By David Futrelle
I‘ve written a lot of posts for this blog since I started it in 2010. 3629, to be exact, not including 80 drafts of posts that I decided for some reason weren’t worth posting. It occurs to me that not all readers of this blog have literally read every single post on it. So they — you — may have missed out on some Actual Good Posts of mine from years past.
So today I’m going to start highlighting some of these Mammoth Classics. To start off, let me draw your attention to a post I wrote a few days after Trump’s electoral college victory: Donald Trump ticks all 14 boxes in Umberto Eco’s list of what makes a fascist a fascist. The basic thesis?
Though it contains precisely zero references to Trump — who at the time was just a real estate mogul with a penchant for boasts and bankruptcy — Eco’s 14-point checklist describing what makes a fascist a fascist applies to Trump and Trumpism in so many ways it’s scary.
I have to say, though I worried a little at the time that I might be overstating things, this post has held up surprisingly well. If I rewrote it today, I suppose I’d have to add quite a bit to some of the sections. The “conspiracy” section would be much longer and weirder; the bit about his desire for power unchecked by congress would have to mention his love of executive orders and now pardons; and finally, the section on his “fear of difference” would have to include his failed Muslim ban(s), Trump’s blithe indifference to literally thousands of deaths in Puerto Rico, and the horrors he has unleashed on Mexican immigrants, including the inhuman practice of separating parents from children and keeping both in cages.
Yesterday, in a heartbreaking article, The Boston Globe cited a public defender working on behalf of parents whose children were taken from them (for the misdemeanor crime of crossing the border illegally) and who said that
several of her clients have told her their children were taken from them by Border Patrol agents who said they were going to give them a bath. As the hours passed, it dawned on the mothers the kids were not coming back.
That’s a little on the nose, huh? There’s little doubt in my mind today that Trump is bringing fascism to this country — and we need to do everything in our power to get him out and roll it back, before it’s truly too late for all of us.
Call your Senators and your congressperson to demand they do something about these forced separations of parents and children at the border. You can get their numbers and a script here.
Ok, not all Mammoth Classics will end with a request you call some politicians (or do anything at all, really) but this one sort of needs to.
NOTE: On a lighter note, which do you prefer: “Mammoth Classic” or “Mammoth Rewind?” Or do you have a better idea of what to call these?
Mammoth Throwback! 😀
Surely since it’s a mammoth it should be “defrosted” or “unearthed” or “resurrected” (etc.)?
Seriously question: At what point should we need to plan to flee the country?
“Mammoth Redux”
(I’ve no idea what that actually means, but I’ve seen it used for films)
@Tovius : look at other countries before considering fleeing. You will see it’s not that easy to get something that don’t seem directed toward the same end.
I might move to clipperton island if the MGTOWs don’t grab it first; I think I could survive on seagull washed down with brackish water.
“Redigging the Mammoth”
I was just reading this today
https://theconversation.com/warning-signs-of-mass-violence-in-the-us-82546
It’s from last year and I wish they would do a follow up since Trump/ICE have really stepped up the fascism lately. It is worth a read as it contains the ten stages of genocide
This is the more complete version of the 10 stages
http://genocidewatch.net/genocide-2/8-stages-of-genocide/
I could find elements from nine of the ten stages being done by the administration already. The only one they haven’t done yet is extermination. I say yet because it looks like they could be building up to it. I even see the final stage, denial in the blocking of Sen. Jeff Merkley from visiting one of the detention centers where they’re keeping children and in Sessions referring to parents bringing their children along to seek asylum as “smuggling children.”
And make no fucking mistake about it. If they continue to get away with doing this immigrants and asylum seekers, they’ll do it to other marginalized groups next. Maybe black people. Maybe Muslims. Maybe the mentally ill and disabled. Maybe all of the above. Then it’s on to political dissenters.
And as all this is happening, Trump is getting so much praise ahead of this stupid fucking North Korea summit. As if Kim isn’t going to just flatter him into taking a shitty deal and then he’ll later renege on that deal and continue nuclearizing. Notice also how human rights are not even going to be discussed. This is a giant red flag. Normalizing the N. Korean regime is normalizing human rights abuses for the express purpose of the Trump administration committing them (even more) here at home. He’s sending the message that human rights are not important.
