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MAGA was never about winning wars in the middle east. So no reason to think a calamity in Iran will change much.

MAGA is me. Trump has said this and all indications are that he's correct. It's a personality cult in other words. And he does, tbf, have a strong personality. I find it utterly repellent, he has none of the traits I like or admire in a human being and just about all the ones I can't stand, but the cult members love him to bits. It's an unconditional and enduring love, a love that lasts forever, a love that has no past (preceding him). Can't say I understand it. Can't say I want to.

I think that's entirely right.

Also don't forget that Trump, though now identified as a conservative, began as a Democrat (because they dominated politics in New York, where his real estate business couldn't have survived without political favours and tax breaks at the state and local level), was briefly in the Reform Party, then transitioned to Independent, then back to Democrat for George Bush's Presidency and most of Obama's.

He has tacked to the populist right partly because Obama insulted him at a dinner but mostly because the white working class turned out to be the most gullible section of the electorate, but he obviously feels no affinity for them, or interest in how to make their lives better. They are just easiest to con.

MAGA was never about winning wars in the middle east. So no reason to think a calamity in Iran will change much.

MAGA is me. Trump has said this and all indications are that he's correct. It's a personality cult in other words. And he does, tbf, have a strong personality. I find it utterly repellent, he has none of the traits I like or admire in a human being and just about all the ones I can't stand, but the cult members love him to bits. It's an unconditional and enduring love, a love that lasts forever, a love that has no past (preceding him). Can't say I understand it. Can't say I want to.

Question is then, what happens if you try to do Trumpism without Trump? The optimistic scenario is that you can't, and it collapses shortly after the Donald does.

See also Faragism without Nigel.

This is a fair criticism of the response to Blair.

Does the British left, in its responses to Blair, see no need to reckon with the facts?

On the best measure British income inequality is at its lowest since 1986; wealth inequality is also low by historical standards.

Britain's problem is stagnation (and a housing shortage)
https://x.com/ecurrnomics/status/2059730476189761731

My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.

A bit like the public perception of how companies, like supermarkets, are a lot more profitable than they are, or that illegal migration is much higher than it is, there is a widespread view that housing needs to be a lot cheaper but we should not build anything (people still object to social housing too).

In Ireland there is now a campaign of firebombing vacant council houses thought to be about to be occupied by immigrants. "Irish only or it burns," is the slogan.

‘Very disturbing’: How Ireland’s far right has opened new front by targeting Dublin’s council homes

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2026/05/30/irish-only-or-it-burns-how-the-far-right-targets-dublins-council-houses/

The far right in Ireland hasn't yet found a party home of its own, though there are plenty of parties chasing their votes, but it is showing that if you let a housing crisis fester then people will look for other solutions.

MAGA was never about winning wars in the middle east. So no reason to think a calamity in Iran will change much.

MAGA is me. Trump has said this and all indications are that he's correct. It's a personality cult in other words. And he does, tbf, have a strong personality. I find it utterly repellent, he has none of the traits I like or admire in a human being and just about all the ones I can't stand, but the cult members love him to bits. It's an unconditional and enduring love, a love that lasts forever, a love that has no past (preceding him). Can't say I understand it. Can't say I want to.

I hope it dies without him, but it's consequences will be felt for a long time. They might break up a little to compete to see who is the Trumpiest, for a start.

I do wonder if the Trump kids will try to 'lead' it after he eventually dies, but none of them have his level of horrible charisma.

It's the utter shamelessness that makes him unique. Anyone else would betray at least a modicum of embarrassment in telling the most brazen-faced lies and engaging in the egregious self-contradiction that characterises his daily output. So, thankfully I can't quite see anyone else being able to replicate his modus operandi as successfully as he does.

MAGA was never about winning wars in the middle east. So no reason to think a calamity in Iran will change much.

MAGA is me. Trump has said this and all indications are that he's correct. It's a personality cult in other words. And he does, tbf, have a strong personality. I find it utterly repellent, he has none of the traits I like or admire in a human being and just about all the ones I can't stand, but the cult members love him to bits. It's an unconditional and enduring love, a love that lasts forever, a love that has no past (preceding him). Can't say I understand it. Can't say I want to.

I hope it dies without him, but it's consequences will be felt for a long time. They might break up a little to compete to see who is the Trumpiest, for a start.

I do wonder if the Trump kids will try to 'lead' it after he eventually dies, but none of them have his level of horrible charisma.