2018 archive
Flagging Interest 0
Jim Wright dissects the Trumplers’ rage at NFL players’ daring to kneel during the national anthem.
No excerpt or summary can do his piece justice. Just read it.
Jonesing for a Scapegoat 0
Starting with the recent kerfuffle over Alex Jones, Michael J. Socolow analyzes the appeal of hate-speech. After recounting a short history of hate-full-ness in American history, he posits some thoughts about why it finds a welcoming audience. Here’s a nugget:
And a large audience of disappointed people looking for excuses will always exist. Their civics textbooks and teachers taught them that hard work, diligence, obedience to authority and responsible living inevitably results in economic prosperity.
But it often doesn’t work out that way. They feel lied to, and InfoWars exists to confirm* their suspicions.
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*I would have said, “exploit.”
Bowls Full of Jelly 0
In response to a caller, David explores several reasons why Republicans who claim not to support Donald Trump refuse to stand up to him.
What Is Truth? 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Eric Leuthardt struggles with the deluge of news and stuff pretending to be news and suggests a methodology for adapting to the new world of lying bots, credulous cretins, and bigoted blatherers.
I’ve sat on this link for a couple of days debating how to address it.
I’m not sure to what extent I agree with him, but I think his article is worth a look. Nothing in it, though, addresses what I consider the true issue: that many of our fellow citizens have chosen to eschew objective reality.
“Sic ’em” 0
Farron dissects Laura Ingraham’s now notorious rant against immigrants.
In an item on the same theme, Monica Hesse offers a theory as to why why Alex Jones and his acolytes are so frightened of the Other (which “Other” keeps changing, but, take it from me, there is always an “Other.” I commend the entire piece to your attention. Here’s a key bit:
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 2
Leonard Pitts, Jr., tells a tale of a Trumpling that backfired.
Ill-Farmed Policy 0
In related news, Element Television, the only company to assemble televisions in the U. S. (from imported parts, mind you), is in danger of closing because of Donald Trump’s stupid trade war. (I just bought one of their machines; the words in the product description that made the sale were, “This television has none of the features of a smart TV.” Every electronic thing else tries to spy on me; I don’t need a TV that does too.)
Image via Job’s Anger.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
If only the television had been packing, it could have defended itself.
Stray Question 0
Where is it written that aging actors should get gigs doing commercials directed at old persons urging them to buy dodgy products?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is essential to marital bliss.
According to court papers, Dylan Lee blamed everything on an argument.
He told investigators he and his new bride were fighting about chores when he pulled out a gun and shot her phone.
He says he then accidentally shot her as she tried to reach for the gun.
The bride survived. I suspect that the marriage may not.
(Really. He was going to shoot the phone?)
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
William Ruckelshaus, who resigned rather than fire Archibald Cox during the Watergate investigation, feels a skin-crawling sense of deja vu. A snippet:
It’s hard to believe that, 45 years later, we may be in store for another damaging attack on the foundations of our democracy. Yet the cynical conduct of this president, his attorneys and a handful of congressional Republicans is frightening to me and should be to every citizen of this country.
I remember the evening of the Saturday Night Massacre to which Ruckelshaus refers in his article. I had been following the Washington Post’s Watergate coverage via a mail subscription. (I had gotten quite fond of the Post, which was available in Williamsburg and Charlottesville, where I attended school)
I was watching the breaking news with my parents when my father disappeared from the room. My father had almost certainly voted for Nixon,* but he was by no means a rabid Nixon supporter. I realized later that he had reached a Nixonian breaking point and had been dispatching telegrams (remember telegrams?) to our Congress Critters protesting Nixon’s actions.
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*I have long been convinced that Richard Nixon’s presidency would be remembered much more kindly than it is, but for two things: his duplicitous strategy to prolong the war in Viet Nam and the bizarre combination of paranoia and hubris that culminated in Watergate.