February, 2021 archive
Presidented 0
At The Japan Times, University of Texas at Austin Professor Michael Lind argues that there is ample precedent for Donald Trump, but it’s not who you may think of first. Here’s a bit (emphasis added).
(snip)
Although Trump is the first true demagogue to be elected to the American presidency, the entertainer or plutocrat who wins office by posing as a champion of the common people has been a staple of mayoral and gubernatorial races for generations. Media celebrity, in particular, has become an increasingly common basis for electoral success in America.
Follow the link for the rest; it’s an interesting take and worth a read.
Maskless Marauders, the “Tell” Dept. 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Christian Miller reports on research that suggests how persons wear masks in these viral times sheds light on their character. A bit; follow the link for details.
That, at least, is what the economist Yossef Tobol at the Jerusalem College of Technology and his colleagues found in a recent study published in the journal Economic Letters.
So Much Winning . . . . 0
PoliticalProf does the math.
Cancel Culture, Republican Style 0
The Des Moines Register’s Rekha Basu comments on Iowa legistors’ attempts to keep information from the New York Times’ 1619 Project out of public schools. She finds that effort particularly disheartening because the project was led by a black woman from Iowa.
A snippet:
One more time, heaven forbid that American students learn what life was really like in ye olde South.
Maskless Marauders, Rand Gestures Dept. 0
Rand Paul delivers a stream of gobbledy-goop and demonstrably false assertions to justify just having his own way.
The stupid. It burns.
Video via C&L.
QOTD 0
Immanuel Kant:
Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.
(Rescheduled after having been improperly scheduled.)
Geeking Out 0
Virtual machine of Slackware –Current running in VirtualBox on Magiea v. 7 using the Plasma desktop.
Vaccine Nation 0
Harry Shearer interviews Matt Stoller about how America’s monopolistic health care industry (and it’s an industry, not a system) gives you the business, with a focus on the roll-out (stagger-out might be a more appropriate term) of the coronavirus vaccines.
This is a must listen.
