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Book Review: A shadow over the world

I just finished reading “A shadow over the world” by William I. Hitchcock. It is essentially an account of how FDR navigated the growth of fascism after WWI, beginning with Mussolini’s Italy in the ‘20s, followed by Franco’s overthrow of the Spanish Republic in the ‘30s and the rise to power of the German Nazi Party under Hitler. WWI left a sour and distinctly isolationist taste in the mouths of Americans. Many of them saw it not as a “Great War,” but as the sort of foreign entanglement that George Washington warned against. Set against this domestic aversion was the sense that fascism in Italy was working to discipline that nation’s fractious politics and make the country productive.  A major influence on FDR was the Great Depression. He was swept to office at a time of massive unemployment and economic dislocation. His top priority was his New Deal and getting the various programs set up that would put Americans to work and getting Congress to approve and fund them. But as the wo...
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Stranger danger doesn't sell like it used to

Glad to see that GOP fear-mongering about crime didn't have the traction in this election that it used to. Crime rates have been falling in this country for the past couple of decades. That hasn't stopped the right from trying to use crime to vilify immigrants, but it no longer distracts from real issues like affordability, health care costs and elective wars.   For most Americans, if they are injured or killed by a stranger, that stranger will be wielding a steering wheel. Drive less and you'll be safer as well as saving on gas and reducing greenhouse gas output.    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/the-gops-fear-mongering-on-crime-finally-hits-its-limit  
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The marketing of Pee-Wee German

“ Stephen Miller wants to use his new role as White House chief of staff to win back young and minority men who helped elect President Trump in 2024 but swung toward Democrats in the midterms, two people familiar with the administration's plans tell Axios.” LOL! He’s basically Riff-Raff with a haircut. Is that what rallies young and minority men these days? https://www.axios.com/2026/11/11/stephen-miller-focus-men-maga  
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Quote of the day

The scale of the United States’ economic dependence on Taiwan is revealing. Taiwan is the country’s fifth-largest trading partner; a Chinese blockade of the island would imperil more than $250 billion in trade and could shave more than three percent off U.S. GDP in a year, according to a Bloomberg report. As much as 97 percent of the global supply of the high-end logic chips used in smartphones and other advanced electronics are produced or packaged in Taiwan. Losing access to Taiwanese chips could reduce advanced electronics production globally by 60 percent, with factories forced to rely on their chip inventories. The United States’ auto and medical device industries could deplete their inventories in a matter of weeks. The U.S. firms Amazon, Apple, and Nvidia are among the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s ten largest customers, which together represent more than $14 trillion in market capitalization. With AI growth buoying the U.S. stock market and the broader economy, a...
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Quote of the day

Will the Democrats now rise to the occasion of building on this through at least two more national elections?  To do so, they must avoid “progressive” versus “centrist” fights, stop passing huge kitchen sink bills no one understands and instead pass one at a time popular measures and force Trump to veto them, and keep in touch with their voters everywhere.  They must use state government powers to the max to get more visible wins than they can via Congress (without the presidency for the next two years), and they must invest more in organizing on the ground in the South to build on Black outrage over voting rights attacks by the Supreme Court.   Fire most of the high priced TV consultants who recommend a lot of TV ads just before elections, invest in sustained all year organizing through existing on the ground networks, keep the messaging straightforward and clear (use some advertising money for that), and relentlessly excoriate Trump and remaining GOP officeholders ...
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Right-wing pundit plays the blame game

“ Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Corey Lewandowski are the ones who broke the Hispanic coalition out of the GOP. Donald Trump won 46% of the Hispanic vote in 2024. They turned decisively against him yesterday. And you know what their issue was? They're scared of getting deported. They're mad about gas prices. They're mad about the economy. But among Hispanic voters, fear of ICE has skyrocketed.”   *snip* “Who gets fired for that? Who gets fired for that? Does anybody get fired? Where's the accountability? If it's stand by my man and that man is Donald Trump, who do you throw under the bus for what happened last night? Is it Pete Hegseth? Is it Stephen Miller? Is it Susie Wiles? Is it Howard Lutnick? Is it Peter Navarro? Who are the names? Who are the people? There's got to be accountability.” A fish rots from the head. https://www.mediamatters.org/erick-erickson/erick-erickson-stephen-miller-kristi-noem-and-corey-lewandowski-are-ones-who-broke
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Fight club comes to the WH?

Apparently, Trump has offered the job of WH press secretary to Dana White, CEO of a mixed martial arts promotion company,   who Trump lauds as “the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior.” Maybe they can start each press conference with this 1970’s classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt4D8oA3mxU
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