Author: tristero

San Francisco, 1918 — prior to being completely overwhelmed

I’ve spent the past year reading a small library of books re: pandemics. Two, so far, stand out.

The Premonition by Michael Lewis tells the story of those public health officials and researchers who saw 2020 coming but, for one reason or another, were sidelined. Trump and trumpism were a major factor, of course (likely8 the major factor) but by the time 2020 rolled around, Lewis makes a convincing case that the CDC was already dysfunctional and there was no federal agency that could respond effectively to the early days of a pandemic before the virus veered out of control.

A character-driven book that is all but impossible to put down, you will long remember Charity Dean, the assistant director of the California Department of Public Health when Covid struck. A perfect made-for-Hollywood heroine (at least, as Lewis portrays her).

The Great Influenza by John M. Barry is easily the most frightening book I’ve ever read — all the more horrible because it’s true. The 1918 pandemic began in Kansas, wreaked much of its havoc around the world in 12 short weeks in the fall of 1918 and was responsible for roughly 500,000 to 850,000 deaths in the US (estimates range between 50 million and 100 million deaths worldwide). In short, 1918 was a far greater calamity than even 2020. The book goes into extensive detail about what happened and how American researchers back then raced desperately to understand what caused influenza and figure out how to fight it.

At least as disturbing as the immediate death toll from the 1918 pandemic were the mental health consequences which had a profound affect on world history. Woodrow Wilson — who, at least as portrayed in this book, was an appallingly bad president — contracted influenza during the WW I peace discussions in Paris. His personality changed. Before getting sick, he was adamantly opposed to the draconian punishments France wanted to mete on Germany. After recovering from his influenza, Wilson essentially acceded to the French demands. The awful terms of this accord seeded a dangerous combination of economic hardship and profound resentment in Germany, both of which directly led to the rise of extremism in the fragile democracy and the eventual takeover of the government by the Nazis.

The Great Influenza is painful to read but it is very well written. For insight into what the world went through back then, and for putting into perspective what we just experienced, it is, I believe, an essential read. I’m very glad I read it and hope you will, too.

No shit, General Milley:

In the waning weeks of Donald Trump’s term, the country’s top military leader repeatedly worried about what the president might do to maintain power after losing reelection, comparing his rhetoric to Adolf Hitler’s during the rise of Nazi Germany and asking confidants whether a coup was forthcoming, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters.

As Trump ceaselessly pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, grew more and more nervous, telling aides he feared that the president and his acolytes might attempt to use the military to stay in office, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report in “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year.”

Milley described “a stomach-churning” feeling as he listened to Trump’s untrue complaints of election fraud, drawing a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany’s parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship.

And what, exactly, prevented Milley from saying anything publicly at the time?

When both players (Bolton, Milley) AND those empowered to report on them (Woodward) know there are existential threats to their country but decide “I’ll just save it for the book” — well, welcome to January 6 and worse.

Trumpism, like Hitlerism, can only succeed because people who are in a position to do something when it could make a difference, won’t.

Easily the best film I’ve seen in well over a year, bar none, an opinion more than widely shared. There is little I can add to what’s already been said about the great performances, the excellent montage of music and documentary — clearly done by someone who really understands music — and the infuriating story which, if you haven’t heard. is:

This amazing footage, shot in 1969, sat on a shelf, unseen and unheard, for over fifty years because no one was interested in releasing a film that featured nothing but black music performed in front of a black crowd.

The question is why weren’t they were interested in releasing this film? One thing is certain: it had nothing to do with whether the film would make money. The performers are A-List artists with huge — including number one — hits at the time. Among the acts: Sly Stone, Hugh Masekela, a mind-boggling Stevie Wonder, The Staples Singers, the Fifth Dimension — of course it would have done well.

The most plausible conclusion for its disappearance is that the dominant white culture did not want an unabashedly positive celebration of black artistry and community out in the larger world. It may not have even been a conscious decision on the part of the (white) people who turned this project down. It just didn’t fit the dominant mindset of the decision makers.

That is textbook systemic racism. As a default attitude, Black culture gets disappeared, perpetuating myths of abjection and marginalization. In this case, systemic racism deprived the Black community, not to mention the larger American and world community, of a universally appealing expression of joy, companionship, and humanity.

One of the most remarkable things about Summer of Soul: As a child of the 60’s, who grew up with and loved all this music at the time… well, the music sounds even better now. This is a must see.

If ever anyone tells you “conservatives believe in real freedom” tell them about this:

Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch on Friday said the Supreme Court should revisit the breadth of the landmark First Amendment decision in New York Times v. Sullivan and explore how it applies to social media and technology companies. That 1964 ruling created a higher bar for public figures to claim libel and has been a bedrock of US media law, but the two conservative justices said it’s time to take another look.