Tbh, I’ve been afraid since Trump became the main candidate for Republicans. It made me wonder about the people who live near me. If I were younger and richer, I’d move to another country.
Re-Hunted the Mammoth
We Dug Up the Mammoth!
Since “flogging” can also mean “promoting”, you could try
Flogging A Dead Mammoth
although I also like “Re-Hunted” and “We Dug Up the Mammoth”.
I like re-hunted
How about Mammoth Fossil Record?
Leftover Mammoth Casserole?
We like them all! 🙂
@ Troubelle,
“Leftover Mammoth Casserole” – especially like 🙂
I like the suggestions referencing paleontology myself.
Maybe “we defrosted the mammoth”?
How about “we unearthed the mammoth”?
I like a bunch of these, especially the defrosted mammoth one. I may keep the mammoth classic thing for the headline b/c it’s short and easily understandable and use the others in the posts. Thanks!
My vote is for “Mammoth Fossil Record”.
@Tovius:
November 9, 2016. Failing that, “as soon as practicable”.
@WWTH:
Two words: Puerto Rico.
Ironically, the method chosen is out of Stalin’s playbook rather than Hitler’s: just starve a region filled with “undesirables” of resources and wait for nature to take its course.
@Tovius
On one hand, I want to choose to leave Omelas, but on the other I know that as a white woman who comes from some means and has a law degree I am extremely privileged and maybe I should let those most directly impacted leave first since the rest of the world is willing to accept only so many American ex patriots. But I do think about leaving every day. I understand that fascism is on the rise globally, but there are places where it hasn’t already infected government to this degree. Watching the Handmaid’s Tale hasn’t helped. If anything it has foreced me to set some hard and fast limits on when I take my daughter and run, the most likely of which is the reversal of Roe v. Wade or Miranda v. Arizona.
That has a chillingly familiar ring to it.
The Beloved sings with a local choir which has the startling idea of placing choristers according to their vocal range rather than their (perceived) gender. As a tenor he sings with several women and there are chaps in the alto section.
One of his fellow tenors was born in Germany in 1942. Throughout her school days, she says, they were constantly warned what to look out for in incipient fascism, how to spot a potential fascist leaders on the make, and , how to make sure it never happens again.
For a couple of years now she has been saying that ALL the signs she was warned about are present here, in the UK and Europe, right now.
The other thing: I have been banging on about Bob Altemayer’s book “The Authoritarians” – free to download here:
https://theauthoritarians.org/
I can’t recommend this too much: very good, and very frightening.
Bluecat,
Meanwhile, while the media is distracted by the NK summit, the Trump administration changed the rules so that they can strip citizenship from any naturalized citizen suspected of fraud. Not convicted. Suspected.
https://apnews.com/1da389a535684a5f9d0da74081c242f3?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP
This means they can deport or detain people for making a clerical error on immigration forms. Or use it as a thin justification to persecute immigration rights activists.
I mean, I doubt the members of the administration are sitting around consciously planning a genocide at this very moment, but conditions are ripe for one. That’s for damn sure.
We have a political media that is covering Trump as a sideshow and failing to make noise about just how authoritarian he is becoming. A disengaged general public. A base that will stick by Trump no matter what he does. The Republican party is letting him get away with absolutely everything. The Democratic party is afraid to outright oppose him with some real teeth. I see no reason that Trump won’t become more and more drunk power, and keep pushing the boundaries bit by bit until we reach the point of genocide.
Combine a media that wants to be seen as objective with a populace that thinks America is inherently democratic and therefore fascism can’t happen here, we have a perfect recipe for a genocide to start right under our noses. It’s far from set in stone, but it’s too close for comfort right now.
According to Vanity Fair, Cohen has been telling friends he expects to be arrested any day now. When/if that happens, Trump will go ballistic. Because he knows full well that Cohen will spill all the sordid beans hidden over the past few decades.
If Vanity Fair is correct, we’re now entering really dangerous territory.