"From Zero to Nixon in No Time Flat"

Stephen Colbert made that joke a few weeks ago and it’s only getting worse. (Was it ever funny?)

Nixon, for those of you not born in the early seventies, was infamous for his Enemies List which contained quite a few famous names, Paul Newman, Daniel Schorr and Congressman John Conyers among them. Who knew making salad dressing was so subversive.

Mother Jones is reporting that the incoming Trump administration is already creating a list of scientists to purge from the government. Their crime? Working with President Obama to slow and stop climate change.

New York Magazine is reporting that Trump has also been busy purging environmentalists from the Republican Party.

Bill Moyers reports that the Trump administration has already created an enemies list. What's the word I'm looking for? Yes: Nixonian.

Heather Cox Richardson, who wrote the article posted at Bill Moyers' website, is a well-respected Boston historian. Her special areas of study include Native Americans and the periods of American history from the Civil War through Reconstruction. We might assume that the Trump administration wants to scrub those histories clean to make sure no one is embarrassed by knowing about slavery or Jim Crow or the theft of a continent from the native tribes.

Who else might wind up on the “watch list”? Professors who do serious science instead of oil company “science”. Professors of economics who don’t worship unregulated capitalism. Labor historians. Also the millions of people who have spoken out about Donald J. Trump’s behavior and bigotry. It’ll be a very long list. We should make sure we are all on it.

Being Drunk Makes People Lean Conservative

The GOP’s chief tool is learned helplessness, carefully trained helplessness, leading to hopelessness. Once they have you there they can play on your anger and humiliation like a violin. They’ve been using this tool for several decades, while they’ve gradually stolen the incomes and security of the working classes. They’ve gotten us where they want us.

Here's an article about that from Salon.

From the New Yorker, another interesting psychological study demonstrates that the more drunk people are the more they will bow down to an authoritarian master, more likely to choose conservative over liberal ideas and choices.

Is America drunk––or punch drunk? And who has delivered the beating? We’ve lived through three decades dominated by Big Money and Reaganomics, which were a gift from the GOP. That's what has beaten us down. It's bludgeoned millions of Americans into this submissive mindset. And the irony is they talk and think this way while parroting the lines they've been taught by their masters. Lines like "freedom" when they're not free, and "independence" when their independence has been taken from them.

I've written before about the addled thinking of Trump supporters.

They pray for a leader who will hurt people, because they have been hurt, but they assume this leader will not hurt them.

They pray for a dictator who will do "what needs to be done" but they assume those things that will be done will be things they want done––they assume this dictator will take dictation from them personally. This isn't magical thinking. This is drunk thinking. This is fear talking, too. Scientists have also shown how making people fearful makes them choose conservative options.

There is a psychological difference between conservatives and liberals.

From Scientific American.

From Mother Jones.

Ever wondered who this Mother Jones was that they named a magazine after her? She was a tough old woman who inspired mineworkers to stand up to their bosses and throw off the burden of poor pay, unsafe working conditions, awful living conditions and a predatory pay and credit system that ruled company owned towns. They achieved this by organizing. A good place to learn about this story is on PBS, where you can watch this excellent documentary about that battle from a century ago.