Tom

Link to a reprise of the Trumpian phenomenon and a caution to us all against apathy and under estamating the peril we are still in.

Another figure who rises in that moment, and who remains central within Trump’s orbit, is Rudy Giuliani, who became mayor of New York in the 1990s after, interestingly enough, leading a riot of mostly off-duty New York policemen on the steps of City Hall to protest the Dinkins administration’s plans for an all-civilian police review board. Talk about an echo. The police riot at City Hall launched Giuliani into the NYC Mayor’s office. There he was again before the riot at the Capitol on stage with Trump calling for a “trial by combat.” #politics

From:  Karl Polanyi’s Great Transformation and the Countermovement to Capitalism

The outright abolition of democracy was the fascist project. In Polanyi’s view, it aimed to overcome society’s division into economic and political spheres by subordinating politics (democracy) to the unconstrained rule of capital. 

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Polanyi argued that democracy was not a political regime of capitalist society. Rather, democracy and capitalism were separate systems, pulling in opposite directions.

Mike Davis Riot on the Hill:

https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/riot-on-the-hill

. What was essentially a big biker gang dressed as circus performers and war-surplus barbarians – including the guy with a painted face posing as horned bison in a fur coat – stormed the ultimate country club, squatted on Pence’s throne, chased Senators into the sewers, casually picked their noses and rifled files and, above all, shot endless selfies to send to the dudes back home. Otherwise they didn’t have a clue. 

Rebecca Solnit in Lithub:

"Rebecca Solnit: When the President of Mediocrity Incites an Insurrection"    January 7, 2021

The last four years have been dominated by Trump and Trumpists throwing tantrum after tantrum about the possibility that their entitlement might eventually run into limits. 

There are no identity politics more passionate (and sulky) than straight white Christian-identified male politics

the use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself; prevarication.

"I say this without equivocation"

From Wikipedia

It has been defined elsewhere as "turning expressions of the capitalist system and its media culture against itself"—as when slogans and logos are turned against their advertisers or the political status quo

From Logic Magazine

 

It seems to me that our politics these days require us to give each other the heart to do just that. To figure out how, with each other, we can open up possibilities for what can still be. And we can’t do that in in a negative mood. We can’t do that if we do nothing but critique. We need critique; we absolutely need it. But it’s not going to open up the sense of what might yet be. It’s not going to open up the sense of that which is not yet possible but profoundly needed.

peripeteias

a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances, especially in reference to fictional narrative.

"the peripeteias of the drama"

From Logic Magazine

 

It seems to me that our politics these days require us to give each other the heart to do just that. To figure out how, with each other, we can open up possibilities for what can still be. And we can’t do that in in a negative mood. We can’t do that if we do nothing but critique. We need critique; we absolutely need it. But it’s not going to open up the sense of what might yet be. It’s not going to open up the sense of that which is not yet possible but profoundly needed.