WHO WON'T GO AWAY.
Matt Levine, please do not confuse crony capitalism with capitalism. The ability to manipulate the strike price for nickel futures because you’re too big to fail is by definition not true capitalism.
I read Linkers newsletter when it came out earlier this week.
A few points he missed:
DeSantis set up his own election police force that ONLY reports to him. Directly.
Yeah...What could go wrong with that? Let's see....
Gov. DeSantis claims that there are election "irregularities" in Miami-Dade and Orlando (or Tampa, Jacksonville, Tallahassee - any two (or three) will do) the day of the 2024 presidential election, for which he is the GOP nominee.
Proof? We've learned that we don't need that. He just has to claim it. Then send his "police" into to impound - for safe keeping, ya know - the ballots in Miami-Dade/Orlando. And that his police force will need to conduct an "investigation" and "audit" the ballots.
Well, wouldn't you know it...it's going to take a few weeks. Like 4 months. Well past the certification dates. Just have to use the counted votes, I guess.
Looky there!! DeSantis is going to carry FL.
Now, repeat in GA, PA, AZ, WI.
The idea that DeSantis wouldn't pulled that is belied by every action he has taken in the last 2 years with respect to the election laws in FL.
We've never had a post Roe election. We'll see. (I'm talking a general election in 2024, not 2022). It's going to get bad by then.
I completely agree with Linker and his rankings. DeSantis WILL be better than Trump. I suspect that Trump tried to usurp power not only because he did not believe he lost (lots of people around him told that yes he lost) but also because he did not want to let go of his followers. Like O'Brien from "1984" said, "power is not ruling over things; power is ruling over people". Trump's greatest power is over his followers. We simply do not know at this time whether DeSantis is similarly addicted to power, but all of his background (Harvard/Yale education, military service, even his first actions in the beginning of COVID) argue against this. When I look at his culture war fights, I can't help but think that he is forced to fight them - how else is he going to displace Trump? This is so like Reagan in 1970s ("welfare queens", "Panama canal - we built it, we paid for it, it's ours", etc...)
Aren’t there any politically savvy women writing perceptive, insightful newsletters? Why is it always guys that get the free promos?
Is it Musk (or the nickel guy) who is ignoring the rules, or is it the rest of us, if we can reasonably expect those things you described to happen for anyone with enough capital?
I’m going with Trump-like candidate who wins the electoral college but loses the popular vote. And BTW, what’s the deal with all these non-cowboys wearing cowboy boots - DeSantis in photo. Drugstore cowboy as we used to say. He must be shorter than average.
Instead of discussing DeSantis, howz about we spend our energy getting out the vote and making sure he is utterly defeated.
I love to see your recommendations but life is short. Keep testing me. Age 81.
There are tons of righteous Pro-EC people out there (GOP, obvs) with ridiculous arguments (more power to small states!) that are transparently wrong. But when I say, 'The EC will be over 5 minutes after the first Republican candidate loses the EC but wins the popular vote' they mostly go quiet.
I don't doubt there are GOP operatives out there already with a 'break glass in case of EC loss/Popular Vote win'
I had hoped, after Romney, that they might start deciding to capture voters' attentions. But it looks more like 'game the system'.
Plotting those scenarios is useful, but recent history has taught us that something totally unexpected is just as likely as any of those things.
I’ve startled to dabble in learning more French history, motivated by the thin consolation that if they’re on their 5th republic, maybe we can fix ours if we break it?
Sadly, I’m not sure the second American Republic (third, if we count the Articles, but we never do) is still even a possible improbable if it all comes apart. We’re a pluralistic, multicultural, excessively armed society, driven mad, enraged, and divided by money-making algorithms and greedy, lying infotainment purveyors. It’s hard to knit that back together if it breaks.
With Johnson in limbo, the Israeli government heading for yet another election, Ukraine continuing to burn. and Biden suffering from terrible approval ratings heading into the must-win American midterm elections, this could end up being a tempting window of opportunity for malignant actors to make sudden geopolitical moves. Nations with a target on their back like Taiwan suffer the most during these transitional periods.