To me the amazing thing is that there’s so many people who keep thinking they can manage this monster, placate him and not have it end up this way where you’re completely shamed and humiliated. Especially when they see it happen to everyone else.
And if you really fear his mob, then get out of politics. This is a moment that calls for standing up to the fascist (who regularly folds when anyone is firm with him) and if you’re afraid of death threats then step aside for someone who isn’t. Otherwise look at the society you are acquiescing to.
Incidentally this is why liberals and other Trump opponents should consider forming their own “bodyguard force” to stand up to these thugs. We all know the typical right wing thug loses a lot of their luster when their victims fight back. Don’t make the same mistake the Weimar Germans did.
The Thomas More parallel is sharper than most ppl realize. Henry's court demanded not just compliance but enthusiastic support for whatever the king wanted that week. More tried the "silent loyality" strategy and it bought him nothing. Same dynamic now where Republicans think they can quietly dissent without payback, but silence reads as resistence.
There are many parallels between Henry VIII and Mad King Donny, including the morbid obesity, heart disease, skin ulcers, and disgustingly diseased body and soul that finally did him in, just sayin’.
This is just like Machado in Venezuela. It's so fascinating seeing so many people debase themselves for the pricktator. Then they're all Surprised Pikachu Face! when he inevitably turns on them, even after presumably they've seen what's happened to EVERYONE ELSE.
They all think they're the World's Smartest Gnat who'll totally defeat the bug zapper.
Christ, the man is already infamous for scamming kids with cancer as well as veterans!
I suspect you know this, but Henry’s primary concern was not “sexing up Anne Boleyn,” but ensuring he had a male heir, something Catherine of Aragon could not provide. He blamed this on his marriage to his dead brother’s wife -approved by Pope Julius - and asked for an annulment. But Leo X would not grant it because of Luther’s challenge of papal power made saying in effect “Julius screwed up” unthinkable. So Henry took control of the church in his country, something the French kings had essentially done long before.
One major reason Henry broke from the church is he’d bankrupted his kingdom (he was truly a bag of shit) and wanted to seize church property to fund his whims. The failure of the Pope to give him an annulment (because Catherine was also the Aunt of the Holy Roman Empire which could seize Rome on a dime) certainly exacerbated matters but other monarchs fought with Popes before without turning their whole country to Protestantism.
It didn't hurt that Anne could...um...turn it on. She played Henry like a fiddle until her own luck ran out. At which point the replacement was already lined up.
I'll admit to being a sucker for dramatizations of the Tudors back to when the BBC's "Six Wives Of Henry The Eighth" showed up on American TV in 1970. All of the best adaptations managed to catch the moths-to-the-candle culture surrounding His Most Serene Majesty. Every time a moth incinerated, another swooped in to take its place. That pretty much sums up the Trump inner circle. There was plenty of artistic invention in the teleplays, but damned if the basic outline wasn't dead to rights.
Acting on bad advice is, well, bad. Sure, criticize those giving the bad advice, but your criticism is toothless if you don't criticize the person acting on it. Jesus lamented those who traded their souls for the world (power). He didn't bother to lament those who traded their souls and got nothing, as these three did.
ETA: Franklin joked that "either we all hang together or hang separately" as they debated signing The Declaration of Independence. All the men present knew that they risked hanging, or worse, by signing it, yet they all did. Imperfect as they were, they didn't lack courage, or spines, like too many Americans these days.
This is a wonderful turn of phrase to describe the position that Republicans like Cassidy have allowed themselves to suffer. It explains why they all three look miserable every time the camera is turned their way. I suppose that the compromises in principles that one has to make to get elected to Congress in the first place, set the stage for the ongoing public humiliations at the whims of the "neon god they made". Their spines are already so pliable that all resistance is long gone.
The final irony is that they each have ceded any personal power to the endless neediness of their dear leader. They worked very hard to reach a position of power and immediately ceased to exercise any of it out of cowardice.
To me the amazing thing is that there’s so many people who keep thinking they can manage this monster, placate him and not have it end up this way where you’re completely shamed and humiliated. Especially when they see it happen to everyone else.
And if you really fear his mob, then get out of politics. This is a moment that calls for standing up to the fascist (who regularly folds when anyone is firm with him) and if you’re afraid of death threats then step aside for someone who isn’t. Otherwise look at the society you are acquiescing to.
