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Apr 1Liked by Michael Goldfarb

all too true - if my dread and angst on April 1 is any indication, the next few months will be dangerous - I recall Paisley as well as during my year in St Andrews 69-70, the man from Wolverhampton who had a Trumpian feel for anti-immigrant hate

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Gentle correction, I think you mean Enoch Powell when you speak of the man from Wolverhampton. Easy mistake to make. Powell was a staunch unionist and ultimately left the conservative party and joined the Ulster Unionists. He was another hate-filled, xenophobic orator

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Apr 1Liked by Michael Goldfarb

Manchester identifies a factor which can’t be quantified that played a critical role in the event.

“Something unrelated to conventional politics—a stridency, a disease of the spirit, a shrill, hysterical note suggestive of a deeply troubled society.”

It is hard not to recognize in those words an apt description of America today."

By some strange happenstance, or a YouTube algorithm, I heard a program with Thom Hartmann. He had a psychologist on his program, Dr. Bandy X. Lee, who is, I believe, on the medical faculty at Yale. She was talking about the effect of djt's speech on listeners over time. The effect on people apparently has been measured and studied. She described his speech as being akin to a virus. I wonder if you have heard of her or read any of her work? Paisley had that effect on his listeners. Those who enable djt and amplify his words spread what to me seems close to a mental illness. I had not seen the image of President Biden. Glad I had not. Frankly it is an image that should have been prohibited but it still seems we're all forced to wait for justice for a guy who has practiced criminality his entire life and has made a good living at it. Eventually his end will come but will it be before he causes even worse things to happen?

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I see DJT as a tumour discovered at stage IV in cancer. The deep problems and threat of incipient violence in American life were present before Trump seized control of the GOP. I worry that his excision--hopefully in November--won't change things all that much.

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