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Thursday 28th of March 2024

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2020 Presidential election As we near the anniversary of January 6, investigators are still unearthing the roots of the insurrection that sacked the Capitol and sent members of Congress fleeing for their lives. What we know already, and could not have known then, is that the chaos wrought on that day was integral to a coherent plan. In retrospect, the insurrection takes on the aspect of rehearsal. Barton Gellman, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 © 2021 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election Only one meaningful correlation emerged [from the Chicago Project on Security & Threats' study of January 6 insurgents]. Other things being equal, insurgents were much more likely to come from a county where the white share of the population was in decline. For every one point drop in a county's percentage of non-Hispanic whites from 2015 to 2019, the likelihood of an insurgent hailing from that county increased by 25 percent. This was a strong link, and it held up in every state. Barton Gellman, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 © 2021 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election To understand the threat today, you have to see with clear eyes what happened, what is still happening after the 2020 election. The charlatans and cranks who filed lawsuits and led public spectacles on Trump's behalf were sideshows. They distracted from the main event: a systematic effort to nullify the election results and then reverse them. As milestones passed — individual certification by states, the meeting of the Electoral College on December 14 — Trump’s hand grew weaker. But he played it strategically throughout. The more we learn about January 6, the clearer the conclusion becomes that it was the last gambit in a soundly conceived campaign — one that provides a blueprint for 2024. Barton Gellman, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 © 2021 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election What Pape was seeing in these results did not fit the government model of  lone wolfs and small groups of extremists. “This really is a new, politically violent mass movement,” he told me. “This is collective political violence.”  Pape drew an analogy to Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, at the dawn of the Troubles. Barton Gellman, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 [Robert A. Pape, the leader of a study of the insurrectionists by Chicago Project on Security & Threats called them “committed insurrectionists” and estimated there are 21 million in the US] © 2021 Kwiple.com
Books After having written many best selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write, it should be noted that the Fake News constantly likes to pour over my tweets looking for a mistake. Donald Trump, 5:19 PM – 3 Jul 2018 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Books An author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children. Benjamin Disraeli © 2021 Kwiple.com
Books This book belongs to the Rev. Reid Byers, Who still hopes to read it Before he expires. Inscription inscribed in books owned by a Presbyterian minister and historian quoted in New York Times, December 24, 2021  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Conservatism What passes for “conservatism” now, however, is nearly the opposite of the Burkean conservatism I encountered then. Today, what passes for the worldview of  “the right” is a set of resentful animosities a partisan attachment to Donald Trump or  Tucker Carlson, a sort of mental brutalism. The rich philosophical perspective that dazzled me then has been reduced to Fox News and voter suppression. David Brooks, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 [“then” is the 1980s] © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democracy An illiberal democracy is centered on the supposed needs if the community rather than the inalienable rights of the individual. It is democratic because it respects the will of the majority; illiberal because it disrespects the concerns of minorities. Madeleine Albright, Fascism: A Warming   © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democracy But the threat we face is a new one; it requires new thinking. Through most of American history, both parties, while excluding large numbers of Americans from the franchise, basically accepted the choice of the electorate — and that is no longer true.  The supreme danger now is not that voters in urban counties will have a harder time  finding a drop box, or that some states will  shorten the mail-ballot application window. The danger is that the express will of the American people could be overthrown. George Packer, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democracy  There is no easy way to stop a major party that’s intent on destroying democracy. The demonic energy with which Trump  repeats his lies, and Bannon harangues his  audience, and Republican politicians around the country try to seize every lever of election machinery — this relentless drive for power by American authoritarians is the major threat that America confronts. The Constitution doesn't have an answer. No help will come from Republican leaders; if Romney and Susan Collins are all that stand between the republic and its foes, we’re doomed. George Packer, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Fascism What makes a movement Fascist is not ideology but the willingness to do whatever is necessary — including the use of force and trampling on the rights of others — to achieve victory and command obedience. Madeleine Albright, Fascism: A Warning © 2021 Kwiple.com
Global warming The emission of greenhouse gases is an example of a market failure — one business enterprise passing on the real cost of doing business to people who aren't party to that business. That is, most of the rest of us. Kerry Emanuel © 2022 Kwiple.com
Global warming I'm not worried about the planet. I'm worried about us. Kerry Emanuel, MIT professor of meteorology © 2022 Kwiple.com
Inflation Policy makers and investors have debated the effects of fiscal and monetary policy on inflation, but a big reason for rising prices this year have been factors that neither lawmakers nor central banks can do much about. Prices for natural gas, lumber, corn,  soybeans, wheat and other building blocks of modern commerce surged to multiyear highs — in some cases records — because of fire, freezes, flood, drought, hurricanes and some of the hottest weather ever. Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Institutions Institutions instill habits, habits become virtues, virtues become character.  David Brooks, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 © 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
Lies The broad mass of a nation … will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf © 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
Power Mussolini observed that in seeking to accumulate power, it is wise to do so in the manner of one plucking a chicken — feather by feather — so each squak is heard apart from every other and the whole process is kept as muted as possible. Madeleine Albright, Fascism: A Warming   © 2021 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say And why do you think that is? Reputedly the typical response of rabbis accused of answering every question with a question  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Selfie I am often asked whether I am an optimist or a pessimist. My reply is, “I am an optimist who worries a lot.” Madeleine Albright © 2021 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Senator Joe Manchin made a promise to  President Biden to support a framework that  would help lower health costs, cap the price of insulin and other prescription drugs, lower child care costs for Americans, address the climate crisis, and give working people and poor people a shot in America. Today, Senator Manchin has betrayed his commitment not only to the President and  Democrats in Congress but most importantly, to the American people. He routinely touts that he is a man of his word, but he can no longer say that. Joe Manchin portrayed by Pramila Jayapal after Manchin announced on Dec. 19, 2021, he would not support the Build Back Better Act © 2021 Kwiple.com
State of the union Arguably, the real problem for the U.S. is not that it can be torn apart by political violence, but that it has learned to live with it. Fintan O'Toole, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!  Donald Trump © 2021 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say  What patriots do?  We fuckin’ disarm them [Capitol police] and then we storm the fuckin’ Capitol! Scott Fairlamb, insurrectionist from New Jersey, message sent to fellow insurrectionists © 2021 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say You fucking traitors! Gabriel A. Garcia, insurrectionist from Miami and pot calling the ketlte black, to Capitol police defending the Capitol © 2021 Kwiple.com