Incidentally this is why liberals and other Trump opponents should consider forming their own “bodyguard force” to stand up to these thugs. We all know the typical right wing thug loses a lot of their luster when their victims fight back. Don’t make the same mistake the Weimar Germans did.
The Thomas More parallel is sharper than most ppl realize. Henry's court demanded not just compliance but enthusiastic support for whatever the king wanted that week. More tried the "silent loyality" strategy and it bought him nothing. Same dynamic now where Republicans think they can quietly dissent without payback, but silence reads as resistence.
Thanks! Yes, it’s why Trump demanded full embrace of the “Big Lie” about the 2020 election and even January 6.
Anyone with a cursory knowledge of history could tell you that the most dangerous place to be in Stalin's Russia was close to Stalin.
And you could be disappeared at any moment for any reason including not applauding long enough or hard enough for his speeches.
There are many parallels between Henry VIII and Mad King Donny, including the morbid obesity, heart disease, skin ulcers, and disgustingly diseased body and soul that finally did him in, just sayin’.
This is just like Machado in Venezuela. It's so fascinating seeing so many people debase themselves for the pricktator. Then they're all Surprised Pikachu Face! when he inevitably turns on them, even after presumably they've seen what's happened to EVERYONE ELSE.
They all think they're the World's Smartest Gnat who'll totally defeat the bug zapper.
Christ, the man is already infamous for scamming kids with cancer as well as veterans!
I suspect you know this, but Henry’s primary concern was not “sexing up Anne Boleyn,” but ensuring he had a male heir, something Catherine of Aragon could not provide. He blamed this on his marriage to his dead brother’s wife -approved by Pope Julius - and asked for an annulment. But Leo X would not grant it because of Luther’s challenge of papal power made saying in effect “Julius screwed up” unthinkable. So Henry took control of the church in his country, something the French kings had essentially done long before.
One major reason Henry broke from the church is he’d bankrupted his kingdom (he was truly a bag of shit) and wanted to seize church property to fund his whims. The failure of the Pope to give him an annulment (because Catherine was also the Aunt of the Holy Roman Empire which could seize Rome on a dime) certainly exacerbated matters but other monarchs fought with Popes before without turning their whole country to Protestantism.
It didn't hurt that Anne could...um...turn it on. She played Henry like a fiddle until her own luck ran out. At which point the replacement was already lined up.
I'll admit to being a sucker for dramatizations of the Tudors back to when the BBC's "Six Wives Of Henry The Eighth" showed up on American TV in 1970. All of the best adaptations managed to catch the moths-to-the-candle culture surrounding His Most Serene Majesty. Every time a moth incinerated, another swooped in to take its place. That pretty much sums up the Trump inner circle. There was plenty of artistic invention in the teleplays, but damned if the basic outline wasn't dead to rights.
Who couldn’t see this coming? Trump is a vindictive man baby and cars about no one but himself.
These despots will fall one way or another. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
"What Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, and Marjorie Taylor Greene Gained From Their Service To A Mad King"
$$$
Acting on bad advice is, well, bad. Sure, criticize those giving the bad advice, but your criticism is toothless if you don't criticize the person acting on it. Jesus lamented those who traded their souls for the world (power). He didn't bother to lament those who traded their souls and got nothing, as these three did.
ETA: Franklin joked that "either we all hang together or hang separately" as they debated signing The Declaration of Independence. All the men present knew that they risked hanging, or worse, by signing it, yet they all did. Imperfect as they were, they didn't lack courage, or spines, like too many Americans these days.
"...criticize those giving the bad advice, but your criticism is toothless if you don't criticize the person acting on it."
I guess "the buck stops here" only applies to Democrats.
"the moral and ideological whiplash"
This is a wonderful turn of phrase to describe the position that Republicans like Cassidy have allowed themselves to suffer. It explains why they all three look miserable every time the camera is turned their way. I suppose that the compromises in principles that one has to make to get elected to Congress in the first place, set the stage for the ongoing public humiliations at the whims of the "neon god they made". Their spines are already so pliable that all resistance is long gone.
The final irony is that they each have ceded any personal power to the endless neediness of their dear leader. They worked very hard to reach a position of power and immediately ceased to exercise any of it out of cowardice.