The Red Army was a UK/US proxy force and I'm tired of pretending it wasn't.

Separate from the above, I'm sick of people minimizing the contribution of the western allies *in the field*. Casualty figures for the Germans in the west were lower, yes, but that's in large part because the western allies were much better at routing armies, versus the brutal slugfests in the east

The best he can do in response is gin up a pretty pathetic yarn that he would be the guy putting other intellectuals to the wall, and buddy, ain't going down like that

Tai: You are a cosplayer.
Tooze: Would a cosplayer say *this*?!

Did lining up moderates at the wall work out? I bet they ended up as the SPD, right? Moderated as they got older and more established I'm sure

I guess the Selma to Montgomery march and the violent confrontation at the Edmund Pettis bridge signaled the failure of the civil rights movement and that’s why nobody talks about it today.

Addendum: Again, none of this is about "norms." I suspect that some of you immediately jump to critiques of "norms" and "law" based thinking but you don't have the knowledge or analytical tools to think beyond those.

Trump is not omnipotent. He exists within a web of institutions. His authority is not unlimited. It appears that way largely because his allies occupy key places — Congress — that could provide a meaningful check. Important to understand his actual reach and the limits of that reach. (14/14)

Put a little differently, the question isn't — when it comes to state conduct of elections, certification of state elections and the seating of lawmakers — "who will stop *him*" but rather "who will stop *them*." (13/?)

When we look at what he might do with the midterms, it is useful to keep these distinctions in mind. Trump has essentially no ability to exercise direct authority on federal elections. He cannot even pressure states into giving him voting rolls. (8/?)

He failed. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is home. The National Guard deployments were halted. Some institutions bent the knee, many others did not. Courts have forced him to reinstate fired workers. Congress has restored some cut funding. (6/?)

Where Trump has direct authority, he has been able to exercise it in dangerous and authoritarian ways (ICE and CBP). Where Trump must rely on informal coercion, he is less successful, especially if/when those institutions resist. (4/?)

does a 6'5 person who competes on a basketball team disadvantage the other players? what about a person on the football team with a larger frame?