2021 archive
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Vanessa Williamson, Sam’s guest, historian Vannessa Williamson, discusses the ways in which white persons rhetoric and tactics in rolling back Reconstruction continues to affect our politics today.
It’s a relatively long segment, but well worth a listen. As you listen to Williamson talk about events a century and a half ago, you will find disquieting parallels with what passes for discourse today.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
Ira Hyman is an optimist.
Herding Trumples 0
The AP goes on the lies round-up. A snippet:
“Who’s the banana republic now?” asked newspaper headlines an ocean apart in Kenya and Colombia.
Trump leaves Joe Biden with repair work to do on the government’s credibility in a country where millions went along with their president’s fantastical ride — believing his persistent falsehoods about masks, election fraud, socialists in the halls of power, antifa rampant in the streets, his tormenters at every turn.
It’s a legacy of “magical thinking,” said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland. “They have a full-blown independent reality, totally cut apart from the world of facts.” He said that is the road to fascism.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
The writer of a letter to the editor of the Las Vegas Sun has a question.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
One again, a responsible gun owner (sic) exposes children to politeness.
Suburban Guerillas 0
The Washington Post reports on the domestic terrorists next door.
Craven Images 0
Franklin Graham renders unto Caesar.
A Tune for the Times 0
Just when you think it can’t get any more venal and stupid, it does.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The hunt for politeness continues.
We are again reminded that “responsible gun owner” is an oxymoron.
Misdirection Play, Insurrection Resurrection Dept. 0
Thom marvels at the Republicans’ attempts to blame anybody but themselves for what happened at the Capitol on January 6. As an aside, this segues nicely to Paul Krugman’s article linked in my previous post. (The relevant comment starts at about the four minute mark, after the introduction.)
Lies and Lying Liars 0
Paul Krugman marvels at the mendacity. A snippet:
For the big thing that has changed since Hofstadter wrote is that one of our major political parties has become willing to tolerate and, indeed, feed right-wing political paranoia.
This coddling of the crazies was, at first, almost entirely cynical. When the GOP began moving right in the 1970s, its true agenda was mainly economic — what its leaders wanted, above all, were business deregulation and tax cuts for the rich. But the party needed more than plutocracy to win elections, so it began courting working-class whites with what amounted to thinly disguised racist appeals.
Those “racist appeals” he mentioned weren’t even “disguised,” not even “thinly,” to the eyes of anyone who pays attention.