Author | Lightnews

donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1h

Just yesterday I had a conversation with a right of center friend about the difference between "civil service" and "deep state." He just couldn't see it.

I feel ya.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1h

donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 3d

I haven't seen any comparisons between Trump’s cadre and the last Narnia book, where an ape dresses an ass up in a lion skin to pretend to be Aslan and run a long con on the faithful, with predictable final results.

donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 2h

I'm not going to address the endless attacks on a shared understanding of reality. I also won't pretend to have an answer. But until we can repair trust in the Federal Government, we won't get better than inexperienced leaders, and we'll sometimes get openly corrupt grifters.

donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 2h

How did we wind up with grifters like Trump in office? We know he's a crook. Generations of unfounded mistrust of the people's institutions made it easy to say he's no more corrupt than the rest when even a cursory look at the facts shows him to be orders of magnitude worse than we've ever seen.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 2h

We assume every federal elected official must be corrupt, every civil servant defending a sinecure. Never mind the rarity of actual corruption being unearthed, or the high bar of entry for civil service. The mistrust runs deep.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 2h

Before LBJ and Nixon gave us Vietnam and Watergate, we elected public servants who knew DC. Senators, Representatives, generals. From then until Biden, every candidate for POTUS campaigned as an outsider or incumbent.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 2h

The primary qualification for public service at the federal level has been inexperience with, and ideally open contempt for, the institution. That is how we got here.
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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 4h

Trump vows to love, honor, and obey his wife; buries her at his golf course for a tax break.

Trump takes an oath to defend and implement the law as passed by Congress; uses debris from demolishing the White House for his golf course.

The value of Trump’s word is consistent, I'll give him that.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 4h

Trump vows to love, honor, and obey his wife; buries her at his golf course for a tax break.

Trump takes an oath to defend and implement the law as passed by Congress; uses debris from demolishing the White House for his golf course.

The value of Trump’s word is consistent, I'll give him that.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 4h

Convert farmland into roads and suburbs. Reduce walking, thereby reducing public health. Keep public space hazardous by having all areas subject to large moving objects all the time.

Investing in public transportation seems more sensible.

donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 4h

Burn hours per day driving. Encourage the use of big stores, which killed main street. Devote about as much urban land to personal vehicles as to people. Polute endlessly, either through fossil fuels or resource intensive green power capture. Create tens of thousands of household debt per family.

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Adam Parkhomenko @adamparkhomenko.bsky.social · 22h

This is very good

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 18h

You know, ever since he bawled me out and then stormed out of his DC conference room for having the audacity to ask that he support humanitarian aid for people in crisis abroad, I haven't really cared to have him in Congress.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

What are the odds the ballroom always had stages of atrocities to be revealed whenever Trump needed a distraction?

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

Didn't cook long enough.

We used to ask for presidents with DC expertise. Vietnam and Watergate changed that. Now we demand outsiders with executive experience, not systems expertise. Biden was the most accomplished federal manager in 50 years because he was the only expert.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

Nobody tell President Fuckwit where the targeting intelligence for long range missiles comes from. And whatever you do, don't let Secretary of Defense Dick Whiskey lose track of this morning's case of rotgut

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

Transferring, then keeping against his will.

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Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 1d

The only solution here is impeachment. A Declaration of Independence style list of Trump's high crimes and misdemeanors, from looting the US Treasury to deprivation of constitutional rights to demolishing the White House to murder on the high seas to usurping the reserved powers of Congress.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

Awful: Trump's $230 million shakedown from DOJ can be paid to him confidentially at first, without the public ever finding out about it until later, Rep Jamie Raskin tells me.

Raskin will formally demand full communications between WH and DOJ on this.

New from me:
newrepublic.com/article/2021...

Trump’s Vile New $230 Million Shakedown of DOJ Just Got Even Worse

It’s bad enough that Trump wants—and DOJ will likely fork over—this tribute payment. Now, get this: It can probably be done at first without even being revealed publicly.

newrepublic.com

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

I've seen a few coups firsthand. Traffic control is one of the first services deployed.

As an LA resident, I'm deeply disappointed that Trump has failed in even this most basic expectation of any aspiring autocrat.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

I've seen a few coups firsthand. Traffic control is one of the first services deployed.

As an LA resident, I'm deeply disappointed that Trump has failed in even this most basic expectation of any aspiring autocrat.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

We could go back to the Iron Man movies. Stark proudly announces he's privatized defense. Won't hand over his designs. He makes a drunken mess of everything and we're still meant to trust his capable judgment.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

We shouldn't have billionaires because that level of wealth accumulation is inherently unhealthy for democracy and necessarily creates power imbalances among the public. It's not a "what if" scenario, the existence of "billionaire" as a wealth category is already a huge problem.

Micah @rincewind.run · 3d

billionaires should not be allowed to exist because the downside of "one of them loses their mind" is simply too dangerous for a functional society

also, having a billion dollars tends to make you lose your mind

John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 3d

The whole point of democracy is so one person's derangement does not become everybody's problem. It's social hygiene. The fact the richest men in the West are a mix of grotty twelve year olds and deranged apocalypse fanatics is a problem, and we should be honest about it.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

I just got shouted down by Batman stans for pointing out that "masked vigilante using military hardware to extrajudicially punish self-perceived wrongdoers without a warrant" describes ICE. Yup, comics haven't set us up well for this moment.

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

In the '40's, a plot line on the Superman radio show is credited with undermining the KKK by making them look absurd and getting kids to act out Klan members being villains on the playground.

I like your idea.

Superman vs. the KKK: Hear the 1946 Superman Radio Show That Weakened the Klan

Years ago, back in 2016, we featured a 1950 Superman poster that urged students to defend the American way and fight discrimination everywhere. Today, we present another chapter from Superman's little...

www.openculture.com

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donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

As a Pitt alum, thank you for what you've done for PA and for the US.

I noticed today that Trump’s latest grift perfectly matches federal cuts from PA public schools. I'd love to hear your opinion on this.

bsky.app/profile/donw...

donwest84.bsky.social @donwest84.bsky.social · 1d

What a coincidence, Trump is demanding exactly as much from the DOJ he controls as he cut from public schools in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.

www.yahoo.com/news/trump-a...