2018 archive
Machinationists 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, David Ludden explores the reasons that persons are susceptible to conspiracy theories. He cites three:
- The desire for understanding and certainty
- The desire for control and security
- The desire to maintain a positive self-image
Follow the link for a detailed discussion of each.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is a family value.
Authorities say a 17-year-old relative told investigators he didn’t know the gun was loaded when he was handling it in the living room of the home.
Twits on Twitter, the Art of the Con Dept. 0
George Lakoff and Gil Duran consider Donald Trump’s tactical twits. They suggest that he uses twitter to control the discourse and distract the polity. Here’s one of their points:
Trump isn’t a genius. He’s a super salesman, and has been for most of his life.
Now he’s president, and our gullibility to his antics threatens our democracy. That’s because Trump often uses social media to distract from what he’s actually doing, like dismantling our government and robbing the working class to pay off the rich. He often uses his tweet tantrums to “step on” big developments in the Russia investigation, creating a bigger story (“nuclear button!”) to distract attention.
Undiscovered Country 0
Will Bunch decides to cover the uncovered–non-Trump voters. He explains his reasoning:
Follow the link for his findings.
Step One. Step Two. Ste . . . 0
Elie Mystal offers a formula for analyzing the Trump administration’s legal maneuvers.
So Much for Enjoying a Nice Quiet Snow Day 0
The power went out at about 5:45 a. m. and remained out for more than 12 hours. Fortunately, the house has a little gas fireplace thingy that kept us from freezing mercilessly, as nobody was going anywhere. There was about a foot of snow, with high winds and high drifts. You can click the NOAA link on the sidebar for details.
According to the power company’s “Outage” page, over 300,000 customers (households and businesses in Southeastern Virginia) were without power, over 10% of them in my city.
I have nothing but respect for the power company staff who worked outside in those conditions so I can be warm.
Normal insanity will resume tomorrow or the next day. Right now, I’m going to enjoy the marvel of central heat.
Light Bloggery, Snow Day 0
It’s snowing as I write this and I plan to enjoy the snow tomorrow, when this will post, as I am writing it last night so I don’t have to worry about it today. (Let’s Do the Time Warp Again and all that.)
We are supposed to be hit hard, at least as folks in these parts measure it. They don’t know from two-foot snows . . . .
Dialectic 0
Jay Bookman identifies the tragic and dangerous internal contraction of Trumpery. A snippet:
A Trumpled Christmas 0
Thom runs down some of the actions of the Trump administration while you were celebrating the holidays.
Base Desires 0
Dick Polman suggests that the news media’s fascination with Donald Trump’s base is old news. A snippet:
You know what? Enough already with these people. They’re not newsworthy anymore.
They’re the impenetrable hard core. They’re not going to change, no matter how much damage Trump does. Last week, after I listed a mere 40 of Trump’s most blatant bald-faced lies, I was emailed by a Trump fan who acknowledged none of them. Doris, who lives in central Pennsylvania, instead told me this (I’ve preserved her spellings): “Your column degraded our president who wants only to make America a great country for all that live here. I hope in the future you right a piece about all his accomplishments as he swims upstream in the ocean of democrates that seeks only to bring him down. He wants to make America GREAT and strong to be the backbone of democracy around the globe to promote peace, as I believe he will accomplish better than any president we ever had.”
Wait a sec … Trump, the devotee of dictators, is “the backbone of democracy around the globe”? Nothing penetrates the fan base.
Here’s a New Year’s resolution for the mainstream press: Dial it down with the Trumpkins. They are just 35 percent of Americans.
I suspect that part of the media’s fascination with Trump’s base is an inability or unwillingness to understand what activates them (I’m betting on “unwillingness” here).
What activates the Trump base is racism. There are, natch, other stones in the arch of Trumpery, but racism is the keystone.
The corporate media, which wants the Trump base to read its columns and watch its television networks, doesn’t say that out loud because it might offend 35% of its viewers, readers, and masters.