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9/11 The US now has 13m citizens with permits to carry concealed firearms, which is more than 12 times the number of police officers. As one lobbyist for the National Rifle Association tells [Evan] Osnos [author of a book being reviewed], the al-Qaeda attacks were a giant windfall for the US gun lobby. The fall of the Twin Towers followed a decade of sharply declining crime rates and lower gun sales. Suddenly there was a new paranoia of terrorists to exploit. Edward Luce, Financial Times, September 11, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
2016 Presidential election Our back-up strategy is to fuck her up so badly that she can't govern. Steve Bannon, Trump's campaign manager, on the Republican Party's strategy if Hillary Clinton won the election  © 2021 Kwiple.com
2024 Presidential election A Trump victory is likely to mean at least the temporary suspension of American democracy as we have known it. Robert Kagan, Washington Post, September 23, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Books From 2007 to 2017 American authors’ median income dropped by more than half to $6,080. That’s in the world’s biggest book market, includes earnings from sidelines such as speaking, and excludes the one in four published writers whose total book income in 2017 was $0. Simon Kuper, Financial Times, September 9, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say I’m probably one of the sharpest guys you’re ever going to meet. And you want to put me in a court room and I’ll kick the shit out of anybody. I am not an alcoholic. Rudy Giuliani © 2021 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say The defendants' actions were motivated by a personal vendetta and a desire to gain fame, notoriety, acclaim and a financial windfall and were further intended to advance their political agenda. The brazenness of the defendants' actions cannot be understated. From page one of Donald Trump's lawsuit against Mary Trump, the New York Times and its three reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on his history of tax dodges — for “no less” than than $100 million each © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democracy The alternative to a loyal opposition is not consensus but behind-the-scenes intrigue or chaotic issue-by-issue fights. Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democracy But note that there is no procedure-less democracy. … Procedures have to enable losers to have their say, and winners to have their way, and allow not just for losers and winners to switch places but for new winners and losers to enter the game over time. Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democracy vs. autocracy In democracies  certainty about procedures is combined with uncertainty about substantive outcomes; in autocracies certainty about substantive results goes with uncertainty about the procedures. Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Fear People react to fear, not love. They don't teach that in Sunday school but it's true. Richard Nixon © 2021 Kwiple.com
History We are all in favor of learning from history, but we implicitly assume that only good people learn from it. Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Count votes in Congress by: 1. Calculating a Member's Proportional Vote (MPV) for each member, as follows: MPV = SPNP / NLRS where: SPNP = State's Percentage of the National Population NLRS = Number of Legislators Representing the State (in that legislature) 2. Totaling “yes” MPVs and “no” MPVs 3. Passing if total MPV is more than 50 OTHERWISE Abolish the Senate © 2019 Kwiple.com
Morality Ambition is a powerful antidote to moral qualms. Robert Kagan, Washington Post, September 23, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Motivation Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome. Charlie Munger © 2021 Kwiple.com
Political equality Political equality is best understood as equality of opportunity to participate. Concretely, that requires reasonably easy- to-access intermediary powers [such as political parties and a fact-based press], as well as a reasonable chance of creating new ones. Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Political inequality If exact equality of influence is not a plausible aim, what else might political equality mean concretely? One answer is this: a roughly equal likelihood of getting the policy that serves one's interests. If one loses, it is not because one's interests are systematically neglected (let alone that one's standing in the polity is systematically undermined); rather, it was tough luck that one lost this round. In other words, loss does not equal evidence of systematic disadvantage or of lack of standing. Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Political parties The problem in so many countries today is that citizens are highly partisan — and feel they haven't been listened to — while parties are hollow and weak and unable to serve as laboratories for a coherent conception of the world. Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Post-2020 Senate shituation 15 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) 2020 population: 40,085,414 Senators: 30 Republicans 1 Senator per 1,336,180 people — 1 state (California) 2020 population: 39,368,075 Senators: 2 Democrats 1 Senator per 19,684,037 people 19,684,037 / 1,336,180 = 14.7, therefore: average 15er's vote is worth nearly 15 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth less than 7% of an average 15er's — 1 state (Wyoming) 2020 population = 582,328, therefore: 1 Senator per 291,164 Wyomians, a Wyomian's vote is worth 68 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth 1.5% of a Wyomian's  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Public discourse Impossible to rewrite. Rachel, do not try to rewrite art, okay? Do not. Lawrence O'Donnell to Rachel Maddow, The Last Word, September 21, 2021, commenting on a statement on the first page of Donald Trump's lawsuit against Mary Trump, the New York Times and three of its reporters for reporting on his history of tax abuse, which says: “the brazenness of the defendants' actions cannot be understated” © 2021 Kwiple.com
Rule of law The rule of law is not a meal that can be ordered à la carte. Stephen Breyer, The Authority of the Court and the Perils of Politics  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Selfie I'm just some fuckin' guy, making it up as I go along.  Steve Bannon © 2021 Kwiple.com
Selfie Hey I'm Rudy Giuliani and I'm on Cameo. Rudy Giuliani's opening message on Cameo, an app where washups sell personalized messages in exchange for cash © 2020 Kwiple.com
Selfie If I was an alcoholic, I’d be fricking dead by now. Rudy Giuliani, September 11, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Snapshot I think he is a fucking loser. Donald Trump portrayed by Mary Trump, after being sued for helping the New York Times report on his long history of tax dodging © 2021 Kwiple.com
State of the union The United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves. The warning signs may be obscured by the distractions of politics, the pandemic, the economy and global crises, and by wishful thinking and denial. Robert Kagan, Washington Post, September 23, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Trumpism Liberals and Democrats in particular need to distinguish between their ongoing battle with Republican policies and the challenge posed by Trump and his followers. One can be fought through the processes of the constitutional system; the other is an assault on the Constitution itself. Robert Kagan, Washington Post, September 23, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
 
Trumpism Modern political parties are an ecosystem of interest groups, lobby organizations, job seekers, campaign donors and intellectuals. All have a stake in the party’s viability; all ultimately depend on being roughly aligned with wherever the party is at a given moment; and so all had to make their peace with Trump, too. Robert Kagan, Washington Post, September 23, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com