The thing is that they clearly wish to shut up the Anita Hills and Blasey Fords of this world while still allowing their pals — Carlson, Stone, Jones, Trump, to name just a few — to run their sleazy shows unimpeded.

I have no idea how they plan to do this, but no doubt they’ve given the matter long and hard thought.

This poll is not a poll. It’s a wardrobe malfunction:

The results from my fellow historians are now in: Donald Trump is not our worst president. Instead, James Buchanan continues to hold the bottom spot. Trump ranks in 41st place, with three presidents beneath him.

What this demonstrates, obviously, is an over-reliance on metrics for accurate evaluation of phenomena that resist easy quantification.

It sounds all so scientific, rank them along specific axes, maybe add a little bit of groovy statistical weighting and other hoohah and voila!

But a poll that would put Donald Trump, a monumentally corrupt, mentally ill, and utterly incompetent president who incited a riot and is directly responsible for the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans… a poll that would anoint Trump anything other than the unquestionably worst leader of America (to date)?

Please. To call such a poll “deeply flawed” is to give it too much credit.

Anyone in contact with The Tucker needs to ask themselves: If they had been alive in 1939, would they be indulging in friendly gossiping with Joseph Goebbels? Would they appear on his broadcasts?

Everthing about this article is shameful.

If you want to understand how the country with “the greatest public healthcare system in the world ™” managed to get 600,000 people killed in a little over a year, read Michael Lewis’s The Premonition. Brilliantly written and filled with remarkable characters and stories, you won’t be able to put to it down.

Unlike other works that focus on the early days of the pandemic, this one doesn’t harp on the sheer incompetence of the Trump administration, which, after all, was plain for everyone to see. (But not to fear, the Trumpists are hardly ignored or get off easy.) Instead, it tells the story of some brilliant American experts who had been planning their entire lives to fight a pandemic and how, due to an incredibly sclerotic and chaotic public health system, weren’t able to do anything to contain the virus when that may have still been possible.

As with so many other awful problems this country faces — racism, rampant cronyism, inequality, and political corruption — Trump turbocharged a disastrous system. But the rot goes far beyond one awful actor and his henchmen.

And as with so many other amazing people this country currently has — from Ocasio-Cortez to Stacey Abrams to Letitia James — the public health system has unforgettable, deeply competent characters whose stories will stay with you long after the book is finished.

Please, please, don’t take this the wrong way. Marc Elias knows more about election law, politics, and justice when he’s sound asleep than I do when I’m wide eyed and completely caffeinated. But…

What was your first reaction on November 7, 2020, when you heard that the Associated Press had declared Joe Biden the election’s winner?

I thought the game was over.

Really?

I did. Now, did I think that Donald Trump was going to be a good loser? No. Did I think he would be gracious in defeat? No.

But did I think that he and his allies would persist in bringing frivolous postelection litigation? I didn’t anticipate that. Nor did I expect that he’d have the continued support for these efforts from the establishment of the Republican Party…

I didn’t expect this process would be opposed by Republicans. I thought they knew better…

The moment that really struck me came on December 7 when the state of Texas sued in the US Supreme Court to block four other states’ election results from being counted. My initial reaction was, “This is nonsense from the Republican attorney general of Texas who’s under indictment and who is seeking Trump’s favor. Maybe he wants a pardon?” I made the mistake of thinking, “Oh, this is crazy.”

Yes, it was a “mistake.” Long before Donald Trump praised neo-Nazis as “very fine people,” establishment Republicans — the Bushes, the Cheneys, and so many others — made it abundantly clear where their sentiments lay. I just don’t understand why this was so hard for so many intelligent people — and Elias is clearly brilliant — to perceive.

Like Digby, I hope it’s not too late but I fear it is.

And not everyone’s cut out for it:

Former President Donald Trump has shuttered his blog weeks after it went live, a senior aide confirmed to Forbes on Wednesday, ending a project his team launched with fanfare after the president was kicked off most social media platforms in January. 

(Blogging since 2003…)

When did it all start? When did democracy in the United begin its death spiral?

It’s arguable, of course, but for my money, the beginning of the end was in 1968. That’s when Republican Richard Nixon committed treason, Democrats Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey learned he had… and they decided to say nothing publicly.

The lesson was not lost on Republicans. Ever since, they have assumed — correctly — that they could get away with it. That Democrats and the press would keep their pieholes shut while the GOP relentlessly (and eventually, even openly) conspired with foreign powers to subvert American interests, systematically suppressed voting rights, and fomented civil war.

The January insurrection and now, General Flynn’s outrageous statement that a Myanmar-style military coup “should happen here” are auguries of an imminent catastrophe. It’s like watching a train crash in slow motion, inevitable and horrible. But back in ’68, when Nixon betrayed his country, there was ample opportunity to nip the Republicans’ penchant for anti-democratic behavior in the bud.

But that would have required Democrats to forcefully speak up and expose Nixon. And they didn’t.