Replies to post #538801 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Maga's boss class think they are immune to American carnage -- Cory Doctorow

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/13/then-they-came-for-me/#boss-politics

It's not just that Texas DA Gocha Ramirez charged a woman with murder for having an abortion (something he wasn't allowed to do, even under Texas law); it's that Ramirez paid for his mistress's own abortion, after he impregnated her while having an affair with her and her sister:

https://archive.is/20250812192203/https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/abortion-murder-charge-district-attorney-20812966.php

This is perfect Magaism, as captured by Wilhoit's Law:

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

Maga is a coalition of turkeys voting for Christmas, and ax-sharpening farmers planning to make a meal out of them.

The Maga base wants a bunch of stuff that the Maga elites would never tolerate, but that's OK, because the Maga elites are pretty sure they will never have to suffer under the laws they pass for others. Peter Theil is happy to support a political movement whose dominant factions would like to put him – and every other gay man – in a concentration camp, because he's pretty sure that only applies to the poor gays, not the billionaire gays.

Financiers who back Trump know that they can afford to transport their daughters, wives, mistresses and the housekeepers, babysitters and teenagers they impregnate across state lines (or national borders) to get an abortion should the need arise. Their participation in Maga was a bet that after victory was attained, the base could be made to settle for performative cruelty against people other than them:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/06/how-the-sausage-gets-made/#governing-is-harder

For a conservative movement to win power, it has to convince the people whom it would relegate to the bottom of the hierarchy to support that goal (AKA "getting turkeys to vote for Christmas"); and it must convince other conservatives that they will be able to establish a hierarchy that accommodates multiple, co-equal ruling elites.

The first tactic is well-established. LBJ summed it up neatly:

If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.

The second one requires far more tactical thinking. Some elite groups are able to form coalitions by carving out exclusive zones: think of the friendly feeling among Modi, Orban, Erdogan, bin Salman, Trump, Milei, et al. These people all aspire to dictatorship, all espouse their superior blood – a source of personal and racial superiority – and hypothetically all believe that the world would be better if everyone (including their foreign counterparts) would take their orders.

One way to resolve this tension is to carve up the world geographically, which is why so many despots who seized power by promising to build ethno-states can co-exist with one another and even cheer one another on. Let Orban have Hungary, give Turkey to Erdogan, and let Bibi Netanyahu annex all of Gaza. Sure, in their hearts of hearts, each of these men secretly believe themselves to be racially and personally superior to the others, but so long as they all stay out of one another's turf, there's no reason to make a big deal out of that.

Another way to resolve this tension is to carve up the world temporally: think of the alliance between Christian nationalists and Israeli genocidiers. In the USA, "Christian Zionists" outnumber Jews who identify as Zionists:

https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/qanda-for-every-1-jewish-zionist-there-are-30-christian-zionists-and-netanyahu-exploits-this-15656249

But Christian Zionists aren't philosemites. They hate Jews and believe that we are all going to hell for murdering Christ. Their support for Israel isn't grounded in a belief in the necessity of a Jewish ethno-state – it arises out of the apocalyptic belief that Christ will return once Jews "return to the Holy Land" – albeit only briefly, before being cast into a lake of fire for all eternity.

[newmedman]

Been to Cracker Barrel once or twice. I like chicken fried steaks with the country gravy and mashed taters.

LOL Just like Bob Evans, I'm a sucker for the biscuits and gravy but I've even joked at the table before that a side cup of that gravy is the only one I've ever seen a spoon stand up in and I could bet that my arteries were coagulating in the same manner.

Good piece by Rick as usual...

They’ve traded their convictions for fear of mean tweets and a bad primary. They’ve watched their party’s foreign policy turn from “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” to “Mr. Putin, can I bring you a hot towel when you’re done with my wife?” And they’ve done it with the meek complicity of courtiers who’d rather keep their titles than keep their souls.

This is exactly what I was bitching about yesterday. Certainly, we all know that Trump is unhinged but the only people who can really keep him in check are feeding his every desire. It's like the parent of a Heroin addict going to buy more drugs for their kid, instead of tossing their ass into rehab. Now the parent is complacent in an illegal drug buy but for what purpose? To placate the addict in their slow death spiral? To try a taste for themselves?

I don't know, I just know that we've all had enough of this jackass.